University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss vs. Nebraska Post Game Quotes -- Southern Miss
9/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Southern Miss vs. Nebraska Post Game Quotes -- Southern Miss
Southern Miss Head Coach Jeff Bower
Opening comments:
First I would like to extend congratulations to Nebraska. They played better then us and deserved to win. They are a good football team and played hard in the game. I thought our team played hard but you'll never win ballgames when you make that many mistakes. I don't think we were a smart football team. We had too many turnovers, two on quarterback-center exchanges. We gave them the short field the entire first quarter and I think considering the field position they had we held up okay on defense. Played pretty well the second quarter. The third quarter we kick-off and they get great field position. We turned the football over in the third quarter. We didn't play with a lot of poise. We had three 15 yard penalties in the first half which is inexcusable. We got to be a smarter football team and learn to play with more poise. We have to eliminate some of the little things we are doing that are not acceptable. I am disappointed, obviously, in the outcome of the game. We've got to do things better if we are going to put ourselves in the position to win some ballgames.
On Dustin Almond:
He was a little inconsistent. He missed some checks and some reads. I would rather not comment further than that.
On Damion Carter earlier in the game:
I don't know about earlier, but he did show a lot while he was in there.
Impressions of Nebraska defense:
I thought they were fast just like I thought they were coming into the ballgame. They were a physical team as well.
On whether Nebraska's defense was faster than expected:
No. I knew they were going to be fast coming into the ballgame. I said that all week.
On whether USM athletes are as good as Nebraska's athletes:
I don't know. I think they have really good players, but I know that we didn't play up to our ability.
Southern Miss players
Etric Pruitt:
I have to give Nebraska credit for their offensive strategy for catching us off guard like that. We had a couple of busts in the secondary. It was great play calling by their coaches. Defending better is something we have to work on for the next game. But we'll go hard getting ready for Cincinnati. We'll build on our positives and put the negatives behind us. We'll come out ready to play.
John Eubanks:
The crowd was tremendous. The whole community came out and did a great job of supporting us. We had some bad situations, but were able to feed off the crowd and come up with the good plays we did have.
Micky D'Angelo:
The crowd was really something special. That's probably the loudest I've ever heard our student section. I'm real proud of all the support they provided. I thought they provided a spark at the beginning of the game. We came out and were pumped by all the noise they made. It's just like you expect from The Rock.
D'Angelo On Damion Carter
He shocked me. I'm proud of him. He went out there and did some amazing things. His stuff was right on the money and he'll be a big time player. Coming in here as a freshman, he's been eager to learn everything, looking up to me and asking me about his every move. When he had his chance, he was ready and made things happen.
Quarterback Damion Carter:
Coach gave me a shot to go out there and lead the team. I just had to go out there and do what the coach asked me to do. That's my role as a team player. I had a lot of nervous energy that I was able to channel into positive energy.
