JACKSON — Damion Fletcher carried the Conerly Trophy to the back of the interview room and stood, talking with a lone reporter about winning Mississippi’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

The remaining writers and TV crews were transfixed on outgoing Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower, leaving the Conerly winner standing almost by himself.

It’s been that kind of week for Mississippi college football.

“I don’t want to talk about me,” said Bower, who accompanied the sophomore running back to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum for the 12th annual event. “Let’s talk about Fletch.”

Fletcher beat out Mississippi State senior linebacker Titus Brown and MSU sophomore running back Anthony Dixon in the awarding of the trophy named in honor of Ole Miss and New York Giants great Charlie Conerly.

For Fletcher, it caps a whirlwind four days that saw the Golden Eagles register their 14th straight winning season, get picked for a bowl game and lose the head coach.

“I’m honored to be chosen as one of the best players in Mississippi,” the Biloxi native said. “There have been a lot of great players to have won this award and I am glad to be able to get put up in the category of those guys.”

Fletcher came to Southern Miss in 2006, less than a year after fleeing the Mississippi Gulf Coast when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore. He had just come off a fantastic freshman year at Biloxi High, but his senior season was caught in limbo.

He moved briefly to Florida for the first few weeks of 2005, eventually returning to Biloxi to finish his senior season.

“I wanted to stay close to home,” Fletcher said of one of the reasons for picking Southern Miss. “And for that man there, Coach Bower. He’s a great guy and I love him to death, he’s a great coach.”

Bower, who spent 17 seasons with the Golden Eagles, was forced out as head coach on Monday morning after Southern Miss’ 7-5 season earned it an invitation to the Papajohns.com bowl in Birmingham on Dec. 22. Bower will coach the team for one last time at the same stadium he coached his first game, on Dec. 28, 1990 in the All-American Bowl against North Carolina State.

“I look forward to coaching him and all those guys in one last game,” Bower said.

Certainly Bower will lean on the speedy 5-foot, 10-inch second-year player against a team from the Big East. Fletcher ran for a career-high 1,489 yards on 266 carries and scored 15 touchdowns. He ran for 1,388 yards last season and garnered freshman All-America honors by several national publications.

“I never got to see him play in person, but the few clips I have seen, you can tell he is a tremendous athlete,” said Brown, who led Mississippi State with 13 1/2 tackles for loss and eight sacks.

Brown was trying to join Jerious Norwood and J.J. Johnson as Mississippi State winners of the Conerly. Dixon, who ran for 1,056 yards and 15 touchdowns in helping Mississippi State to a 7-5 record and a bowl berth, will have two more years to vie for the Conerly, but so does Fletcher.

“If he keeps doing what he has been doing, it’s gonna be tough for him not to win it again,” Bower said. “He has had two big years back-to-back.”

Fletcher is the first Southern Miss offensive player to win the Conerly and third overall. Linebackers Rod Davis (2002) and Michael Boley (2004) were Conerly recipients.

If Fletcher repeats, he will be join former Ole Miss standout Eli Manning as the only repeat winner. He said if he wins again, it will be wearing black and gold.

“I’m here, I’m a Golden Eagle,” Fletcher said. “I bleed black and gold. I’m from USM.”