Transcript
Speaker: Welcome everybody back in for episode two of our 2025 preview show. It is once again, Brian Stone and Zeke Palermo. ah We are cataloging all of the Sunbelt teams this year.
Speaker: um So we're back ah talking about Southern Miss Southern Miss Zeke, I'm sure you would agree with me ah was an absolute tragedy last season ah one and eleven Will Hall before the season started we talked about it with Phil Steele in the yeah press F to pay respects.
Speaker: ah We ah we talked about it but with Phil Steele before the season started Matt and i um again Matt Miguez our third ah chair on this podcast is ah out this week he is in the process of moving so he was not able to to make the recording time with us.
Speaker: we talked to Phil Steele about Will Hall basically being a dead man walking before they ever took a snap last season. and And that couldn't have played out to a better perspective. I don't know why they kept Will Hall last year.
Speaker: um But, and we'll transition into this. I think all in all, when you go back and look a year or two from now, you'll be like, I think everything worked out for the best with how the coaching stuff happened. Because if you don't retain Will Hall, this is like a domino effect. If you've seen the meme of the small domino leading to the big one, it's like, if you don't fire Will Hall, you don't end up with Charles Huff.
Speaker: So I think that was huge. Um, So Zeke, let's let's go ahead and get into Southern Miss here. So obviously Southern Miss, like I said, was a disaster last season. 1-11, fired their head coach, ah did not have a quarterback, ah frankly, pardon my language, worth a damn on the roster.
Speaker: ah You know, the Tate, Rodemacher, whoever else, experiment, terrible. ah Ethan, somebody was... Crawford? Crawford also played big minutes for them. um they They missed Frank Gore Jr. That was about the nice the only thing I could really say.
Speaker: it was very obvious they were in over their heads last season, and um things didn't go very well. i don't I don't really know how much more we could catalog last season for them just because it was so awful.
Speaker: um there wasn't really anything to hang your hat on. And luckily for them, Charles Huff was in a stalemate slash, depending on who you ask. If you ask Marshall fans, Charles Huff wanted out of Huntington from ah minute one when ah he didn't get a contract extension the year before that he wanted.
Speaker: And he asked for one. And apparently they there was this whole beef with him in the AD situation. Uh, if you hear it from the other end, the AD wanted nothing to do with Charles Huff and was just kind of waiting him out and he won the conference.
Speaker: And again, now it's, if, if they had gone five and seven, nobody would be having these discussions, but they, they make a push with Braylon Braxton coming off the bench.
Speaker: Um, and, They win the Sunbelt title in dominant fashion against Louisiana. Louisiana's quarterback gets injured in like the first series of that game, and basically it was no longer a game from then on. They win 31-3.
Speaker: and yeah You made this reference on the last ah episode where we were talking about Georgia State. They are basically the Southern Miss thundering herd because they are porting so much talent.
Speaker: over from Huntington. So let's get some bit. What are your kind of big picture thoughts before we jump into individual position groups here? First of all, I think this is just, this has to be one of the most fascinating stories in all of college football this season, because I have,
Speaker: Granted, I've not been around the Sun Belt long enough, ah but before so covering the Sun Belt before probably 2020, I was not a college football fan. I've been very open about that.
Speaker: But I have never seen this, i ah let alone the head coach moves over, goes in conference. That happens all the time.
Speaker: But he brings all his guys. We saw that ah not this past, but the following offseason when Kurt Signetti took the job at Indiana and brought all of his guys from JMU over to Indiana.
Speaker: I've never seen this happen in a G5 conference. If this type of move where it is the coach, his quarterback, his receivers, his you know favorite, maybe not official coordinators, but his favorite position coaches, um and everybody that he really wants on the team is going to come over.
Speaker: That does not happen in conference at G5. And again, was it money? Was it personal beef? Who knows?
Speaker: At this point, who cares, right? What's done is done. This could be a um ah This could be a monumental rise. Southern Miss could win this conference title just based off of who they brought in.
Speaker: They could flop. They could win six games ah because they're still Southern Miss and they still play in Hattiesburg. You know? ah So I think this is the most compelling storyline in all of college football this season. I think um notably Southern Miss hater here, Zeke Palermo, is going to say, I think this is the most I've cared about a Southern Miss team ever.
Speaker: um I'm really excited to see how this plays out and if it's a you know a ah success or if it's a flop. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: um Like you said, I've never seen at the G5 level, I mean, I've been watching Sunbelt Ball since 2014 when Southern moved up. ah I've never seen a team allow their coach to walk, especially.
Speaker: You know, it's one thing when it's like, if you're, if you're like a, a P five and you're really good coach at like, let's say Northwestern, you know, for example, and you're crushing it at Northwestern.
Speaker: And for some reason, Ohio state fires Ryan day, they might give you a look and no one's going to really like turn your, turn their nose up at you and say, what the hell are you doing? Taking a job in conference in in conference at the G five level.
