University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Football Coach Jeff Bower's Weekly News Conference
10/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Football Coach Jeff Bower's Weekly News Conference
Opening Statement:
?We didn?t do what we had to do to win the
?I don?t think we played well in the ballgame. I don?t fault our effort, but I don?t think we played well. We?ve got to make improvement.?
On
?They?ve had a few weeks to get ready for us. They?re coming off a good win at Tulane, and I?m sure they?ll come in here with a lot of confidence. They?ll be well-prepared with the extra week. We?ve got to make some improvement and find a way to put some points on the scoreboard. We?ve got to find a way to stop the run. Everyone has run the football on us. We need to perform better and we?re calling on our defensive lineman to perform better. We need to find some answers on offense to find a way to put points on the scoreboard.?
On What The Tape Showed About Damion Carter?s Performance:
?His mechanics were poor in the game. He?s got to set his feet and step and throw. He?ll bounce back this week.?
On If Carter?s Performance Was A Result Of Adrenaline Or Nervousness:
?I don?t know. I?m not sure. I?ve seen him play with a lot of poise. He came in against
On If Carter Will Start Against
?Yes.?
On Dustin Almond And If He Will Play This Week:
?He?s off crutches. I don?t know if he will play. Our Head Athletic Trainer Todd McCall is going to work him hard this week. We?ll wait and see.?
On The Defensive Line?s Performance:
?We over-pursued a lot of times in the game. We were too fast and their running back cut back on us a number of times. We got a little bit better and slowed ourselves down. We had some missed tackles. Some of it was missed tackles, but a lot of it was over pursuing and losing our gaps. It?s something we?ve got to improve on. None of our defensive linemen graded out well in the ballgame.?
On If There Were Players Of The Week:
?No.?
On Injuries:
?We?re in pretty decent shape. We will probably limit Naton Stewart and Antoine Cash (ankles) some this week in practice.?
On If John Thompson?s Return To
?No, not really. The players are the ones who play the game. We?ve got to do a good job as a staff to get our players ready to play.?
On If He Has Talked To Thompson Much Since He?s Been At
?I?ve talked to him every once in a while. I?ve talked to him a few times since the season started.?
On
?I think they have improved. They really play hard. They play with their motor running. They?ve made some improvement and have gotten better. I saw them play
On
?The true freshman Chris Johnson is the one who they?ve played a lot in recent weeks. He won the starting job and is fast. He?s a good back. He?s the one who is getting the majority of playing time.?
On If He Thinks The
?I think so. We?re going to see something similar as last week with committing a lot of people to the run.?
On If Thompson Is Running The Same Defense As He Did At Southern Miss:
?Yes. It?s the same.?
On If That Is An Advantage:
?I don?t think so. There are some different personnel groupings, but they?re very similar to what we?re doing here now. We?re similar in a lot of ways with the different packages. It helps that our offense has gone against our defense in practice. It will be the same for them.?
On If Any Position Changes Will Be Made This Week:
?No, not right now. We?ve played a lot of people on the defensive line and will continue to do that. Larry Thomas made some runs against
On Whose Playing Time Decreases If Thomas? Increases:
?If we play all three of them, Sherron Moore and Anthony Harris will both get less carries.?
On The Offensive Line?s Performance:
?I thought we blocked well. Some of those guys did a good job and graded pretty high. As a group, we were very inconsistent. We need to do a better job, but I thought for the most part those guys played pretty well.?
