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STAT Watch: Southern Miss

After a week’s absence, stat watch is back to take a look at the Southern Miss Golden Eagles

By Jake Nazar
NCAA Football: Rice at Southern Mississippi Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

We missed out on Stat Watch last week due to the cancellation of the Florida game, even though I did write the piece anyway. Thanks, Gators. The last time LSU was in action against Missouri, the stats indicated Mizzou wasn’t great in any one area but could still pose a threat. They did not. Missouri’s offense, which had taken big strides, looked terrible and the defense wasn’t much better despite both being Top 40. Credit LSU for that for the most part though. The Tigers were great. Now it’s time to shift our focus to see how Southern Miss has looked this year (yes, we’re done with last year as the advanced stats like S&P+ now are just factoring in this season’s results.)part though. The Tigers were great. Now it’s time to shift our focus to see how Southern Miss has looked this year (yes, we’re done with last year as the advanced stats like S&P+ now are just factoring in this season’s results.)

This Season

A note on these stats: The offensive and defensive S&P+ marks are calculated as adjusted scoring averages and for the situational ratings, above 100 is good and below 100 is bad. Links to an explanation on the various stats here: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/fei

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/fplus

  • S&P+ Percentile: 51.4% (63rd in FBS)
  • Offensive S&P+: 31.7 (50th in FBS)
  • Offensive Rushing S&P+: 97.7 (89th in FBS)
  • Offensive Passing S&P+: 105.8 (57th in FBS)
  • Defensive S&P+: 31.1 (75th in FBS)
  • Defensive Rushing S&P+: 89.5 (104th in FBS)
  • Defensive Passing S&P+: 88.5 (104th in FBS)
  • FEI: -.056 (82nd in FBS)
  • F/+: -5.2% (70th in FBS)

Southern Miss is really bad. They’re the first team LSU has seen this year in the negative in FEI and F/+. Their defense has done a terrible job against both the run and the pass, though their Success Rate (tool to measure what plays are successful or not) numbers are solid which helps the overall defensive number, but that’s still 75th in the country. They have a decent passing offense, which aligns with starting QB Nick Mullens’ strong numbers of over 8 yards per attempt, both standard and adjusted, with a 151.1 passer rating. But the run game doesn’t pose many problems whatsoever, so LSU should be able to let Arden Key and the rest of the pass rush run free without worry of what the Golden Eagles bring on the ground. Overall, this is a game that sets up for LSU to continue to work out some of the new kinks in the offense and with Ed Orgeron as head coach and to use a tune up for the big Ole Miss game next week.