Coach Jeff Bower's Weekly News Conference
11/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Coach Jeff Bower's Weekly News Conference
Southern Miss Head Coach Jeff Bower's
Weekly News Conference for Monday, November 19
Opening comments after the Tulane game:
"It was a real good win for us. We played well in the ball game in all three phases. I saw a lot of good things, but I was really impressed with the improvement we made in the kicking game. We talked a lot about that, and we worked real hard on that. Our kickoff cover team was real good. We had four touchbacks. We had five tackles inside the 20-yard line. The average starting position was the 17-yard line. That is really good for creating field positions. We had two nice kickoff returns, and we averaged almost 32 yards per return. We did a good job of punting the football. We had a 43.3-yard net. (Mark Haulman) averaged 43.8 yards per punt. They only had one yard in three punt returns. We did a better job of returning punts. Dannye Fowler made good decisions and moved the ball north and south. We blocked an extra point, which was the only opportunity they had. We had 100 percent on our PATs and field goals, so that was a good performance in special teams. We played well on offense. We did a lot of good things. The freshman wideouts did well again, and Jeff Kelly had a great game. We made some big plays in the ball games. LeRoy Handy played well. We graded out high on the offensive line. We protected well, with the exception of a couple of times, but Jeff did a good job of making people miss and making big throws. And on defense, anytime you hold the Tulane offense to six points, you are doing something good. It was a good win for us.?
Players of the Week:
?On offense, it was Jeff Kelly. He had 60 plays and graded 96 percent in his decisions and 86 percent in execution. He was 23-of-31 for 400 yards and three touchdowns. He also had 15 yards rushing. LeRoy Handy earns an honorable mention on offense.
?On defense, we had co-players of the week, Chad Williams and Joe Henley. Williams had 51 snaps and graded 92 percent. He had four tackles, four assists, a quarterback knockdown, an interception, a tackle for a loss and 75 bonus points. Henley had 33 snaps and graded 84 percent. He had two tackles, two assists, one tackle for a loss, one sack for minus-11 yards and 65 bonus points.
?On special teams, we gave the honor to the entire kickoff cover team for the job that it did ? four touchbacks, five tackles inside the 20, a 14.5 yard return average and a starting field position at the 7-yard line. We also gave an honorable mention to Carsha Stromas, who really had a good ball game and made a lot of plays.?
On East Carolina:
?They are good. They are very good on offense. They are very balanced with 211 yards rushing and 210 yards passing per game. They score a lot of points and average about 34 points a game. They have a lot of good players on offense. Leonard Henry, the running back, is averaging 8.4 yards per carry, and that should be the best in the country. The quarterback is a great player, and they have good receivers. They are real good. They mix it up and keep people off balance. They will hit you with big plays, and about every seven snaps, they are going to try something big. They take a lot of shots down the field, and they are real good at it. They have a good defense that is very active. It is a different scheme than what we have seen. They run mostly an odd front, with a lot of movement. They are going to bring five against you a lot of times, and you won?t know where they are coming from. They mix up their coverages. They are always good in the kicking game. They have a great kickoff return unit. It is a real good football team with a lot of good players. It is another important game for us. There is no question that we will have to do well on Friday, and have a great week of preparation. We need to do lot of things well to win the ball game.?
On injuries:
?We are in good shape. There is nothing major. We held out a few guys from conditioning yesterday, but everyone should be back and ready to go today.?
On which game against East Carolina is his most memorable:
?There have been a lot of them. I remember two or three of them. I remember being able to stop them down here when we weren?t having a good year to win the last game of the year. I remember up there with Brett Favre, we had to go the length of the field to win the football game. There are a lot of them. It has always been a good series. I think these are two programs that are real similar.?
On David Garrard:
?I am glad this is the last time we will see him because he is really good. He is big and strong. He is tough to tackle. Two years ago up there, we couldn?t get him on the ground. He has a strong arm, and he has the kind of arm where you can use the whole field. He is experienced and is making good decisions. He takes care of the football and is really a good player. He can run the option, in addition to throwing it. He does it all.?
On if it is easier to defend him now since you have seen him three times:
?I think it is harder. Their running back is good too, and they have guys out wide that can run and catch the ball to make big plays. It is a little bit like what we had to do with Tulane. It is the same sort of mix on offense. They are real balanced, and you just have to play well. You have to do everything well on defense. You can?t just stop one aspect of it. They are good running and throwing.?
On talking about postseason chances to the players:
?The players know that. We talked a little bit about it last week. They know what the scenario is. I don?t know if I will mention it this week. But the players know where we stand and know what we have to do. There is a lot of motivation to get ready to play well.?
On playing in the ECU environment:
?They have great fans. We have been a pretty good team up there. There will be a lot of people there, and they will be loud. It is kind of a neat setting. They just added on to their stadium, and they are drawing really well.?
On the bowl situation:
?Obviously, the Liberty Bowl is out. There are still the Mobile and Houston bowls, but we have to take care business. We have to take it one game at a time. That is really all we can do. It doesn?t do any good to talk a lot about it, until we are bowl eligible. I just want our guys to do what they did last week. We had a real good week of practice, and we played really well. If we can do that week to week, then I will feel good about it.?
On what possibly making a fifth-straight bowl says about the program:
?That is what you want to do. You want to be good on a consistent basis, and we hope that is the direction we are heading in. I didn?t know about us coming into the year. We were young on defense, and offensively, we lost our running back before the season started and we had a lot of true freshman playing at wide receiver. I think this team has improved. We are still working hard, and we have gotten better the last few weeks.?
On the fan support after writing the letter to the editor in area newspapers:
?I thought it was a pretty good crowd. I just remember what happened last year. It was in no way referenced to the fan support up until last week. It was just the fact that we were in a special situation. Hunting season kicked in, and we knew we would lose a lot of hunters. It is an unusual stretch and fan support is always important to players in how they play. Our kids respond to good fan support. Looking ahead to the TCU game, that game is an important game. I just wanted to encourage people to come and support this program. Also, it is the last game for our seniors. I didn?t want it to be like it was last year after the East Carolina game for that group of seniors. These guys have been really special, and they have done a great job for this program. If people can?t make the game, please send them here and we will find someone to use them.?
On how things have changed with bowl games over the last few years:
?That is a credit to Mike Slive, the Conference USA commissioner, who has done a good job of getting four bowl tie-ins for the league. And our league has gained a lot of respect in the six years we have been in existence. There is a lot of respect for the bowl committees to have four bowls with Conference USA. I just think that it is a part of a conference that is maturing and getting better each year. As a result, we are getting recognized. I hope it continues to get better, and one day, we will be tied with five, six, or even seven bowls. It has been a great start for this league to have four bowls in such a short time.?
On the Thanksgiving plans:
?We will have Thanksgiving here for all the players that will be here. We have a lot of guys who can?t go home, because we will practice on Saturday. For the ones that aren?t traveling and live close enough, I am sure they will go home. We have invited families in. We will have a church service at 10:45 and a Thanksgiving dinner that follows. We will depart at 1:00 from the airport.?
On the early kickoff:
?I like it. We did it against Tulane last year, and I liked it. We got up in a great mood, and we were ready to go. Our players know what time they are getting up, and the fact that we are playing early in the day is good. I always felt that as a coach and a player, the worst thing to do was wait around all day to play. We can get up, have meetings, and get ready to play. That is good for the short week after that because we will get back at a good hour. Everyone will get a chance to get some rest so we can have a good day on Saturday.?