Louisville Wins A Bowl Game, Defeats Southern Miss In Beef O'Brady's Bowl

The last time the Louisville Cardinals won a bowl game Bobby Petrino was the head coach and the Cards defeated ACC Champion Wake Forest in the 2007 Orange Bowl.

Tuesday night Louisville ended the first year of the Charlie Strong era on a high note defeating Southern Miss. 31-28 in the Beef O'Brady's Bowl.

Check out the highlights from St. Pete. (Thanks WDRB-TV Louisville, KY)



"A team that was picked to finish last in the conference, a team that was pick to won no conference games but 25 seniors decided that they were going to take this program and lay their foundation within this program." Louisville head coach Charlie Strong said after the game. "A team that was down 14, no quit."

Strong praised the Cardinal senior class who accomplished their goal to make a bowl game and winning it.

Those Louisville fans who couldn't get down to St. Pete fill the sports bars to catch the game. Of course this story was filed before the game was over. (Thanks WHAS-TV)

Arrests in Shooting of Southern Mississippi Players....

Martez Smith/Courtesy: hattiesburgamerican.com

There is good news in this story and there is bad news in this story.

For those who haven't been caught up, 3 University of Southern Mississippi football players were shot during an altercation at a Hattiesburg area nightclub early Sunday morning.

The three players are all in the hospital. Senior Linebacker Martez Smith, according to reports, is paralyzed from his wounds. The other two players, junior Tim Green and junior Deddrick Jones are still in fail condition at Forest General Hospital.

Travis Brown/Courtesy:hattiesburgamerican.com

Investigators having been looking for the shooter since the incident happened.

They've already arrested two people, Patricia Brown and Cleothus Wilkerson on Monday and charged them with being an accessory to an aggravated assault.

Now this from the Hattiesburg American. They've arrested the gunman, 29-year old Travis Brown.

Read more from the American RIGHT HERE

Here is a poorly shot press conference announcing the initial arrests and the B.O.L.O for Travis Brown:

Southern Miss Football players in "Fair" condition at the hospital after shooting

USM Logo/Courtesy: sportslogos.net

Three football players from the University of Southern Mississippi are in fair condition in a Hattiesburg hospital after they were shot at a bar early Sunday morning.

Linebacker Martez Smith, LB Tim Green and DL Deddrick Jones all got shot by what police are terming...a possible "Gang" related shooting.

Read more from the Jackson Clarion Ledger RIGHT HERE

The club that the three were at, according to reports is not a nice place. Police are frequently called there and the club has had to add extra security to take care of the large crowds.

As for the team, they had just returned after upsetting 25th ranked (or 12th in the Dirty Dozen), UCF in Orlando. They are 8-2 on the season with a good chance at winning the Eastern part of Conference USA. 

Smith is a senior, Green and Jones are both juniors at the school.

Here are school officials discussing what happened.
Courtesy: WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg

TWTW: Long Day In Mississippi, Eagles and Rebs Both Lose

((HT: WDAM-TV/Hattiesburg))

Southern Miss lost 50-43 to #15 University of Houston in a shootout.

The Cougars (7-1, 3-1 C-USA) drive the ball 77 yards in the final minute for a seven point lead against Larry Fedora's visiting Golden Eagles (5-4, 3-2) for the victory.

USM's offense recorded over 600 total yards against the Cougar's defense. Houston leads the nation in total offense and recorded 750 yards against the Eagles.

Cougars quarterback, Case Keenum, completed 44 passes for 559 total yards and five touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Ole Miss lost on the Plains to Auburn 33-20.

Chris Todd passed for 212 yards, Ben Tate ran for 144 yards and Walter McFadden returned an interception for a touchdown.

Sufficed to say, TBH was quite pleased and may now have to stay home for all remaining home games for the War Eagle since she decided not to get wet and sit at Jordan-Hare for the first time this season.

Here's FOSG Heather Cook with your highlights of both...
Hang on 'til the end and you'll see her get a little distracted...
((HT: WDAM-TV))

TWTW: Kragthorpe Escapes For Now, Beats USM

((HT: WDRB/Fox 41))

More people, it seems, were interested in talking about Steve Kragthorpe's future as the head coach at the University of Louisville going into his game with Southern Miss this weekend.

U of L quarterback Adam Froman threw for 248 yards and a touchdown---a 92-yard connection to Scott Long in the 3rd quarter---in Louisville's 25-23 win over Southern Miss.

Cardinals kicker Ryan Payne kicked a late 32-yard field goal to give Louisville its final lead of the game. The victory snaps U of L's three-game skid. Tom Lane got to do an outdoors live shot for his wrap...

