HATTIESBURG, Miss.- For nearly 30 minutes on Thursday night, Southern Miss went toe-to-toe with the reigning Sun Belt champions at Renasant Stadium. However, the final 29 seconds of the first half changed everything, as James Madison stole the momentum before the break and never gave it back, rolling to a 54-23 win.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Southern Miss, which had come off a 35-31 win over Louisiana and a 35-21 win at UL Monroe . It dropped the Golden Eagles to 3-6 overall and 2-3 in Sun Belt play, while JMU improved to 8-2 overall and 5-2 in Sun Belt play.
The math is now simple, even if the job at hand isn't. With three games left, Southern Miss must win them all to become bowl eligible.
Here are the biggest storylines from Thursday night at The Rock.
Southern Miss hasn't been able to score on the opening drive of a game all season. | Josh House
It's becoming a familiar story for Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles went three plays for five yards on their opening possession before punting, and the offense still hasn't scored on its opening drive all season.
JMU took advantage right away. Morgan Suarez hit a 32-yard field goal, and quarterback JC Evans followed with a three-yard touchdown run on a two-play, 41-yard drive to make it 10-0 with 7:34 left in the first quarter.
According to Southern Miss quarterback John White, who got his first start of the season on Thursday night , the fix starts with one first down.
"We've struggled all year with that first drive of the game, and it's really getting that first first down," White said following the loss. "When we get that first first down, our drives tend to go across midfield, into field goal range, and score a lot of the times. ... You can do a lot after you get that first first down."
Southern Miss QB John White and his teammates celebrate a second-quarter touchdown against JMU. | Josh House
White, who took over the starting job from Landry Lyddy on a short week, gave Southern Miss its first spark.
The redshirt sophomore led an 11-play, 53-yard drive that bridged the first and second quarters, then took it in himself from three yards out to cut JMU's lead to 10-7 with 14:32 left in the half.
White finished 22-of-35 passing for 266 yards with one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown and no interceptions. He was efficient early, completing 11 of 13 passes in the first half, and he didn't turn the ball over all night. The run game was another story. Despite his dual-threat ability, White was sacked multiple times and finished with -19 rushing yards on nine carries, though he did score once on the ground.
Southern Miss QB John White vs. JMU. | Josh House
"I wouldn't say necessarily surprised," White said when asked about being named the starter this week. "We've met the past couple of weeks about not necessarily making a change, but just staying ready, that the time was coming when I was going to get a shot. So I was doing my best, staying ready every day, watching film, staying after practice, doing all the things I could do to be ready for when the time came. And so when he gave me the nod on Sunday afternoon, I was just like, 'Let's go.'"
White is a guy who has stuck around Hattiesburg over the last few years and waited his turn, so Thursday night was a long time coming.
"That's one thing that I was big on whenever I committed here ... that I was going to stick it out and see it through, no matter what happened," White said. "This is year three for me. ... I knew the time was coming at some point if I stuck to the process, kept working hard [and] kept doing extra stuff, and it finally did. And so to be out there tonight as a starting quarterback for Southern Miss, it felt great."
Southern Miss QB John White throws a pass vs. JMU. | Josh House
Anderson, who confirmed after the game that White is the starter going forward, liked what he saw from the homegrown kid.
"He's got ... a natural leadership gift, in my opinion," Anderson said. "You can see tonight, he can use his legs, and where our offense was kind of stalling a little bit, just kind of out of sorts, [we] felt like his legs and his leadership could give us a spark, and I thought he did that. He played a really good football game tonight."
There were many reasons that this game went south for Southern Miss, including several penalties, busted coverages in the secondary and uninspiring special teams play on punts and kickoffs, but White was one of the few bright spots.
Golden Eagle wide receivers Kaden Saunders (122 receiving yards) and Mario Sanders (98 receiving yards, one touchdown) were White's favorite targets on the night.
Southern Miss RB Steven Robinson celebrates a touchdown vs. JMU. | Josh House
After a JMU goal made it 13-7 and got the ball back, the Southern Miss defense forced a Dukes punt, and the Golden Eagles put together their best drive of the night.
