On a Monday press conference, Southern Miss interim head coach Scotty Walden said his team is “very hopeful” to play this week against Liberty.
This comes on the heels of the Golden Eagles having had both of its previous two games postponed due to COVID-19. Its Oct. 10 home game against Florida Atlantic was called off after FAU experienced a surge in cases. This past Friday, Southern Miss announced its game scheduled for this past weekend against UTEP was postponed due to an increase in COVID-19 cases on the Southern Miss roster.
“Very disappointed for our team, very disappointed for our coaches that we had to postpone the game with UTEP,” Walden said on Monday. “As I’ve said before, the safety of our players, the safety of our staff, the safety of everybody in this program is going to come first.”
Walden said his team would have been without the services of “about 20+” players for the game against UTEP due to positive cases and contact tracing. The Golden Eagles would have had only about 44-45 scholarship players on the field for the game if it were to have been played.
“I can tell you, from a mindset standpoint, every single one of them wanted to play and every person in administration in this building we did everything we could to play,” said Walden of the UTEP game. “At some point, we’ve got to be smart and understand the safety of our kids and our coaches is paramount.”
In Southern Miss’ previous game played, a 41-31 win at North Texas on Oct. 3, they had several players held out and played the game with just 53 scholarship players.
Walden says their full time coaching staff is good from a COVID standpoint, but “numerous” support staff members have been affected.
Southern Miss practiced most of last week before beginning to get positive tests later in the week. Walden said USM had COVID tests every day last week and will test again every day this week.
“I do expect to get several of the guys that have been quarantined, I expect to get several of those guys back this week,” he said. “That’s why we’re very hopeful to play this week against Liberty, and I feel like we’re in a good spot right now. I feel optimistic at this point that we’re going to get depth back at certain positions.”
Saturday’s game in Lynchburg, Virginia at Williams Stadium is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff. Liberty is one of the few teams in the country remaining that has yet to have a game canceled or postponed during the season.
“We focus on playing, period,” Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze said Monday morning when asked about the status of this week’s game. “We’ve got a game with Southern Miss on Saturday, we don’t even entertain the possibility that it could be canceled. Do we know that’s possible? Sure, but we don’t focus on that at all. We’re getting ready to play Southern Miss on Saturday.”
Freeze is hopeful his team will be able to play Saturday, looking to improve to 6-0 before an open date on Oct. 31.
“Everything looked very favorable and positive this weekend for them, as far as moving forward with the game, is what I’ve been told,” said Freeze.
It’s been a difficult start to the 2020 season for Southern Miss. They opened the season with a 32-21 home loss to South Alabama. Within a week, head coach Jay Hopson resigned.
The Golden Eagles fell to 0-3 following home losses to Louisiana Tech (31-30) and Tulane (66-24) before rebounding in the win over North Texas, their only win so far this season.
“We’ve got to get through this storm,” said Walden. “We were good for so long and finally it hit us, it punched us in the mouth. We just got to get back up and keep trusting our protocols, keep adapting and evolving. We’re hoping and praying and working our tails off to adhere to every protocol possible so that we can be in a position to play Liberty this coming Saturday.”
Following the team’s 5-0 start to the season and program’s first ever win over an ACC opponent coming against Syracuse this past Saturday, Liberty is currently a 10.5 point home favorite.
“We all want to play this game more than anything,” Walden said. “We’re doing everything in our power to get that done.”
Southern Miss is planning on traveling to Lynchburg by plane on Friday, provided there COVID-19 tests come back favorably this week.
“You get on that plane, one person has it, you could end up suffering long time repercussions. You’ve got to feel good getting on that plane and you’re in a good spot. I’m optimistic. We tested today. We will continue to test the rest of the week. I feel good about our guys coming back and building our depth back.”
It will just be a day by day situation this week. It sounds as if Southern Miss does not have any more positive COVID tests this week, they will have enough players to play in the game against the Flames Saturday.
“Before we can play, during the week, you’ve got to beat COVID,” said Walden. “You’ve got to whoop COVID first before you can go whoop your opponent. That’s the number one deal we’re focused on now.”
*photo courtesy Hattiesburg American