Speaker: all things are kind of considered equal. So, you know, there's teams that are higher or lower for one reason or another. I've never heard of a school letting their coach walk knowingly to a competitor within the conference and just being like,
Speaker: Yeah, dude, we don't care. like that that's so That's such a strange, outlandish concept to me. So um lets let's start off here. the i think the most notable person in all of the conference who was a, you know, sorry to Matt, but...
Speaker: a transfer that was most notable coming into the season is obviously Braylon Braxton coming over from Marshall. ah He comes off of the bench last season in relief of stone Earl, who frankly just wasn't a kind of a dynamic playmaker at the quarterback spot for the thundering herd ah comes in.
Speaker: Starts eight games. Second team, all Sunbelt, leads them to a conference championship. um Huge win. um Due to the Charles Huff beef or what what have you, um Marshall does not compete in a bowl game because of the amount of transfers they have leave at the end of last year. So the last we saw of them, they were crushing everything.
Speaker: a ah shorthanded at the quarterback spot Louisiana team for the title. um I think we'll get into some of the other position groups.
Speaker: I think they will be a good team. but not on the level of last year's Marshall team. I think there will be good, not great. I still think there's serious work to do here.
Speaker: um And we'll talk about It's almost a little not fair, but we're going to do it anyway, where we talk about what they didn't bring over from Marshall for one reason or another, because that all we can do is kind of compare because this team is so radically different than both from Marshall coming over and from what Southern Miss fielded last season as a roster.
Speaker: They, all you can kind of do is, is try to go apples to apples with it because there's really no other way to go and get around it. But Braylon Braxton, huge pickup. I was honestly really surprised a P five didn't take a look at him.
Speaker: Like you can't tell me that some of the lower level P five schools, um, couldn't couldn't use someone on the level of Braylon Braxton. And I had kind of been beating that drum about Grayson McCall in years past when he was at, and Jordan McLeod even. like i was I was shocked last year that Jordan McLeod didn't end up somewhere bigger than ah Texas State.
Speaker: But we teased this at the end of last episode. And before we jump into other, other positions and stuff like that, are you, are you on Texas state 2024 watch for Southern miss where you are saying, this is your team that you're kind of putting the flag in the ground and saying like,
Speaker: ah you know No, no. last So last year, Texas State, if you are just joining our our our show for the first time or we're not around this time last year, Texas State with a host of new talent, with the hottest coach ah in G4 football, um with...
Speaker: Rumors that still persist of a Pac-12 move. I planted my flag on a 11-win, 12-win Texas State season, and that simply did not materialize. They backskid hard. They really flopped in the back half. Started really, really strong, ah but once they got into conference play, ah frankly, just kind of got caught with their pants down at times and had some really ugly losses that I mean, Georgia State, as we talked about in the first episode of our previews, chief among them.
Speaker: yeah That was bad. um i For the first time, and Brian, we've you and I have been, this is the third season of the show.
Speaker: ah Brian, you and I have been working together for four years now. You'll know I don't like to learn my lessons. I hate learning from my mistakes, but I've finally done it.
Speaker: This is a year of maturity for me, and I'm going to learn from my mistakes. The Southern Miss team is very good, and as I said in the last episode, I think from a raw talent perspective, probably has the most sum of its parts.
Speaker: But there are a few holes at really critical positions that, again, as we go through Southern Miss, we'll talk about. This is a team that's going to push for the conference championship game. They may, may not make it.
Speaker: I don't think they finish more than like one or two games out of that spot. um Sunbelt still does do the divisions. Count down the days till we get rid of that. um But until then, you only have to beat six other teams, and then you're in the conference championship game.
Speaker: ah Southern Miss is a minimum seven-win team. um And again, i I did this last episode as well. I said that without having sat down and looked at the schedule. I know who they play, but I've not assigned the wins and losses yet. So when we go through the schedule, much like I did last episode, I may have to backpedal very, very hard.
Speaker: So Zeke has touched the hot stove enough times that now he knows it hurts. So he is he is at least tempering expectations a little bit.
Speaker: um I think the last time that you could have planted a flag that hard and not been totally off base was the second year of John Summerall at Troy. ah Last year, I felt like there yeah there was no way for anybody to see what was coming at Marshall. you know Frankly, we didn't we didn't know Braylon Braxton's name when the season started. We were like, I guess it's Stone Earl. Cole Pennington's still on the roster. They gave him some run last year, but he was bad. Who knows if they just start him because his dad is Chad Pennington and you know one of the more ah notable alumni of Marshall of the past 30 years of football.
Speaker: Um, the one thing i gave Charles Huff credit for this last year, I'm going to give him credit very quickly for it right now. and this will be the last time I do this because frankly, this, this is beating a dead horse at this point, the ability to, to nail down and watch and see that the stone Earl experiment did not work and that they were actively hurting themselves. Um,
Speaker: I can't give him enough credit for that because there are a lot of coaches in the conference and I'll talk about one of them when, the when, when it comes time for their episode that will continue Zeke to, to continue that your metaphor will continue to stick their hand on a hot stove until their fingers are black.
