Three Keys to Victory: USM

It's GAMEDAY EVE, everybody!!! Tomorrow night, our Bulldogs will finally take the field after what's been the longest offseason any of us have ever endured. What will the Dogs look like on national TV against the good ol Mustard Buzzards of USM? Your guess is as good as mine! With so many question marks on both sides of the ball, it's hard to put a finger on exactly how Tech can win, or lose, a rivalry game like this. But let's try to do just that.

1) One Direction

It's no big secret that Southern Miss lost their first game a couple weeks ago. Add in the fact that they lost it to the team who finished dead last in the Sun Belt last season, and that may boost your confidence a little bit as a Tech fan. On top of that loss, USM's fifth year coach Jay Hopson up and quit after the game. It's safe to say that things are pretty messy down in Hattiesburg. Saturday, their young interim coach will come out guns blazing and try to gain some momentum early. Tech needs to weather that storm and keep the Eagles on the downturn.

2) Stop the run

Did I mention that Southern Miss lost to South Alabama a couple weeks ago? Let's take a look at how that actually happened. First of all, former Bulldog Jack Abraham had a pretty decent day throwing the ball: 22/32, 314 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT. So what went wrong? The Golden Eagles couldn't run the ball to save their lives, even with the son of an NFL RB as their feature back. Overall, they ran the ball 37 times for just 95 yards, which is good for 2.6 yards per carry. That's... atrocious. There are two keys to this game for Tech's defense: #1 is don't let their awful running game be anything better than awful. #2 is don't let Jack Abraham beat you once you've rendered them one dimensional. If the relatively untested Bulldog D can pull these two off, it will be a great night for Tech fans.

3) Exploitation

Who's going to get the start at QB? What will the rotation look like? Which WRs are going to step up? Will Justin Henderson be as good as he was last year? What if I told you none of that matters all that much? Last week, the Jaguars (did I mention they lost to South Alabama??) QB Desmond Trotter faced a lot of blitzes. In the face of pressure, Trotter pretty much chucked it up and prayed for the best, and most times, his prayers were answered. As my good buddy Nathan pointed out earlier this week in his Stat Attack post, Southern Miss's defense struggled in passing situations. To be successful, Tech has to exploit USM's weak secondary and come up with some chunk plays through the air. Whether it's Luke or Aaron back there, we need guys like Adrian Hardy, Isaiah Graham, and Smoke Harris to make some plays on the receiving end against a secondary that shouldn't be able to contain them. And sometimes, all it will take is the QB bombing it and just hoping for the best. If we see three or more plays of 40+ yards for Tech tomorrow, I think we're in for a huge win.

Evan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.