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Nov. 13, 1999 SportsLine wire reports |
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Jeff Kelly had an almost-perfect game for No. 21
Southern Mississippi.
Kelly completed 12 of 14 passes, including three touchdowns to Todd
Pinkston, and led the Golden Eagles to touchdowns in all six series he played
in a 48-0 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.
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Game summary T O P N E W S
"We've been working hard with all of the receivers in getting our timing down," said Kelly, a first-year starter. "It seems like the last couple of weeks, the timing been little better. That's the kind of thing only comes with time, and the last couple of weeks we've been in sort of a rhythm."
Southern Miss (7-3) scored touchdowns on its first seven possessions, including the first one after freshman Bobby Garner replaced Garner.
Derrick Nix and Dwayne Woods each ran for two touchdowns as the Eagles posted a huge shutout over Lafayette (1-9) for the second year in a row. Southern Miss won 55-0 last year.
With his team playing at Louisville for the outright Conference USA title and a Liberty Bowl berth next week, coach Jeff Bower had no trouble making sure his team was ready to play.
"Remember, Goliath was a 40-point favorite over little David," Bower said. "We did everything we possibly could to get the team ready to play. We've learned from some negative experiences in the past."
By halftime, Southern Miss had 299 yards and was averaging 10.1 yards per play. The Eagles finished with 412 yards (6.9 per play) and limited the Ragin' Cajuns to 128.
"We played a team that was far superior to us on the field," said first-year coach Jerry Baldwin.
"We're trying to build a football team here. For us, it will be back to business as usual. We'll put this one behind us and get ready for Wofford College."
On the Eagles' fourth play, Pinkston made a diving, one-handed grab for a 29-yard TD.
With Southern Miss facing third-and-17 on its second possession, Kelly stepped up in the pocket away from pressure, scrambled to his right and found Pinkston behind the secondary for a 45-yard score.
Kelly passed for 207 yards. Pinkston caught five passes for 134 of those yards.
"I could talk for hours about him, him and Sherrod have been doing that kind of thing all year," Kelly said. "With Sherrod's ankle, he knew he had to come in and shoulder some of the load a little more, and he did a great job."
Southern Miss' leading receiver, senior Sherrod Gideon, was sidelined by an ankle injury. And Kelly's backup, Cable Davis, wasn't in uniform after apparently quitting the team during the week.
Woods did most of the work during a 10-play, 91-yard drive that made it 20-0. He had eight carries for 67 yards, going the final 12 untouched on a sweep, and also caught a 10-yard pass to convert third-and-10.
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| Southern Miss RB Kelby Nance looks for daylight after darting past a defender.(AP) |
After another Lafayette punt, Kelly saw Pinkston streaking downfield among three defenders and laid a pass right in his arms for a 43-yard TD.
Southern Miss made it 5-for-5 in the first half after Shawn Mills returned a punt 78 yards to the Lafayette 5 with 1:13 left before halftime.
Mills sidestepped one defender and then weaved through a series of blocks until he found an opening along the right sideline. Kyries Hebert finally dragged Mills out of bounds, but Nix scored on the next play to make it 34-0.
A 4-yard run by Nix capped the opening drive of the second half, and Woods scored on a 5-yard run on the first drive after Garner took over.
The left-handed Garner, whose father played quarterback at Ole Miss in the 1970s, was expected to redshirt this season. But after Davis failed to show for practice this week, the Eagles had no other quarterback to play and the redshirt was lost.
"We planned on playing him if he could get substantial playing time," Bower said. "We felt like we had to get him in because if something were to happen to Jeff Kelly, you don't want it to be his first game."
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