DENTON, Texas (AP) — Southern Miss started the season with dreams of a Conference USA championship and a bid to a New Year’s Six bowl.
Now it’s got one chance left to make any kind of bowl.
Turner Smiley had seven receptions for 167 yards and two touchdowns, and North Texas prevented Southern Miss from becoming bowl eligible with a 29-23 win on Saturday night.
Southern Miss (5-6, 3-4 Conference USA) has to beat Louisiana Tech in its regular-season finale Friday in Hattiesburg to become bowl-eligible. Louisiana Tech (6-1, 8-3) was idle on Saturday, but has already wrapped up the C-USA West Division championship.
Southern Miss has lost its last three games, and five of the last six.
“It was a game we gave up plays early. We got in a big hole, fought our way back, and gave up a drive there at the end. It’s a very disappointing loss. A tough loss. I’m proud of our guys’ fight, but it’s hard to swallow,” Southern Miss head coach Jay Hopson said. “It was a big game. This was a game for bowl eligibility and the sixth spot. You had something on the line today, so it’s a hard loss.”
Willy Ivery ran for 111 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown, and Alec Morris added 267 yards passing with two scores for North Texas (5-6, 3-4 Conference USA). North Texas can become bowl-eligible by beating UTEP next week.
Ito Smith ran for 113 yards and two touchdowns for Southern Miss, and also caught three passes for 67 yards. But the Mean Green largely bottled up freshman quarterback Keon Howard, who completed just 10 of his 26 passes for 135 yards and three interceptions — two of them in the fourth quarter. Howard also ran 10 times for 40 yards.
North Texas raced to a 20-0 second quarter lead. Smiley caught two touchdown passes from Morris, of 17 and 55 yards, while Trevor Moore kicked 26- and a 39-yard field goals.
Southern Miss rallied for 23 straight points, capped by Stephen Brauchle’s 25-yard field goal, for a 23-20 lead with 9:39 left.
Smith scored on two short runs and George Payne had a 16-yard touchdown run during Southern Miss’ comeback.
The Mean Green answered on the ensuing drive with Ivery’s 11-yard TD run that gave them the lead for good with 7:34 remaining.
Southern Miss got the ball back and moved to the North Texas 38-yard line before Howard was intercepted by Khairi Muhammad. North Texas went three-and-out on its ensuing possession, but once again the Golden Eagles failed to move the football in a key spot.
Howard gained one yard on a rush and threw two incompletions after USM took over inside its own 5-yard line. The punt attempt resulted in a safety to give North Texas a 29-23 lead with 3:51 to go.
Southern Miss got the ball back one more time, with 1:32 left, but Howard threw another interception to seal it.