Who is favored in Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Tulane Green Wave?

Tulane Green Wave is favored on the moneyline.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Tulane Green Wave

Sep 26, 2026·6:00 PM CT·New Orleans, LA

By JR·2 min read

USM(1-2)

TULN(1-2)

AT

6:00 PM CT

TLDR: The Battle for the Bell rivalry renews Saturday at Yulman Stadium, and Tulane's sideline will have a familiar face pointed the other way: first-year head coach Will Hall ran Southern Miss from 2021 to 2024 before taking over the Green Wave.

SAT SEP 26, 6:00 PM CT

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WIN

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Southern Miss

(1-2)

LLWLL

Tulane

(1-2)

LWLLW

Kickoff88°

Tulane hosts Southern Miss in the Battle for the Bell rivalry, with first-year Green Wave coach Will Hall facing the program he ran from 2021-2024. Tulane is favored after a South Alabama comeback win; Southern Miss is coming off a lopsided loss at Auburn and looking for a get-right spot.

Southern Miss

Toughest game on the schedule, a road SEC test, already behind them
Gets a Group of Six opponent for the first time all year
Fell 43-8 at Auburn, its only power-conference test
Faces the coach who ran this program 4 seasons

Tulane

Won a home shootout over South Alabama on a late touchdown
Jaylin Lucas ran for 214 yards in the last game out
Offense managed only 3 points in its lone true road test
First-year staff still building an identity through 2 games

Tulane is coming off a first signature moment for the Hall era, a 28-24 comeback over South Alabama in which Kadin Semonza found Destyn Hill for the go-ahead score with 1:17 left and Jaylin Lucas ran for 214 yards. Southern Miss, by contrast, is still working through the fallout of its toughest game of the year, a 43-8 loss at Auburn, and now gets a look at a Group of Six opponent for the first time all season.

Neither program has put out a fresh injury report ahead of kickoff, but the tape from each team's hardest test says plenty. Tulane's offense stalled to 3 points in its own road opener at Duke, a reminder the group that torched South Alabama at home hasn't proven it travels. Southern Miss's defense, gassed by Auburn's pace and talent gap, turns right around to face a Green Wave attack that just put up 28.

The betting market reads a wide gap between a Tulane program still finding its footing under a new staff and a Southern Miss team that just absorbed a 35-point beating. History cuts the other way, at least on paper — Southern Miss actually leads the all-time series, 24 wins to 10.

Hall spent 4 seasons building Southern Miss before Tulane hired him away, and Saturday is his first shot at the program he used to run. It's the first Battle for the Bell renewal since Tulane's 21-3 win in the teams' last meeting, the kind of trophy game where the personal storyline can carry more weight than either team's record.

For Tulane, it's a chance to build on the identity Semonza and Lucas started to show against South Alabama. For Southern Miss, it's a get-right spot after Auburn — with the late-September forecast in New Orleans sitting near 87 degrees, whichever team's legs hold up longer into the fourth quarter has the better shot at the Bell.

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