HATTIESBURG, Miss. — After winning its home debut at The Rock, App State Football heads south for a Sun Belt Conference opener at a Mississippi-based stadium with the same moniker.
The Mountaineers, one of two Sun Belt teams at 2-0 through two weeks of nonleague play, will face Southern Miss (1-1) on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) in M.M. Roberts Stadium — otherwise known as The Rock to fans of the Golden Eagles.
Led by first-year head coach Charles Huff, who won a Sun Belt title last season at Marshall and had many of his Thundering Herd players join him at his new location, Southern Miss is playing its third straight home game to begin the season. The Golden Eagles led 14-13 at halftime of a 34-17 loss to Mississippi State and held a 17-10 advantage at halftime of a 38-20 victory against nearby FCS program Jackson State, the 2024 HBCU national champion.
Like Southern Miss, App State has had uneven stretches of play so far. A strong end to the first half of the opener against Charlotte propelled the Mountaineers to a 34-11 victory, and they jumped out to an early 14-0 lead against FCS Lindenwood before escaping with a 20-13 win in a game they dominated statistically.
"The first thing I did that night was I went back through every practice and watched," first-year App State head coach
Dowell Loggains said. "I probably slept for about 45 minutes that night just because you won the game, you're 2-0, but you're sick to your stomach with the way you played and the way it looked because it could be so much better. If you look at the stat line, you'd say they won 60-0, until you see those four turnovers, you see those penalties and you see those dropped balls that aren't on the stat sheet, but you feel them.
"So then it's like, OK, let's go back and watch practice. Let's see where we need to improve. Did we do what we were coached to do? Did we put them in the positions we need to put them in? Are we playing the right people? You look at everything."
Through two weeks, with victories against a pair of 0-2 opponents, App State ranks in the top 20 nationally in total offense (12th at 544.5 yards per game) and total defense (16th at 217.0 yards allowed per game).
There has been offensive balance, with
Dalton Stroman,
Jaden Barnes and
Izayah Cummings hauling in passes from
AJ Swann for big gains and
Rashod Dubinion serving as a powerful, productive lead back. Defensively, stopping the run and pressuring quarterbacks have contributed to limited offensive output, even with Lindenwood scoring one touchdown after App State failed to recover a forced fumble near the goal line and the Lions posting another touchdown on a fourth-down, hail-mary-style heave.
Four lost fumbles (including two that occurred moments before an App State receiver crossed into the end zone), one interception and a mishandled onside kick made the first two games more competitive than desired. The challenge increases this weekend, with a smaller margin for error and a need to execute with precision.
"We told the team after the game to enjoy this win," Loggains said," but understand what the Monday practice was going to look like and what the week was going to look like because it wasn't good enough in all three phases. It can be better, and it needs to be better."
Seven members of the App State defense, including six defensive linemen, have contributed in the sack category through two games, while 16 defenders have been involved in a tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
Southern Miss, like Charlotte, has a dual-threat quarterback, and he's a familiar name.
Braylon Braxton was selected as the Sun Belt's Preseason Player of the Year after throwing for 1,624 yards, rushing for 610 yards and accounting for 23 touchdowns at Marshall in 2024. Five of those touchdowns came in a 52-37 home win against App State, as he threw touchdown passes on three of his eight completions and rushed for two touchdowns while gaining 140 yards on 15 attempts.
This year, working with former Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson as his offensive coordinator, Braxton has totaled 406 passing yards with five touchdowns and one interception while completing 66.7 percent of his throws. He's the team's second-leading rusher behind Mississippi State transfer Jeffery Pittman, and Braxton's top two receivers to date are two Marshall transfers: Carl Chester and Elijah Metcalf.
"The way they play, they create space," Loggains said Monday. "Southern Miss, they create space with speed. This will be the fastest team we've played to date. We will practice a little different and do some good-on-good stuff to get the speed of the game because we will feel a difference in speed from the last two opponents. They run well, and when you create that with space, you have to tackle well."
