Eagle Droppings

Well 2008 has certainly been a wild year to say the least. Southern Miss football replaced a perennial winner with an unproven coach to start off the football season. The end result, a winning record and a bottom tier bowl game. Why are you so happy you say? Because the wheels are turning and the pieces are in place to return Southern Miss back to it’s past prominence in the world of Non-BCS teams. This year showed 1. a team that   would not quit. Being 2-6 the team pulled together and won out to finish with a 7-6 record. 2. a coach that would not be satisfied. Southern Miss returned to trying to score with 2 minutes before halftime and going for it on 4th and 1 rather than punting. 3. A coach that would not be afraid to recruit against the SEC. Coach Fedora pulled several commitments from top players in the south with his in your face attack style. 4. Southern Miss is on its way back up. Southern Miss beat eventual C-USA champion ECU, stomped UAB to the tune of 70-14, beat defending champion UCF, and mounted an amazing comeback against Sun-Belt Champion and 4 point favorite Troy in the New Orleans Bowl despite having 2 touchdowns called back as well as losing their leading receiver in the 1st quarter.  Basketball is in a wierd stage. It is in a stage where I can’t tell if we are actually making progress or if we are just lucky. Southern Miss lost to a New Mexico team on a buzzer beater while the same New Mexico team thumped Ole Miss by 30 points. It’s hard to tell if we are just catching good teams on bad nights or if we are actually improving. The signing of international players continues to be a point of concern especially with the lack of inside presence. The team’s vocal leader Sai-Quon Stone is done for the year despite not even reaching conference play yet. the team approaches a do or die game against in state rival Ole Miss this week. Hopefully the team can have more fight in them than Andy Kennedy against a taxi cab driver. Baseball comes in with lofty expectations. Picked preseason #34 in the country ahead of both Tulane and Mississippi State, one would expect Southern to be picked 3rd in C-USA baseball due to only Rice and ECU being ranked higher nationally. So that brings us to the next big question. What does 2009 bring? Here are my humble hopes for 2009 at Southern Miss in the chronological order in which they would occur if they all happen

1. Southern Miss football has another top 40 ranked recruiting class

2.Softball makes it to post-season play again

3. Men’s basketball makes the NIT or better

4. Women’s Basketball makes the big dance at the NCAA Tourney

5. Baseball makes it to Super Regionals (Hosting is what’s important so i’m told)

6. Football rolls through their schedule and attains a Liberty Bowl berth after crushing their C-USA opposition

7. I finally graduate and head on to grad school

Lofty goals but all are attainable. I feel like based on academics and athletics at Southern Miss, I have never been prouder and there has never been a better time to be a Golden Eagle.

So as the CUSA players of the year have been announced, one would be devoid to not notice that all but one are from the Western Division. It seems ridiculous that this would be the case. It almost reminds me of Survivor. It appears as if the Western coaches got together and said vote for this guy and i’ll vote for your guy. Houston had a good season don’t get me wrong, but it is ridiculous to not acknowledge the only freshman bringing national attention to your miserable pathetic little conference. The fact that Houston has the Freshman of the Year is a joke. That guys numbers are nothing compared to DeAndre Brown’s.