Photo by Charlie Luttrell

HATTIESBURG, MS- Will Hall has won five times as Southern Miss’s head coach, and the win on Saturday versus the Tulane Green Wave was undoubtedly the biggest in his tenure.

“The road has no pavement on it, it was gravel, and there were many holes with some trees knocked down. It’s been a really, tough road, but it is starting to get clear and it’s starting to get better,” Hall said after beating Tulane.

But where would it rank among the biggest wins in Southern Miss football since 2012, the infamous 0-12 season? The Golden Eagles are off this week, so I decided to look back on history and look at where this Tulane win would sit compared to nine other games over the past ten seasons.

Let’s have a flash to the past –

#10: Southern Miss 47, Troy 42 (2019)

After bulldozing Alcorn State in the opener and falling to Mississippi State, the Golden Eagles traveled to Troy University for a non-conference matchup. If they lost, they likely would have gone into conference play 1-3, with Alabama up next on the schedule.

To avoid starting 1-2, Southern Miss held on to win in a wild fourth quarter. At the beginning of the fourth, Troy’s Reggie Todd had just returned a kickoff 69 yards as the Trojans closed to 33-28.

But Southern Miss’s Jaylond Adams had something to say about that, as he returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to secure the victory. It was a moment many USM fans will remember and a huge win on the road to put a whole new vision on the 2019 season.

#9: Southern Miss 37, UAB 2 (2019)

After dropping three straight to UAB and only beating the Blazers twice in the past nine seasons, Southern Miss put on a show at home to reach postseason eligibility. Southern Miss was two weeks removed from losing at Louisiana Tech for first place in Conference USA, blasting the other team in the division that threatened them.

Southern Miss QB Jack Abraham completed 17-of-22 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns. The main play USM fans may remember from this one was safety D.Q. Thomas, who intercepted UAB quarterback Dylan Hopkins and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown. It was one of the bigger wins in the Jay Hopson era.

#8: Southern Miss 35, Louisiana Tech 19 (2021)

The super backs attack. The Golden Eagles were 15 half-point underdogs, but they won against all odds. On Wednesday of game week, Southern Miss posted their official depth chart. The public immediately noticed no quarterback was listed, which caused significant questioning of how Southern Miss would run the offense.

This was the first game people saw the brilliant mind of Will Hall. Southern Miss’s running back Frank Gore Jr. took the majority of snaps at quarterback. He was one of four players who would play at QB, and he threw two touchdown passes in the game. Southern Miss stayed in control the entire game, and in a year that saw more than ten players take snaps at QB, the “super backs” took control.

A season with so many things that went wrong ended on a pleasant note by beating that team up north.

#7: Southern Miss 34, Louisiana Tech 27 F/2 OT (2017)

Southern Miss traveled to Ruston, La, on a Saturday night game that seemed doomed from the start. The Golden Eagles were traveling with a depleted roster. However, they could not afford to lose to the Bulldogs and add another conference loss to their resume.

Just when the game seemed lost, somehow, the Golden Eagles prevailed. Southern Miss trailed 27-16 points with just over four minutes left in the game. Placekicker Parker Shaunfield kicked a field goal with 1:23 left to bring the score to 27-19. Then the impossible happened as Paxton Schrimsher recovered the onside kick, and QB Keon Howard found Korey Robertson for a 22-yard touchdown pass.

Southern Miss converted the two-point conversion to send the game to overtime and secured the victory even without veteran running back Ito Smith. Howard set a personal career high with 301 passing yards and three touchdowns. Howard found Robertson for a 25-yard touchdown in the second overtime to seal the win.

#6: Southern Miss 45, North Texas 27 (2019)

Southern Miss rolled to a 45-27 victory over North Texas on homecoming night. Southern Miss had lost three straight to the Mean Green up to this point. QB Jack Abraham threw for 421 yards and three touchdowns in the contest.

Southern Miss came up with two interceptions in the contest, including a circus pick that was tipped by Ky’el Hemby and intercepted by Rashaun Mitchell. Southern Miss fans may remember that one. It was a win that moved Southern Miss in prime position to win the west in Conference USA.

