By Staff
Enjoying another blessed Sunday while wondering whatever happened to Earl Williams …
If you have a particular day or time you like to watch college football, then the University of Southern Mississippi can probably take care of your needs.
The Golden Eagles play a Thursday game and a Wednesday game this season, as well as 10 on Saturdays.
USM has one kickoff set for 11 a.m., one for noon, three for 2 p.m., one for 2:30 p.m., four for 6 p.m. and two for 6:30 p.m. Us media types love it, because it leaves you plenty of time to work on your stories for the next day.
After years of being known as Road Warriors', the Golden Eagles actually have six home games this season. Of course, due to the fact that this year features a 12-game schedule, there are six road games as well.
The home schedule opens with Jackson State in what should be an interesting game at 6 p.m. on Aug. 31. That is followed by lllinois and Memphis.
The other home games are Cincinnati for Homecoming on Oct. 19 and Louisville on Thursday, Nov. 14 and East Carolina in the last regular season game on Nov. 30.
The scheduled Wednesday game has USM traveling to the Dallas area to take on TCU at 6:30 p.m.
The TCU and Louisville games are scheduled for ESPN, while the Illinois and Alabama games will be on ESPN2.
Road games for USM this season are at Alabama on Sept. 21, followed by Army, South Florida, TCU, UAB and Tulane.
It's time for
SEC Media Days
The three-day circus known as SEC Media Days kicks off in Birmingham on Tuesday and wraps up on Thursday. So far 800 media representatives are scheduled to attend the meetings, which will include press conferences by each of the league's 12 coaches, as well as two players from each team.
Representing Ole Miss will be linebacker Lanier Goethie and quarterback Eli Manning, while quarterback Kevin Fant and linebacker Mario Haggan will be there for Mississippi State.
Quarterback Tyler Watts and defensive tackle Jarret Johnson are scheduled to be handling the questions for Alabama.
Tuesday's afternoon schedule features Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and South Carolina taking their turns in front of the media, while the Wednesday morning session has Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. The three-day event winds down on Thursday morning with Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Tennessee.
SWAC opens season
with interesting games
The Southwestern Athletic Conference will also have it's media day next week, hosting the football writers in Birmingham on Friday morning.
Two SWAC teams take on Conference USA teams on the first full weekend of college football this season, while another takes on a power from the Southland Football League.
As mentioned earlier, Jackson State plays USM in M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg at 6 p.m. on Aug. 31. Earlier that afternoon Southern University of Baton Rouge travels to New Orleans and the Superdome to face Tulane University in the Big Easy Classic at 2:30 p.m.
Listen folks, that could really be a good football game.
Don't be surprised if it's one of the biggest turnouts for a Tulane football game in years.
Also on Saturday, Grambling University faces in-state rival McNeese State in Lake Charles, La.
There are actually two conference games being played that first weekend, as Alcorn State hosts Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Texas Southern entertains arch-rival Prairie View A&M.
The Sept. 7 schedule shows two more very interesting non-league games for SWAC members as Southern University takes on Northwestern (La.) State in Shreveport and Alabama State heads to Tennessee to pay a visit to Tennessee-Chattanooga.
On Sept. 14 Mississippi Valley State plays host to Delta State of the Gulf South Conference in a re-match of last year's game in Cleveland, which the Statesmen won.
If you like entertainment at your football games, make sure you mark down the dates of the Homecoming games of Mississippi's three SWAC schools.
While halftime shows at JSU, Alcorn and Mississippi Valley never disappoint, Homecoming can be even be better. But, don't be in a hurry. It could take a while.
JSU entertains Mississippi Valley for Homecoming on Sept. 28 at 4 p.m., while the next weekend, on Oct. 5, Valley entertains Paul Quinn College of Texas for Homecoming at 2 p.m..
Alcorn's Homecoming is the same day at 5 p.m. against Fort Valley (Ga.) State.