Speaker: And we'll just be like, yeah, I don't smell anybody smell bacon. Like that. That's basically how they approach the, the, the quarterback spot. So, um, Again, credit to him for for looking at especially the way that the Georgia Southern Marshall game went last year and how if they had just played Braylon Braxton the whole game, they probably win that game. But the fact that they kept switching between him and Stone Earl.
Speaker: um despite the the turnovers, it was very clear that Earl was not the answer. and And they finally nailed that down. they They make a push. A lot of things you know kind of go their way, but ultimately they they fully earned the the conference championship they got at the end of last year. So again, this will be the last time I do it, but but hats off to Charles Huff because there are a lot of coaches that are stubborn enough that they wouldn't make that change or even entertain the idea.
Speaker: All right. So once you get past Braylon Braxton, I have some concerns, especially in the offensive side of the ball. And this is where we'll start with the the Marshall comparisons.
Speaker: Let's start at the running back spot before we get to the pass catchers. Number one, for me, the big concern is you do not have somebody on the level, to me, at least on paper, until I see it on the field of A.J. Turner.
Speaker: He was a huge, huge boon for them last year. He was a home run hitter at the running back spot. He was almost like a Jameer Gibbs type player where any touch...
Speaker: Could result in a touchdown. um I remember specifically there was a game last year. i want to say. i want to say it was Marshall, Georgia State, where I had picked Marshall to win by. I think it was two touchdowns or three touchdowns or something.
Speaker: And the game was basically over. And I was like, oh, man, I looked at the score. was like, I lost my pick. And they were just running out the clock. And then all of a sudden, I'm on the the Real Sports app.
Speaker: That's what it's called, Real Sports. And ah I just pull it up, and it's like, 85-yard carry for a touchdown, AJ Turner. And they covered the spread. And I was like, wow, what the heck? like So that that was the level of playmaker that you saw out of them last year.
Speaker: ah Unfortunately, um I don't know if he graduated or whatnot, but he does not come over ah from Huntington. um Kind of similar to what we talked about in the Georgia State ah preview, a lot of kind of shrug, who knows, at the running back spot. You've got Jeffrey Pittman, who's a senior that did not play last year at southern or ah Mississippi State. rather um You have Matt Jones, who had very limited ah game reps at Ole Miss.
Speaker: um You got another guy named Robert Briggs coming over from Utah State who played started one game and then you have a Utah State or ah sorry, you have a quarterback convert in Kyle McCormick, according to Phil Steele.
Speaker: So I think if we're talking about concerns and reasons why they might not win the conference. I think that the lack of continuity and big-time production outside of the quarterback spot um might be a reason for that.
Speaker: um And we'll we'll get into the the coaching stuff from the offensive-defensive coordinator sides later.
Speaker: But, Zeke, what are you going to find? Yeah, this is actually only... Yeah, ah this team is only just now suffering the the hangover of losing Frank Gore Jr. because they actually kind of had a solid bridge option last year in Rodriguez Clark, ah who gained 600 yards on 124 carries. I mean, that's as good as you're going to get. I mean, not Frank Gore, who was the definition of a bell cow and I think is you know top three, top two in – that program's long rushing ah russianing history.
Speaker: ah So you're finally getting that hangover. No running back that recorded a carry last year for Southern Miss is still on the roster. Not a single one. So it's going to be these guys that step up or guys that transfer in.
Speaker: As we continue the Marshall comparisons, I think there there is some merit to the idea that Charles Huff has pulled guys out of nowhere and said, hey, you're going to be a superstar.
Speaker: The year before Kalen Laybourne ran for what, 1,200 yards was it? He had played three games for Florida State the year prior. AJ Turner also played three games ah two years ago before he was a superstar for them last year.
Speaker: ah Marshall obviously had a much better offensive line, and we'll touch on the offensive line in a minute, um where you can do that, where you can pick a guy who's a quick runner or a strong runner um with good vision and say, hey, man, you want to run for 900 yards?
Speaker: Congratulations, you're going to go do it. ah That is not the front in front of ah you know whatever of these three or four backs Southern Miss has in the rotation. um no one they You can't just pick anybody.
Speaker: But Charles Huff has a history of picking guys that, especially as Rasheen Ali was dealing with stuff throughout his career, ah were able to fill that role really, really well. um so I'm not going to take it to the bank by any means, but there might be a 700-yard guy on this roster that we just frankly have never heard of because Charles Huff has done that before, um and this is, as you said, this whole episode is just going to be drawing comparisons to to him and his time at Marshall.
Speaker: Plus, wasn't Huff's background as a running backs coach at Penn State too?
Speaker: I'm pretty sure I remember that, I think, from the um ah trivia that you hosted last year when when you listed their previous jobs. Yeah.
Speaker: So he you know he can identify talent at the running back spot. like i don't I don't doubt that. And I kind of feel the same way about Dale McGee at at ah Georgia State.
