University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Football Opens Spring Practice
3/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 7, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss football team officially began the 2006 season with a 2 and one-half hour practice on Tuesday at the Joe P. Park Practice Facility, marking the first practice of the NCAA-allowed 15 spring practices.
Head Coach Jeff Bower was happy with the performance of his players in the first practice.
"It was a good first day," Bower said. "There was a lot of enthusiasm out there, and we were pleased with the effort. There are a lot of things that we're only beginning to put in, and there's only so much that you can do without pads on, but we competed well today, and that was the best thing."
The team will practice again tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., before taking Thursday off, and will conclude the week with practices on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and a time to be announced on Saturday.
Of the 15 spring practice days, the NCAA mandates three 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.
The complete spring practice schedule follows: March 7 (Tues.), 8 (Wed.), 10 (Fri.), 11 (Sat.), 14 (Tues.), 15 (Wed.), 17 (Fri.), 18 (Sat.), 21 (Tues.), 22 (Wed.), 24 (Fri.), 25 (Sat.), 28 (Tues.), 29 (Wed.).
The spring season concludes with the Annual Black and Gold Spring Game which will be held on Saturday, April 1 at 1 p.m. at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Southern Miss returns nine offensive starters, six defensive starters and two starters on special teams. 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.
