Southern Miss brings a nearly all-new roster into Veterans Memorial Stadium, walking into a Troy program still chasing last year's Sun Belt title-game run.
Bush’s Picks
USMTROY
USMTROY
OverUnder
Best BetTroy
Troy's roster losses are real, but Southern Miss is starting over almost entirely with a first-year staff and one returning starter. On name recognition, program continuity, and last year's Sun Belt title-game run alone, Troy is the side to back to win outright.
Southern Miss
+Blake Anderson has won 2 Sun Belt titles before
+Transfer QB Ethan Hampton has real starting experience
−Only 1 returning starter on entire roster
−Picked 5th in Sun Belt West, projected as low as 3 wins
Troy
+Reached 2025 Sun Belt Championship Game
+Parker enters year 3 with program continuity
−Lost leading rusher, leading receiver, top guard to portal
−Offense was worst in Sun Belt yardage last season
Troy is the more established side here, but 2026 is a reset year in its own right. Gerad Parker enters year 3 off a 6-2 run that ended in the Sun Belt Championship Game, a loss to James Madison, and now has to replace his top rusher, top receiver, and top guard, all gone via the portal. New offensive coordinator Adam Austin, who ran a big passing attack at Tarleton State, is being brought in to fix an offense that finished dead last in the Sun Belt in total yards a season ago.
Southern Miss is starting from an even deeper hole. Blake Anderson takes over a roster with 75 new players and just one returning starter, offensive lineman Broderick Roman. Anderson has been here before, winning two Sun Belt titles at Arkansas State, and he's importing sixth-year quarterback Ethan Hampton, who started for Northern Illinois before a one-year detour at Illinois. Hampton has the pedigree, but he's trying to build chemistry with a receiving corps that barely knows each other.
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Preseason polls have Southern Miss picked to finish 5th in the Sun Belt West, and some projections have the Golden Eagles winning as few as 3 games this fall. Troy, by contrast, is still viewed as the class of the West even with the roster churn, mostly on reputation and Parker's track record of squeezing more out of less.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Sep 25?@ Tulane—
Sep 19?vs UConn—
Sep 12?@ Auburn—
Sep 5?vs Alcorn State—
Troy Trojans
Sep 26?@ Utah State—
Sep 19?@ Missouri—
Sep 12?vs Alabama State—
Sep 5?vs Sam Houston—
Recent form.
The number that should worry Troy fans: the Trojans were 8-0 last season when they topped 310 yards of total offense, and 0-6 when they didn't. That split is the whole season in miniature, and it's exactly what Austin was hired to fix. If the new-look offense hasn't found its footing by the time this one rolls around, a Southern Miss defense that's also still figuring itself out could make for an ugly, low-scoring night either way.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Troy Trojans
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
This is a program-building measuring stick more than a marquee showdown, but that's college football in October, and both fan bases will be watching closely to see whether their new coaching regimes are trending in the right direction.