Speaker: like I think he can nail down ah good running back. Yeah. Okay, so we don't know which of this kind of potpourri of running backs that they have that are all SEC West transfers coming over ah from in-state will ultimately churn out.
Speaker: like we It's too early to make that kind of call. ah We don't know you know, like I said about Braylon Braxton, he he will make a change if something isn't working. like Just because you were the starter day one doesn't necessarily mean you're going to start the whole season.
Speaker: um So we'll we'll have to see how that all pans out. um Another one of my main concerns on the offensive side of the ball, if we're transitioning to the pass catcher spot, is um there Marshall's leading receiver last year, ah Christian Fitzpatrick, is at Oklahoma State.
Speaker: He is not in Hattiesburg. um They bring over ah guys like Elijah Metcalf, um like Chuck Montgomery, but guys that were definitely in the receiving rotation,
Speaker: at Marshall, but we're not kind of the headliners that you would look at and go, okay, that guy is going to go be the number one receiver for me in a way that like, I know we just talked about Georgia state ah earlier, like Ted Hearst, you know, where you're like, I can probably put a pin in this, that this guy's going go out and be the number one.
Speaker: So what are your kind of thoughts on the, on the receiving room here? I really want to push back on that take because while Fitzpatrick was the number one guy by receptions and yardage, when you look at the just breakdown, uh, but from a numbers perspective, he only had two more catches than Chuck Montgomery, who is here at Southern Miss.
Speaker: Uh, granted those two receptions amassed him as I do some quick math, like 180 extra yards. Uh, so he was a far more efficient, higher per catch guy. but,
Speaker: but you said the headliner of the rotation is not here, but the whole rest of the rotation is to use a baseball example. Shoot. If you don't have the ACE, but you've got the Dodgers two through five, it doesn't matter that you don't have show hair.
Speaker: Show. He's a bad example. It doesn't matter that you don't have Blake Snell in that rotation, uh, who won a Cy young because you've got the best two through five available.
Speaker: Uh, the, i I share your concern about lack of volume. Volume is very important to me to wide receivers. um You know, you're as we look at the transfers coming in, who we anticipate, frankly, it just being the Marshall receiving core, your leading receiver that's coming over to Southern Miss only had 32 catches.
Speaker: That's pretty bad. That's like your fourth receiver type numbers. um But you're looking at three guys like that. Chester, 20. Metcalf, 20. You've got guys that were good rotation pieces.
Speaker: ah And it seems like that's what Charles Huff is up to. ah Blake Anderson, we'll talk about him, comes in as the offensive coordinator. Brian, you have a more intimate ah understanding of his game than I do.
Speaker: But my understanding is that he... He enjoys spreading it around. um So you know if we break the offense into four groups, quarterback, running back, wide receiver, O-line, and then you know put the tight ends wherever you want, ah this is, I think, is their second best group.
Speaker: Yeah. do you Do you want to break into the Blake Anderson discussion now or do you want to save that for after like O-line stuff? Because i i can go I can tell you a little bit. if you I think it's most topical now.
Speaker: ah He comes in he he after having served in the Sunbelt for a while. So this is someone that a lot of people are familiar with. He predates me, which is why my ah my understanding of his game is fairly limited.
Speaker: ah But from what I understand, from what you've told me, and from what my research tells me, he plays a pretty basic spread game, ah spent some time at Arkansas State, and he's the OC here now. So what is this Marshall offense going to look like?
Speaker: I would say similar to to what it looked like last year, honestly. um they They incorporate a lot of the same elements. ah Now, I did not watch a lot of... Where did he coach? Utah State before? Yes, and I also just called this team Marshall. It's Southern Miss.
Speaker: I mean, it might be Marshall at this point, you know, whatever. But yes, Utah State. Okay. I didn't watch a lot of Utah State but when when he was there because, frankly, who could care?
Speaker: um But the the way that I saw it at Arkansas State, he had a run of very dominant offenses, um and and they were kind of the App State before App State a little bit.
Speaker: Like when, when App State went on that run for a while where it was like Satterfield and Drinkowitz and and all those guys were competing for conference titles year in and year out, that was where kind of Arkansas State was always there and always had a good quarterback.
Speaker: um And, you know, but they manufacture offense like nobody's business. So I definitely have high expectations for their offense. I'm just not...
Speaker: There's just nothing right now for me to hang my hat on unless you're going to say i trust I'm not saying you would be wrong in saying this, but unless you're just hanging your hat on saying Charles Huff can identify a good running back because of his pedigree and and how he's done it in the past and to that the receiver by committee stuff just continues and Blake Anderson just makes it work.
Speaker: That's fine. it's just tough for me right now to just be like, sure, who cares? Like, you know, it'll all work itself out in the end. So he Blake Anderson is a is a to get him as the OC is almost like a coup.
Speaker: Like it's it's great. Like ah that you really um who who was Daigie was the OC last year um i can't remember who the OC at Marshall was last year he ended at Arizona but I think it was Daigie was the the OC he did a great job but I do feel like I feel like Blake Anderson will continue Braylon Braxton's development as a quarterback. um Because as we know, he is sort of still limited in the amount of experience that he has. It's not like he's had a ton of starts, like, and he's this...
