University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Football Begins Third Week Of Spring Practice
3/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 21, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Golden Eagle football team returned to practice today, with a two-plus hour practice in M.M. Roberts Stadium. Today's practice was the first of four scheduled practices set for this week, the third week of spring practice.
Following a pair of off days, Head Coach Jeff Bower was pleased with the way the team responded, but was disappointed in the performance of the wide receivers.
"It was good day with a good tempo," Bower said. "It was also a good physical day. But we dropped a lot of passes today. That was a bad thing. We had a poor day of concentration from our wide receivers."
The team returns to the practice field tomorrow and will practice on Friday and Saturday as well. Bower said the team would not scrimmage, with the focus instead on being physical and concentrating on individual work.
"We're going to do a lot of live situations," Bower said. "But we're not going to go 11-on-11."
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.
After this week, Southern Miss has three final practice days next week, as spring ends with the annual Black and Gold Spring Game, which is set for Saturday, April 1, at 1 p.m., in M.M. Roberts Stadium.
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.
