University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Jeff Bower's Weekly Press Conference
9/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 28, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Opening Statement:
"I think the difference in the game were the turnovers. We did a good job of taking care of the football, with no turnovers in the game. They had two big turnovers, one where they were going to score; we strip it and recover it in the end zone and Jerome Lyons' big interception return for a touchdown. That was huge. Another big play, which was kind of like a turnover, when they snapped the ball over the punters head. We got great field position. We didn't get a touchdown, but we got three points right before halftime. That was the difference in the game. I don't think we played well on offense. We never got into a rhythm. We didn't make a lot of big plays, and we missed some opportunities to make some big plays. Defensively, we played decent. As a team, we're capable of playing better on both sides of the ball. We didn't do a lot in the kicking game and we didn't cover kicks well. We need to get Britt Barefoot kicking and punting better. We didn't have much hang time on the punts, although I thought we covered pretty well. We didn't get much out of our return units. It was a disappointing effort in our kicking game. We weren't as productive as we need to be. That's something that's got to pick up. It was a good win. Anytime you go on the road and beat the team that won the East division last year and had most everyone back. To win the first league game on the road is no doubt a big positive. That's a good way to start it out."
Players Of The Week:
"On offense, it was Damion Fletcher. He played 57 snaps and graded 80 percent. He had 23 carries for 111 yards and two catches for 11 yards. I thought he played well in the game. The best thing was that he took care of the ball. We didn't have a lot of big runs, but he had a few good three, four and five-yard runs in the game. Defensively, it was Jerome Lyons. He played 55 snaps and graded 73 percent. He had six tackles, one assist and had the interception for a touchdown. He really played well. On special teams, it was Darren McCaleb. He was 2-2 on field goals and 1-1 on extra point attempts. Those two field goals were big and he did a good job for us.
On Tulsa:
"I think they are very good. They are very impressive on tape. They are a physical football team. They play extremely hard. Look at all the statistical categories, and they are at the top or near the top in just about all of them. They are the No. 2 offense in the league, averaging 420 yards per game. They are the No. 1 defense, only giving up 274 yards per game. They are a good football team. If we don't play better and with some emotion and intensity, we will get embarrassed. We've got to get ready to play an outstanding football team."
On The Preparations Leading Up To The UCF Game:
"I was concerned. I don't think we prepared like we should've prepared. We didn't do the little things. You can't wait till a day or two before the game to bear down and concentrate. It's a building process and you've got to start early in the week. I don't think we had our best week."
On If He Thinks The Team Got The Message:
"We'll see. I think they knew after the game that our effort wasn't good enough. The way we played wasn't good enough. Certainly, it wasn't up to our expectations."
On The Week Was Lack Of Effort Or Mental Preparation:
"It was a little bit of both. We've got a lot of mature guys on the team, and a lot of immature guys. The seniors, the guys that have been around, it is critical that they provide good leadership. We had our way with that team last year. You've got to be smart enough to know that they didn't play with their A game last year. They had a lot of turnovers and we took advantage of them. Yes we did some good things, but you can't look back at that game and make a comparison. It's a new year. I told them all week long, they went to the championship game last year and we watched it on television. You've got to respect your opponent. We had some guys that didn't respect the opponent. That's something we've got to do and get ready to play as well as we can every week."
On Tulsa And Last Year's Game:
"If there's not respect for this football team, after getting it handed to us last year, I don't know what else I've got to say. We were up 10-7 at halftime and we got blown out in the second half."
On Conference USA:
"There's a lot of parity. It's a good league. There are a lot of teams that are right there. Houston is having a good year. I said before the season that there was a lot of depth and parity in the league. On each week, you better bring your best."
On Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthrope:
"He's a good guy and has done a heckuva job. I think he's an excellent football coach. They are a well coached team. They do a lot of good things on both sides of the ball."
On Tulsa Quarterback Paul Smith:
"He's a good player. He's completing 65 percent of his passes. He's a lot better runner than he appears to be. He can run the football and he hurt us last year. He's a very intelligent quarterback. He knows their system and he operates it well. He doesn't make mental mistakes. He's a real good player."
On If Tulsa Is Doing Anything Different:
"It's the same system. There are a lot of different formations, different personnel groupings and misdirection. There's a lot of stuff to work on."
On Jerome Lyons:
"There was never any doubt about his ability to play. He's very instinctive; he smart and I think he's a true middle linebacker. We had some concerns about him physically. He's overcome that knee injury. It's something he has to deal with. He has a bad knee and he's probably sore today. He's a tough guy. I don't want to say he's a surprise, I'm just glad he's healthy and is able to play like he is."
