Four Nebraska turnovers were converted into Southern Mississippi points and another miscue ended a promising Husker rally as the unranked Golden Eagles stunned Nebraska 21-17 in Lincoln. The setback marked the Huskers first home loss to an unranked non-conference team since their 10-19 loss to Washington State in 1977, and dropped Nebraska to 1-1 on the season.

Husker quarterback Joe Dailey threw three interceptions and the team fumbled twice to frustrate the Nebraska offense. Southern Miss was able to take advantage of the miscues as they converted three of the game's turnovers into 18 points.

"When you turn the ball over the amount of times that we did today, you are going to lose in any game and that’s unfortunate," lamented Nebraska head coach Bill Callahan after the game.

Nebraska provided the numbers on the scoresheet as they out-produced USM offensively 476 yards to 239. Dailey completed 22 of his school-record tying 42 attempts for 202 yards.

Corey Ross eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the fifth straight time as he ran for 169. Freshman I-Back Tierre Green added 66 yards in the loss.

Southern Miss was led by quarterback Dustin Almond who threw for 142 yards and one touchdown.

"We came into this game believing in ourselves and expecting to win," said Eagle coach Jeff Bower.

"It was a good win against an outstanding football program that has a lot of good athletes. It was a good win for our football team.

Southern Miss jumped out to a 6-0 first period lead as they converted two interceptions in Darren McCaleb field goals of 39 and 41 yards.The Huskers added a 35 yard field goal of their own by Sandro DeAngelis, but McCaleb's third kick of the half gave the Eagles a 9-3 lead at the half.

Nebraska seemed to get their feet under them at the start of the second half. Ross broke free on the Huskers first play of the half for a 52 yard gain down to the 21. Four plays later Dailey hit Grant Mulkey with a nine yard touchdown pass to put Nebraska up 10-9. After Daniel Bullocks intercepted a pass and returned it to the 13, the Huskers struck again with a13-yard touchdown pass to Matt Herian. Herian was the game's hot receiver as he caught eight passes for 71 yards.

Turnovers reeled again in the final seconds of the third period when Naton Stewart intercepted a Dailey pass at midfield and returned it for a touchdown to give USM a 17-15 lead. The Eagles twice attempted two-point conversions in the game that both failed.

Nebraska could not rally with two of their fourth quarter drives ending on fumbles. Nebraska seemed to be threatening when Green drove for a 17 yard run to midfield, but fumbled the ball while attempting to gain additional yardage. Southern Miss added their only touchdown of the game two plays later when Almond connected with Marvin Young on a 46-yard strike.

Nebraska had a chance to win the game in the closing minute, driving down to the 12, but came up short on a fourth down run when Dailey was chased out of bounds short of the first down marker.

Callahan remained upbeat about his quarterback's performance. "He’s going to mature, he’ll learn from this. I’m optimistic, I’m positive that he’s going to continue to get better," Callahan said.