All Times EST
Sunday
New Orleans Bowl
Southern Mississippi (6-6) vs. Troy (8-4) at New Orleans, 8:15 p.m. (ESPN)
Line: Troy by 4 1/2.
Series Record: Southern Miss leads 7-1.
Last Meeting: Sept. 3, 1977, Southern Miss won 42-19.
What’s at Stake
Troy, the Sun Belt Conference champion, seeks its second New Orleans Bowl victory in three seasons, having beaten Rice 41-17 in 2006. Southern Miss, after starting 2-6, needs one more victory to finish with a winning record in coach Larry Fedora’s first season.
Key Matchup
Troy’s spread offense, which has racked up 421 yards per game this season, will be tested by an increasingly stout Southern Miss defense that has given up a combined 21 points in its last three games.
Players to watch
Southern Miss: Damion Fletcher is Southern Miss’ all-time leading rusher and has run for 1,235 yards and 9 TDs this season. Freshman WR DeAndre Brown has 66 catches for 1,108 yards and 12 TDs.
ds and 2 TDs in a win over Louisiana-Lafayette last month.
Figures
This is the 11th bowl appearance in the last 12 years for Southern Miss. … The Golden Eagles, who play in Conference USA, make their third appearance in the New Orleans Bowl, having won it in 2004 against North Texas and 2005 against Arkansas State. … Southern Miss is 2-0 against Sun Belt teams in bowl games. … Fedora was an assistant coach on the Oklahoma State team that lost to Troy in 2007. … Southern Miss is 4-0 in bowl games played in Louisiana, including two victories in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. … Troy, which joined the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision in 2001, is 1-1 in bowl games. Its first was a loss to Northern Illinois in the 2004 Silicon Valley Bowl in San Jose, Calif.
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