Southern Miss redshirt freshman quarterback Ricky Lloyd could get his first career start on Saturday against Louisville. The injuries among all three of the Golden Eagles quarterbacks was a big topic at Southern Miss head coach Ellis Johnson’s press conference yesterday.
Ellis, who is in his first year as the head coach in Hattiesburg entered the season with a three-man quarterback battle. None of the three quarterbacks had ever taken a snap in a college game prior to the season. Junior Chris Campbell was named the starter in week one, but hasn’t played very well and is dealing with a minor injury. True freshman Anthony Alford filled in for Campbell in week two, but didn’t produce the results that Coach Johnson expected.
Lloyd saw his first action on Saturday against Western Kentucky completed 4-of-5 passes for 72 yards and one touchdown. His performance seems to have given him the edge heading into week five.
Coach Johnson’s Comments On His Southern Miss Situation:
“(Anthony Alford) played O.K. when he came in, threw a couple balls that could have been more accurate to give a guy the chance to run. (Ricky Lloyd) came in and gave us some energy and some juice. He didn’t get a lot of practice reps during the week and I thought he came in to a tough situation there and did a pretty good job. He’s the healthy one of the three, and depending on what I find out in the next 24-hours when we hit the practice field, that decision could be made for me. I really think it’s more the play around them rather than the play of them. I’m saying all that to say this: we have complete confidence in Ricky Lloyd. That decision was not made because Ricky wasn’t good enough. It was made because we thought the right guy at the right time was not him. But, I think he can lead our football team and if we improve in so many areas that we have to improve in, we’ll be fine.”
Lloyd, a Concord, CA., native led the state of California in passing yards and completions, finishing with 4,451 yards and 52 total touchdowns in 2010 at Concord High School. Lloyd chose to attend Southern Miss over Iowa State, Louisiana Tech, Sacramento State, Tulsa and San Jose State.
September 25, 2012 at 9:37 am
Great, a Frosh QB getting his first start, another reason for the defense to think they don’t have to go all out. Somebody better be lighting fires under our backsides in practice, we can’t keep skating along thinking we don’t have to give max effort. Remind the D too that it was a backup QB last week that almost beat us.
Go CARDS
September 25, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Actually, Campbell has played better than Alford, particularly in the passing game, though Alford is the much better runner and hard to stop as a rusher. Around here its been said Lloyd has the better arm of the three. But whoever plays, unless UL is very overconfident and makes a bunch of mistakes, Southern Miss is probably in for a long night — this is the poorest Golden Eagle team in quite a while. Really strange after a record-setting 12-win season, including the drubbing of Houston in the C-USA conf. championship game. Southern Miss has two ranked opponents in a row, UL and Boise State, and if we lose them both, we’re 0-5…