#5: Southern Miss 28, Louisiana-Lafayette 21 (2016)

In the lone bowl win in the past ten seasons, Southern Miss topped Louisiana-Lafayette in the Big Easy at the New Orleans Bowl. Records were set that night by receiver Allenzae Staggers, who was named Southern Miss’s Most Valuable Player. He caught 11 passes for a career-high 230 yards and a touchdown.

This win would give Head Coach Jay Hopson a bowl win in his first season and the first bowl win since the 2011 Hawaii Bowl after the Golden Eagles won the C-USA Title. Running back Ito Smith rushed for 138 yards and scored two touchdowns to add to Southern Miss’s total.

The Nasty Bunch defense held the Ragin Cajuns in check for most of the game. Two of their three touchdowns came after Golden Eagle turnovers set them up with short fields. QB Nick Mullens threw 25 of 40 passes for 346 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception in his final game as a Golden Eagle.

#4: Southern Miss 27, Tulane 24 (2022)

Photo by Charlie Luttrell

After two tumultuous seasons, the feeling Southern Miss had after winning back the bell and beating Tulane on the road was a relief. The game was easily the most significant win thus far in the Will Hall era. Southern Miss entered the game after a heartbreaking loss to Liberty in week one and faced a possible 1-3 start to the season. But Hall’s Golden Eagles rose up. They were double-digit underdogs but pulled off the upset at Hall’s former school.

Tulane dominated the yardage in the box score, but Southern Miss’s special teams and defense won the game for the Golden Eagles. Eric Scott Jr. came up with the game-changing pick-six late in the fourth quarter to seal the win and bring the bell back to Hattiesburg. Natrone Brooks added to the effort with a field goal block that shifted the momentum.

Freshman QB Zach Wilcke threw 17 of 25 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns. Hall had been talking for a while about “taking steps to becoming the best Group of Five teams in the country.” This was by far his biggest step thus far.

#3: Southern Miss 62, UAB 27 (2013)

In the stretch that Golden Eagles fans would like to block out of their minds, Southern Miss entered this game on the last weekend of college football 0-23. Having gone 0-12 in 2012 and entering this game 0-11, the Golden Eagles were looking to avoid a second straight winless season.

On this day in Birmingham, Southern Miss came to play, however. Southern Miss QB Nick Mullens threw for a career-high five touchdowns and rushed for another. The Golden Eagles trailed the Blazers by eight to start the second half but went on a 28-0 run to go ahead by 20 to start the fourth.

Even though they were 1-11, it felt as if they had climbed a mountain when the clock hit all zeros.

#2: Southern Miss 58, Louisiana Tech 24 (2015)

On the last Saturday in November 2015, Sothern Miss traveled to Ruston, Louisiana, for a game against the Bulldogs that would decide the West Division Crown in Conference USA.

Southern Miss was underdogs on the road, and very quickly, that changed. It was 7-3 at the end of the first quarter, but then Southern Miss blew the game open in the second with a circus catch by Mike Thomas on a pass from Nick Mullens in the corner of the endzone.

Running back Ito Smith came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring three rushing touchdowns in 45 seconds. Smith rushed for a career-high 169 yards and three touchdowns. Thomas had 162 yards on seven receptions and a touchdown. Mullens finished the day with 386 yards and three touchdowns.

Head coach Todd Monken inherited an 0-12 football team just two years earlier. He got them back to the C-USA Championship within two years and won the division by beating La Tech. A sweet, sweet victory for the Golden Eagles.

#1: Southern Miss 44, Kentucky 35 (2016)

In probably the most improbable win over the past several years, Southern Miss traveled north to play an SEC school on the road. It was the first win for Southern Miss over the SEC since 2000 against Alabama.

The Golden Eagles were down 25 points with less than a minute in the first half before QB Nick Mullens found Isaiah Jones on a 71-yard touchdown with 14 seconds to play in the half. From then on, it was all Southern Miss.

Mullens scored on a pair of runs and then threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Julian Allen to give Southern Miss the lead. Parker Shaunfield then iced the game with a field goal to go up nine points late. It was the largest comeback for USM since 2009, and it came over an SEC school on the road to start the Jay Hopson era. Running back Ito Smith poured it on Kentucky as he piled up 213 yards rushing and receiving.

It was a game that Southern Miss fans probably remember turning off, checking their phone later, and exclaiming, “What?”

Southern Miss has had its share of impressive wins over the past several seasons, and Tulane ranks No. 4, in my opinion.