USM looking to future
By By Richard Dark / EMG staff writer
Nov. 24, 2002
NEW ORLEANS The look on Torrin Tucker's face coming off the field said it all. When the scoreboard clock in the Louisiana Superdome rolled to quadruple zeros the role reversal was complete. And the former Southeast Lauderdale standout has now been on both ends of the Southern Miss football spectrum as it relates to perhaps its best measuring stick, the Tulane Green Wave.
In the past, a Jeff Bower-coached squad would have no trouble with the likes of a Green Wave. But what's past is past, as the Golden Eagles are finding out by virtue of the 31-10 throttling.
Tucker has been nursing an ankle injury, but said he didn't let it affect him. How much Tulane affected the offensive line as a whole can be measured in the fact that quarterback Mickey D'Angelo was dropped by the Wave four times four 26 yards in losses.
But that's looking at it from one side of the coin, something Tucker and everyone else refused to do. "I just don't think we came to play today."
While many Monday morning qb fans will be harsh because the humiliation came at the hands of the post Tommy West Green Wave, running back Derrick Nix said losing to the New Orleans team shouldn't carry the shameful stigma it once did.
Bower flatly refused to address any differences between where the USM program is now compared to where it was the last time they were in the Superdome.
But Tucker, whose Golden Eagle time is drawing to a close, left nothing to speculation. "This team now, I think we have a hard time overcoming when we get down," he said. "We cant bounce back when we get in holes like we used to. I don't know what it is, but it seems like when we get down we just give up."
Surrender is a trait Bower insists his team never displays, but so is looking at the results of other games to measure who the team perceives its chances.
While their opinions differ slightly on certain issues, Bower, Nix and Tucker agree on one thing, the only direction USM can go or rather must go now is up.
But what happens next is vital to the team's fading bowl hopes and players like Nix and Tucker for arent going to leave any stone unturned. "We're already down. But, I'm just going to go out and play my heart out in my last game here and hope everybody else does too. I think we will. There's a lot riding on it." There is indeed.
