HATTIESBURG – When Southern Miss and Houston tee it up on Friday night, the two schools will be battling not only for a Conference USA championship, but also high school football.

The Texas state playoffs and the Mississippi state championship games will be played on Friday night. Last Friday, East Lake Carroll, Texas, and Euless Trinity played in front of more than 46,000 at Texas Stadium, 18,000 more than watched the Golden Eagles earn a C-USA championship berth.

&#8220We’ll play when they tell us to play,” Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower said when asked about the Friday time slot. &#8220We can’t change it, unless one of our alumni own the cable company.”

In typical Southern Miss fashion under Bower, the Eagles will play anyone, anywhere, any time – even in the closing moments of high school football season.

The Golden Eagles (8-4) and Cougars (9-3) are scheduled play Friday in Houston at 7 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN2.

&#8220Our goal every game is to get the victory and play in the conference championship game,” said USM quarterback Jeremy Young, a junior quarterback who completed 14 of 19 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday night’s 42-7 thumping of Marshall.

Since losing to East Carolina on Oct. 28, the Golden Eagles are 4-0 and are averaging nearly 35 points per game.

The defense created four Marshall turnovers and the special teams recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown.

All phases will need to be in order Friday against a Houston squad that is one of the most dangerous offensive teams in the country.

The Cougars average 390 yards and 21 points per game. They have won their last six games since losing to USM 31-27 on Oct. 14. Quarterback Kevin Kolb has thrown for 2,766 yards and 11 touchdowns.

After the first loss to Southern Miss, Kolb made a promise to get revenge.

&#8220We are going to run the table on our side, meet them in the conference championships, with neutral refs, and we’ll see what happens,” Kolb said.

Southern Miss, led by freshman sensation Damion Fletcher, needed to wins its last four games to match up in the title game.

In the win over Marshall, Fletcher ran for 151 yards and a score to set the school’s all-time freshman rushing record with 1,282 yards.

&#8220I never thought all this would come true,” Fletcher said. &#8220To come in as a true freshman, play for a conference championship and do some of the things I have done is a dream come true.”