ESPN College Football

You saw the preview and prediction. Now here are three keys for Nevada and Southern Miss heading into the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Saturday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Nevada (7-5)

1. Block Jamie Collins and Cordarro Law. For the Wolf Pack to have any success with their Pistol offense, they are going to have to take stock of these two players, who have been terrific at making plays behind the line of scrimmage. Southern Miss ranks No. 20 in rush defense, and Collins and Law are a big reason for that. Collins, who plays the hybrid end/linebacker role, really does a nice job shutting down the perimeter. He has 94 tackles this season, with a team-leading 19.5 tackles for loss (tied for No. 10 nationally) and 6.5 sacks. Law has 7.5 sacks, 17.5 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles.

2. Consistent defense. One of the biggest reasons Nevada struggled late in the season was because of inconsistent play on defense, especially in the secondary. This group will be facing one of the most balanced teams it has played this season, so it has to be ready for equal doses of runs and passes, and has to be on the lookout for Austin Davis scrambling out of the pocket, too. It is a cliche to say Nevada has to play assignment-sound, but it totally fits the bill here.

3. Rishard Matthews advantage. Matthews is the best, most consistent player the Wolf Pack have on offense, so it will be critical to get the ball to him in what appears to be a huge matchup advantage. Matthews leads the team with 91 receptions for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns. He most likely will be paired against Deron Wilson, and has a huge size advantage on the cornerback (4 inches, 40 pounds).

Southern Miss (10-2)

1. Big plays in the pass game. Davis has been terrific this season in leading Southern Miss, and he will have an opportunity to take advantage of the biggest area of weakness Nevada has on defense -- the secondary. Ryan Balentine and Kelvin Bolden each have more than 600 yards receiving and have been the most consistent threats in the pass game. The Golden Eagles also are effective at getting the ball to Tracy Lampley out of the backfield.

2. Block Brett Roy. No question Nevada will try to get Davis off his rhythm by getting after him. Roy, a first-team WAC defensive tackle, had 10 sacks and 18.5 tackles for loss, and is the best player on the Wolf Pack front. Nevada has been solid at generating a pass rush this season, but the big problem facing Nevada is Davis' escapability and a solid offensive line that has only allowed 15 sacks all season.

3. Make Cody Fajardo win it. Fajardo has shown flashes this season, but this defense has been excellent at putting major pressure on quarterbacks and forcing mistakes. Just ask Case Keenum, who had his worst game of the season against Southern Miss. Dan Disch has done a great job installing his 4-2-5 scheme, and Southern Miss has set a new FBS record with eight interception returns for touchdowns. You can bet this group will be hoping for a few more against the redshirt freshman quarterback.

I am continuing my look at potential BCS busters from Conference USA, a league that would love nothing more than to get one of its teams into one of the marquee games. Southern Miss has had 17 straight winning seasons, a level of success unmatched by anyone in C-USA. But the Golden Eagles have not won a conference championship since 2003 and last played in the C-USA title game in 2006. This season could be an outstanding one for the Golden Eagles based on their excellent returning quarterback and a very manageable schedule.

Why they have a shot: Quarterback Austin Davis had his best year last season with 3,103 yards passing and 452 yards rushing, proving to be comfortable running the spread offense. He is on pace to set school career marks for passing yards and passing touchdowns. He should be even better headed into his senior year, especially with a nice compliment of running backs returning in Kendrick Hardy, Desmond Johnson and Tracy Lampley. Top receiver Kelvin Bolden also returns, along with Quentin Pierce. The schedule plays into the Golden Eagles' favor, with their toughest nonconference games at Virginia and home to Navy. Plus, they get UCF and SMU at home. The most difficult C-USA road game is at East Carolina.

Why they won't make it: Southern Miss has not quite been able to get back into the driver's seat in the East in three seasons under Larry Fedora. The offense has looked good, but the defense has sputtered at times with breakdowns in crucial situations. In four of its five losses last season, Southern Miss gave up 40-plus points. The Golden Eagles beat eventual league champion UCF last season, but lost three conference games by a combined eight points and finished in a tie for second. They will have a new defensive scheme this season under new coordinator Dan Disch -- the 4-2-5 that TCU and Boise State run. Fedora was pleased with the progress the defense showed this spring, but there are sometimes growing pains when learning a new system.

