University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Jeff Bower' Media Day Comments
8/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Jeff Bower?s Media Day Comments
Head Coach Jeff Bower met with members of the media today during Media Day on campus. |
Opening Statement:
?We?ve had a good first week of practice. I?ve really been impressed with our signing class. We had an opportunity to work with them for a few days prior to the returners. As a staff, we are really pleased with what we?ve seen from those guys. There is a lot of talent and athletic ability in that group. Like every year, there will be some players that will contribute and help us this year. It?s hard to say who that will be right now. It?s a very good class. We?re always anxious to see how we did recruiting, because you never know. You hope you evaluate well, but when they get to campus and put them through drills, you?re never sure how they will look.
?The first week has been good. The attitude, work ethic also has been good. I think we?ve accomplished a lot. We?re getting ready to start two-a-days on Monday, and we?re looking to improve. The expectations are like they always are here, and that is to win a Conference Championship. I feel good about our senior class. I like their attitude and leadership. I think the senior class is hungry to leave with a Championship ring. We have a lot of work to do before the first game. We have some holes to fill before the season begins.?
On If The Approach To Two-A-Day Practice Is Different:
?No not really. Our players have a five day acclimation to practice. We?re on the field a little bit longer when we practice once a day. We?ll scale our practices back some this week, now that we are going to go twice a day. When we have our single-day practice, we?re going to practice in the heat of the day, at 3 p.m. That?s the time of our first game, and there will be a lot of heat. We will adjust our schedule in practice to adjust to the heat.?
On The Temperature On The Turf In M.M. Roberts Stadium:
?It is definitely hotter; there is no question about it. I don?t know the how much more in terms of degrees, but it is significant.?
On The Progression Of Dustin Almond:
?Dustin is much more mature and has grown up in a lot of different ways. He has taken a leadership role on this football team. He is more confident and understands what we are doing. He understands the game and his role on the team. If we?re going to have a good football team and score points, the quarterback position has to play well. He has to have support around him. He has won a championship and knows what it takes. He is geared up for a good year.?
On Who Backs Up Almond:
?Jeremy Young and Travis Clark are neck and neck. We haven?t named a back-up yet. We?ll see how it plays out after the preseason. They are evaluated every day in practice, but the big evaluator will be how they perform in scrimmages.?
On Antwon Courington:
?I?ve been pleased with him. I have praised him. He?s worked harder than I?ve ever seen him work since he?s been here. He?s a player that has a lot of ability. As coaches, you get frustrated when you see someone that has a lot of talent that in all honesty hasn?t played to potential. If you play to your potential, it?s based on how you work every day in practice. I?ve seen a big difference in his work ethic. He had a great summer in the classroom. Maybe it?s him understanding that this is his senior year, and it?s time to perform. I think that has clicked with him.?
On The Special Teams:
?Special teams are very important, and I speak about that a lot with our players. We put a lot of emphasis in it. If you?re going to be good and win a championship, special teams are a major factor. You have to be good in that phase. That?s the first thing we started working on in our practices. Our first three periods were all special teams. Darren McCaleb had a great year for us last year. We have all of our specialists back and that is a plus. I don?t know who will be our kick or punt returner for the first game. You also have to have 10 other guys on the field for them to have the opportunity to do their job. We will continue to work hard on special teams. I believe in it. I believe that you have to be good on special teams.?
On Britt Barefoot Pushing McCaleb:
?There is good competition there. Darren is more consistent of the two. That?s one things Britt has to do a better job of. We chart them every day in practice, and we?ll see who wins that battle and the kickoff job.?
On If Barefoot Could Redshirt This Season:
?I haven?t thought about it. He has one available for him. It depends on him and his performance, how he?s kicking, his consistency and us staying healthy. If he wins the starting job, he will play.?
On If Fans Will Notice Any Changes In The Offense And Defense With New Coordinators:
?I don?t think that fans will notice a difference. We are doing some things differently on both sides of the ball. There aren?t any major changes. Our philosophy on offense is taking care of the ball, and ball protection. I?m a believer in running the football. I think it sets up so many things with our offense when we can run the ball. I think we?ve made some progress, but we need to work and continue to get better with that. If we do, it opens some things in the passing yards. We didn?t throw for a high percentage completion rate last year. That?s one thing we?ve talked about and worked on. Dustin and the quarterbacks threw a lot this summer and worked on some things that they didn?t do well. One thing that can improve that percentage and get it higher is running the football, and making people defend the run.?
On What Is Considered To Be A High Percentage Completion Rate:
?I think in the upper 50 percent. Ideally, we?d love to be at 60 percent. That would be good.?
On Stopping The Run:
?I hope we?re going to be better. We need to be. Our players understand that we need to do that. Our defensive line and our front seven need to make a statement early. They need to step up, be more physical and play the run better. We?ve had a tradition of being good defensively, and I think it starts with stopping the run. It starts with being a good short yardage and goal line team, which basically is stopping the run. We?ve got to make improvement there.?
