Marshall visits Southern Miss (4-3, 2-1) after dropping a home game to FBS newcomer Charlotte. Herdnation.com goes in-depth with an expert that covers the Golden Eagles. We caught up with Big Gold Nation's Lanny Mixon to get his take on Saturday's match-up.

Talk a little bit about the Jay Hopson era. Are Southern Miss fans satisfied with how things have gone in his inagural year at the helm of the program?

Southern Miss fans are a fickle bunch with high expectations. While I feel that most people are happy with Jay Hopson, they're not happy with losses to Troy and UTSA. I think most Southern Miss fans expected Southern Miss to be right back in the hunt for the C-USA Championship and that's where the Eagles are with five games left. If the Eagles can finish the stretch run strong and end up in the Championship Game I think he will have met fans expectations.

Southern Miss has been up and down this year. An excellent win over UK seems to have been somewhat overshadowed by a lackluster loss to UTSA? What's the biggest thing keeping USM from becoming a consistent winner week in and week out?

Most, if not all of Southern Miss' woes can be boiled down too, two things big plays and turnovers. While Southern Miss' defense has ranked among the best in the country in fewest yards given up on average they have also been among the worst teams in the nation as far as giving up big plays. The Eagles have also found themselves on the wrong side of the turn-over battle too often this season.

When you look at this game with Marshall, what are your biggest match-up concerns for Southern Miss?

For this Southern Miss team it's not really been about match-ups this year. It's been about focus and execution. When properly focused and motivated this Southern Miss team has shown that they can be a very effective football team. When that focus and motivation has wained they have struggled against teams that really aren't very good.Marshall has a big OL and Southern Miss relies on a smaller quick defensive line. That has served the Eagles well at times but has cost them at times. They will have a little boost of getting DT Draper Riley back who has missed the first half of the year with injury.

How do you see Southern Miss attacking Marshall?

I see Southern Miss continuing to use a balanced attack. They have one of the top QB's in the league who will be back at 100% for the game after a gruesome thumb injury against UTSA. They also have one of the better running backs in the league in Ito Smith. Marshall is expected to be multiple on defense so I think Southern Miss will focus on doing what they do well and not trying to play to a MU defensive set becaues it could be totally different than what they've seen on film.

Lastly, what is your score prediction and breakdown for Saturday?

We never give score predictions on BGN, but I do believe that Southern Miss will send the homecoming crowd home happy.