Previously profiled

Houston

SMU

The questions were only natural. How would Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis respond after missing the majority of 2009 and all of spring practice with a foot injury?

Slowly at first. But now Davis is playing his best ball of the season, and it is coming at the right time, with the Beef 'O' Brady’s Bowl against Louisville set for Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“Everyone played better toward the end of the year,” Davis said in a phone interview. “I’m more comfortable with the guys. You play more games, you get better. You can’t substitute game experience.”

Davis has had plenty of that, even though he missed the final eight games of last season with a ligament tear. In 2008, he became the first freshman to start in his first game since 1991 and is very close to breaking the school career records for passing yards, passing touchdowns, 200-yard passing games and rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.

He needs two more passing touchdowns to pass Lee Robert and Brett Favre into first place on the career touchdowns list with 53.

Davis was able to stay healthy this season despite some foot pain, but many of his teammates were not, and that accounted for some of the early struggles. Top receiver DeAndre Brown was hampered all season, and only played in five games. The running backs were also banged up. Kendrick Hardy, Tracy Lampley and V.J. Floyd all got starts this season. The offensive line also had to break in four new starters, so it took a while for everyone to find a rhythm.

“I think Austin played himself back into being comfortable,” offensive coordinator Blake Anderson said. “You don’t know how the guy is going to respond. Initially early maybe he was trying to do too much.

“Some of that had to do with some of the injuries we had earlier. You’re dealing with different skill players every week, so there wasn’t continuity with him and those guys. The timing was not always as good. We found the comfort zone offensively in what we liked and what we had confidence in and gradually our guys got better.”

Indeed, Southern Miss scored 40-plus points in seven of its last eight games. But two of those were critical one-point losses to East Carolina and UAB. Because Southern Miss beat eventual East Division champion UCF, wins in those games would have gotten the Golden Eagles into the C-USA title game.

The UAB loss in double overtime was particularly galling because the Blazers ended the season 4-8. Davis has had a hard time of letting go of those losses, knowing how much they ended up costing Southern Miss.

“There were a couple of plays in those games that I know I made mistakes that keep me up at night,” Davis said. “I feel if I could have done something different, we might have won that game and ended up playing in the championship. You never know what play is going to make a difference. We just have to learn, come out focused and ready to play with intensity in every game. Once we mature to the point we can do that, we’ll find ourselves in the conference championships.”

Despite the disappointment of those two games, Southern Miss is in a bowl game for the ninth straight season and has won eight games for the first time since 2006.

Davis was selected to the C-USA second-team and needs just 102 yards to go over 3,000 yards this season. He will be the only Southern Miss quarterback to go over 3,000 yards passing in a season. Plus, he is also a threat to run, ranking third on the team in rushing with 436 yards on 132 carries and 10 touchdowns.

With many of the skill players returning in 2011, this bowl game could be a big momentum booster. And it will all start with Davis.

“For us to win 10, 11, 12 games a year from now, we’ve got to start out the season with him playing like he’s playing now,” Anderson said. “That is not easy to do. His focus level and preparation over spring and summer is going to be tailored toward that.”

Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said after Saturday’s spring game that he’s not ready to name a definitive starter to replace Damien Fletcher at running back, but he feels good about all four of the top competitors.

V.J. Floyd, Kendrick Hardy, Tracy Lampley and Desmond Johnson all have been competing for the starting role. Floyd came into spring football as the leader because of experience and with his performance on Saturday, seemed to tighten his grip on the job.

Floyd led all running backs with 12 rushes for 83 yards and five catches for 112 yards and a 70-yard touchdown reception.

