SAN ANTONIO — Keon Howard showed that it never hurts to be ready to make the most of a second chance.

The Southern Miss quarterback, who lost the starting job early in the season, returned to the lineup Saturday and threw three touchdown passes to lead the Golden Eagles to a 31-29 victory over Texas-San Antonio.

Howard filled in for Kwadra Griggs, who was nursing an unspecified injury and did not play. Howard completed 15 of 20 passes for 212 yards, and added 29 rushing yards on 10 carries.

Ito Smith had 178 rushing yards and a touchdown for Southern Miss (3-2, 1-1 Conference USA), which bounced back from a dishearening loss to North Texas in its conference opener and won for the third time in four games.

Half of Smith’s yards came on an 89-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter that gave Southern Miss a 28-13 lead. It followed a pair of Howard TD passes, for 20 yards to Korey Robertson and 48 yards to Quez Watkins, after the Golden Eagles had trailed 13-7 at halftime.

Howard led USM down the field late in the fourth quarter on a 12-play, 69-yard drive that burned 5 1/2 minutes off the clock. It ended with a 24-yard field goal by Parker Shaunfield with 1:56 remaining that put Southern Miss ahead 31-23 and seemingly iced the game.

Instead, the Golden Eagles had to sweat it out.

UTSA (3-1, 0-1) drove down the field in just over a minute, scoring a touchdown on a 24-yard pass from Dalton Sturm to Marquez McNair with 48 seconds to go.

The Roadrunners missed on a two-point conversion try and were unable to recover the ensuing onside kick, however, and Southern Miss escaped with the win.

Sturm finished the game 27-of-43 passing for 367 yards and three touchdowns. McNair caught four passes for 65 yards, including two TDs.

Watkins was USM’s leading receiver, with five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown.