Who is more delusional, Southern Miss or Bama?

I am a Southern Miss grad. I was there back in the mid-late 90's when we won 3 conference championships in 4 years and went to the Liberty Bowl twice. We were consistently ranked in the Top 25, almost breaking through to the Top 10 in 2000. Since 2000, we've won one conference championship.

No one at Southern Miss expects to compete for the NC or even for a BCS bid. The level of our conference would never allow for it. We understand that. However, there is no reason we shouldn't be dominating the conference right now. The conference lost the most competitive teams we had - Louisville, Cincy, USF, etc. There is NO reason a team that was able to consistently win when the conference was competitive should be losing to the likes of Rice and UCF. Right now, all we want is to be able to dominate the conference and pull out the occasional upset against a tough OOC opponent (Bower has beat LSU, Alabama, Georgia, and Nebraska to name a few).

As much as I appreciate everything Bower has done, we are in a rut. Our offense is horribly inconsistent and the prevent defense has become his specialty. Bringing in someone with a fresh perspective and a lot to prove could really invigorate the program and get us back to where we want to be: a consistent Top 25, consistent conference champion, and a potential spoiler for the tough OOC teams we play. That's it. No delusions of NC or BCS dancing in our heads.

I wish Bower all the best and I hope he finds much success wherever he goes. I am grateful for his loyalty and commitment to the program. It was just time for a fresh start for both Bower and the University.


One more thing:

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Southern Miss has NEVER filled their 36k seat stadium yet they are adding 10k more seats

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I will admit our attendance is not the best - I blame the crappy conference teams on that - but we have had many sellouts and near sellouts through the years. It's a bit severe to say we've NEVER filled our stadium.

If we ever want to bring the bigger schools to play in our house, we have to make room for them.

As a Southern Miss alum born and raised in Hattiesburg, I couldn't agree with you more. It's easy for people who've not followed Southern Miss football or supported their program to say this is a dumb decision. I say "What took so long?".

I don't think Southern Miss is delusional at all, and I think Anastasia Beaverhausen summed it up perfectly.

Go Eagles!

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likes of Rice and UCF

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Sorry, but Rice and UCF are not in the same category. You losing to UCF is not all that shameful. They only have the best running back in the country and coach O'Leary has experience at a big time school. UCF is on the way up and is a very large and growing school with much more resources than dare I say at USM. You should not be feeling horrible because you lost to them. Southern Miss is in fact delusional to be doing what they are doing (firing Bower, adding 10,000 seats to an empty stadium.)

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What is everyone's hang-up with Bower? If he's so great, why doesn't anyone mention him for the LSU job?

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Exactly. I don't see any of these folks passing judgement on his firing bringing him up for their open positions. I think the message is that we, as Southern Miss fans, should be happy with mediocrity, but other schools (SEC especially) can expect a conference championship every year with a big bowl game.

Apparently, we should be tickled pink with a 7-5 season and the papajohns.com bowl.

I don't think it's anything personal against UCF; they are a decent program and certainly a good addition to the conference. More to the point, it's the expectation of beating conference opponents consistently, like we used to. The only losses we used to have were to big program teams (Nebraska, Alabama, etc).

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They only have the best running back in the conference

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No, he is the leading rusher in the country. UCF has much more resources than USM and my point was, you should not be so upset at losing to a UCF team/program that is on the rise and has a much better chance at success than USM.

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Good luck in the Championship Game

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Thanks! geaux knights!



Geaux Eagles!