HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) -- Surprise starter Jeff Kelly threw four touchdown passes as Southern Mississippi beat Tulane 48-14 in a Labor Day Monday opener, snapping the Green Wave's 13-game winning streak.

Kelly, No. 2 on the depth chart behind junior college transfer Cable Davis throughout the preseason, hit 13 of 19 passes for 248 yards with TDs to four different receivers.

Tulane, playing its first game in four years without record-setting quarterback Shaun King, had the nation's second-longest I-A winning streak after going 12-0 last season.

The Wave's perfect season included the Conference USA title that Southern Miss had won in 1997 and shared during the league's inaugural season in 1996.

Tulane didn't have a turnover in its last five games in 1998, but two interceptions Monday led directly to touchdowns during a stretch when Southern Miss extended its 10-point lead to 27.

Just before halftime, Leo Barnes intercepted a pass overthrown by Patrick Ramsey, setting the Eagles up at the Tulane 11. On fourth down, Nix scored from 2 yards out for a 24-7 halftime lead.

After settling for a 26-yard field goal by Bart Hanna on its opening possession of the second half, Southern Miss went ahead 34-7 when Terrance Parrish picked off a tipped pass and returned it 6 yards for a touchdown.

Both times Tulane scored, Southern Miss responded quickly.

Tulane was down just 10-7 when Ramsey, who shared time with Derrick Joseph, threw a 10-yard TD to Kerwin Jones after a bad punt snap set the Wave up at the Southern Miss 23.

But Southern Miss needed just three plays to go 70 yards, Nix turned a screen play into a 29-yard score when Tulane came with a full blitz. Dwayne Woods started the drive by breaking two tackles at the line and sprinting 43 yards before being driven out of bounds.

When Tulane finally scored again, on Ramsey's 13-yard TD pass to JaJuan Dawson with 9:38 left in the third quarter, Southern Miss again needed just three plays to answer.

Nix had a 70-yard run on the first play after the kickoff, setting up Kelly's 30-yard TD to Pinkston to make it 41-14.

Nix, who rushed for 1,180 yards in just nine games as a freshman last season, had 167 yards in the opener.

Tulane averaged 507 yards and 45 points a game last season with King, who accounted for 342 total yards a game while rewriting Tulane's record book.

The Green Wave were limited to just 269 yards, 254 of them passing, in the opener. Two quarterbacks replaced King, Ramsey hitting 21 of 30 passes for 196 yards with both TDs and both interceptions, and Joseph completing 6 of 15 for 58 yards.

Kelly found LeRoy Handy wide open for a 66-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to close the scoring.

Davis, who played two series in the third quarter after Kelly left with cramps, was just 2-of-6 for 14 yards.

In one of the most anticipated openers in school history, Southern Miss jumped out to a 10-0 first-quarter lead on Hanna's 42-yard field goal and Kelly's 25-yard TD pass to Sherrod Gideon.

The Golden Eagles are the winningest team in Conference USA, with a 16-2 record in the league beginning its fourth season.