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Southern Miss football is officially bowl bound for the first time since 2019.
The Golden Eagles are set to take on Rice in the LendingTree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, the school announced Sunday. Roughly 100 miles from Hattiesburg, this is an accessible bowl destination for the Golden Eagles and their fans as they make their return to postseason play.
The game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 17 (4:45 p.m. CT, ESPN).
Rice finished the season at 5-7, and is headed to a bowl game for the first time since the 2014 campaign. The Owls will be a familiar opponent for the Golden Eagles, having played annually in Conference USA before USM moved to the Sun Belt Conference ahead of 2022. Rice is riding a two-game winning streak against Southern Miss, and the all-time series it tied 6-6.
Will Hall brought the Golden Eagles to 6-6 in his second season at the helm of the program, doubling Southern Miss’ win total from a year ago. The cupboard was left largely empty for Hall upon his arrival, playing with only 62 scholarship players – 23 short of the NCAA’s upper limit.
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After an offseason roster makeover via the transfer portal and a strong recruiting class, Hall believed his program would more closely resemble a fully-functional FBS team, and he was right.
“We play our butt off every week for our university to get them back, to get this program back where it’s supposed to be,” Hall said after the conclusion of the season. “And it’s a great step in Year Two to get us to a bowl game.”
When it came to locking down bowl eligibility, Hall and the Golden Eagles made Southern Miss fans sweat. After earning win No. 5 on Oct. 27 against Louisiana, they rode a three-game losing streak into the final game of the season at Louisiana-Monroe. The Golden Eagles emerged from that game with a 20-10 victory, a sixth win and a 4-4 conference record in their first season in the Sun Belt Conference.
USM’s best win on the season came on the road against a Tulane team that will go to the Cotton Bowl as the highest-ranked Group of Five program. That marked Tulane’s only loss of the season, giving the Golden Eagles an upset win that proved vital for their bowl efforts.
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