University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Jeff Bower Weekly News Conference Quotes - Oct. 15, 2007
10/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 15, 2007
Southern Miss Coach Bower Media Conference Quotes...Oct. 15, 2007
Opening Statement
"It was good effort by our football team. It was good to see us get some turnovers and win that part of the game. That was key in the game. Probably the biggest turning point was when they made the long drive and we got the fumble recovery on the 2-yard line. Robert Henderson stripped it and I think Martavius Prince recovered it. Then we put together a 98 yard drive so that was huge. If we don't create turnovers in this game then it was going to be a dogfight until the end.
"We stopped some drives with interceptions and fumbles and we got a couple of scores off of turnovers. I thought offensively we had good balance with the run and pass. We threw and caught the ball better than what we have done, and we did a better job of taking care of it except for one turnover. Stephen Reaves just made a bad decision. He should have gone to his next progression as we had another guy open. Defensively, their quarterback (SMU Justin Willis) does that to everybody he runs around and he is hard to tackle. We played hard and our front-four played pretty well. I think Brandon Sumrall had a huge game for us.
"We also did some good things in the kicking game. (Britt) Barefoot had one good punt, but other than that, not a great day but we covered extremely well. We had guys down there on them I think we had a 42.2 yard average and a net punt average of 40 yard which is really good. We only had one punt return for nine yards and one kick off return and it was for 30 yards. Kickoff coverage had an 18.7 average and average starting field position was at the 17 yard line. We had two touchbacks so it was a good effort in the kicking game. It was a good win for us and we needed that badly going on the road this week, I think our guys played extremely hard."
Players of the Week
Offense: Stephen Reaves -70 snaps, 86%, 18-26 for 206 yards, 1 TD, 1 rush for 7 yards and TD
Defense: Brandon Sumrall - 70 snaps, 81%, 6 tackles, 4 asst., 1 sack, 1 ½ tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and a big hit.
Special Teams: Chico Hunter - 2 tackles on punt, and one big hit on a punt team.
On Marshall "Marshall is always a tough team at home has a great home record. I know they haven't won a ballgame, but Rice came in here to and hadn't won a ball game. It's just been a crazy year in football. Everyone has good athletes and coaches. Preparation is the most important thing. They can move the ball on offense, they have a great wide receiver in (Darius) Passmore, who is really fast. They got him the ball some different ways this week on the option. The quarterback (Bernard Morris) is really talented and another one like we have seen - runner and thrower - who had a big game last week throwing the football. I think they have a good offense as they are averaging right at 400 yards. Defensively, they are young and have given up some yards, but they play extremely hard. But you also have to look at who they have played. There have been some quality competition with Miami, West Virginia and Cincinnati. They played West Virginia really hard and that was a close game for along time. They have been in some tough games and played some tough people, so this is a key game for us. All of these conference games from here on out are key."
On Jay Hopson's condition
"I haven't talked to him since after the game, but he is on his way back should be here early this evening. He is supposed to find out the results from the pathology lab today."
How do you think the defensive coaches are doing with Hopson's absence
"They did a great job (last week). I have to give it to our defensive staff. They've worked together, all three of them, and they gave our players a good plan and they did a good job of managing the game."
Is there a chance of Hopson coming back this week
"I don't know, but I would doubt it. We have already started working on Marshall, so I would assume that we would go with the same routine this week."
On Jeremy Young's hurt ankle
"It is kind of a day-to-day, week-to-week thing with him. I hope that he is going to be better."
The late SMU score against the Golden Eagles snapped a 50 straight point scored by the team. What were they keys to that stretch?
"It is turnovers. We moved the ball on Rice, but we just turned it over. Turnovers will get you beat quicker than anything else. You are not going to beat many people with seven turnovers, unless you create that many. We did a better job of that this week, where we actually stopped them with turnovers. Forcing turnovers, that was the key. We forced four turnovers and kept them out of the end zone. Look at that fourth quarter of the Rice game and the SMU game, Stephen Reaves has been really hot. I think he was 15-for-21 in the fourth quarter against Rice, and then 18-for-26 in this game and up to that point (at the start of the fourth quarter versus Rice) we had a bunch of dropped balls. I don't think we had a drop in this game."
About the Conference USA race unfolding "It is wild and wacky, with a lot of points being scored all year long. It has been a wild year and it kind of surprised me that Rice scored that many on Houston. Everybody is scoring a lot of points; Tulsa and Marshall was a high-scoring game."
On the play of senior Chris Johnson
"He has played pretty well when the ball is coming to him. We have to get his motor running when it is not called to him. He has to be a better blocker for us and do some things better downfield, but he has been a good receiver in the pass game, who I would like to see improve his effort in the run game. He has to be a playmaker for us. He has been around and runs good routes and has to step up and do that for us every game."
On opening up the playbook
"It was just what we saw that we thought we could do. We have had some of those (plays) in the package before, but sometimes you have to check out of it based on looks. It is not that they are never called. I think Jay (Johnson) called a good game and we had an opportunity to run some of those plays."
On the receivers adjusting to Reaves "He (Reaves) really made a lot of catchable throws. There weren't really any tough catches. He put the ball on the money when it was near us. He missed a couple of throws overall, but he was pretty accurate. It is just a matter of being ready and a sense of urgency. Going back to our practices, we had really good ones this week. I think all of those things carry over to the game."
On Brandon Sumrall's aggressiveness
"He has been aggressive all year and I have never seen him not be aggressive. He had that big hit on the corner blitz. It was a highlight reel full of hits on the field Saturday."
