Southern Mississippi running back Frank Gore Jr. will be the Golden Eagles’ star Miami football fans will focus on when the teams play on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium. Defensive back Malik Shorts and linebackers Avrie Habas and Santrell Latham were outstanding in the season opener for Southern Mississippi.
Return man Camron Harrell who was first-team preseason All-Sun Belt is a Southern Mississippi player the Miami special teams will have to account for. Harrell has 42 kickoff returns for 1,045 yards and two touchdowns in his career. Liberty held Harrell to two kickoff returns for 38 yards in the season opener last Saturday.
Gore was the majority of the Southern Mississippi offense. Gore ran 32 times for 178 yards and two touchdowns and completed a pass for 48 yards. Southern Mississippi had 389 yards in total offense versus Liberty. Miami has to make Southern Mississippi throw to try and be successful offensively.
Shorts led the Southern Mississippi defense with 12 tackles versus Liberty. Habas had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and one pass breakup. Latham had six tackles, two TFLs and a sack in the season opener. The Southern Mississippi defense had 11 TFLs and two sacks as a team.
Frank Gore Jr. (@stn_2lit) on what it will be like to play in his hometown this weekend down in Miami.
— Dima Mixon (@dima_mixon) September 7, 2022
“It will be a blessing being able to play around all my family and friends for the first time in a long time.”
Watch full clip 👇 pic.twitter.com/XetiUqifpj
Southern Mississippi also had an Eric Scott Jr. 22 yard interception return for a TD 16 seconds into the second half. The key for the Miami offense will be the avoid the negative plays that the Southern Mississippi defense thrived getting versus Liberty. Despite the 11 TFLs, Southern Mississippi allowed 447 total yards versus Liberty.
The Flames had near perfect balance with 244 yards rushing and 203 passing. The Miami football team had 305 yards rushing and 281 passing in its 70-13 win over Bethune-Cookman on Saturday. The game against Southern Mississippi will be a big step up before a much bigger leap at Texas A&M on September 17.
Miami has to account for the three productive players on the Southern Miss defense, force someone else other than Gore to beat them and not allow Harrell to have any big kickoff returns. The Hurricanes should defeat the Golden Eagles easily. Southern Miss does have the five playmakers mentioned.