The No. 15 Boise State Broncos played a home-heavy first third of the football season. It is the middle of October and the long voyage to Hattiesburg, Miss., to face the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss is only their second road trip of the season.

For the Broncos (4-0, 1-0 Western Athletic Conference) there is great wonder fastened to this early, undefeated season. As the wins keep coming, so does the pressure to keep a zero in the loss column.

"You have to have a heightened awareness going into every game and these guys are going to be coming after us," fullback Richie Brockel said, "because they want to be the ones to ruin our season and make their season by beating Boise State."

The Golden Eagles (2-3, 0-2 Conference USA) and first-year head coach Larry Fedora have lost three close games this season, falling 27-13 to Auburn, 34-27 to Marshall and 40-37 to UTEP in overtime.

"Those guys are right there to win in all their games," BSU head coach Chris Petersen said. "That's how we always look at this. We don't just necessarily look at the win-loss record. We watch them play and know that they could win every game they have played, including the one at Auburn, which is a pretty good football team."

According to Petersen, this road test will be similar to the one in Eugene a few weeks ago. Both Oregon and Southern Miss run the spread offense, have mobile quarterbacks and speed all over the field.

"They're kind of the spread no-huddle style of offense, another one of those," Petersen said. "You put some good athletes in those offenses and they're hard to slow down, as we've seen."

Perhaps the best athlete on the Golden Eagle offense is tailback Damion Fletcher. In five games this season, Fletcher has encountered mixed success. He has rushed for 222, 29, 87, 82 and 260 yards in five games. Fletcher has been minimized in some games, but has absolutely erupted in others.

"That's what he can do, scary," Petersen said. "He's just a good player. He's a strong tough player. He's got speed and obviously he's got the instincts to go with it. He can find the crease and he can slam it up in there and break tackles and away he goes."

Last year at Bronco Stadium, Fletcher had 21 carries for 83 yards in the Broncos' 38-16 win against Southern Miss.

"Last year I thought we played as good against those guys as we did against anybody," Petersen said. "We gotta keep (Fletcher) a little bit in control."

The Golden Eagles will start freshman quarterback Austin Davis, with a quarterback rating of 127.11 through five games. He is 113-for-188 (60 percent completions) with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. He averages 253 passing yards per game and is second on the team in rushing (50 carries for 130 yards and three touchdowns).

"He's a mobile guy," Petersen said. "He can make plays with his feet. He can make plays scrambling. He can throw on the run. Those are always scary combinations."

Defensively, the Golden Eagles are led by second team All-American and C-USA defensive player of the year Gerald McRath. The junior linebacker leads the team with 55 tackles (26 unassisted) after making 139 tackles in 2007.

"He's always around the ball â€- nose for the football," Petersen said. "If you've got a player of the year, you want him at the linebacker position, because you know he's going to be involved in about every play. He was good. I remember him like it was yesterday when we were preparing for him. He made a lot of plays and is a guy who we'll have to know where he is at all times."

Boise State at Southern Miss When: 6 p.m. TV: CBS College Sports (Channel 152 DirecTV, Ch. 613 Dish Network. The game will air on Channel 22 for Cable One subscribers). Radio: 98.3 FM