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I'll go on record right now, Southern Miss is going to be a TOUGH game for us this year... looks like Monken has their ship turned around: ------------------------- But third-year Southern Miss coach Todd Monken is drawing a proverbial line in the sand. “I expect we will put ourselves in position to go back to a bowl game this year,” he said during an interview with the Hattiesburg American this week. “But it’s going to take everybody. We need ‘The Rock’ to be packed for every home game. If we sell out ‘The Rock’ (every home game in 2015) and we have a losing season, I’ll resign.” Since the start of the 2012 season, Southern Miss has had just one announced crowd of more than 30,000 (the first home game of the 2012 season). During the same span, the Golden Eagles have drawn less than 25,000 fans 13 times, which is passable relative to the program’s Conference USA ilk. Last season, Southern Miss ranked fourth in the league – out of 13 teams – in average home attendance (22,739). Golden Eagle fans are no strangers to the particulars of the football program’s recent history. In 2011, Southern Miss won the Conference USA Championship as well as the Hawaii Bowl and finished the year 12-2 – the best record in school history. The following season, under new head coach Ellis Johnson who replaced Larry Fedora, the Golden Eagles went 0-12 – easily the worst season in school history. Johnson was abruptly dismissed and Monken was hired. Southern Miss was 1-11 in year one under the former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator and 3-9 in 2014. But Monken is confident enough in the roster he’s assembled that his squad is capable of taking another step toward relevance. “I love being the head coach here,” he said. “This is a special place. I know we’re significantly better than we were last year. I believe we’ve got the team to get back to a bowl game. With the help of our fans, I don’t see us not.” read more: http://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/2015/07/12/usms-monken-aims-fill-rock-home-games/30066655/

HATTIESBURG - Franklin D. Roosevelt was settling into his first term in office as president when the Southern Miss football team last suffered back-to-back losing seasons. On Saturday, the Golden Eagles achieved that mark for the first time since 1933-34. North Texas ran roughshod over Southern Miss on homecoming for a 55-14 victory at Roberts Stadium. With the loss, Southern Miss (0-7, 0-3) had its nation's worst losing streak extend to 19 games. "They out-played us, out-coached us tonight," USM head coach Todd Monken said. "We didn't do the things we had talked about doing early in the game. "We had every opportunity to make plays on offense in critical situations and we didn't. We couldn't get off the field on third down (on defense)." It marked the second straight season that USM has been blown out on homecoming after Marshall thumped the Eagles, 59-24, at Roberts Stadium last year. "They all hurt and all I can do is keep fighting," senior linebacker Dylan Reda said. "All I'm going to do is keep thanking the Lord for having a chance to step on that field and be a part of this community." Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/10/26/5062654/golden-eagleslosing-streak-reaches.html

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss football team practiced for about three hours here Tuesday afternoon in preparation for its homecoming contest this Saturday against North Texas. Game time is set for 6 p.m., at Carlisle-Faulkner Field at Roberts Stadium. The Golden Eagles worked a little longer than they normally do on an average practice day and first-year coach Todd Monken explained that he wanted to see a perfect practice out of his team. "If you believe that what you see in practice is what you see in the game, then there is no sense in going beyond it," said Monken. "I owe it to the team that what we ask them to get that done in practice and I thought they responded to that. That's all you can do is hold them to a high standard; to the simplest of things that we are doing. We haven't changed what we are doing, but to ask them to show resolve and to show some fight in doing things the right way." After announcing on Monday that true freshman Nick Mullens of Hoover, Ala., would get the start in Saturday's contest against the Mean Green, Monken said his rookie signal caller got most of the reps in practice and took all the snaps with the first team. He has liked what he has seen from Mullens and got to see some things from his freshman quarterback against East Carolina that you cannot pickup in practice situations. After throwing an interception against East Carolina last Saturday, Mullens made the tackle on the play. To Monken that showed grit, determination, leadership and some want to from his quarterback. Tickets remain available for the game on Saturday and can be purchased online at SouthernMissTickets.com, via telephone at 1-800-844-TICK (8425) or in person weekdays from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Read more: http://www.southernmiss.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/102213aaa.html

