New Orleans is an exciting place to drink and dance, a city that takes Mardi Gras very seriously, and now the city that Creole cuisine and jazz built has its own bowling alley to add even more excitement thanks to a few uniforms. rowdy and south of Mississippi.
The Golden Eagles got off to an inauspicious start and a fantastic finish by winning the first overtime game of the bowl season, a crazy, crazy, wonderful 30-27 comeback win over Troy in the New Orleans Bowl on Sunday (21- 12-08).
For the opener, the Southern Miss players showed up to play in all-gold uniforms, defying orders to wear white jerseys as the designated visiting team; they were sanctioned with the loss of a time-out for their impertinence.
They made a false start while lining up for their first offensive play.
Two plays later, the Trojans took a 7–0 lead with a defensive touchdown run when Jorrick Calvin knocked down a lateral, picked it up, and ran 17 yards on a fumble return.
Now you might think Southern Miss was in deep trouble right now, but that would be underestimating a team that went on a 5-game losing streak earlier in the season, dropping its record to 2-6. The Golden Eagles then get 4 straight wins to qualify for a bowl game.
The Troy Trojans won the Sun Belt Conference title and led 27-17 following Jerrel Jernigan’s 6-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, but Southern Miss was just beginning to work its magic. Quarterback Austin Davis grounded on 4 and 2 and threw a 35-yard TD pass to tight end Jonathan Massey with 7:20 remaining in regulation.
Britt Barefoot, a big name for a kicker, would go on to make his second field goal of the game, a 46-yard kick with less than 3 minutes remaining to send the game into overtime, the first overtime game of the bowling season. of 2008.
The Trojans then held Southern Miss to a 39-yard field goal by Britt Barefoot on the Golden Eagles’ first possession in overtime, which proved to be enough for the win when Michael McGee blocked the 28-yard field goal attempt. Troy yards to tie the game. The Southern Miss sideline and fans exploded with mixed emotions: joy and happiness.
The victory was Larry Fedora’s first bowl game as South Mississippi’s head coach, and the Golden Eagles’ third New Orleans Bowl victory in 3 appearances.
Even more important, the win was the fifth straight for Southern Miss, which needed the first 4 to qualify for the bowl game and the last to extend the school’s streak of consecutive winning seasons to 15. Imagine, 15 consecutive winning seasons, a record that very few teams could match.
Southern Miss finished the season with a 7-6 record; Troy had to settle for an 8-5 record.
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
