University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Scrimmage Set For Sunday, 3 p.m.
3/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Scrimmage Set For Sunday, 3 p.m.
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss continued to install offensive and defensive schemes during a Saturday afternoon workout, and will end the first week of spring football practice with a 3 p.m., Sunday scrimmage.
"We put in a lot more today," said Head Coach Jeff Bower. "The first four days we've thrown a lot at them, and today was the last day of installation. We'll sprinkle some things in from here on out, but this was the last major day for putting a lot in, just a lot of situation work and concentration on fundamentals."
The Golden Eagles will hit the Roberts Stadium field at 2:30 Sunday afternoon, go through a brief pre-scrimmage period and quickly get into what Bower says will be an important scrimmage. "We'll look for great effort from everyone," said Bower. "We want them to be physical, especially our older guys. We want them to make plays, and we want them to be enthusiastic and go out and have fun. We've put in a lot in four days, but they've retained a lot from the fall. Even with as much as we've thrown in, there haven't been many mental errors, especially from the players who have been with us for awhile. I would expect the execution to be pretty good for the scrimmage."
Bower also says he's pleased with where the team is after one week. "Effort and attitude have been excellent at practice," he said. "We talk with them all the time about showing that effort and attitude every day; and, if we do that, we'll continue to get better every day. The things we want to get accomplished this spring and head into fall include being more consistent, that we improve from a mental standpoint, take care of the football better on offense and run the ball better, and defensively don't give up the big plays. We also have to get better in the kicking game."
The Eagles will work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week and then take a brief Easter holiday break. Southern Miss opens the 2002 season Aug. 31, at home, against intrastate rival Jackson State.
