Southern Miss coaching staff pleased with QB, Keon Howard

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss suffered a tough 51-35 loss to Old Dominion Saturday.

Quarterbacks, Nick Mullens and Parker Adamson were out with injuries, which forced freshman quarterback, Keon Howard to un-redshirt.

Howard threw for 230 yards, rushed for 98 yards, and scored a touchdown. But, he also had five total turnovers in the game.

A rocky performance, but the Golden Eagle coaching staff loved the effort they saw from the freshman.

Offensive coordinator, Shannon Dawson said, "The one real positive in it is, he never got shooked. I watched him close. I don't think there's anything that can happen on the football field that could break him down. So, that's an extreme positive, because it'll probably never get more adverse than that."

"You can't sit there and say, 'oh he's going to run it,' because he can throw the football like crazy. You can see what type of player he's going to be," said head coach, Jay Hopson.

Quarterback, Keon Howard said, "I gave my all to my team, so it was a good experience for myself. So just learn better, go back and watch more film and learn from my mistakes."

Nick Mullens is day-to-day, which means there is a chance Howard could start against North Texas.