University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Bearcats And Homecoming Are Next
10/17/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Bearcats And Homecoming Are Next
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss finished preparations Thursday for Saturday's game against Cincinnati. The Golden Eagles also will celebrate homecoming in conjunction with the Bearcat game, and a variety of homecoming activities will take place throughout the long weekend.
Coming off the disappointing loss at South Florida, Head Coach Jeff Bower says he feels good about his team's preparation this week, and that the Eagles will be ready to play. "I think we've had a better week of practice than we've had in recent weeks," he said. "We even cut our practices back some. This was a really short week of preparation, with emphasis being on practicing with tremendous effort for the entire practice, and I think our players did that."
The team also worked throughout the week with quarterback Dustin Almond at the helm for the first time. He came on in relief of Micky D'Angelo in the South Florida game, played well and Bower named him the starter for the Cincinnati game early in the week. The head coach says the team has responded well to the change. "Micky will back up Dustin, the team has responded well, because the players want to win, regardless of who is back there, our players know they have to do their job, and everyone will rally around whoever is at quarterback."
The Cincinnati game originally was scheduled for a 2 p.m., start, but was moved to 1 p.m., since the lighting system in Roberts Stadium is undergoing a renovation project and will be unavailable for the game. Athletic officials made the change in an effort to insure that the game could be completed with adequate natural light.
Following the Cincinnati game, the Eagles will take a week off and then play at TCU in a rare Wednesday night game, on ESPN2.
Tickets for the Cincinnati game remain available at the Athletic Ticket Office in The Ferlise Center, or by calling 601-266-5418 or 1-800-844-TICK.
