After the first quarter the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss like where they stood. The score was tied 7-7, which isn’t bad considering they were playing the #7 team in the country in Florida. However, the game ended for USM at this point. They would not score another point despite putting up almost 300 yards in total offense. Florida was too tough and the Golden Eagles to error prone. Florida beat Southern Miss 34-7.

Southern Miss QB Jeremy Young was 13 of 27 for 129 yards and a TD, but he threw three interceptions. His Florida counterpart, Chris Leak put up 248 yards with three TDs over 21 completed passes. Leak did throw an interception, but it didn’t matter. Leak averaged 8.3 yards per completed pass.

Florida’s 143 yards on the ground came via three main players. Percy Harvin had 58 yards over 4 carries. The bulk of his yards came on a 23 yard run. Most of the carries went to Kestahn Moore. He took 12 handoffs and put up 51 yards. The average of 4.3 yards looks ok until you realize that he had a single run of 27 yards. Take out this run and his stats don’t look as good—11 carries for 24 yards, which is a 2.18 average. DeShawn Wynn took 7 handoffs for 45 yards, but he also had a single run of 20+ yards.

The best receiver of the day was Florida’s Dallas Baker. He caught 9 passes for 123 yards and a TD. His longest pass was for 29 yards. In the first quarter, as time expired, Baker caught a 21 yard TD strike from Chris Leak. That capped a nice 87 yard drive by the Gators.

There’s cause for concern. The running game didn’t fare well. Most of the yards came off a couple big runs. The rest were unacceptable one and two-yard runs. That’s not going to get it done against a solid team. Next week Florida is taking on UCF who beat up Villanova 35-16.