Speaker: you know, vet quarterback that everybody like knows about. I mean, he, he, he's been good. He played some at Tulsa. He came over and he's been, he was good last year at at Marshall, but he didn't even play a full season.
Speaker: So, um, I think he's going to continue building up Braxton both as a passer, decision maker. He's going to incorporate a lot of those run elements that they had with him last year. you know Obviously, Braxton brings um that that extra element with his legs, which is always something you have to account for.
Speaker: um And he also Anderson incorporates a ton of motion, at least when he was at Arkansas State. So there's a lot of like orbit motion where someone will come and run like behind the and they'll run like option speed option stuff out of that. Like there's there's all sorts of stuff. They'll they'll run like halfback type bubble screen stuff where and they just kind of.
Speaker: motion out and then the receivers block for him like that all that stuff so yeah i i'm very high on blake anderson and the combination of anderson huff and braxton i think will be very good um now the offensive line does give me some pause as well and it's kind of we talked about it with georgia state it's kind of the same situation where you've got guys that have been elsewhere but they haven't played a ton elsewhere and so again like if you just want to say ah don't worry about it like it's all going to work itself out like you're not wrong necessarily to say that but i i've seen things that people say that about that just don't work themselves out so that's that's a lot of where my concern comes from too is
Speaker: Is Braxton going to have enough time to to throw the ball? like as As well as you can scheme an offense up the way that Blake Anderson can, if you don't have an offensive line, it's all moot. that's a lot of where my concern comes from, too.
Speaker: Yeah, ah this is an entirely new unit. Five new guys. It's going to be five new starters. ah This is per the projected depth chart from Phil Steele, um who at this point in the season is as good as you're going to get.
Speaker: ah Surely something's wrong, but there's no one who's going to be closer than him. ah Yeah, I think especially these early weeks, as you get five new guys who've mostly never met each other, ah mostly never worked under the coaches that they're working for.
Speaker: You've got a guy from Utah State that worked under Blake Anderson. You've got a guy from Eastern Michigan, who I believe is where their O-line coach came from. So you've got pieces that are familiar with different parts of this offense.
Speaker: ah But it's those first real live games are going to be really important to getting that group to mesh. Uh, yeah, I, in order to find a guy like AJ Turner, like Kalen Laybourne, who you can pick out of a hat and say, congratulations, son, you're going to be a first team sunbelt running back because you're going to run for 1200 yards in order to do that. You need a real solid front.
Speaker: Uh, and we don't know if that's going to happen there. Most of these guys have started somewhere between eight and 16 games in their career. Most of them haven't put a full 12 game season season in yet.
Speaker: Most of them ah haven't put enough, even ended last season as a starter. So a lot to find out, um but that's always the nature of of offensive line.
Speaker: unless you're one Unless you're a guru, it's just like, well, how many sacks did they make? How well do they rush? Right. um So let's let's transition over to the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker: ah This is where you feel a lot of the impact of the transfers. So according to Phil Steele, they bring 13 transfers over from Marshall. Now, we would be remiss not to mention the biggest one who was a NFL draft pick and ended up in Baltimore.
Speaker: You do not bring over a a pass rusher the caliber of Mike Green. um who was a tone setter ah for the defense, was something that you could kind of anchor your entire scheme around because you knew he was getting to the quarterback um or you know wreaking havoc in the backfield or whatnot.
Speaker: I mean, we talked to Bryson Broadway at the end of last season, Georgia Southern Offensive Tackle. He said as far as pass rush moves that Green had one of the deepest bags that he had seen um out of a pass rusher.
Speaker: so So I think they will have a good unit, but not a great one unless someone really emerges. um it It seems, according to Phil Steele, that they're going to run ah this 3-4 scheme as as he has it sketched out.
Speaker: ah or No, sorry, a 4-3. I misread that. um So you've got... Jabari Ishmael, ah who is ah projected to be one of the DNs, having come over from Marshall with two and a half sacks last year. You've got a nose tackle in Mason Clinton.
Speaker: um You've got Isaiah Gibson, who's a D tackle, who's 324. So he's a hoss, but he didn't play last year at Marshall after notching 29 tackles in 2023.
Speaker: And then you get Jamon Tapp. ah who played sparingly in 2023 at Texas, and then last year played one game at Arizona State. So, again, not a lot to hang your hat on as far as the defensive front goes. I think this is obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway. Not having a Mike Green is going to be is going to put even more pressure on the offense to produce than than they even had to last year.
Speaker: Yeah, it'll be curious to see if Jamon Tapp stays in that role because Ishmael was the defensive end opposite of Mike Green for Marshall most of last season. ah And I imagine that he'll stay that role here at Southern Miss.
