South Alabama has wrapped up its bye week, though it reality it was more of a half-bye.

The Jaguars host Sun Belt Conference rival Southern Miss in a nationally televised game at Hancock Whitney Stadium next Tuesday, which means a 10-day break since they last suited up. South Alabama (3-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) is looking to build off arguably its best performance under third-year coach Kane Wommack, a 55-7 thrashing of Louisiana-Monroe this past Saturday.

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“I’m excited about a midweek game on national TV, the atmosphere that this creates,” Wommack said. “We’re a young program, we’re even a younger on-campus stadium. And so to get to have these moments as a fan base and as a university and as students, I think that’s a really special thing to be able to do.

“… But there’s a fine line there of appreciating some of the moment and the excitement and all that stuff, getting to play at home. Yet at the same time you’ve go out and you do your job with great urgency, and I certainly saw that from our guys last week.”

South Alabama will play three games in the next 22 days, but none of them on the same day of the week. After the Tuesday night game vs. Southern Miss, the Jaguars are off for 11 days before Louisiana comes to town on Oct. 28, then get just a five-day break before playing at Troy on Nov. 2.

It’s led to some scheduling maneuvers by Wommack and his staff, though most of the logistics were worked out months ago. Adjusting to a midweek game after getting into the “rhythm” of six straight Saturday games was something of a challenge, he said.

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“It takes a lot of effort on the front end to figure those things out,” Wommack said. “If you had been in my office about a month-and-a-half, two months ago, I would have looked like (the film) ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and Russell Crowe. I had diagrams and bulletin boards and all these different things trying to figure out how best to just navigate our team.

“Really this whole month of October, we spent hours and hours trying to figure out exactly what we were going to do, really back in the summer time and a little bit of fall camp. I think we’ve got a really good plan. Some of that started this past week, with how we were going to do some things on the road against Louisiana-Monroe. And I thought that went really, really well. Then that kind of pushed us right into what we’re doing this week, so hopefully, our schedule will prevail.”

Southern Miss limps in at 1-5 overall, 0-3 in the Sun Belt after a 17-13 home loss to Old Dominion this past Saturday. Will Hall’s Golden Eagles went 7-6 and won a bowl game a year ago, but have lost five straight since beating FCS opponent Alcorn State 40-14 on Sept. 2.

Nevertheless, Southern Miss remains a dangerous team. And the Golden Eagles have in Frank Gore one of the best all-around running backs in the country, who can be a handful as a runner (3,288 career yards), a receiver (58 career receptions) and as a passer out of the Wildcat formation (seven career touchdown passes).

“You’ve got to be really keyed-in because he is a threat to throw the ball, the pop passes and stuff to the tight end,” South Alabama linebacker James Miller said. “So you’ve just got to be locked-in and make sure like when he’s running, he’s (actually) running. And then when they do Wildcat, the back end has to have their eyes in the right place on their guys, and then the front seven can take care of the run.”

Consistency has been South Alabama’s biggest issue this season, with the team equally capable of obliterating the likes of ULM and Oklahoma State and also losing at home to Central Michigan. The Jaguars are likely to be a huge favorite against Southern Miss, something they’ve not always handled well in the past.

Those in the South Alabama program, however, are hoping the ULM game marks a turning point. The Jaguars scored on nine of 10 possessions in the game, and came within a Warhawks touchdown pass in traffic on the final play of the first half of pitching a shutout.

“It was huge,” quarterback Carter Bradley said. “Going in there and especially that place (where South Alabama had never won), for us to start out that way and finish the game, I think that’s what we needed as a team. And we can take that into next week and just continue getting better, just growing as a team and making sure we’re consistent.”

South Alabama lost a number of key players to major injuries early in the season or during preseason camp, including wide receiver Devin Voisin (knee), running back Braylon McReynolds (broken collarbone), safety Keith Gallmon (torn pectoral muscle) and defensive lineman Ed Smith (knee). Offensive tackle Josh McCulloch (knee) has missed the last four games, while safety Mike Harris (undisclosed injury) sat out vs. ULM.

The extra days off seem to have helped. Wommack said the Jaguars are trending toward full health of the available roster at the midway point in the schedule.

“I think we will be as healthy as we have been, maybe since the beginning of the season,” Wommack said. “Of course, you’ve got some guys that are out for the long term. But in terms of the guys that we think are potentially available, I would anticipate everybody being back this week.”

Kickoff for South Alabama-Southern Miss next Tuesday is set for 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised live by ESPNU.