An FBS-worst losing streak that extends back to last season has cost a Southern Miss assistant in his first season his job.
First-year Golden Eagles head coach Todd Monken confirmed Tuesday that offensive line coach Pete Perot has been dismissed. Perot, who served in the same capacity for the Eagles in the late nineties, had spent the previous 13 seasons at Louisiana Tech before coming to Hattiesburg as part of Monken’s first coaching staff.
Monken stressed that a conflict with the players wasn’t an impetus for the dismissal. Rather, the move came down to performance, or lack thereof.
“We haven’t played particularly well as a team,” Monken said. “So this (staff change) is not solely put on that position. But at the end of the day, we’ve all got to perform better at all spots, starting with that group, and that just happened to start today.”
Graduate assistant Grant Garner will assume the line duties for the remainder of the season.
This season, the Eagles are 121st out of 123 FBS teams in rushing at 69.1 yards per game. They’ve run for just two touchdowns in 10 games -- tied with USF for the low-water mark -- while the 27 sacks the line has allowed is tied for 100th.
Southern Miss has lost 22 straight games, tied with Duke (2005-07) for the ninth-longest in FBS/1-A history. Miami of Ohio’s 14-game losing streak is the next longest; in early October, the RedHawks fired third-year head coach Don Treadwell.
(Photo credit: Southern Miss athletics)