When Southern Miss hired Ellis Johnson as the new football coach, the words thrown out about the former defensive coordinator at South Carolina, USM, Mississippi State, Clemson and Appalachian were “turning back the clock” and “old school.”

After a successful period with a mercenary, Larry Fedora, at the helm, the program went back into the family with a hire that reminded many of former coach Jeff Bower, who is just eight months older than Johnson, a first-time Football Bowl Subdivision coach at age 60.

However, it seems the clock melted like a Salvador Dali painting into a nightmarish world of uncharted territory.

Last season, the Golden Eagles won a Conference USA championship with an epic upset of Houston and earned a victory in the Hawaii Bowl over Nevada. Billboards proclaimed that the Golden Eagles were the toast of the state as the highest-ranked team in the final Bowl Championship Series standings.

Now, the program is toast. Extra crispy.

The last time Southern Miss went winless in football was 1916, when the school was called Mississippi Normal College, the automobile was a quaint novelty and the Golden Eagles played Meridian High School (lost 31-0), Mississippi College (blasted 75-0) and lost 87-0 to Spring Hill College, which hasn’t had a football program in decades.

This year’s team (0-9, 0-5 Conference USA) can be summed up simply: the offense can’t score enough (19.2 points per game), hang onto the ball (24 turnovers, giving USM the worst turnover margin in C-USA) and the defense can’t stop anybody or force turnovers, yielding 38.2 points and 431 yards per game. Worst of all, the Golden Eagles have been outscored 174-72 in the second half. Ouch.

The team has been blown out (Nebraska, Western Kentucky, Boise State and Marshall), lost in overtime at Central Florida and folded in the fourth quarter with double-digit leads against Louisville and UAB.

On offense, the Golden Eagles have gone from the consistency of Austin Davis to five inexperienced quarterbacks taking snaps thanks to ineffectiveness and injury, a disaster waiting to happen. An old coaching saying is that if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. I have no idea what the rule is for five, but it can’t be good.

The only silver lining is C-USA cellar dwellers UTEP (2-7, 1-4) and Memphis (1-8, 1-4) wrap up the schedule after Saturday’s game against Southern Methodist, which is averaging a gaudy 35.2 points per game.

With a debut season like that, it’s little wonder that empty seats are becoming more visible at the Rock, the very reason cited for Bower’s dismissal.

But Johnson and his staff isn’t going anywhere, regardless of chatter on message boards by fans.

With a four-year, $740,000 per year contract signed in August and a buyout that would give Johnson $700,000 for every season remaining on his deal, an athletic department that has run a deficit two out of the last three years can’t afford to let him or his staff, most of whom are on two-year contracts, go.

The only good news is when you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up. Or remain on the bottom.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.