Jack Abraham joined some elite company Saturday night.
With his 428 passing yards against Rice, Abraham became the sixth Southern Miss quarterback and latest since Nick Mullens to reach the 400-yard mark through the air in a single game. The redshirt sophomore added four passing scores, and the Golden Eagle defense limited the Owls to just 262 yards. Led by Abraham, the Southern Miss offense doubled that total en route to a 40-22 win in their Conference USA opener.
“We were just taking what they were giving us,” said Abraham. “I felt on all cylinders we executed to the best of our ability tonight. The short tosses opened them up and we threw the ball down field. I thought we executed perfectly on those and tonight was a good night for sure.”
Click on the link to watch Southern Miss head coach Jay Hopson’s postgame press conference: https://youtu.be/rpRpgd8AjNA
After a 28-yard field goal from Parker Shaunfield, Abraham put Southern Miss up 10-0 in the first quarter with a touchdown pass to Quez Watkins. The score was set up by the first of two interceptions from the Golden Eagle defense. Ty Williams recorded the first, and Rachaun Mitchell had the second. Both plays came in the first half, and both led to Southern Miss touchdowns.
“We want to create turnovers, we want to be a physical defensive unit,” said Southern Miss head coach Jay Hopson. “The nasty bunch prides itself on all of that. I certainly felt like today that the strength of our defense was that we created turnovers and gave our offense some plus yardage field position and they made some big plays.”
Rice cut Southern Miss’ lead to 10-8 on a touchdown and two-point conversion in the first quarter. The Golden Eagles responded two possessions later on an Abraham-to-Tez Parks touchdown connection, extending their lead to 17-8. Including Parks, four different players caught touchdowns for Southern Miss, and nine finished with at least one catch.
Watkins led the way in the latter with five receptions for 85 yards. Jaylond Adams, Tim Jones and De’Michael Harris finished with four catches a piece. Former Oak Grove standout Jordan Mitchell added three catches for 62 yards, including a career-high 49-yard reception.
“You’ve got to keep those guys happy and when you’ve got four or five guys that are fast and can blow the top off the defense, that just makes my job easier,” explained Abraham. “It also makes everybody else’s job easier and it opens up other opportunities for other receivers. I thought we played great all around tonight.”
After Rice scored their second touchdown of the night, Southern Miss running back Steven Anderson scored on a 1-yard run to give the Golden Eagles a 24-15 lead at the half.
Southern Miss went on to outscore Rice 16-7 in the second half, including a 16-0 scoring run to go up 40-15 in the fourth quarter. Abraham found Adams and Jones for touchdowns, and Shaunfield added his second field goal of the game.
The Owls added a touchdown with 6:58 left, but it was too little too late.
Southern Miss improved to 2-1 with the win, and the Golden Eagles will be back in action next Saturday at Auburn. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 pm.
