By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – After seeing its Big Ten matchup against Minnesota canceled after the conference went to a league-only slate for the 2020 season, the Tennessee Tech football team picked up another opponent for the approaching campaign on Thursday as Southern Miss announced it was adding Tech for the September 19, 2020, slot.
That weekend was originally announced as Tech's home opener against North Carolina Central, but that game was also canceled after the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference suspended all fall sports in mid-July over COVID-19 concerns.
As the situation is still in flux, the 2020 football slate continues to be subject to change.
Southern Miss' game against Tech will be its third of four consecutive home games to open the 2020 season after hosting South Alabama on Sept. 3 and opening Conference USA play against Louisiana Tech on Sept. 12. Jay Hopson, with a 47-39 record, currently stands at the helm of the USM program.
The game will be in historic Carlisle-Faulkner Field at Roberts Stadium, a 36,000-seat natural grass facility erected in 1938. The field there has seen such notables as Brett Favre and Ray Guy, among many others, and the program has had 72 winning seasons over 103 years.
The host Golden Eagles finished 7-6 last season with a 5-3 mark in C-USA play, finishing the campaign with a 30-13 loss to Tulane in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Redshirt senior quarterback Jack Abraham threw for 3,496 yards last season with 19 touchdown passes and a 268.92 passing-yards-per-game average and was recently on the preseason Manning Award watch list.
He lost one of his top two receivers as Quez Watkins (64 catches for 1,178 yards and six touchdowns) was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2020 NFL Draft. The USM Golden Eagles still have a fantastic receiver in senior Tim Jones, who hauled in a team-high 73 catches for 902 yards and three scores.
Southern Miss is also no slouch defensively, collecting 86 tackles-for-loss and 38 sacks last year.
The trip to Hattiesburg will also be Tech's first Football Bowl Subdivision foray into Conference USA since Sept. 11, 2004, against South Florida. Tech did play current C-USA member Middle Tennessee two years later, but the Blue Raiders were in the Sun Belt Conference at the time. Tech's Golden Eagles are 0-2 against C-USA competition.
Season tickets for Tennessee Tech football are still on sale. Call (931) 372-3940 or visit TTUsports.com to order.
