University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Illinois Preparation Complete
9/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Illinois Preparation Complete
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss Thursday afternoon completed preparations for Saturday morning's game against defending Big Ten champion Illinois, the first team from that league ever to play at Southern Miss, and in Mississippi.
The visiting Illini presents problems for head Coach Jeff Bower and his Eagles, on both sides of the ball. "We better be ready to play," he said. "It'll be a long afternoon if we aren't. We have to be on top of our game, and we understand that we have to play a lot better than we did against Jackson State. I think we've had a good week of practice in getting ready, and I really like playing the 11 a.m., game. It gives us a chance to get up and get moving, not having to sit around all day."
Bower says it's important to be even better running the football than last week, and to continue to do good things around a young quarterback. "One of our goals going into the season was to improve the running game," he said. "We'll have to be more physical and execute better than we did against Jackson State. And, we have to do an even better job of doing all the right things around our quarterbacks as they gain game experience."
Bower also says the transition from preseason preparation for a season opener, and getting into a true "game-week" situation takes some adjustment, but that a lot of work is done in the offseason to make that adjustment as easy as possible. "You have to get into that rhythm quickly, but we, as coaches, do summer scout reports and game plans on our first four opponents, so a lot of the game plan has already been done," he said. "Then, it's just a matter of looking at a couple of early-season games to complete 'off-the-field' preparation for those first few games."
Following the Illinois game, Southern Miss stays at home for a Sept. 14 game against Memphis, a game that will end the first season-opening, three-game home-stand since 1920. The
Eagles then play at Alabama (Sept. 21) and Army (Sept. 28), before finally taking a week off Oct. 5.
