University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Eagles Continue to Ready for Mountaineers This Weekend
9/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss football team returned to the practice field Tuesday afternoon to continue to get ready for its final non-conference opponent of the regular season, Appalachian State.
The Golden Eagles and Mountaineers are slated to kick off Saturday from Carlisle-Faulkner Field at Roberts Stadium at 6 p.m. The game can be seen on one of the affiliates of the American Sports Network as well as be heard on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network.
Second-year Southern Miss coach Todd Monken said following practice that they changed up the normal Tuesday practice a little bit and the results were positive in the two and a half hour workout in full pads at the Joe P. Park Practice Facility.
"I thought our leaders really led today a lot better than they had been," said Monken. "That lends itself to a better practice. We tried to get in and out of drills as quick as we could and be more efficient with our time."
One of the objectives for the Golden Eagles this weekend will look to try to establish the run against the Mountaineers. In the team's first home game of the season, Southern Miss registered 207 yards on the ground and they look to continue that home trend this Saturday.
While true freshman Ito Smith has led the way for the Golden Eagles with 176 yards on 51 carries, another first-year frosh is working his way into the running back rotation and that is LaGrange, Ga., product Tez Parks. Although it originally looked like Parks was going to get redshirted early on, he has come on to play in the Golden Eagles first three games, getting 82 yards on only 10 carries.
"He got here late in the summer and then got hurt during camp," said Monken. "All of a sudden, in the first game, you are going to redshirt him (but decide to play him). We weren't even practicing him leading up to that. Now getting him going and getting him all the reps. He is only going to continue to get better the more we keep getting him in the flow and in the mix."
Monken went on to say that the offense is going to find ways to utilize Parks in the offense.
"We have to come up with more packages to get him in there," said Monken. "That is probably the toughest thing we have to figure it out. It is hard during the game to rotate. You have to come up with a package that `if it is this set, Tez goes in.' If you don't, you lose track of it. We are going to have to do a better job to make sure that Tez is in on this package so that way we kind of know that the plays are evenly rotated without having to think about it during the game."
Tickets are available for the contest and can be purchased online at SouthernMissTickets.com, via the phone at 1-800-844-TICK (8425) or in person weekdays at the Pat Ferlise Ticket Office from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
