Southern Miss has been practicing for more than a week and is due to have its first public scrimmage on Friday.

Last season, the Golden Eagles were one game away from winning Conference USA East and playing for the conference title. This spring is dedicated to making sure that the mistakes that led to the loss against East Carolina don’t happen again.

Here’s a look at the strongest and weakest positions for the Golden Eagles this spring:

Strongest position: Wide receiver

Key returners: Junior DeAndre Brown (47 catches, 785 yards, nine touchdowns), sophomore Quentin Pierce (25 catches, 242 yards, two touchdowns), senior Johdrick Morris (eight catches, 131 yards, one touchdown), senior Jonathan Massey (seven catch, 62 yards, two touchdowns)

Key departures: Gerald Baptiste (38 catches, 558 yards, five touchdowns), Freddie Parham (26 catches, 328 yards, two touchdowns), Leroy Banks (29 catches, 375 yards, three touchdowns)

The skinny: Despite losing four of the team’s top five leading receivers (running back Damion Fletcher included), coach Larry Fedora said this might be the deepest wide receiving corps during his tenure. Brown returns and should be healthier than he was in 2009, when he was recovering from a broken leg, and Pierce could emerge as a top receiver this year. The Golden Eagles also add junior college transfer Kelvin Bolden to add to the depth.

Weakest position: Offensive line

Key returners: Center Cameron Zipp

Key departures: Left tackle Kyle Burkhart, left guard Micah Brown, right guard Ryan Hebert, right tackle Brennan Houston.

The skinny: I could have easily said the kicking game here, but I went with the offensive line since there is so much to replace and little experience heading into this spring. Zipp is the only starter returning from the offensive line, which prompted Fedora to bring in two junior college offensive linemen this spring in Lamar Holmes and Jason Weaver. All of the backup players return, though most are young. This spring is going to be critical in developing the line, especially with a new corps of running backs taking the reins in the spring.