White opened it with a 35-yard strike to Mario Sanders down the right sideline, Jamarice Wilder ripped off a 13-yard run, and Steven Robinson , fresh off being named Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week, plowed in from two yards out with 37 seconds left in the half. The 10-play, 82-yard drive took 3:37. Even after a holding penalty wiped out the first extra point, Creighton Wilbanks drilled the re-kick to give Southern Miss a 14-13 lead.
The Rock was rocking, but those good feelings unfortunately didn't last long.
Robinson finished with 54 rushing yards on 15 carries, while Wilder added 42 yards on nine carries. As a team, Southern Miss managed just 88 rushing yards on 37 attempts, averaging 2.4 yards per carry against a JMU defense that hasn't allowed 200 rushing yards in a game all season. It was a stark contrast to what the Golden Eagles were able to do on the ground over the previous two weeks.
Southern Miss goes into halftime vs. JMU. | Josh House
All Southern Miss needed to do was keep JMU out of field goal range in less than 30 seconds, and it would've taken a lead and all the momentum into halftime. That didn't happen, though.
Starting from their own 25 with 29 seconds left, the Dukes picked their way down the field. Evans nickel-and-dimed his way down the field, then got another big gain when Southern Miss was flagged for 15 yards for unnecessary roughness, moving the ball to the Southern Miss 30. One more completion set up a 40-yard field goal as time expired to send JMU into the locker room ahead 16-14.
It was one of 12 penalties for 91 yards on the night for Southern Miss, but none was costlier.
"You hate to give up the three points, especially after we got the momentum," Anderson said in his postgame media availability. "... [We were] hoping with 37 seconds left, we can keep them out. The penalty did not help. We had several critical penalties. That was one of them. It didn't come in late, but it came in hot, and you can't do that."
Instead of carrying a lead and all the momentum into halftime, Southern Miss walked off trailing, and it was all JMU from there. The Dukes needed just five plays and 1:25 to open the third quarter with a touchdown. They then added another soon after to make it 30-14, and the rout was officially on.
Southern Miss HC Blake Anderson vs. JMU. | Josh House
Southern Miss never stopped swinging. White hit Sanders for a 34-yard touchdown with 9:10 left in the game, and Creighton Wilbanks added a 29-yard field goal later in the quarter. By then, the damage was already done. JMU outscored the Golden Eagles 38-9 after halftime and outgained them 498-354 for the game.
"We've had that play in for about three weeks now, and we just hadn't called it, and we finally got it called," White said. "... I knew where he was supposed to be, when he was supposed to be there, and he did his job and got there. ... He made a great play after that, made a guy miss and didn't make us snap the ball again."
Evans was the engine that made everything run for the Dukes, completing 19 of 26 passes for 251 yards with a touchdown while running for three more scores.
JMU's QB and offensive line set the tone in the second half of a blowout win against Southern Miss. | Josh House
Anderson loved the way his team battled in the first half but was "completely disappointed" in the second. He said the opening drive of the third quarter was the moment things got away.
"That first drive of the third quarter, we looked a little out of sorts," Anderson said. "[We] didn't communicate well, and [James Madison] had a great scripted drive, and we go right back out and just kind of shoot ourselves in the foot offensively. ... Kind of frustrated and didn't look like the same team. Looked immature, honestly. Looked inexperienced. ... It just kind of spiraled from that point."
Southern Miss must win out to become bowl eligible in 2026. | Josh House
For a first-year coaching staff and a roster with roughly 75 newcomers, the goal of getting to a bowl game hasn't changed, although it's officially on life support. Getting there now means beating Louisiana Tech on the road, South Alabama at home on Senior Day and Old Dominion on the road.
It starts next week in Ruston, La., against a Louisiana Tech team that entered the week atop the Sun Belt West with an undefeated conference record.
"We got three games left," Anderson said. "We've got to find a way. I'm going to tell them it's playoff football, and we've got to find a way. [It] doesn't get any easier with [Louisiana Tech], so [we'll] regroup and refresh and learn from it [and] try to play better next week."
Southern Miss QB John White | Josh House
White, meanwhile, insists the locker room isn't going to splinter under the pressure.
"I want to show the fans that there's no quit in us, no matter what," White said. "We still have three games left. We're still planning to go to a bowl. ... We're not going to turn on each other. We're going to stick together."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/southernmiss as 'It Just Spiraled': Late First-Half Swing Sends Southern Miss Reeling in 54-23 Loss to JMU .