But the biggest surprise of the spring was the emergence of redshirt freshman running back Kendrick Hardy, who led the Gold team in rushing with 10 carries for 32 yards and had a 37-yard touchdown reception. Hardy started to catch on midway through spring practices and has seemingly gotten stronger as the weeks progressed. Hardy is the biggest of the backs and gives the Golden Eagles a different look in their running game.

Many anticipated Hardy being a factor last year after being a highly touted recruit, but he was redshirted and now seems to have matured into the player many thought he could be.

“He’s been doing that all spring," Fedora said. "He runs hard. He adds another dimension to what we do offensively because of his size, his speed and how hard he runs.”

Although Floyd was consistently the best running back throughout spring ball, Fedora wanted to look at film and the rest of spring before he made a final decision. That decision likely will not be set in stone until the first game in September, but with what all four have shown during spring practices and during competition last season, it appears as though Fedora can’t go wrong regardless of who he chooses.

“We’ll see. We’ll have to evaluate it,” Fedora said of naming a starting running back. “I can tell you this: All four of those guys have been working their butts off and have shown a lot of promise through spring in flashes. Even Desmond and [Tracy Lampley] have done some really good things. I think right now, we have four that we can count on. That’s a great thing for us to get through the season.”

Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora still gets fired up when he talks about the blocked extra point against East Carolina that eventually led to his team losing the Conference USA East title.

That extra point would have given the Golden Eagles a one-point lead in the fourth quarter. Instead, the lead swung the other way and East Carolina walked off with a 25-20 win and its second consecutive division title.

“At some point, coming close has got to leave such a bitter taste in your mouth that you’re willing to do something extra, something that you’ve never done before to get something that you’ve never had,” Fedora said.

The Golden Eagles open spring football today and kicking, among other issues, will be the focal point of the next 14 practices and the spring game. Southern Miss missed 10 extra points last season and six field goals. The team couldn’t find any consistency from any distance with either Justin Estes or Daniel Hrapmann.

The first half of the season wasn’t bad, but then the kicking game cost the Golden Eagles games late. Against Houston, Southern Miss had two extra points blocked and ended up losing 50-43. In the bowl game against Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss tried two-point conversions after each of its four touchdowns.

“We got dramatic improvements in our special teams, but in the kicking game itself we were terrible,” Fedora said. “We want to make sure that they come out of spring understanding the importance of our special teams play. We’ve got to make some dramatic improvements on our extra point and field goal units.”

The kicking game is just one of many points of interest this spring. The Golden Eagles have to replace four offensive linemen and have to find a new feature back after losing their top two rushers from a year ago in Damion Fletcher and Tory Harrison. Fedora said V.J. Floyd would be the top back heading into today’s practices, but maintained that’s its an open competition. He’s eager to see how Desmond Johnson, who rushed for 72 yards and a score last year, Tracy Lampley, who had 122 yards and a score last season, and Kendrick Hardy perform this spring.

“If we have one guy that stands out way ahead of the rest, he’ll be the guy,” Fedora said. “If we’ve got two guys then it will be two guys. And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think you can make it through a season with just one anymore. So, we know we’re going to need some depth there and we’ll look forward to that competition this spring.”

At quarterback, Austin Davis, who started the 2009 season before suffering a season-ending foot injury, will throw, but not in any situations where his foot could be injured. Martevious Young, who started the final eight games of the season, and Chris Campbell will be the main competitors at quarterback. Fedora said he’s not ready to say whether Davis or Young will be the starter in the fall, but the spring work will be important.

“I always like to say that a guy doesn’t lose his position because of an injury, but with the extra reps that guys are getting, if they come through and they get better, when the time comes, they’ll be the guy,” Fedora said.

While filling holes will be key this spring, Southern Miss also will be working on attitude. Fedora thinks he has a team that can compete for both the Conference USA East title and the overall conference title, but he wants to see that drive from his team and it starts when the players hit the field today.

“I think we’re really close, I really do,” Fedora said. “We’ve got to stay healthy. That’s key. We lost some key starters last year that hurt us, even though the other guys stepped up and played well, it still wasn’t what it should have been. So, I think we’re real close, but it’s time to quit talking about it and it’s time to get over that hump now.”