⚡ CFB Dashboard

(Photo: S. Miss Athletics, 247Sports)   Southern Miss spent too much of Saturday night chasing Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown after he had already escaped. The Golden Eagles had chances to get off the field, but lost rush lanes, took poor angles and let Brown turn covered plays into gains. Now they face Kalieb Osborne, another quarterback who can punish a defense with his legs. The opponent has changed. The assignment has not. UConn coach Jason Candle calls the plays and knows how to make a defense declare what it is doing. Southern Miss defensive coordinator Joe Bolden said Candle has answers when he sees Cover 1, Cover 3 or Cover 4. UConn can check into a better call against the look in front of Osborne, forcing the Golden Eagles to balance disguise with sound assignments after the snap. Bolden knows Candle personally: His brother played and coached for him, and Candle attended his brother's wedding. That familiarity has given Bolden a clear picture of what is coming, though recognizing a call and stopping it are different matters. "He's really good in regards to having answers and forcing guys into fits," Bolden said this week. "He's got some check with me's where they can get to a really good play call against a certain structure." Bolden wants to change the picture on Osborne, something he felt Southern Miss did reasonably well at times against Auburn. The danger is that one defender loses his assignment in the process. Auburn found an easy touchdown through a blown coverage that Bolden said should have had a defender over the receiver in the post. Osborne makes those calls more difficult to defend because Southern Miss must account for him in the run game. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound junior, who followed Candle from Toledo, rushed for 90 yards and two touchdowns against Lafayette. Maryland gave UConn a much tougher test last week and limited the Huskies to 67 net rushing yards, but Osborne still led his team with 13 recorded attempts and 30 net yards. Those attempts include sacks, so the box score does not tell us how many runs Candle designed for him. It does show that Osborne remained a major part of what Maryland had to defend. Candle has specifically discussed the value of a quarterback who can pull the ball on zone read, and Osborne has the size and speed to make that decision costly for a defense. The end has to account for the back at the mesh point while protecting the edge if Osborne keeps it. That is where Southern Miss repeatedly lost leverage against Brown. A defender would take the wrong angle or leave a lane in the rush, and Brown had room to get outside even when the initial coverage held. Bolden did not soften his assessment of that work. "Football is all about leverage," he said. "You don't want to run to the contact. You want to run through it." His point was about more than effort. Each defender has to know which side he owns, take his feet through the tackle and trust the rest of the defense to arrive from its assigned angle. Southern Miss created some third-and-long situations at Auburn, only to let Brown escape on downs that could have ended drives. Wednesday's practice showed how directly the staff is addressing it. The defensive ends worked against offensive tackles on setting the edge, using their inside hand to lock out the blocker and keep him off their bodies. That gave them room to look into the backfield at the mesh point while maintaining outside leverage. It was a drill in seeing the play without surrendering position. A'Mari Wilson, the long defensive end who has yet to play after hyperextending his elbow in camp, is expected back this week and gives Bolden another body for that work. His length can help, but only if he and the other ends keep Osborne in front of them. Southern Miss also has to respect what Osborne can do when he throws. Maryland held UConn to 223 total yards in its 38-14 win, yet both Huskies touchdowns came on explosive passes: a 36-yarder to JD Willoughby and a 39-yarder to Shamar Porter. Osborne needed only two throws to account for more than a third of UConn's passing yardage that afternoon. A rush that lets him escape can put the secondary in a long coverage down; a coverage mistake can give Candle the big play he is looking for even when the run game has gone nowhere. The return of second-team corner Ishmael Ibraheem gives Southern Miss another option against a receiving group with size. Porter is 6-foot-3, while Javon Brown stands 6-foot-4, and Candle has shown he will take his shots despite an offense struggling to sustain drives. Ibraheem's availability helps the rotation, but it does not reduce the need for clean communication across the secondary. Bolden said the defense gave up too many explosive plays against Auburn, including one on a blown coverage, and UConn has already shown it can score quickly through the air. This is a chance for Southern Miss to show that the Auburn mistakes were lessons rather than habits. The Golden Eagles need better run fits, better tackling angles and a rush that closes around Osborne without giving him an exit. They also need to handle Candle's checks without handing him an uncovered receiver. UConn's offense ran over Lafayette and struggled to move Maryland, but Osborne produced against both. If Southern Miss can keep him in the pocket and make the Huskies earn their yards a play at a time, it will have taken away the part of Candle's offense most capable of changing this game.