Aug. 15, 2012

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss football team went through its final scheduled two-a-day practice with the second one getting doused, not by Mother Nature, but by the Hattiesburg Fire Department.

After going through the morning workout which lasted over two hours, the Golden Eagles began its late afternoon practice. Following stretching, first-year coach Ellis Johnson called the team together on one of the practice fields and a pair of Hattiesburg Department fire trucks, located on the other side of the practice field in front of Osceola McCarty Hall, soaked the team as the practice ended early.

"We had already decided that we had reached a breaking point - where we have so many guys dinged up and kind of worn down - and we were going to go to a one-a-day today," said Johnson. "Instead of just cancelling practice, we took them out and went through our stretching and flexing routine and all that and we arranged for the fire trucks to come out and squirt them down.

"It went off pretty well. Only problem was we had so much lighting and storms threatening us there for a few minutes that I think the kids were looking around more worried about that than anything else."

The Golden Eagles also worked in full pads during the morning session as the team continues to work toward its second fall scrimmage this Saturday.

"[The morning practice] was pretty good," said Johnson. "We were a lot better assignment-wise. We continue to have a little too much inconsistency on offense, and as a result, I'm not sure how much we're improved on both sides of the ball.

"Defensively, they are flying around. We continue to mix the third-down situations in and we're doing some good stuff on defense. I'm anxious to get to Saturday and see if when we get out there in a live situation if our offense is able to mix run and pass and move the chains and so forth."

The Golden Eagles return to the practice fields Thursday morning.