Kansas-Southern Miss: Final Thoughts Before Friday's Contest

I just had a few final thoughts I wanted to get off my chest before tomorrow night's contest with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.

The Reserves

It occurred to me that there are a lot of guys we haven't seen yet this season. Not only have we been void of our favorite running back-gone-linebacker Toben Opurum, but we haven't seen a large number of the cornerbacks I think most people were expecting either.

Anthony Davis, Greg Brown, Corrigan Powell (cornerbacks), and Ryan Murphy (nickelback) are just a few of the defensive backs I expected to see have a small role outside of special teams.

On the defensive front, Randall Dent is still learning his way around the defensive tackle position, and Darius Parish is working on getting a little smaller around the middle. I think they could both be factors this season, but they don't appear to be ready at this point.

The Offensive Line

Did center Jeremiah Hatch's insertion into the offensive line really make as big a difference as the rushing yard difference between games one and two shows?

Possibly, but I'm sure more opportunistic play calling and an influx of different contributors at the skill positions played an equally large role.

Still, I'm a fan of bigger offensive (and defensive) lines, so I'm as happy as anyone to see him in there, although it came at the expense of Kansas' second biggest lineman, Duane Zlatnik.

Zlatnik still has some learning to do, but I think he'll still be a big factor this season.

The Wide Receivers

Nothing makes me madder than dropped passes. Daymond Patterson dropped a nasty one, but Bradley McDougald dropped at least one that I remember and tossed a second to a defender.

I know that McDougald and Patterson are yardage-after-the-catch types of guys, but I think everyone would rather see them make the catch first.

The Running Backs

I think everyone is excited to see James Sims take the field again, but I'm equally as excited to see what redshirt freshman DeShaun Sands can do behind better blocking and play calling in his second game.

I also like the occasional use of D.J. Beshears as a faster straight-line threat than Sims or Sands.

It will be interesting to see how the running game performs against a defense that, so far in 2010, has been average at best.

The Linebackers

If the offenses in game three pick up the pace against one another (as I believe is likely), our very shallow linebacking corps will find itself on the field a lot more than they have.

How will they hold up? Can Justin Springer, Steven Johnson, and Drew Dudley be effective in pass coverage late in the game, or will they wear out?

I look for Carl Torbush to integrate a fifth defensive back early and often, whether it be in the 3-3-5 or simply the nickel, just to give his poor linebackers a rest.