What happened to Southern Miss?

[ah59396]

I mentioned this in another thread but they are an interesting case and maybe a cautionary tale for us.


First let’s look at their past:


This is a program with a .582 winning percentage that’s won 11 bowl games. 7 of those 11 since the year 2000 but especially during the first decade under Jeff Bower and Larry Fedora.

CUSA champions 96, 97, 99, 2003 and 2011. Keep in mind the quality of that version of CUSA.

1997 they finished 19th in the nation.
1999 they finished 14th in the nation.
2011 they finished 20th in the nation and had their 18th!!! Winning season in a row.

While Fedora was there they landed a 5 star recruit. Unreal.

Then in 2011, following an 11-2 season, Fedora départs for UNC. In 2012 they hire a respected DC Ellis Johnson from South Carolina and they go 0-12....0-12.

Johnson is fired and Todd Monken takes them through a 1-11 season, then a 3-9 season. Then he is fired.

The current coach Jay Hopsen has got them back to .500 ball for 4 seasons but the fans are unhappy and last night didn’t help. Reading their message boards it sounds like their recruiting was abysmal, as many mentioned all of their players were only courted by “1-AA” schools.



So how does this happen? How does a program like Southern Miss with decades of success completely collapse in a 5 year span? Was it really one bad coaching hire? Could it happen to us? How do we make sure it doesn’t? How can we learn from them?

Thanks for reading.

[AppinVA]

They’re also so scared to play us that they have not fulfilled their return game contract with us. I have lost all respect for them.

Screw them.

[NavyApp]

I mentioned this in another thread but they are an interesting case and maybe a cautionary tale for us.


First let’s look at their past:


This is a program with a .582 winning percentage that’s won 11 bowl games. 7 of those 11 since the year 2000 but especially during the first decade under Jeff Bower and Larry Fedora.

CUSA champions 96, 97, 99, 2003 and 2011. Keep in mind the quality of that version of CUSA.

1997 they finished 19th in the nation.
1999 they finished 14th in the nation.
2011 they finished 20th in the nation and had their 18th!!! Winning season in a row.

While Fedora was there they landed a 5 star recruit. Unreal.

Then in 2011, following an 11-2 season, Fedora départs for UNC. In 2012 they hire a respected DC Ellis Johnson from South Carolina and they go 0-12....0-12.

Johnson is fired and Todd Monken takes them through a 1-11 season, then a 3-9 season. Then he is fired.

The current coach Jay Hopsen has got them back to .500 ball for 4 seasons but the fans are unhappy and last night didn’t help. Reading their message boards it sounds like their recruiting was abysmal, as many mentioned all of their players were only courted by “1-AA” schools.



So how does this happen? How does a program like Southern Miss with decades of success completely collapse in a 5 year span? Was it really one bad coaching hire? Could it happen to us? How do we make sure it doesn’t? How can we learn from them?

Thanks for reading.

Interesting questions, obviously there are many variables we don't know do to the fact that we are outside of the program. I did some quick studying on their head coaches starting with Jeff Bower.

Bower was HC there for 18 seasons(90-07) the first 6 were a mixed bag with three over .500 and three under .500 as an independent. In 96 they join C-USA and win the conference three of the first four years. But they only won the conference twice over 8 years. Final record with SoMiss 119-83-1 with a winning percentage of .697 and 6-5 in bowl games.

Enter Larry Fedora and they have a successful four year run. 34-19 for a winning percentage of .588 and 2-2 in bowl games. He did led them to their best season in recent memory of 12-2.

Fedora was replaced by Ellis Johnson who at the time had 4 years pervious HC experience (1 at Gardner Webb and 3 at The Citadel) with his best season being 6-6. His one season at SoMiss was 0-12.

In response to this Todd Monken was hired. He did have a record of 13-25, but his last season he was 9-5 and was named CUSA coach of the year. He left to become the OC for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now they have Jay Hopson at the helm and he is 28-23. His best season is 8-5 and his worst is 6-5. So neither great nor terrible.

Honestly the more I look the more it becomes evident to me that Fedoras 12-2 season as well as Ellis Johnsons 0-12 and 1-11 are outliers. They have a long history of medicority, only two seasons since 1958 of more than 10 wins(2011,1988). So I don't think they have fallen off as much as they have regressed to their mean.