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Southern Miss 35, UL Monroe 21 — the Warhawks won first downs, time of possession and success rate, and still lost by two scores because of three first-half giveaways.
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This is the Depth Dossier: the UL Monroe Warhawks, Week 9.
UL Monroe had all the makings of a win here and just gave it away. Southern Miss took this one 35 to 21, and the final score doesn't tell you the real story. The Warhawks won first downs, won time of possession, won the efficiency battle, and still lost by two scores because of three giveaways in the first half.
Running back Don Chaney fumbled at the Southern Miss eight-yard line, killing a ten-play opening drive. Then kicker Abram Murray missed a 42-yard field goal. Then returner Nic Trujillo muffed a punt with a minute left in the half, setting up a short field goal that made it 10 to nothing at the break. Southern Miss stretched the lead to 27 to 7 before quarterback Aidan Armenta got hot, throwing for 202 yards and two touchdowns, including an 83-yard bomb to wide receiver Marcellus Jackson, to cut it to 27 to 21. But Southern Miss ran for 249 yards, sacked Armenta five times, and UL Monroe went zero for three on fourth down when it needed a stop or a conversion most. The Warhawks fall to 1 and 7.
Here's the thing: the deeper numbers say UL Monroe should have won this game. They ran 80 plays to Southern Miss's 72, were clearly more efficient on a per-play basis, and converted seven of 16 third downs. One postgame model still gave them less than a nine percent chance to win even accounting for all that, which tells you just how much those turnovers cost.
And those turnovers all came in one brutal stretch of about 24 minutes. Chaney's fumble at the eight wasted a long drive. Murray's missed field goal left points on the board. Trujillo's muffed punt handed Southern Miss a short field right before halftime. Three plays, zero points scored off any of them, and suddenly it's a double-digit hole built from nothing but mistakes.
Fourth down didn't help either. All three tries failed, including a sack on fourth and three that set up a Southern Miss field goal, and a fourth and six incompletion late that led directly to a 32-yard touchdown run. Those are the plays that turn a one-score loss into a two-score one.
A few other details worth knowing. Southern Miss's 249 rushing yards came mostly after contact, which points more to missed tackles than a blown defensive front. That 83-yard touchdown to Jackson was UL Monroe's longest play of the season, and it came on the first snap after halftime. And UL Monroe was actually the cleaner team, five penalties to Southern Miss's nine, with a couple of personal fouls and a targeting call against Southern Miss actually helping fuel the comeback drives.
Now let's get into who's standing out on the depth chart. No injuries to report this week, so this is purely about performance and roles.
Quarterback Aidan Armenta keeps making the case that he's the unquestioned starter. No interceptions, two touchdowns, and 202 yards passing against a defense that sacked him five times. By one measure his completion rate actually outperformed what you'd expect given how he was throwing. But that sack total, paired with almost no rushing yards once you factor those sacks in, is now a two-week trend that points at the offensive line as the real issue.
Wide receiver Marcellus Jackson barely touched the ball but turned his one catch into the longest play UL Monroe has had all season. That's the kind of outcome that argues for getting him more chances downfield.
As for Chaney and Trujillo, the two players tied to the costliest mistakes, it's not simple. Chaney still ran for 54 yards on ten carries, and Trujillo caught a late touchdown. Neither job looks locked up, but neither looks taken away either.
On defense, linebacker Noah Flemmings backed up his growing role with ten tackles, one and a half for loss, and half a sack. Defensive back Armoni Rue earned conference-wide recognition for his second straight strong coverage game. Both look like pieces the coaching staff is building around down the stretch.
The question heading into next week is simple. Can UL Monroe turn its clear per-play advantage into actual points, instead of turnovers and stalled fourth downs?
This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.