Speaker: So you have to imagine then Jamon Tapp, you're going to look at him and say, you got big shoes to fill, son. Yeah. just so difficult to do. Uh, they'll probably rotate that spot a lot more, um, without a guy's dominant as Mike green. It's more important to just have fresh legs, uh, as your top pass rusher off the edge than it is to have, you know, maybe your marginally best pass rusher.
Speaker: You just need to have someone fresh that can, uh, you're, you're always running a full tank against the other team's tackle. Um, on the interior, these are guys, ah I think Isaiah Gibson comes from Marshall. He suffered an injury last spring to the leg. So I think it was his leg. So we'll see you know how much of an impact that has.
Speaker: Mason Clinton comes up from junior college. And I believe he profiles. Let me check his build. But as I was researching it. like six three ten Yeah, that I mean, that is they actually have two like real nose tackle type build guys with Gibson at 324, 6'4".
Speaker: um So you know maybe that leads it to being some type of two gap, even with the four defensive linemen. ah kind of see Interesting to see how they play with that, see how they involve any sort of linebackers ah in that pass rush.
Speaker: um It should be like, hey man, Jamon Tapp, you're going have your chance, but ultimately... that position is going to be three or four guys every game of just your, you know, one, two, three, four, you're all, you're all going to get a chance.
Speaker: So at the, so they're actually going to run more of a four to five scheme. um So I, I want to correct myself once again on the defensive scheme that they're running here.
Speaker: So they're projected starters at the linebacker spots are ah Chris Jones, um who last year, ah had 46 tackles. I believe he was with Southern Miss. It's not denoted that he was at a different school.
Speaker: ah And then Michael Montgomery, who is coming over from Portland state where he had 80 tackles there. Um, We'll see what kind of production that they get out of those two guys, because obviously when you run a 4-2-5, it puts a lot of emphasis on the linebacker spots, because frankly, if if ah you know the opposing offensive line moves those initial guys out of the way, there's only two guys there ah ah until you get to the secondary to come up and make a ah tackle. So they also don't return ton of production, so we'll we'll have to see how that goes there.
Speaker: but they bring a couple of guys over from Marshall in the secondary that I like a lot. So Josh Moten being the number one um last year had, ah let's see here, five interceptions, 38 tackles, played all 12 games. So,
Speaker: You know, you get ah some proven production, which i always appreciate. ah And then they get they bring the nickel ah Ian Foster over um who had ah played in 13 games, 48 tackles, five tackles for a loss and broke up four passes. So ah Jonathan Penix sort of the the wild card there ah where he.
Speaker: you know He played 11 games at Virginia Tech, but he only notched two tackles. So he I guess he was more of a special teams guy, I would assume, because if you play in that many games and you notch that few stats, then what are you what are you doing?
Speaker: um But I think bringing Moten over is going to be huge for them because it would be nice to have someone who could anchor a secondary ah that you know you can kind of rely on. So I think that's going to be big for for setting the culture.
Speaker: Yeah, ah we glanced over the linebackers. Something that interests me about that group ah is that they're both pretty young, but they have pedigree. Chris Jones, as you said, ah was the team Southern Miss's second leading tackler last season behind Trey Pinckney, who declared for the draft.
Speaker: um So Chris Jones, I mean, he's he's got reps again, tackles make of that stat what you will, but that means something that he at the very least is experienced.
Speaker: And then Michael Montgomery was a all American at Portland state. I have my notes here. I don't know why I'm trying to dig this from recall. I think it's an FC and FCS school.
Speaker: Yeah, i mean he he was a he was a freshman All-American ah in FCS and ah you know was not an All-American last year, but does have pedigree there. I think that's a very interesting duo.
Speaker: um As you said, that's a difficult role to play is some sort of nickel linebacker because there's just so much stress put on you. You need to be excellent with your run fits. ah You can get away with a little bit more in the ah pass game, but you need to be there ah to fill holes. And if you're not...
Speaker: You're screwed. Chris Jones, from what I recall last season, was able to do that. um Ian Foster, as you pointed out, ah was an all-sunbelt player last season ah as a return specialist.
Speaker: And this is per Phil Steele's book. I believe him when he says this. ah But Charles Huff calls Ian Foster the best player on the team. I don't know how he figures that.
Speaker: Obviously, an all-conference return specialist is a great thing to have. and And if he's also playing a big role for you as that nickel, um I mean, that that that is invaluable to a team.
Speaker: A guy that can steal 20 yards on a kickoff, steal 10 yards, 10, 15 yards on a punt is very important. ah But Charles Huff says, per Phil Steele, that this is the best player on the roster.
Speaker: weird ah as an outsider that feels like a weird thing to say unless they're a like a devon hester level returner typically something like that is more of like a luxury than it is like a like a oh my gosh this is so important to this team you know what i mean yeah no uh i think this um I think the back seven is has a lot of interesting pieces. it has guys with pedigree. It has a guy like Moten, as you said, who ah was pretty good for Marshall last year. Five picks is pretty good. you I mean, that's always a good guy to have.
Speaker: um I think this defense will be... better than conference average. I don't think it's going to be the best in the conference, ah especially as we look league-wide. There's a handful of groups that are just always really good, or you've got some coordinators who are always going to have a good group.