Opening Statement... "We've moved on from last week's game against East Carolina and our focus is now on a really good North Texas team. It's Homecoming this week, which will be exciting for our players and alumni. Dan McCarney has done an outstanding job, as he did at Iowa State. His team reflects his personality. They're a tough, physical defense that plays hard, that chases the ball. Their offense is physical. It's going to be a real challenge. You can see what they've been building towards as a program. They've got kids, it appears, that like to play with each other and with energy and enthusiasm. You can see it and you can feel it. That's a sign of a well-coached team. We're excited to get a chance to come home. We've had only two games here and both times we've had an opportunity to win the game. So we're looking forward to getting back here." On the challenge presented by North Texas defense... "They're really good. I'm telling you, we've played some really good teams and they're as good as any of them; not in any one particular thing other than their effort. What they do, they do well. They don't do a lot until you get to third down and then they'll get after you a little bit. Other than that, they're a four-down team that wants to play simple coverages. They fit things right and they feed off of each other and they play for each other. That's a sign of a really good football team, something we're trying to build here." On what true freshman Nick Mullens, who will start vs. North Texas at quarterback in place of redshirt senior Allan Bridgford, has shown in practice and game situations... "What Nick showed us Saturday was his ability to create when things break down. Whether or not Allan had that ability and then over time got beat up and is not able to do that now, the bottom line is we need a spark. Is it hard to compare? Of course it is. You're talking apples and oranges. What you call, who you are playing and opportunities that each quarterback has been given are different. In this moment, we've got to see what Nick can do. We're obviously struggling offensively. That's part of it. We did assess it a week ago. We looked at every throw of Allan's. We looked at offense in general. We looked at Nick. We had planned on playing him this past week and we did. Like any position, we're constantly trying to assess who gives us the best chance to win." Mullens additional challenges playing behind an inexperienced offensive line... "That's part of it. We think Nick's going to be a good football player and you don't want a young man to get thrown in there with other young players and lose his confidence, to where he becomes timid. He showed that that wasn't the case. We've also got to remember that he's 18 years old and he just showed up during the summer and during two-a-days. With both of our quarterbacks, the sample size was pretty small. It wasn't like you had a huge sample size to go on. In this moment, we've decided this is the course we're going to take for this week. It's a week-to-week thing and this week we're going to give Nick an opportunity to move our offense forward." Read more: http://www.southernmiss.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/102113aaa.html

– New Southern Miss Coach Todd Monken had some choice words for the power conference teams bandying about the idea of a “Division 4″ consisting of all big boys. Here are some of the greatest hits: He makes a good point. Even if all the “Power 5″ conferences circle their wagons, there will always be a top of the list and a bottom of the list. And some teams used to being near the top, or at least firmly in the middle, won’t like the view from the basement. Read more: http://blogs.dailymail.com/marshall/2013/07/25/post-c-usa-media-day-roundup/

Southern Miss has been reminded of its winless 2012 season before the first block or tackle of this year has been thrown. The Golden Eagles were picked to finish fifth out of eight teams in the Conference USA East Division, in preseason predictions by league coaches and released last week by the C-USA office. Heading into Wednesday's C-USA Media Day at the Marriott in Irving, Texas, first-year coach Todd Monken has more than preseason predictions on his mind. ''I want each one of our players to be concerned about being a better football player and person. That's it,'' Monken said. ''I don't pay attention, and I could care less, where someone else thinks we will finish as a team. ''We we will determine where we finish and nobody else. I really do not care where we are picked to finish preseason.'' Monken said hasn't spoken to his players about the 0-12 record, which came a year after the Golden Eagles won the 2011 C-USA title and finished 12-2. Larry Fedora left for North Carolina following the conference title, and Ellis Johnson was dismal after one forgettable campaign. Todd Monken challenged his players to get better - physically and mentally -- during summer workouts . If that happens, Monken said the Golden Eagles will report for fall drills on Aug. 1 looking like a team coming off 15 days of team orientated spring drills, not a team that must spend the first few days of fall drills trying to regain the unity and grit it had when spring training ended. That could put the Black and Gold on a faster track to a winning season, a bowl berth and playing for a possible C-USA championship. Read more: http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-sports/2013/07/preseason_predictions_dont_con.html