University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Golden Eagle Improvement Continues
4/2/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Golden Eagle Improvement Continues
HATTIESBURG, Miss. ? Last week's Wednesday spring football practice left Golden Eagle Head Coach Jeff Bower less than pleased, but a week can make a big difference.
"I thought we came out and practiced a lot better today than we did a week ago," Bower said. "We had some carryover from our Sunday scrimmage, and that helped today. We need to do that every day."
Bower also said some outstanding individual performances during that weekend scrimmage resulted in some moves on the depth chart. "We moved Chris White into the starting right guard spot and Travis Cooley into the left guard spot," he said. "Both of them had really good scrimmages, and we'll continue to move people around until we find our five best. That's what we're trying to do."
Bower says picking up a new system makes it a little tougher on the offense, but he also feels the progress has been good. "It's going to take some time," he said. "I'm not disappointed, I like where we are and what we're doing. I like our new coaches and we just have to keep coming out every day with a good attitude and working hard. It's not something that happens overnight. You would expect, that with the experience we have coming back on defense, and the things our defense does, that the defense would have the upper hand at this point in practice.
"We will be a good offensive team. We just have to come out and improve a little every day, and keep a positive attitude. We're younger on offense this year than we've been in awhile, we're putting in a new offense, and we're seeing a lot of defense. But, we get better every day. I am a little disappointed with the number of players we have who are injured and not practicing. We need everyone out here working every day. It slows us down some when we have players who have to sit out."
The Eagles now will work Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leaving just two practices remaining the following week, prior to the 1 p.m., Black and Gold Spring Game in Roberts Stadium.
