University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Will Take Weekend Off
11/9/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Eagles Will Take Weekend Off
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss' football Golden Eagles wrapped up their off-week work with a Friday afternoon practice, and will take the weekend off before returning Monday to start game-week preparations for the Nov. 17, home game against Tulane, in the annual Battle of the Bell.
After a somewhat "irregular" schedule through seven games, the Golden Eagles now will play four-straight weeks for the only time this season, and will play three games in 13 days. However, only the Tulane game will be a "traditional" Saturday game. The other three will be played on Friday (East Carolina, Nov. 23), Thursday (Alabama, Nov. 29) and Friday (TCU, Dec. 7). Starting with the Tulane game, Southern Miss' final four opponents will play their final regular season games against the Eagles.
Golden Eagle Head Coach Jeff Bower says the unusual schedule is both challenging and exciting. "From a long, drawnout routine, we now have two short weeks to get ready for a couple of games," he said. "I think it will be a real challenge for our team, but I look forward to it and am excited that we'll go four-straight weeks.
"I don't know that anyone in the country has played the unusual schedule that we've played this season, but I also think that our players are excited as we head into the last month of the season. I thought we had a good week of practice. We tried to get better at the kicking game, tackling and some other fundamentals that we didn't do well in the Penn State game. We also installed some game plan for Tulane as well, and we'll come back Monday and really concentrate on Tulane."
Bower says the Green Wave is a very deceptive team. Tulane is 2-8 going into a Saturday game at Navy, but the head coach says that's not because the New Orleans team can't move the football. "The quarterback is a really good player," Bower said. "They're really good on offense, they've got good receivers, and they've moved the ball on everybody they've played. The running back is averaging 115-120 yards a game, and while they've struggled at times defensively, they lead the league in creating turnovers.
"They've had trouble defensively, but then we've had trouble offensively. This is just like any other game; you've got to get ready."
Bower says the time off is important mentally and physically. "We were in pretty good shape physically before the Penn State game," Bower said. "We just tried to give them a break mentally this off-week with some extra days off as we get ready for the stretch run."
Bower also announced that sophomore running back Tim Blackwell has been suspended for the Tulane game for a violation of team academic rules. Blackwell missed both the Houston and Penn State games for an unspecified violation of team rules unrelated to today's announcement.
Tickets to the Tulane game as well as the remaining home game against TCU remain on sale at the athletic ticket office located in the Ferlise Center on the Southern Miss campus, or by calling 601/266-5418 or 1-800-844-TICK.
