Feb. 13, 2008

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - University of Southern Mississippi Director of Athletics Richard Giannini announced today the dates for the 2008 football non-conference schedule, which includes home games against Louisiana-Lafayette and Boise State, along with road tilts at Auburn and Arkansas State.

Under first-year coach Larry Fedora, the Golden Eagles will open the campaign at home, Aug. 30, against Louisiana-Lafayette. The game also marks the debut of the recent construction of the south end zone. It will mark the 50th meeting between the schools with the Golden Eagles holding a 37-11-1 advantage in the series.

"We have had to shuffle some dates around from what we previous had listed, but we feel this is a tremendous non-conference schedule for Coach Fedora in his first season," Giannini said. "It should be an exciting year at "The Rock" as our new south end zone expansion will be complete and add to our already tremendous home-field advantage."

Following the UL-Lafayette contest, Southern Miss travels to face Auburn, Sept. 6, at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The date of that game was changed to accommodate the Tigers, who added a contest with West Virginia. The Golden Eagles have played Auburn 21 times and are 5-16 in those contests.

Southern Miss remains on the road the following weekend traveling to Jonesboro, Ark., for a Sept. 13 meeting against Arkansas State. The Golden Eagles lead the series, 8-2, including a 16-10 victory in Hattiesburg, last season.

The remaining home non-conference game comes against Boise State on Oct. 11. The two schools met for the first time last year in Boise with the Broncos taking a 38-16 decision.

Conference USA is expected to release its game dates in the next month. Southern Miss will play host to East Carolina, Marshall, UAB and UTEP, while traveling to Memphis, Rice, SMU and UCF.

Game times have not been set as of this time and please note that the game dates are subject to change.