On Injuries:
"Nothing major. Jeremy Young has turf toe. We'll have to see how he is. We left Sean Merrill home for UCF. I talked to him after Sunday's practice and he wasn't ready to go. We set up an MRI, which was negative for him and let him have a few more days off the ankle. I hope he is ready to go. He's just got a mild ankle sprain. Hopefully he'll be ready for this one. We need him."
On If Merrill's Absence Contributed To UCF Having More Success Running The Ball:
"We didn't play well inside. We've got to play better. Sean Merrill is a load. Having him back will help some."
On Some Of The Missed Plays:
"We had some opportunities. We had about three drops in the game. It was a mushy field. It was pretty wet. We've got to make more big plays. We didn't make enough big plays on offense."
On The Ruling On Shawn Nelson's Drop:
"I don't know how many angles they had looking at it. I thought it was a catch. I talked to some people that watched the game and they said the ESPN announcers thought it was a catch. I don't know. I guess it wasn't."
On Special Teams:
"We've got some guys that need to get better and get it done. First of all, we didn't get very good kicks. They were low. I don't expect them to hit it in the end zone every time, but hit it up high so we can get down the field and cover better. We had the one punt that we downed on the one-yard line and the one big one at the end of the game. The rest of them were a little low and our snaps were a little erratic. Even though they were low, I thought we did a good job of covering. Their punter, he hit them high. We've got to get something out of our return game, but punt and kickoff."
On If Personnel Changes Will Be Made On Special Teams:
"We made some changes before, but I think we need some continuity and get better at our fundamentals. We need to challenge them to be personally responsible for getting their job done."
On Offering Scholarships To Kickers:
"I think it depends on what you have on campus. We've had a lot of kickers and punters that have been walk-ons, like Luke Johnson. I wouldn't trade him for anyone. He turned out to be very good. When Luke was doing well, we weren't in the market to offer a punter. We thought Darren McCaleb was very good out of high school. The timing was right, we needed one. Sometimes you need to, but there are cases where you have walk-ons and someone is doing well, you're going to put him on scholarship and use him. We encourage, not just kickers and punters, but anyone on offense and defense to walk on that we feel have an opportunity to play for us, if they come and work hard and do the right things. It depends on what you have on campus and what's out there. I thought Britt Barefoot had a lot of talent, who could kick and punt. When you can do them both, you're stock is even higher. He's an athlete. You like athletic guys. It depends on what we've got and what's out there."
On Throwing More To Start The UCF Game:
"It's what we saw on tape. We wanted to get out with some play action. We thought with our production in the running game, that we'd see a lot of men in the box. They had shown their safeties down a lot more, trying to commit them to the run. We knew what we were going to get. It was by design."
On Going To More One-Back Sets:
"We were in our two-back personnel for 20 snaps in the game. Sometimes it appeared to be one-back, but we had Bobby Weakley lined up in the wing or somewhere.
On No Running The Option More Against UCF:
"We ran some, but they defended it well. They gave us a different look. We didn't block it right a few times. Jeremy also hurt his toe, which probably kept us calling more. We ran that two-point conversion play. It didn't work very well. We thought they would move their linebackers with the motion. We saw them do it before, but they didn't do it."
On Matthew Chatelain:
"He's relentless with effort. I don't know how he shows up to other people, but he shows up to me in the game more than anyone else defensively. He really gives good effort. We didn't come after them a lot, but when we had to; we sacked them three times close to the end of the game. I love the effort he plays with and he brings it every week."
On Running The Clock Out At The End Of The Game:
"I thought we did a good job of running the clock out at the end of the game. That was crucial. We never had to line up and punt. We started with 2:35 seconds and at the end, they blew the fourth down play with 20 seconds left. That was a good job of burning the clock. I had a chart that I carry in to every game that tells you how much time you can run off the clock, depending on if they have one, two or three timeouts. We have a clock burn table, which is our quarterback sweep. There's also a take a knee table, which you don't run as much clock off. That's why we ran the quarterback out. That's why we did that and it worked well."
On The New Clock Rule Helping There:
"The only thing is makes you adjust, because of the change of possession, you add the 25 seconds to the old table. We got the change of possession and we immediately let it run down and took a delay penalty. Then we got on our table. Jay Johnson and I got together and thought it out. We made an adjustment. The new rule helped us there. UCF had to call a timeout to avoid a delay penalty, which was huge in the game. If that doesn't happen, we have to punt the football if we don't make the first down. Obviously we would approach it different, but that was big."
