University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Jeff Bower Quotes
11/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Jeff Bower Quotes
Opening Statement:
?It seems like they were very good on third down, and we gave them the short field a couple of times early in the game. Then when you add the big plays; it?s going to be tough. I tell you what is amazing is that is just about how they got beat by Army ? a bunch of turnovers and a bunch of big plays. No one in the country is good enough to win when you play like that. We certainly did not play well. You have to give them credit. They came in here ready to play, and they played a good ball game.?
On Dustin Almond?s performance:
?He was not real sharp. He did some good things, and he kept battling. I have not looked at the tape, but he has to be sharper.?
?Those two ends are really good, and they put a lot of pressure on us. That had a lot to do with it. The best pass defense you can have is to pressure the quarterback.?
On
?He makes it all go. He?s playing better than he has ever played. I do not see him making the mistakes he did in the past.?
On losing at home:
?It hurts. I?ve coached a lot of games in there, and I don?t know that I can remember one like this.?
On Caleb Hendrix:
?It?s a dislocated elbow.?
On the decision to call timeouts right before the half:
?I just felt like we needed to try to make something happen. There was enough time, and we had three timeouts left. But, we did not make the plays. Then, they did a great job of pressuring us, and they partially block a punt, and get great field position.
?But I really felt like with the game the way it was, we needed to go after them. I?ve learned to be aggressive in this game; I didn?t want to sit on the ball. I wanted to make something happen.?
?Worse than that was the third quarter ? the long pass.?
On the next game:
?I?m confident in these guys. There are a lot of winners on this football team. These guys have won a whole lot of football games, and there is good senior leadership. They?ll come back, and we?ll learn from our mistakes.?
On Larry Thomas:
?We?d like to (play him more). It?s hard to play three backs. He?s one that we want to see continue to improve in practice every day, so that we have more confidence to put him in the game.?
On the conference race:
?It?s still a long way to go. This is a crazy game, and a lot of things can happen. You better show up every Saturday ready to play.?
