University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Wrap Up Two-A-Day Workouts With Scrimmage
8/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Eagles Wrap Up Two-A-Day Workouts With Scrimmage
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss wrapped up two-a-day workouts, Saturday, with a two-hour-plus workout that included a lengthy scrimmage that drew cautious praise from Head Coach Jeff Bower.
"I thought things went pretty well," he said. "We made some improvement on offense. We ran the ball, had some big plays there, and that's by far the best we've moved the football running it." That phase of the game included a game-high 85 yards on 19 carries by redshirt junior Tim Blackwell. Junior James Walley followed with 43 yards on 11 carries, junior Ryan Earnest added 38 yards on six carries and freshman Cody Hull had 32 yards on four carries as the Golden Eagles had 12 runners account for almost 300 yards.
Still, Bower says, there's plenty of room for improvement. "We're still not doing some of the little things very well, too many motion penalties, we even had trouble with the center-quarterback exchange and that should never happen at this stage," he said. "We also had some assignment busts, mostly by some of our younger players, but I thought we made improvement on that side of the ball."
And as fans would expect, the defense was typically stingy, coming up with three interceptions and at least three fumble recoveries. "I thought we played well defensively, creating more turnovers than we have recently, including the interception that sophomore defensive back John Eubanks returned for a touchdown," Bower said. "We got a lot done on both sides of the ball, and worked hard on the kicking game also, so it was a good, solid way to end our preseason camp."
Golden Eagle players start classes Monday and the final two weeks prior to the season-opener at Cal (Aug. 30) will drop back to the one-a-day workout schedule.
Bower also said the preseason was good from a conditioning standpoint, even though the coaches backed off Friday's second workout somewhat. "We hit a wall Friday morning," he said. "But you have to go to that point, that's just part of preseason, and the players' legs will come back quickly now that we start going just once a day. We got a lot done, but we still have a ways to go."
Quarterback Micky D'Angelo completed 2-of-9 for eight yards. Dustin Almond had the best day of the four quarterbacks, completing 8-of-15 for 76 yards and a touchdown. Jeremy Young was 2-of-5 for 22 yards and Damion Carter was 3-of-8 for 27 yards and a touchdown.
Wide Receiver Antwon Courington had a 14-yard touchdown reception (from Almond), while freshman wide receiver Anthony Perine scored on a 13-yard reception from Carter. Defensive Back John Eubanks ran an interception back 39 yards and defensive end Akeem Lockett downed Almond in the end zone for a safety to round out the scoring.
In addition to Eubanks' TD interception, freshman linebacker James Denley and redshirt junior Seth Cumbie both had picks, while sophomore defensive back Trevis Coley, freshman defensive lineman Martavious Prince and senior defensive end Terrell Paul recorded fumble recoveries.
