[9/9/04]Sylvester Croom passed his first test, albeit only an early-year warmup exam. Ole Miss quarterback Micheal Spurlock failed his. And Southern Miss is cramming for a pair of final exam-type tests over a five-day stretch to start the year.

Much can be learned about Mississippi’s Big Three after just one week of the college football season.

Croom’s Mississippi State Bulldogs made an almost packed house forget, at least for a night, the last three years of misery in Starkville.

Before the national championship banners go up, though, remember that the Bulldogs beat an inferior Tulane team with a quarterback making his first college start.

Tulane drove the ball effectively on several occasions before the MSU defense shut the door. A pair of key interceptions aided the cause.

On Saturday, in the same stadium where Croom was doused with ice water as players danced with youthful enthusiasm, 18th-ranked Auburn will provide a challenge much stiffer than any the Green Wave provided.

With a pair of talented running backs and a seasoned quarterback, Auburn will bring the kind of test that should tell much more about this season than an opening win over Tulane no matter how big that one was.

In Oxford, the bumper stickers are already being printed: “Spurlock ain’t Eli.”

Football fans from this area marveled at Spurlock as a high school quarterback at Indianola-Gentry. He had no supporting cast, little coaching and less of an offensive line. The play calling was this: Drop Spurlock 8 yards deep in a shotgun, have him run around behind the line of scrimmage and heave the football as far as he can.

That works sometimes in high school, but in big-time college football, a strong arm does not a quarterback make. Spurlock can throw the ball at least 70 yards, but to whom? This week, it will be Alabama defensive backs.

Against Memphis, Spurlock completed only 11 of 31 passes for 182 yards and no touchdowns.

Spurlock ain’t Eli.

Without a doubt, the most grueling opening set of games are those at Southern Miss.

The Golden Eagles and their “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” slogan travel to Nebraska to play the Cornhuskers. Nebraska will feature a former NFL coach who scrapped the option for a West Coast passing offense.

Five days following the trip to the Husker Nation, the Eagles will face a more daunting foe in California.

The Golden Bears slammed Southern Miss 34-2 in Berkeley, Calif., last season, and the team returns almost everyone on offense and defense.

Cal dismantled a decent Air Force team in the opener, and will make noise when Bowl Championship Series bids are handed out at the end of the season.

Both Southern Miss games will be televised The Nebraska game on ABC and the Cal game on ESPN. Respect can be had with a pair of wins.

But as sure as Spurlock ain’t Eli and Auburn ain’t Tulane, Southern Miss ain’t beating either one.

Sean P. Murphy is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. E-mail him at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com.