Bower keeps getting it done in Hattiesburg
By By Stan Torgerson / sports columnist
Sept. 16, 2002
Year in and year out Jeff Bower at Southern Mississippi does his job as well as any coach in the state of Mississippi. He's been there 12 years and once again has his team off to a flying start at 3-0.
Bower, as a recruiter, signs a number of maybe-if kids that Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama and LSU don't offer on the basis that their playing ability is questionable. Then those same kids come to Southern and Bower teaches them the game, motivates them to play it right, turns them into stars and they go out and kick butt.
The Bower system reminds me so much of Tom Swayze when Tom was recruiting for Johnny Vaught. Swayze could look at a high school kid, tell you how tall he would grow in the next four years, how much he'd weigh and, most of all, what Vaught could expect the youngster to contribute to the Rebel football team. Swayze signed quarterbacks and fullbacks galore from all over the state, knowing that when they got to Oxford they'd be playing tackle, guard, linebacker or some other non-glamorous position, but also knowing the youngster would be happy to be playing any position for Ole Miss, and even more so, to be playing with a winner.
I don't remember any Swayze recruit sulking that he had been a backfield star in high school and now they were making him play in the trenches. I've also never read a story datelined Hattiesburg in which one of the Golden Eagles ever claimed he was misled about his football future by Bower. His players obviously are happy to be part of the team at Southern and the results on the field show why. Last Saturday they ripped a Memphis team 33-14 that had Ole Miss sweating the week before. With 524 yards from scrimmage against the Tigers it was an impressive outing for the Golden Eagles.
Bower weaves his spell despite less than adequate fan support and financial shortfalls. Southern fans are vocally as enthusiastic about their team and as thrilled by its exploits as those from any other school. But they don't buy tickets and I'm darned if I can explain why.
Ole Miss played a nobody in their first game, Louisiana Monroe, and had 58,000 there to watch. Southern Mississippi played last year's Big Ten champion a week ago and beat them but only about 22,000 showed up for the game. Louisiana Monroe didn't bring any more fans than Illinois did, maybe not that many, so those 58,000 tickets were sold to people who loved Ole Miss enough to shell out the necessary dollars to come to the game.
Please don't tell me only 22,000 love Southern Mississippi enough to do the same. If the Illini were to play any SEC team, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama, LSU, you name it, they would be playing before a full house of 60,000 to 80,000. At Hattiesburg they played before more that 10,000 empty seats. No wonder the Illinois coach said after the game he would never come this way to play again. No wonder Southern has to go on the road to play the big name football schools.
Last Saturday before a traditional conference opponent, undefeated Southern had 28,419 for the Memphis game. Mississippi State, soundly whipped by Oregon in their first game and playing an absolute cupcake in Division I-AA, Jacksonville State, had 47,456 on hand.
How many times a year can the Golden Eagles play Jackson State in order to get a capacity crowd?
It isn't a case of enrollment either. Southern has more students than Ole Miss and, I believe, as many or more than Mississippi State, so, likewise, they should have more graduates who hunger to bring their kids to campus and show them the places etched in memory from their college days. And don't tell me that Ole Miss graduates doctors and lawyers who can better afford the cost of a college football weekend or that Mississippi State's engineers and veterinarians bought all 47,456 tickets last weekend. There aren't that many doctors, lawyers, engineers and vets in the entire state.
As a result, Southern has to go on the road, play the big buck schools at their place in in order to get their athletic budget from gushing red ink. Compare their investment in athletic facilities over the past 10 years with those of the Rebels and the Bulldogs. Scott Field seats 52,884. Vaught-Hemingway's capacity is 60,580. The Golden Eagles have to use a shoe horn to get 35,000 in theirs. Which schools do you think are in a better financial position to build the weight rooms, refurbish their gyms and provide other facilities top athletes look for when making their college choice.
Yet Bower continues to perceive potential where others don't. He continues to coach the kids who not only never made the Parade All-American team, they weren't even candidates for it, and coach them with an intensity and skill that wins football games and astounds members of the media.
This Saturday Southern will play Alabama again, a team that beat them by only 13 points last year. Will Alabama be favored? Darn right. Could Southern win? Possibly. Will the Golden Eagles give the Tide a tough afternoon? Beyond a doubt. If the Tide lets their minds wander they could become the victims of an upset that will have football fans from coast-to-coast asking each other again how does Jeff Bower do it?
You know and I know how. Hard work. Great coaching. Making his kids believe.
If only he could only get a little more help and support from his friends.
