University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Jeff Bower's Weekly News Conference
10/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 16, 2006
Jeff Bower's Weekly Press Conference
Opening statement:
"I think we played pretty well in the game. I'm proud of our guys. I thought we played hard in the game. We did a good job defensively, for the most part, with an exception of those two big plays. I thought we did some good things there. We missed a couple of picks that we should have had interceptions. I don't think we created any turnovers in the ball game that I remember. We played well there. Offensively, we made some good plays when we had to. We left some out there too. We had a couple of opportunities for some balls down the field and to make some plays there. I thought it was a good game for us. I thought our guys came out and played hard and played with good effort."
Players of the week:
"On offense, it's Jeremy Young. He had 66 snaps, graded 88 percent, and was 17-26 for 180 yards, two touchdowns. He also rushed for 20 yards.
On defense, it's Ladarus Webb. He had 61 plays, graded 80 percent, and had four tackles and four passes broken up.
On special teams, it's Marcus Raines. He did a really good job on kickoff coverage. He did a nice job of covering and had a big hit down there on that tackle inside the twenty. It was good to see him get in there and produce some for us."
Team injuries:
"(Travis) Cooley will probably be out a couple of weeks. We might have a chance to get him back for the East Carolina game but more than likely a couple of weeks. LeVance Richmond and Caleb Hendrix have ankle injuries; we'll hold them today, but I think they're going to be ok. Ryan Hebert got stepped on and has bad turf toe. We don't know but he won't be able to practice until at least Wednesday. We'll have to do some shuffling there with him out and Cooley out. Other than that, I don't think anything real serious is going to keep anybody out so we came out in decent shape. It's the time of the year when you get those kinds of injuries; you've got some nagging things. We've got to get them healthy and ready to go."
On Virginia Tech:
"Virginia Tech is a really good team with a lot of talent. They're a very physical football team. They have good running backs; the receivers have good speed. They have a big, physical offensive line, and I think they're really good on defense. They're not giving up very much, only 247 yards a game. They're a talented team. As always, they're good in the kicking teams. It will be a great challenge for us. We're playing a real good team with a lot of talent and stinging a little bit from back to back losses. They'll be ready to go, for sure."
On Cooley's injury:
"MCL, grade 2 sprain."
On playing non-conference games:
"You get ready just like you would for a conference game. We understand that we're going to have to play really well in this game, but we've played tough people before. I thought we played well in Florida with the exception of making a lot of mistakes. When you play good football teams, you can't make mistakes. We're not very good when we're not ready to play. If we're going to have a chance, we've got to have a great week and get ready to play."
On the team improving mistakes:
"I think we've been better at taking care of the ball. We had the one fumble in the game but we didn't throw any picks, and I don't think we had anything real close on interceptions. We've still got to find a way to make big plays on offense when we have a chance. The last two games, we've had some opportunities; we just haven't made the plays. That's something we've got to work on and keep getting better at."
On Jeremy Young:
"He's doing better. With him healthy, he's so much different. I expect him to be even closer to 100 percent this week. I thought he did a good job. He managed the game real well and got us into the right plays and made some big throws for us."
On if Young's performance has been surprising:
"No, that's kind of what we thought. He's what we thought he'd be. He's athletic and getting better at throwing the football. This was probably his best game. He's always been a good leader; I think that's one of his strengths."
On Shawn Nelson's performance:
"He played good. Was I surprised? No. Our doctor said he could play, and he said `I'm ready to go.' He played good. He did a good job and he played with good effort."
On if Conrad Chanove will start against Virginia Tech:
"No, but he did a heck of a job. Talk about playing with effort. We should have played him more in that second half."
On playing both Chanove and Damion Fletcher:
"We're going to have to play them both."
On Damion Carter's blocking:
"Nice, he got two of them. He did a good job; it was better. We blocked better."
On getting Nelson more involved:
"You've got to try to get him touches. He's a good player, and we'll look for ways to get him the football. With your good athletes, you've got to try to get them the football as much as you can."
On the challenge of Virginia Tech this time of the year:
"It's a good challenge and a good team. I like going up there and playing a team like this, this time of year."
On grading the team:
"We're ok. When we're ready to play, we're good. When we're not, we're not. We've won the last four out of five, which is good. We're the type of football team when we get ready to play and have a good week, we can play pretty well. When we don't, we don't. I think we're making some progress and doing some good things. There are some things we've got to continue to work on. We've got to keep getting there."
On Robert Henderson's performance:
"He's coming. He's getting better and he needs to cut it loose all the team. He played a lot of three downs, especially in the second half. I thought those guys hung in there pretty good."
On Sean Merrill:
"He's doing good. I think he'll be better this week. He didn't play a lot in the game, five or six snaps."
On Virginia Tech's program:
"They've got a lot of support up there. I don't know what that stadium seats now, maybe 65,000. They fill it up every time. Frank's done a great job over there. They've done a great job of recruiting. Virginia's a good football state and they're the king dog in the state. They've done a good job recruiting."
