The teams have weathered turmoil of a different sort. Southern Miss had its coach resign after one game. Louisiana Tech has yet to play after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases on the roster forced the cancellation of its opener. The difference is that the Golden Eagles have had two weeks for interim coach Scotty Walden, 30, to figure things out. The Bulldogs’ issues surfaced just last week, and they were complicated by Hurricane Laura hitting the area. Louisiana Tech would be the projected winner in November, but not on Saturday.

Southern Miss lost its opener to South Alabama and it looked so bad and entirely unprepared that it made a coaching change afterward. Now that same team is coming back two weeks later with a new coach against a team that won 10 games last season and is favored. There are concerns about Tech here, but not enough to convince me to pass up on it here.