With Ole Miss and Mississippi State enjoying the best years in program history, media outlets from Baltimore to Bovina — including this one — have slurped both teams like a 64-ounce gas station slushie. It is more than deserved, and the Egg Bowl is undoubtedly going to be an apocalyptic showdown that will divide the state more than the great white gravy vs. brown gravy debate.

But lost in the unbelievable success of the Magnolia State’s SEC teams has been the growing good news coming out of Southern Miss. Before you laugh and put this column down in your parakeet’s cage to poop on, hear me out. The Golden Eagles, the most consistent program in the state from 1995-2011, finally have something to be proud of again on the gridiron.

It’s been a while.

On Saturday, USM piled up 502 yards and ran 82 plays in a 30-20 win over North Texas. That’s the same North Texas that embarrassed Southern Miss 55-14 in The Rock last year in Nick Mullens’ first start under center for the Eagles.

USM is now 3-4 on the year and has already matched its Conference USA win total from a season ago with five games left to play. In the past two games, Monken’s offense has racked up 1,043 yards, 61 points and executed a whopping 172 plays. The Eagles have won three of their last six games and are 2-2 in C-USA since last year’s skull dragging of UAB. There are Oklahoma State fans already clamoring for him to come back and he’s just now getting started.

After Saturday’s victory over UNT, Monken talked about changing the culture in the locker room that has stunk up the air since Ellis Johnson left in a trail of dust (That’s not a metaphor. He is so old that dust literally trailed him.) A program that boasted 18 consecutive winning seasons, 10 bowl games in 11 years and five conference championships since 1996 had been left in a pile of parakeet poop, and now Monken has been tasked with making chicken salad out of chicken … well, you know.

Southern Miss is slowly climbing back out of the rubble to re-secure its status as a power player in C-USA. It’s a slow climb, one that should be made easier by the watered down version of C-USA left in the wake of the formation of the American Athletic Conference, but a climb nonetheless.

The Golden Eagles have three wins, two more than 2013 and three more than the horrible winless season of 2012. Southern Miss will face Louisiana Tech Saturday at home in a rivalry showdown that would bring a team that has won four games in three years just two away from a bowl game. You read that right. A bowl game.

As if that wasn’t enough, former QB Austin Davis — breaker of Brett Favre’s records and Houston’s BCS bowl dreams — just beat the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks with two touchdowns, zero picks and a 126.8 quarterback rating. His 85.7 completion percentage gave Seattle its worst passing defense statistic in franchise history.

It’s time Southern Miss fans join in on the party going on in Mississippi, even if they’re drinking O’Douls.

The Golden Eagles will rise back to the top sooner than you think. That’s what the wings are for.

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Cory Gunkel is a reporter. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, Ext. 178, or by email at cory.gunkel@vicksburgpost.com