If Southern
Miss was “finally turning a corner” after their ’75 season, they crashed
into a brick wall when they made the turn into 1976 because the season was a
2-9 disaster! After two seasons on the road, they returned to their
beautiful home stadium wearing the same light gold helmets with “USM”
lettering that allowed the “S” to stand out in a larger size, with black
identification numerals on the rear of the shell. White outline of each
letter gave the ’76 helmet a bit of distinction but Collins’ promising
first year start as head coach imploded with nine consecutive losses,
including a harsh 48-0 opener versus East Carolina and a 713 total yard
outburst from BYU’s offense that included 515 passing yards. Somehow Ben
Garry rushed for 1236 yards, most of it behind massive 278 pound tackle Eric
Smith and All South center Barry Caudill who was drafted by the Rams, and
had 216 of those yards against Louisiana Tech. Starting quarterback Ken
Alderman gave way to sophomore Jeff Hammond who started and won the season’s
final two contests. Despite the terrible numbers, the defense had a good
linebacker in Ronald “Clump” Taylor and an outstanding DB in Carl Allen who
paired three interceptions with sixty-nine tackles. He played with the
Cardinals from 1977 through ’82, three years in the USFL, and had one year
in the Arena League. The Mississippi State loss was later forfeited and
converted to a USM victory but there was little joy regarding the record.
