BROOKHAVEN — Southern Miss’ potent spread offense nearly resulted in its first Bowl Championship Series appearance in school history in 2011.
Newly hired offensive line coach Tucker Peavey has the same goal in mind — receive a BCS berth — but he wants it to come with a new dynamic.
The Golden Eagles’ air assault put up close to 37 points per game, which was the No. 14 ranked scoring offense in the country. With former coach Larry Fedora out to North Carolina and former South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson taking over the reins, fans shouldn’t see much change.
Sure, longtime quarterback Austin Davis used up his eligibility, but USM will still operate out of the spread offense. Expect one variation, however.
“The one change we do want to make is we want to be a physical team running the football,” Peavey said Thursday at the USM Alumni Association luncheon in Brookhaven. “That’s probably the biggest hurdle we had to get over in the spring. These offensive linemen aren’t used to it. It takes a while to get used to. I think they all want to be that (physical), they just have to get over that hump to do it.”
Peavey’s approach is rather simplistic but it doesn’t mean the Golden Eagles couldn’t run it under Fedora. In 14 games, USM averaged 205.1 rushing yards per game.
“Hopefully we can run the ball more attacking than they did,” Peavey said. “Obviously they were great on offense and we don’t want to take anything away from that at all. It’s simply just when we are running the ball, being able to be more physical.”
Peavey’s sentiments are new on the collegiate level as he is only five months into his new job at USM.
Peavey spent a good portion of the last decade as coach at Brookhaven High School before stepping down in 2010 and remaining the school’s athletic director. He previously spent time in various roles with USM, Louisiana-Monroe, LSU and had a brief stay as head coach at Pearl River Community College in 2002.
So the fit was natural when Johnson became USM’s new coach on Dec. 20. Peavey and Johnson had been friends dating back to the ’80s and his best friend is running backs coach Steve Buckley, whom USM plucked from Petal around the same time Peavey joined USM.
Before the end of December, both Peavey and Buckley had been hired, and the timeliness was hardly coincidental.
“We had talked in years past and he has wanted to come back to Southern Miss,” Peavey said. “He’s known for years that if he did get it, I would love to go. That’s just kind of how it was.”
Peavey answered a handful of questions Thursday from USM boosters and fans. Most regarded the state of the program, while others focused on USM’s need for more donations to fund scholarships.
As for a BCS bowl bid, Peavey said he will use the same mentality as when he took over Brookhaven’s program in 2001.
“Our coaching staff has an objective and it was the same objective for when I came to Brookhaven,” he said. “That’s to take this program to a place it hasn’t been before. Right now, our main goal it to play in a BCS bowl game.”
USM has its work cut out, however. The Golden Eagles open the season at Nebraska and host Louisville and Boise State, to go along with the rest of their Conference USA schedule.
