University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Press Conference On Opening of Spring Practice
3/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Press Conference On Opening of Spring Practice
Head Coach Jeff Bower
We are excited about getting into spring football. We have had a tremendous off-season since we came back from the Christmas break. We didn?t have a typical Christmas break because we didn?t have a bowl game. I am anxious to see the attitude of our football team. I think they are going to be excited. We have a lot to accomplish and we have many objectives for the spring. From a personnel standpoint, this is a time when you try to find the 22 best starters and your 22 best backups.
We have moved some guys around this spring from last year. Darrell Bennett, who played wide receiver as a freshman, will move to rover or defensive back. This is an area we feel needs some help. We have moved three defensive tackles to the offensive line, Javar Young, Anthony Jones and Kendel Wheeler. This is another one of our big objectives, to develop these players and improve our offensive line.
We are excited about getting to look at our mid-year players in action on the field. Seante Williams at defensive end, Ronald Jones at defensive tackle, Akeem Lockett at defensive end, and Karlin Riley will play wide receiver. A bonus player for us this season is Tootie Myers, who will be a true freshman and probably the oldest true freshman we have ever had. We will try him at cornerback. We think he can compete for the starting job or at least give us some depth at that position.
We moved George Brice from defensive end to defensive tackle. Chris Langston we have moved from the weakside linebacker to middle linebacker, behind Rod Davis. Chris Vaughn has moved from middle linebacker to the weak side. Chris McNair played defensive end but has been moved to weakside linebacker. Addaryl Edwards we have moved from defensive line to center. That is an area we really have to do a good job of preparing a backup center. All of these moves were made to give these guys an opportunity to get onto the field.
We feel that with 15 good days and a good preseason, we will have opportunities to establish depth at the positions we are concerned about. I look for spring practice to be very competitive. We have numerous things we want to accomplish defensively. We want to be more consistent on defense. We gave up too many big plays on defense last season. On average, we were giving up four big plays per game. We feel like we can cut down on those plays if we can eliminate the mental errors. We also want to increase our takeaways. We didn?t create enough turnovers last season.
Offensively, I think we improved more and more as the season went on. We have got to be more consistent running the ball and we have got to do better in short yardage situations. This was an area that we were worse than the year before. I think we need to throw the ball deeper down field more. We feel like we have the ability to do that. We were young at our wide receiver positions, but we have the speed to get the job done. We need to cut down on the mental errors and penalties on offense. We had penalties at crucial times that we have got to eliminate. We will have more experience at offense this year, so we hope that we will do better. It is good to get Derrick Nix back into our offense. I think not being able to succeed in short yardage situations last year had to do with not having a big running back.
Our quarterback situation is going to be exciting this spring. We have three guys Mickey D?Angleo, Zack White and Dustin Almond at that position. They are young quarterbacks with very few snaps. We are going into the spring with two redshirt sophomores and a redshirt freshman. For the first time in awhile we will not leave the red jerseys on the quarterbacks. We are doing this so we can see how the guys will react under pressure.
Special teams is something we worked a lot on last spring and we will do the same this spring. We need to be a better return team. Our punt return team had eight fumbles or muffed punts last season. We want to see who can catch the ball and who can make big plays.
It should be an exciting spring for us. We are going to go five days this week, Tuesday through Saturday. Our spring game will be April 13th. We are hoping to have honorary coaches for the teams. We are trying to get some former players who are playing in the NFL. We want to make the spring game a bigger day.
On guys who will not participate in spring...
We have some guys who won?t participate this spring, due to injury. Adam Gardner had shoulder surgery and will not practice. Cassidy Welch, who is a walk-on tight end, is recovering from knee surgery. Larry Thomas, a walk-on running back, also had minor knee surgery. Corey Yates had reconstructive surgery, but we would like to give him some time on the field with no contact. If the knee looks good we may turn him loose the second half of spring. Carlos Crusoe who we are going to let go through some non-contact work also and see how he holds up.
On the defensive line and moving Ronald Jones...
We should be better on the defensive line this year. Ronald is a talented player who can play inside or outside. We probably need more depth inside than on the edge. Compared to last year, there is a lot more competition on defensive line. We are excited to see how these players develop.
On the offensive line ...
We lost Kendrick Key and I think we are going to try Jeremy Parquet at that position. Neal Mead could factor in there as well. I think we made some improvement at offensive line last year. I think we need to be more dominant. Its going to be different from last year because we had a quarterback with more experience and could make calls on his own. This year we will have to be more simple in the game plan. We are going to put a little more of a load on the offensive line, running backs, and our wideouts.
On defensive backs ...
I feel better about the corner position than I do about the safety position. That is why Darrell Bennett is going to safety. I am interested to see Meyers and what he can do. We need to get Yates healthy, and I would like to see Leroy Johnson improve some. We need to develop some players in our secondary.
On Rod Davis ...
We would like to see Rod improve his play. We will ask him to step up and be a leader on this defense. You have to be careful with some of the players having good seasons then becoming a little to comfortable and not have a good year. Rod is still not playing to his potential and we want to challenge him to be a better football player.
On Buck Miciotto ...
Buck has a great off-season and he has had such a great attitude. I really think he has changed and he is ready to help this team in any way he can. He might improve on his play and become a starter at guard.
