University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Jeff Bower' Weekly Press Conference
10/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Jeff Bower?s Weekly Press Conference
Opening Statement:
?We really played well in the first half of the game. We made a lot of things happen in the game. Defensively, we created turnovers and we were good in the kicking game. We had a fumble recovery on our punt unit that gave us the ball in great field position. We had a long punt and kickoff return. We just had great field position in the second half. We didn?t have to go very far in the first half. I thought we made some big plays offensively. I don?t think we played as well in the second half. We played a lot of kids in the game, and our backups didn?t play very well. Overall, it was a good win for us. It was good to get back on the winning track.?
Players Of The Week:
?On offense, we had co-players of the week. Dustin Almond played 65 snaps and graded 88 percent. He finished 23-of-37 for 277 yards and five touchdowns. He also had a rushing touchdown. Chris Johnson played 40 snaps and graded 90 percent, with eight catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns. I?m really proud of him. He stepped up and really played well. On defense, Tom Johnson, played 37 snaps and graded 78 percent, had three tackles, three assists, three and a half sacks, a tackle for a loss and a flush of the quarterback. He really played well. Jasper Faulk was the special teams player of the week. He had two punt returns of 57 yards with a long return of 47. He played extremely hard. He?s a starter in three phases, plus playing a lot of defense. He did a really good job.?
On Injuries:
?Tavarres Williams has a strained MCL and he will be out a couple of weeks. Antwon Courington has a torn ACL and torn meniscus. He will visit with the doctor at lunch today, and they will determine if he will have surgery. There?s a remote chance that he could come back in a few weeks, but I?m not sure that?s the best thing. He and the doctor will make that decision at noon today. Those two injuries thin us out some at wide receiver. We?re going to bring two freshmen, Joe Singleton and Ed Morgan, up and get them ready to play. Anthony Perine will be fine. He has a bruised knee. We need to get him out in practice doing some things today. He did not practice last night. We need to get well at wide receiver and get some freshmen ready to play.?
On UAB:
?I think they?re a very good football team. They?ve lost three games by a total of nine points. They gave
On The Running Game:
?UCF packed us in pretty well. We blocked poorly on the perimeter. Our receivers did not do a good job. We need to continue to make improvement and work on it. We?re not going to change what we?re doing. We?ve just got to get better. Our running backs need to make better cuts, we need to block better up front and we need to block better on the perimeter. UCF put a lot of people up front on us, which is why we had a lot of success throwing the football.?
On The Short Week:
?We?re in our regular schedule. Sunday was like a Monday, and today will be like a Tuesday. We?re in our regular routine for game week. The only thing we missed was the day off. With our Sunday night practice, it gave us more recovery time from the game on Saturday. It also gave our staff a chance to grade watch the tape and watch the game from Saturday. We also were able to do some UAB work before we hit the field.?
On Chris Johnson:
?We got the ball to him more. A lot it was what UCF did. He played fast in the game. He gave great effort. I was excited to see him play that way.?
On The Wide Receivers:
?Josh Barnes will be the starter, replacing Antwon Courington. The negative thing is that Tavarres Williams was also at the position with Courington. So now, we?re two short there. That?s where we?ve got to get some freshmen ready to go. Joe Singleton will be our inside guy, and Ed Morgan will be on the outside. We interchange them some. We?ll get the young guys ready to go.?
On If Damion Carter Will Get More Repetitions:
?He?ll be forced to get more reps. He?s got to.?
On The Rivalry With UAB:
?We thought it would be a rivalry. We?re in close proximity and we recruit against each other. We have a number of guys from
On If Not Recruiting
?No, not really. With UAB improving, you?ve got more schools in there.
On How Recruiting Went Last Weekend:
?I think it went well. We saw a lot of kids and we had a good turnout at the game.?
On Any Lineup Changes:
?No, with the exception of the wide receivers.?
On Backing Off The Defensive Pressure With The Big Lead:
?Not really. We blitzed a lot in the game. I think we lost some intensity when it got 52-14. We put some of our young kids in and they didn?t play well on either side of the ball.?
On The Play Of The Linebackers:
?They did better. We still had some mental errors and missed assignments, but they played better.?
On Playing Friday Night And The Possibility Of A Small Crowd With High School Football:
?When you play on the road, you?ve got to create your own emotion. We?ve got a Tuesday and Sunday game too. We know we?ve got to go play. We prepare well throughout the week. We?ve got to get ready to go. I don?t make a big deal out of it. It?s a national television game. There will be millions across the country watching us and we?ve got to take a lot of pride in how we play.?
On The Defensive Front Four:
?We played well. Tom Johnson did a really good job for us in the game. We blitzed a lot last week. That was part of the plan going in, hopefully play the run well on first down, get them in second and long and then come off. We did that. We set a tempo on their first possession with second and third down sacks. It really got us going. We were better on third down.?
