HATTIESBURG — South Florida gave Southern Miss a nice head start, then blew right past the Golden Eagles like they were standing still.

South Florida ripped off 28 straight points after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, and held Southern Miss to three points in the second half to win 49-23 at M.M. Roberts Stadium on Saturday.

“I am disappointed that we had a chance to win a big game right here at home versus a really good football team, but that’s not good enough. It’s not why we came here,” Southern Miss head coach Will Hall said. “We came here to be thought of as a top Group of Five program in America, and that team right there, is thought of as one of those teams that’s got a chance to be. We were toe to toe with them for a long time, and they stretched it out and kicked our butt late because of some of those miscues and because of some good plays that they made, so I tip my hat to them too.”

Byrum Brown was 19-of-29 passing for 193 yards and two touchdowns for South Florida (2-1), and added 72 yards and a TD rushing as well.

The Bulls finished with 369 rushing yards as a team. Kelly Joiner led them with 117 yards and two touchdowns, while Nay’Quan Wright had 105 yards and one TD.

Rodrigues Clark led Southern Miss’ rushers with 85 yards. Tiaquelin Mims led the receivers with six catches for 128 yards.

Three Southern Miss quarterbacks — Tate Rodemaker, Ethan Crawford and John White — combined to complete 19 of 33 passes for 397 yards and two touchdowns.

Rodemaker led the group by completing 10 of 15 passes for 120 yards and two TDs. Crawford was 6-of-13 for 183 yards and had a rushing TD, while White was 3-of-5 for 94 yards.

Hall said Rodemaker injured his ankle early in the game, which led to Crawford getting most of the snaps.

“Tate’s ankle was banged up. Two drives before that, he turned his ankle,” Hall said. “That next drive, we had a wide open corner route. We were backed up on about the 9-yard line around a sprint out pass. He had a wide open corner out, and he missed it, and he just didn’t look like himself. He didn’t have good stability and a foundation right there. And so we felt like we needed to go with Ethan, and so that’s what we did.”

Rodemaker got the start and tossed scoring passes of 19 and 37 yards to Kyrin Heath and Kenyon Clay, respectively, to spot the Golden Eagles a 14-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first quarter.

South Florida stormed back, though. Brown threw a 4-yard TD pass to Payten Singletary on its next possession and Joiner broke off a 43-yard TD run to tie the game by the end of the first quarter.

Brown threw another touchdown pass in the second quarter and scored on a 1-yard run for a 28-14 lead with 4:29 remaining.

Southern Miss got back within one score on Crawford’s 8-yard TD run with 2:31 left in the second quarter, but did not find the end zone again.

Joiner, Wright and Ta’Ron Keith all scored rushing touchdowns in the second half to help South Florida pull away.

Southern Miss finished with 487 yards to South Florida’s 562, but failed to score on two trips inside the red zone.

“I think it’s just a lack of execution across the board. When I get on there tomorrow, after I watch the tape, I’ll tell you exactly like I always do, what happened here or there,” Hall said. “As far as matching up, we were there. We can play, but we just didn’t consistently execute over a period of time, and the game really came down to that. It came down to red zone touchdowns.”