2011 Hawai’i Bowl: Larry Fedora Leaves With 24-17 Win Over Nevada

649: Total yards gained by both teams. And you call yourself the Hawaii Bowl ... each team was supposed to gain this much! We don’t watch the Hawai’i Bowl for the electric atmosphere.

4: Special teams miscues for Southern Miss. I promised big plays (and a special teams advantage for Southern Miss), right? Well, this isn’t quite what I had in mind. The Golden Eagles missed two field goals (granted, they were from 48 and 50 yards), fumbled a kickoff return and muffed a punt. Granted, they also blocked a punt for a touchdown, made another 48-yard field goal, and downed five punts inside the Nevada 20 (the Wolf Pack began just one drive beyond their 39 and started 10 drives inside their 25), but the miscues kept Nevada in the game.

In the solitary sporting event of the night of Christmas Eve, Southern Miss took on Nevada in a dreary preamble to both the NBA season and the serious bowls that begin next week. It did, however, matter for two teams and two fanbases, and when Southern Miss scored a touchdown to take the lead over Nevada, directly after which a fight broke out, so that was something.

Click the jump to check out the video

After a first half that ended with fireworks, the 2011 Hawai’i Bowl fizzled, with a final 30 minutes filled with defense and low on points. Near the end of the second quarter, a sequence featuring two fumbled kickoffs, a long touchdown run, an impressive touchdown catch and a brawl in the end zone unfolded. It would prove to be the high-point of the game.

Southern Mississippi sent Larry Fedora off into the sunset -- or to North Carolina, whatever you prefer -- with a 24-17 win in the Hawi’i Bowl in front of a subdued crowd at Aloha Stadium. The Golden Eagles wrapped the game up with a fourth quarter touchdown pass from Austin Davis to Kelvin Boulden, breaking a 17-all tie at the time. Nevada was unable to respond, plagued by off-target passes and an offense unable to come back, as Fedora enjoyed on final Gatorade bath as Southern Miss head coach.

Nevada running back Lampford Mark shredded Southern Mississippi in the first half, to the tune of 158 yards and two touchdowns, but the Golden Eagles took a 17-14 lead into the break. Mark scored on a five-yard rush midway through the second quarter to tie the score at seven, then ripped off a 45-yard run to give the Wolfpack a 14-7 lead three minutes later, gashing the Golden Eagles’ defense up the middle.

Southern Miss. got on the board first, thanks to a blocked punt recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. Later, the Eagles added a fourth down conversion on a fake punt from its own goalline, spicing up the early goings in a mostly silent Aloha Stadium.

NOTE: Confused? See the quick glossary at the bottom.

Southern Miss put together one of the best mid-major performances of the season with their complete and utter destruction of Houston (on the road, no less) in the Conference USA title game, but they also lost to UAB two weeks prior in one of the worst performances of the year by any good team. Plus, only one team in the last seven years has lost its coach to a bigger job, then had him continue to coach them in the bowl game (2005 Boise State, which lost to Boston College in the MPC Computers Bowl). The Broncos put up a pretty good fight for the guy who had already announced he was breaking up with them. Will the Golden Eagles do the same?

Game date, time: 8:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, December 24th

Location: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI

Not only did Southern Miss bury a heavily-favored Houston squad by a score of 49-28 in the conference title game, it finished an impressive 11-2 overall with those two defeats coming against Marshall and UAB in C-USA action by a total of just nine points. The Golden Eagles have now put together their 18th consecutive winning season, which is the fourth-longest streak among Football Bowl Subdivision programs, trailing only Florida, Florida State and Virginia Tech.

For a few players to watch in the Hawai’i Bowl, head over to Tony Pauline’s bowl prospect preview.

The Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl announced that beginning in 2012, the Mountain West Conference will replace the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) as the new conference tie-in for the annual bowl game.

Conference USA remains the other conference tie-in to the Hawai’i Bowl. With Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference discussing a football-only merger, the Hawai’i Bowl could one day be an inter-conference game.

The Hawai’i Bowl is the easiest sell by locale but the hardest by cost. Being in Hawai’i is nice, but getting to Hawai’i for a bowl on Christmas Eve is an exercise in financial self-mutilation. So when you read, “Nevada has only sold ten tickets to the Hawai’i Bowl,” you have some degree of sympathy for Wolfpack fans.

↵Still: if it’s that bad from a school on the Western half of the U.S., how many tickets do you think Southern Miss has sold to the bowl, especially when airfare is $1,500—$2000 for one traveler?

While Larry Fedora has done a lot of good for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles’ football program, most notably winning a Conference USA championship and ending Houston’s perfect season, some people are a bit bitter about his decision to leave USM for the University of North Carolina. Before leaving for Honolulu and the 2011 Hawaii Bowl, Fedora showed up at a USM basketball game and spoke to the fans during halftime. Reactions were apparently mixed.

First, he stepped up to the mic and got booed. Fedora then mentioned that his team won a championship and stuff, remember that?!? This calmed down those who were displeased with his presence and his decision to go to UNC, apparently. From then on, it was all cheers, smiles and sunshine!