University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles' Head To Houston For Dec. 27 Bowl Game
12/22/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Eagles' Head To Houston For Dec. 27 Bowl Game
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss wrapped up on-campus preparation today for the Golden Eagles' Dec. 27, Houston Bowl game against Oklahoma State.
The team will depart the campus via charter bus early Monday morning, practice Tuesday and Wednesday and hold a brief walk-thru Thursday, prior to the Friday game that will start at noon and will be televised by ESPN.
Head Coach Jeff Bower says those final preparation days in Houston will be important, but that the practices in Hattiesburg have been increasingly spirited. "I'm proud of the way our players have responded," he said. "We've shown as much or more emotion this week than we did at any point in the season, and we've got to carry that into the game. We all know that we're a pretty good team when we play with some emotion, and that's always a key for any ball game."
Bower says there are plenty of reasons for his team to play well. "Our league is 0-2 in bowl games, it's a chance for us to win eight games, Derrick (Nix) will be on the sideline with us and we're playing a real good team," Bower said. "That gets my attention quicker than anything else. We'll have to play well to win."
Bower says the additional workouts allowed by the bowl game are a plus for his Eagles. "We didn't have as much of a chance to work our young guys as much as we would have liked," he said. "Obviously, we'll be counting on a lot of those young guys to develop and growing into players. We're anxious to look at them during spring work. We are losing a lot of good players at the end of the year, and we certainly feel that we have players capable of stepping up and filling those losses."
Tickets to the Dec. 27, game remain on sale at the Athletic Ticket Office in the Ferlise Center on West 4th Street, or by calling 601-266-5418, or 1-800-844-TICK. The Ferlise office will be open from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Dec. 23, and then will reopen Dec. 24 in the lobby of the team hotel in Houston where ticket orders can be placed by calling 713-850-2360. That office will be open Dec. 24 from 10 a.m. -2 p.m., Dec. 26 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Dec. 27 from 7 a.m. - 9 a.m., before relocating to the Ford Gate at Reliant Stadium until kickoff at noon.