Speaker: um But this is a group of guys that are like... Every group feels like it is a B, B-plus, or maybe B-minus to B ah position group. And that really excites me. And as we early in the season try to figure out what the offensive identity is without a stud running back, with uncertainties on the offensive line, and with a very everybody-eats receiver room, that defense is going to keep them in games that perhaps early season they ought not to be in.
Speaker: Sure. um So do you want to go ahead and get into the schedule here? um I'm going to let you start off because ah we we started off talking about it in the Georgia State thing. ah So I want to start off by, do I just want to say this and then I'll let you go.
Speaker: ah We looked at some of the ah preseason win totals via the DraftKings app. Southern Miss as of today is only projected at over under four and a half wins this season.
Speaker: um I would lean toward the over. They do have a tough schedule. However, a lot of the things that you've brought up, I agree with most of them.
Speaker: So, I mean, i think Braylon Braxton is either the best quarterback in the conference or the second best. I mean, he's in the top two. I'd put Colton Joseph up there with him.
Speaker: But those are kind of the only two guys I feel like I can point to today and go, you're getting guaranteed production out of those two. Whereas everybody else... Sort of feels like a a shrug, like even, you know, I wish Matt was on here with us, but I'm sure he'd be like, no, our quarterback that we got the transfer ah from, what is it, LSU or Ole Miss or whatever, Walker Howard.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. He'd be like, no, he's the second best, first best quarter. And I'm like, dude, I've never seen it. So until I see it with my own two not two eyes, I'm sorry. But I've seen Colton Joseph dominate at the college level. I've seen Braylon Braxton dominate at at college at at the at this G5 level. So I'm going to give them the edge as of today. I'd put Walker Howard as a tentative third.
Speaker: But you will get... production and you will have a guaranteed good player at the quarterback spot so as of today i would i would take the over four and a half i don't know if we want to incorporate preseason win total picks in our little betting sheet right we could we could do that um but yeah i i mean tentatively it is it is a tough schedule but i i i would i would put them over four and a half Yeah, I think really easy. As you look at the schedule, they open ah with a home game against Mississippi State. i you can pretty compment so
Speaker: I think that's a winnable game. That's winnable, um but i'm not as as we count up the wins, I'm not going to give it to them quite quite yet. It's home too. That feels like one of those games you can absolutely win. Jackson State, ah we asked before the pre-recording, we asked, well, was that when Dion was there? Was that some sort of move there?
Speaker: No, they added that game in January. um I think you can comfortably make that a win, so that's number one. App State, I like Southern Miss over App State, but who knows? That team's in a lot of turmoil.
Speaker: Louisiana Tech, um that's a win. So that's three right there. then you go to So you have Jackson State, and then you have Jacksonville State. right who Yeah, who was good last year, but Rich Rod has left.
Speaker: so again So, again, that's another coin-flippy one, but if we're going off of last season, I think I like Southern Miss in that. that's four wins right there, and we've only played one conference game.
Speaker: You go to at Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern plays... um Pretty good at home. ah Very good at home. ah So on a Thursday, but you're both off by. So who knows there?
Speaker: ah You get Louisiana. You get ULM. That's a homecoming game. I think you walk ah ULM. So we've got five games right there. And then your final four after a bye in the first week, November at Arkansas State versus Texas State at South Al versus Troy.
Speaker: ah You win two games of those easily. So I've got Southern Miss at seven. ah being Jackson State, Jacksonville State, ULM, two of Arkansas State, Texas State, South Al, Troy, and then ah either Louisiana Tech or probably Louisiana Tech, and you know we'll see about App State.
Speaker: ah Yeah, unless there's something I'm missing, i will literally, i get paid tomorrow, I will literally throw some money on Southern Miss over four and half. Like, i don't I don't know if everybody's being very tentative because of the the newness of everything moving, porting over, but I think the combo, like I said, of the triumvirate of Huff,
Speaker: Braxton and um Blake Anderson, I think that's good enough to get you to five wins. like ah Unless there's something I'm totally missing, like yes, it would you would love to have a Mike Green there to kind of anchor the defense, but...
Speaker: this is this is going to be a year for the conference where we talked about it in between, you and I talked about it in between the episodes that we've recorded. There's no like dominant team that you can point to and say, that team is the one that you need to be watching out for.
Speaker: like JMU's always good, but
Speaker: Who knows? You know, we we we thought they were going to, you know, that when they beat ah UNC last year, we were like, oh, man, it's they're going to they're going to walk this conference. And then it was just kind of like they were fine.
Speaker: They were a good team. like They weren't very bad. And there are a lot of teams, you know if you at least if you look by sportsbook metrics, in this conference, that over-unders are just at 7.5.
Speaker: like yeah you know ah I don't want to step on a lot of them, because but it's like Louisiana, Georgia Southern, um South Al, ah ah JMU,
Speaker: i mean I mean, all of those teams are over under seven and a half and none of those teams to me stick out as, oh my gosh, like you, you, one of these is dominant over the others. So I don't really have a reason why Southern Miss couldn't be in the mix here.
