University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Now Where Bower Wants Them After Second Scrimmage
3/31/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Eagles Now Where Bower Wants Them After Second Scrimmage
Saturday with a spirited two-hour scrimmage that drew both praise and concern from Head Coach Jeff Bower.
"I thought our defense had a good day, but we're making a lot of mistakes on offense," Bower said. "I think a lot of that is
because we have a lot of our defense in already, we're young on our backup offensive line, and from an execution
standpoint, that has made it difficult.
"That's no excuse, though, we've got to learn, we've got to get better execution. We had some problems with the
quarterback-center exchange today, some balls on the ground, but we've made some personnel changes there and we still
have some work to do there.
"I thought Terrell Paul had a good day, Corey Yates played well and the receivers had a good day. Our effort was good
and we came out and practiced hard. If we keep doing that, we'll get there."
That inexperience in the second offensive line resulted in a number of quarterback sacks during the scrimmage, including
three each by sophomore linebacker Rod Davis and junior linebacker Terrell Paul and two by senior linebacker Roy
Magee.
There were offensive bright spots. Senior quarterback Jeff Kelly completed 10 of 18 passes for 139 yards and a
touchdown, sophomore Zac White was nine of 15 for 71 yards and a TD and freshman Micky D'Angelo completed seven of
13 for 55 yards. Freshman Rocky Harrison led the receivers with seven grabs for 89 yards and sophomore Kenneth
Johnson caught four for 55 yards.
One of Johnson's catches was a 13-yard touchdown reception from Kelly.
Sophomore Tim Blackwell led the rushers with 56 yards on seven carries, including a 35-yard touchdown run.
Senior Dawayne Woods added 49 yards on 10 carries.
With a week left before the Black and Gold Spring Game, Bower feels his team is where it needs to be. "I'm
pleased with where we are, especially defensively," said Bower. "We're playing hard and making plays; but,
offensively I'm a little disappointed that with our number one group, that we're not further ahead than where we
are. With the experience we've got coming back, we should be protecting better, we're making too many mental
errors, and those are things we've got to get ironed out. Again, our offensive is looking at a lot of defense, but
we should be executing better that what we are right now."
The Golden Eagles are scheduled to work Tuesday and Thursday of next week prior to playing the April 7 Black
and Gold Spring Game that will highlight a busy weekend of activities associated with the spring game.
