What Happened to Southern Miss?

Ever since I learned of the failed 1990 proposal to create the Metro Superconference, featuring some of the biggest independent football teams along the eastern seaboard, I've been intrigued by the teams it left behind. Some teams, like Rutgers, Cincinnati, and Louisville, eventually found their way back to power conferences, while others, like East Carolina, Memphis, and Southern Miss, didn't. After my last video on Memphis, that left Southern Miss as the lone Metro straggler that I haven't made a video on. Nowadays, it's pretty obvious to see that they're the team that lost out the most on the Metro football league not coming to fruition. Temple, Memphis, Tulane, and East Carolina are in the American, and are constantly looked at for power conference additions, even if just for a moment. Southern Miss doesn't even garner a second glance. This is odd, especially considering that, for a time, the Golden Eagles were one of the greatest small school teams in college football. From Brett Favre to Patrick Surtain, there was seemingly always a steady talent of players coming in and out of Hattiesburg. It became a place where good coaches stopped as well. Even after losing out on the Metro, Southern Miss continued to become a strong team in Conference USA. But with the arrival of Ellis Johnson in 2012, the team has never been the same, and now has lost any opportunity they once had to jump up to a different conference. The Sun Belt proved to be a saving grace in 2021, but that's about the best thing that's happened to the program recently. All of this to say--what happened to Southern Miss? What went wrong? Was 1990 their canon event, and have they been permanently handicapped by a situation that didn't go their way almost 35 years ago? Part of the "Realignment's Left Behind" series.