Landry Lyddy walked into Yulman Stadium on Saturday as Southern Miss's new starting quarterback and completed 18 of 29 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns, one to Davis Dalton and two to Mario Sanders, without throwing an interception.
He has the job for a while. It was reported that further testing revealed a fracture in Ethan Hampton's throwing hand and that Hampton is expected to miss four to six weeks. That is the same hand Hampton hurt again against UConn, when Anderson said he "hit that same hand on a helmet somewhere during the course of the first half and was unable to squeeze or hold the ball at halftime". At the time the staff believed it was another bone bruise, not a break, and gave no timetable. The three-man preseason quarterback competition did not get settled by anybody winning it. It got settled by injury, and the next month of Southern Miss offense runs through Lyddy. Southern Miss lost to Tulane 24-21 in Week 4.
What the Tulane game actually proved, and what it didn't
The throwing was real. Lyddy hit Mario Sanders twice and Davis Dalton once for scores, averaged more than eight yards an attempt, and never put the ball in danger.
The rest of the game is the warning. The defense allowed 281 rushing yards, headlined by Turner's 200-yard, two-touchdown night, though Landon Sylvie's interception was the game's only takeaway and Jameer Lewis added 1.5 sacks with two tackles for loss. Anderson said afterward he was "obviously gutted, disappointed for the guys to get that close and not get it done."
So there was clean quarterback play, and still a loss.
One quieter item to let go of. Kobi Albert's three-interception opener looked like the start of something, and he followed it with six solo tackles and a fumble recovery at Auburn. But he did not turn up among Southern Miss's reported tackle leaders or in the team's lone takeaway at Tulane. Whatever his role is now, it is not the featured one the opener suggested.
The idle week
Southern Miss does not play in Week 5, and there is no game elsewhere on the board worth rearranging a Saturday for. Nothing in the Sun Belt this weekend moves what Southern Miss controls. The open date lands well, giving a week to get Lyddy comfortable as the declared starter instead of an emergency one, and to work on tackling a downhill back before Sun Belt play opens on a short week at Troy, where the model gives Southern Miss about a 20% chance. The realistic swing games come after that. Arkansas State at home sits near a coin flip at 49%, and UL Monroe on the road is the only game on the remaining schedule where Southern Miss is favored.
Lyddy played a clean game against a better team, and that is the bar now.
Game-by-game projections are in the interactive guide, and the methodology explains how the numbers are built.