HATTIESBURG — Chico Hunter had a sullen look on his face standing in a hallway in the bowels of Birmingham’s Legion Field, his Southern Miss team having just lost the Papajohns.com Bowl to Cincinnati 31-21.

The coach who recruited him at Warren Central had been forced to resign well before the bowl game. The assistant coach who also played at Warren Central was gone too.

The two most loyal members of Hunter’s camp at Southern Miss were out. An  assistant coach from Oklahoma State was in.

“It was tough with the new system,” Hunter said. “It’s focused, hard work every day, being coached hard. They got me where I am today.”

Fast forward nine months and Hunter is in a place seemingly built for him. Attack. Attack. Attack. It’s the kind of player Hunter has always been, like his names says.

Hunter had a fantastic career at Warren Central, earning Vicksburg Post Defensive Player of the Year honors as a junior. Bower and fellow WC alum Jay Hopson recruited him heavily. He signed in February of his senior year.

He didn’t make the grade, moved to Tennessee to get away from the negative influences that surrounded his life in Vicksburg, got back into football shape and made the grades.

Not once did Bower or Hopson waiver on their commitment to Hunter.

Though he still holds some allegiance to his former coaches — Bower is not coaching and Hopson is an assistant at Michigan — he found himself a perfect fit in new coach Larry Fedora’s attacking defense.

‘Attacking is me. That’s how I play. I love to attack.’

CHICO HUNTER

SOUTHERN MISS SAFETY

On Saturday, he started at one of the safety spots and on special teams as Southern Miss opened the Fedora era with a 51-21 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette. Hunter made six tackles.

“We broke ourselves in tonight, but we didn’t take them lightly,” Hunter said. “They had a good quarterback, good running back; a good team. But we were prepared.”

He played some safety in high school, but coaches were forced to move him to linebacker because, as then head coach Robert Morgan put it, he was coming up to the line every play trying to hit the running back and he left his safety spot bare. As a sophomore, Morgan called him a “slobberknocker” for his ability to land the big hit.

That is what Southern Miss coaches have seen from Hunter since his arrival in Hattiesburg. And that is what Hunter enjoys the most — hitting opponents and hitting them hard.

“Attacking is me. That’s how I play. I love to attack,” Hunter said. “I love the new system and the coaches.”

On Saturday, Southern Miss will face its toughest test when it travels to nationally ranked Auburn and the 80,000-plus at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Hunter said he’s ready to do one thing on the plains.

Attack.

That’s the Fedora way. It’s always been the Hunter way.

“These coaches have matured me as far as football,” Hunter said. “They teach me where to go, to look at things differently and read offenses. It’s a lot of technique.”