Thanks to our friends at WDRB/Fox 41 in Louisville

TWTW: Al Groh Is SO Fired!!! 37-34 Southern Miss

((HT: WDAM-TV/Hattiesburg))

FOSG Heather Cook got to see what SHOULD BE Al Groh's last act in Charlottesville Here's her live shot and recap- with a live interview with Damion Fletcher even...


What color is DONE???!!!

Thanks to our friends at VirginiaSports.com, here's Coach Groh's Opening Statement:
"We made a lot of progress today. I'm really proud of the fight the players showed and the unity they showed in sticking together and continuing to grind away. We're going down a different track now than we were previously. We made a lot of progress in a lot of ways. In the long run, we didn't do quite enough. The other team did a little bit more than we did. I'm very encouraged and very positive of all the efforts of the players today."

Those of us at OSG HQ translate the quote into the following:
"We suck..."

Texas Taken To The Limit By USM

((HT: WDAM-TV))

Top-seded Texas was in a battle with first-time CWS competitor Southern Miss Sunday night.
In the back-and-forth game, home plate umps weren't took keen on a strike zone for submarining relief pitchers.

USM had the lead, lost it in the bottom of the 8th, and tied the game in the top of the 9th only to lose it in the bottom half with a bases-loaded walk to the Longhorns.

Since it's their first time in Omaha, and head Coach Corky Palmer's last time since he's retiring after the end of the year, we're tracking the Golden Eagles at the Blatt...

Mitchell Williams, from our friends at WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, has the highlights.
FOSG Heather Cook is in Omaha to track their every move as long as they're there...


You can track Heather's every move in Omaha if you're one of those Twitter-using people...

What Not To Say On Air: Volume Two

((HT: edsbs.com/Jackson Clarion-Ledger))

Didn't we just go through this in Des Moines...?

Blakeney Communications has issued an apology over a sexually explicit and racist conversation between several of its employees that was broadcast Saturday during the University of Southern Mississippi's spring football game.

The conversation, lasting more than 30 minutes, occurred during a WXRR-104.5 FM webcast of the game, available at the All Access CBS Sports Web site. It was not heard on the radio station itself, according to the apology.

The conversation included graphic discussions of various sexual acts and other sexual banter, as well as a racially offensive description of another college.

"Blakeney Communications Inc. apologizes to the University of Southern Mississippi, ISP (Internet Service Provider) and Southern Miss fans for a technical error which inadvertently resulted in a private conversation by Rock 104 employees being sent out over the Internet instead of the Internet webcast of the Southern Miss Spring Football Game," the apology read.

"The employees were not aware that their conversation was accidentally being picked up by a live microphone and could be heard by Southern Miss fans who were trying to listen to the webcast of the game."

The USM athletic Web site has published a copy of the apology.

Fewer than 50 people heard the live webcast, according to Southern Miss athletic director Richard Giannini. The broadcast was only available to subscribers who pay $9.95 per month.
Larry Blakeney, owner of Blakeney Communications in Laurel, said those participating in the conversation were part-time employees and college students.

"They have been pulled off all Southern Miss broadcast and production," he said.

He would not comment further.

Giannini called the broadcast "an unfortunate incident," saying he has exchanged e-mails with Blakeney Communications about it. Blakeney representatives explained to him that the conversation was broadcast because of a wiring malfunction stemming from a new telephone system.

As to why the conversation lasted so long, Giannini said there was no way for either the radio station or the university to know it was occurring.

"You would have had to have been listening to the webcast," he said.

Rock 104 has broadcast Southern Miss football games for about 10 years, Giannini said. It has streamed the games online for five years without incident.

"They have been a very good partner to us over the years," he said.
Giannini said he isn't worried about negative fallout for Southern Miss.

"You're always worried about negative perception, but it reflects poorly on Blakeney Communications. We had no control over this," he said.

Giannini said he planned to discuss the issue more today with Blakeney officials. He would not elaborate.

Here's the segment in question... quite NSFW...

Classic radio if ever there was classic radio...

2 USM Football Players Arrested

((HT: WLOX-TV))

Southern Miss running back and Biloxi native Damion Fletcher is charged with firing at least one gunshot while at an apartment complex, and another player faces a marijuana possession charge.

Hattiesburg Police Department spokesman Synarus Green told The Associated Press Monday that Fletcher, the school's all-time leading rusher, was charged with discharging a firearm at the apartment complex in Hattiesburg. He was arrested Sunday night, following reports of gunfire.

Green said Brennan Houston was booked on a marijuana possession charge, stemming from the same incident. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Houston, a 22-year-old senior, is a Southern Miss offensive lineman. Fletcher, a 21-year-old senior, has 4,287 career rushing yards. He ran for 1,313 and 10 TDs this past season.

Green said no one was hurt in the incident, and it appears the weapon was fired into the air.

Jeff Shepard has the story from our friends at WLOX...