Speaker: I mean, they could finish as the second best team in the West or best even like I, I think it's them in Louisiana on paper as of today. Yeah, I mean, there's no reason that this, there is a reason.
Speaker: ah But there's a very real world where this team is in the Sunbelt Conference Championship game. There's a real world where, depending on who they draw out of a relatively weak East, as we kind of saw the power flip last season from the East to the West, and it remains in the West this year, um you this this could be a conference-winning team. This is not someone you can write off.
Speaker: ah They're not going to be in the basement. Southern Miss fans, congratulations. I mean, this this is just a... i Seriously, this is such a huge home run for them, ah for a team that has, i mean, struggled since I've been around the conference. I can't speak to their Conference USA days, but I mean... ah we're looking back since like Brett Favre, since this team really had a ton to really be proud of. So, ah I mean, congratulations. This is a really big stepping stone.
Speaker: And if, again, if you're not there this year, you can certainly be back next year. Braylon Braxton is a senior. I don't know if he has any fifth or sixth years in his, in his, in his holster ready to go.
Speaker: But even if he doesn't come back, I mean like this, we've got a good receiving room. You've got a young defense that we really like. So, i Southern miss is a team to watch over the next three years that will, you know, could turn into some sort of dynasty, uh, or resemble a dynasty in coming years.
Speaker: And you've got to ah again, a play caller who's known to develop guys at the quarterback spot and can identify talent. Um, um, There was something else I was going to say ah that I wanted to point out.
Speaker: Oh, the the other thing, too, with the West and the reason I i automatically penciled in um Southern Miss as the second best team in the West, and you you know this from firsthand experience, is uh texas state has been known and gj kenny to backslide at the end of seasons so there's you can't really go well are you leaving out in texas state yeah on purpose because i know what they do at the end the second half of schedules they they go nuts and like don't know how to comport themselves so ah
Speaker: Until they figure out a way to shape that up, I'm going to continue saying you're going to be like the third to fifth best team in the in the conference or in the West even. So, you know, I think it's them and Louisiana trying to figure things out um between Southern Miss and Louisiana.
Speaker: I don't really see any other teams in the West that I would be like, they're going to be true contenders. Yeah. ah Texas State... I mean, they got to figure that out because come December, those Pac-12 conversations are going to start becoming really real again.
Speaker: um You know, it's too late. That's not going to happen for this year. But come December, that those are the conversations that are going to be having. You know, Texas State wants to join the Pac-12. And it seems like the Pac-12 wants them as they rebuild. But when you've got a team, again, they've got other sports, but...
Speaker: Football's the moneymaker. There's no hiding from that. And so, especially in Texas, that's what you're looking at. Mm-hmm. i shoot, I don't want a Texas State team that'll start 4-0, 5-0, but then lose eight of their next nine.
Speaker: ah You know, if it's a question that you're going to have to get bowl, you start 3-0, 4-0, and then bowl eligibility is a question every year under G.J. Kinney. That's not a team I want my conference. So Texas State, shape it up, or Southern Miss is, I mean, Southern Miss, we feel comfortable, will finish higher than Texas State, but like longevity-wise, y'all got to shape up soon.
Speaker: Yeah. and And like I said, if they hadn't crumpled like a piece of wet paper the past two seasons, I would feel like Texas State is is very much in it. But I don't I don't know what happens in San Marcos toward the end of seasons.
Speaker: So ah what I do know, though, is that Charles Huff is a reigning conference winning championship level coach. And Braylon Braxton is that as a as a quarterback. And Blake Anderson has done that as a head coach in the Sun Belt West. So all three of them know kind of what it takes to get to that level.
Speaker: um As we kind of wrap up here, I think we've we've hit on everything regarding a Southern Miss. you have any sort of last minute thoughts? And if you don't just go ahead and and plug socials and then we'll we'll get out of here.
Speaker: No, man. Thanks everyone else ah for listening. we ah We appreciate you being back here for the third season of Warm Weather Fans. As always, you can find me on Twitter or any social at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. You can find our our third co-host, Matt Miguez, on Twitter, at MiguezMatt. That's M-I-G-U-E-Z-M-A-T-T.
Speaker: And Brian's going to send us home for the second episode of our 2025 season previews. season previews Yeah, we're really excited to get into these. As always, you can email us warmweatherfans at gmail.com.
Speaker: You can find us on Twitter or at warmweatherfans. ah We're on YouTube. All of our episodes, if you want video content, are there. We also do bonus ah video content as well that don't make it onto the ah podcast feed because, frankly, they're more ah visual and it wouldn't make sense to do some of it.
Speaker: ah as an audio-only medium. um But as always, you can find me on Twitter, X, whatever, at WatchTheStone. ah We will be back next week to hit on two more teams in the conference.
Speaker: This has been the Warm Weather Fans Sunbelt Podcast.