On The Offensive Line:
?I like our athletic ability. We?re not overly big by today?s standards. We are athletic and have some guys that can move their feet and run. We?ve got to improve our depth. That?s my biggest concern. I like our starting five, but we need to develop our depth. That?s where you may see some freshmen play, and that?s unusual. In the 14 years I?ve been here, we?ve had one guy do it, and that?s Shederick Blackmon. There are potentially three of the five signees that could help us this year, or step in to back-up roles.?
On The Progress Of Robby D?Angelo:
?Robby has done a good job. He has worked hard on getting bigger and stronger. That?s been the biggest thing with him. He?s made a lot of progress. It?s time for him to play and play like a winner. We lean on our center position to do a lot of things, like making the line calls and getting us into right protections. He has very good knowledge of what we?re doing and I think he?ll have a good year for us.?
On Anthony Perine:
?Anthony has a ton of ability, but he didn?t know how to work hard when he got here. I think that?s something that he has improved on. He has gotten a lot better with his practice habits. He came on and did a lot of good things for us at the end of the year. He should be ready to have a good year for us. We need for him to. He is the kind of player that can make big plays.?
On The Offensive Formations With The Wide Receivers:
?We?re going to be multiple. I think a lot of it will depend on how successful we are at running the football.?
On The New Conference
?We lost some good teams, but we are getting some good years. I think the league is underrated. I don?t care what league you play in and who you play, you better bring you?re A game every time you step on the field. There are some good teams coming into the league.
On If Southern Miss Is A Marked Team In Conference
?I?d like to feel that way. My expectation level is that we win a Conference USA Championship. As a Head Football Coach, that?s where you want your program to be. You want to go in every season expecting to win a championship. It doesn?t happen overnight or over two or three seasons. It happens over a long period of time. We?ve been consistent over the years and there aren?t many teams that have had winning seasons for 11 straight years. I think there are eight. That?s tough to do and it?s tough to win championships. A lot of things have to happen. This program, we enter the season expecting to win the league.?
On Gerald McGrath:
?He?s been hurt since he?s been here. He had shoulder surgery in the spring of his senior year. He came in ready to play, but he hurt his other shoulder and had surgery on it. He hurt an ankle in the spring. He?s a tough guy, because he pushed through it, even though we knew he was hurting. We hope he can stay healthy and has turned the corner. He can be a very good player.?
On If Younger Players Seeing Playing Time:
?If they are good enough, they will play, regardless of their classification. We?re going to put the best players on the field.?
On What Needs Work Before The Season Opener:
?We need to work on running the ball and stopping the run. We?ve got some work to do in the kicking game. We have depth concerns at linebacker and offensive line. We?ve got to get some younger kids ready to play. With some of the things that have happened in the past few weeks, some of the younger kids need to get ready to play quicker. There are some guys that don?t have a choice, and will have to be ready to play.?
On The Running Backs:
?I like Larry Thomas. He?s a real hard worker and has made a lot of improvement. We haven?t had a running back that is capable of making big plays in a few years. He can do that. Derrick Nix was probably the last one, and he and Larry are totally different runners. Derrick ran you over and made big plays, while Larry is more of a speedy back and quickness.?
On The Fullback Position:
?We have good competition between Bobby Weakley and Cole Mason. I think both will play. That?s another interesting battle that will shake out after the preseason.?
On If Mason Will Be Used In Short Yardage Situations:
?Both Cole and Bobby will do that. Bobby has more experience and has more understanding of what we?re doing. That?s a tight race.?
On Mason?s Short Lived Tight End Try Out In The Spring:
?It was a bad move by us as a coaching staff. It was an experiment that went bad. He is a true fullback. We thought he could help us there, because we had some concerns at that position. We gave it a shot and it didn?t work.?
On The Return And Punt Return Game:
?We could have a number of guys doing it. We?ve worked a lot of guys doing both. Anthony Perine, Larry Thomas, Jasper Faulk are a few guys that could do kickoffs. On punt returns, Tavarres Williams, Faulk, Perine, Caleb Hendrix are all guys that are capable of doing it. I don?t have a favorite right now. We will figure that out once we do live scrimmages, especially to see who makes good decisions and handles the ball well. Brandon Sumrall could also return some punts.?
On McGrath Wearing
?I don?t know why some players change numbers. I?ve got a policy that if you want a number change and it?s open, that?s fine. If it helps a player feel and play well, that?s fine.?
On The Defensive Backfield:
?I like what we have there. We have some good young players. Brandon Sumrall is thrown into a starting role now, but he played some last year. He?s a good athlete but he needs to continue to learn. I like our three signees as well, Austin Divinity, Eddie Hicks and Cornelius McGee. I think McGee is going to be a very good player. He?s a very talented player that won state championships in four events. He?s a natural athlete and will be a fine player.?
On The Emergence Of Wayne Hardy That Allowed Trevis Coley To Stay At Safety:
?I?m glad that happened. I think Trevis can play linebacker, but he doesn?t want to. He?s a great football player. He has a lot of experience and understands what we?re doing defensively. He is the quarterback of the secondary. He?s more comfortable there and that is his natural position. That?s where we want him. Trevis is a big safety and can run. That?s what you want. You want a guy can hit you and will hit you, but at the same time has the experience and the intelligence to go along with it.?
