University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Football Continues Spring Practice
3/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 17, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Following an off day on Thursday, the Southern Miss football team returned to the practice field today, with a two-plus hour practice at the Joe P. Park Practice Facility.
The team will again practice tomorrow, with a scrimmage at 3 p.m., which will conclude the first two weeks of spring drills. After being displeased with Wednesday's scrimmage, Head Coach Jeff Bower liked the way the team responded on the field today.
"It was good," Head Coach Jeff Bower said. "We came back and practiced hard today."
Southern Miss will practice four times next week (Tues., Wed., Fri., and Sat.) before wrapping up with three practices in the final week. The spring season culminates with the annual Black and Gold Spring Game, which is set for Saturday, April 1, at 1 p.m.
Today's practice was the sixth practice of 15 mandated by the NCAA in the spring. Of those days, three are required with no equipment, other than helmets. Twelve of the 15 days may involve contact, but only eight can involve tackling and no more than three can be full contact scrimmaging.
Southern Miss returns nine offensive starters, six defensive starters and two starters on special teams, for the upcoming 2006 season. In all, 49 letterwinners return from the 2005 team, which posted an overall record of 7-5, including a 31-19 win over Arkansas State in the New Orleans Bowl at Lafayette. The winning season was the 12th-straight for Southern Miss, and the bowl appearance was the team's eighth in the past nine seasons.
