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Posted at 11:00 AM EST.

2:00 PM EST. Southern Miss was a one-time Conference USA overlord with as proud a tradition as any Southern mid-major. It is located in a fertile recruiting area and has no good excuse for being less than the best program in the division and a perennial league title contender. They have market pedigree and appeal and now they’re favored by a lousy TD on the road against one of FBS’ least recognizable program. That sets up this great value play.

Golden Eagles coach, Jay Hopson is a Vicksburg native, an alum of Ole Miss and Delta State and a former defensive coordinator under Jeff Bower, the program's most successful modern era coach. Hopson is as good a "fit" as you'll find, but he and his staff are coasting a bit. The biggest issue with this team is simply that these coaches are not as demanding as they need to be to win championships. Poor ball security has been tolerated throughout Hopson's tenure, and certain games are emphasized more than others to the detriment of the team's consistency. No regime in any league in the FBS can meet its expectations by being as tolerant as this staff is of inconsistent practice habits, as the same players repeatedly make the same mistakes. Good is good enough with this team right now, and the reason that conference championship-level excellence is not being demanded of the players is because it's not being demanded of the staff.

For all of this to change, it will require a real recommitment on the part of the university -- and that's not happening anytime soon. The coaches are guilty of the same thing as their bosses -- settling. Southern Miss is 3-3 with a game washed out. The disastrous one-year Ellis Johnson experiment and the two seasons it took successor Todd Monken to climb out of the hole are the program's only three losing campaigns in the last quarter-century, but another one wouldn't be a surprise even though the Eagles will be favorites in at least three of their five remaining games including this one but an upset here is on the table to be sure.

Two weeks ago, Charlotte lost its starting quarterback, but Evan Shirreffs looks like an upgrade at that position. Last week, Charlotte lost on the road to a strong Middle Tennessee team by eight points, though it had a 359-144 yard edge. Charlotte running back Benny LeMay has rushed for 664 yards and a solid 5.4 yards per carry this season. The 49ers have the advantage on defense here, as they're holding foes to 116 yards per game below what they came in averaging -- and that's 10th-best in the FBS. They have also held four of their six FBS foes to a season lows in yards. For the 49ers, this is the game they’ve been gearing up for and they’re ready while the favorite looks anything but.

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