By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports director
Sept. 2, 2003
As poorly as he said his team played in last Saturday's 34-2 loss California, Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower is glad his team has to play again quickly.
The Golden Eagles have a short week of practice as they get ready for the 6 p.m. Thursday contest at Birmingham's historic Legion Field.
While USM is coming off a one-sided loss to the Golden Bears of the PAC-10, UAB took a 24-19 last-minute road win over Baylor of the Big 12.
Although the history between UAB and USM on the football field is a short one, it certainly has been intense.
The Golden Eagles lead the series 3-0, but each win has come after a tough fight.
USM won last year's game, also played in Birmingham, by the score of 20-13. In 2001 the Golden Eagles beat UAB 3-0 in the only game of the series played in Hattiesburg. The first game between the two teams saw USM beat UAB 33-30 in overtime.
When looking back on Saturday's loss to Cal, Bower had plenty of places to turn to talk about something going wrong.
USM failed on four third-and-short conversions in the game, dropped a couple key passes, missed 21 tackles and had a bad snap and a blocked kick in the punting game.
Bower said that Micky D'Angelo, who hit on 16-of-26 passes for 163 yards and one interception on Saturday, would get the start at quarterback against UAB. Bower said backup quarterback Dustin Almond, who was 4-for-8 for 49 yards, didn't practice on Sunday because of "personal Issues," but was back on the field on Monday.