Tigers helping Southern Miss regain sense of normalcy

By Zack McMillin
Memphis Commercial Appeal
September 8, 2005

The Southern Miss football team is hungry.

Really, really hungry.

It is 15 minutes after 7 on Tuesday night, and a stream of Southern Miss football players is sprinting through a dormitory parking lot at the University of Memphis, headed for the dining hall.

"They got off that bus like they had never eaten or seen a girl before," says Jason Jones, an administrative assistant with the program.

Inside the cafeteria, which looks like a modern food court, the 90-plus players and staff are piling food onto plates and making themselves feel at home.

With their first game of the season, at Alabama, looming on Saturday, this is a good sign to Southern Miss coaches. Displaced to Memphis in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Southern Miss has found routine and comfort in what offensive lineman George Batiste calls "our campus away from campus."

In town since last Thursday, the Golden Eagles are staying at the East Memphis Hilton and using the UofM's football facilities on South Campus for practices, meetings and weight workouts.

They eat meals at Richardson Towers, a nice convenience since the UofM uses the same food service vendor as USM.

"Memphis done showed us lot of hospitality, so a lot of thanks goes out to Memphis," says Batiste, a jolly offensive lineman from New Orleans with dreadlocks and a welcoming smile. "They don't really have to do it, but they are, you know, giving us that love."

In the course of a 30-minute conversation, Batiste and his teammates express their gratitude a half-dozen times, without prompting. They are happy now, enthusiastic about the season, relieved their families are OK -- so far as they know. Batiste has accounted for those on his father's side of the family, including the grandfather who raised him, but says he has not yet heard from relatives on his mother's side of the family.

Pedi Causey, a tight end with trusting eyes, got news that his family in Franklinton, La. was OK.

Chris Clark, a sophomore lineman, is from the area of New Orleans that was most severely flooded, near the levees. He says he didn't know until last Thursday, before the bus ride to Memphis, if his mother and brothers had evacuated, but he got a call that they were safe in Montgomery. Just Monday, he discovered that his grandmother and aunts were indeed alive after a harrowing experience at the New Orleans Convention Center.

"That relieved my mind of all kinds of stress and everything," says Clark.

When they left Hattiesburg last week, three days after Katrina roared through, the stress was manifesting itself in body, mind and spirit.

One player told USM coach Jeff Bower that breakfast had consisted of a cold hot dog and bottle of water. Players accustomed to devouring 3,000-4,000 calories per day and at least three hours of rigorous exercise needed relocation.

"We physically saw it in Hattiesburg, so we could imagine how bad it was south of us," said Bower, who described watching large stands of pine trees splinter in the onslaught. "It was like a war zone. The first thing we did was put the radio on the public radio station and we started getting reports, things we hadn't heard, really. After about an hour, it became depressing."

When the team got to Jackson, a booster had arranged for the team to eat -- all it wanted -- at a Western Sizzlin'.

Imagine, if you will, college football players who have gone four days without a hot meal told to eat until they can eat no more.

"I saw a real mood change after we stopped and ate," Bower said. "They put on a big feed for us and I mean the mood went from quiet to upbeat after that."

Or, exactly the way Bower likes it.

As a player, Bower played his entire senior year at Southern Miss, where he was a quarterback, on the road because of stadium construction. As the USM coach, Bower has coached 62 percent of his games away from home.

John Miller, the director of football operations at Southern Miss, had Bower as best man in his wedding. He attributes the program's consistent success to Bower's insistence on maintaining the proper attitude.

Without it, no way the Golden Eagles could have won four Conference USA titles and made six bowl appearances in the past seven years.

Because of it, Southern Miss may just find a way to weather this storm.

"It starts with our leader, and he demands positive attitudes," Miller said. "He don't tolerate complaining. We will make the best of any situation thrown our way."

Preparing

At 9 in the morning Wednesday, one of the most successful coaches in college football was in his temporary office.

Sitting on the floor in the lobby of the UofM's football office, Bower had a legal pad on one side of him, newspapers on the other and a cell phone in his hand.

With power restored to the USM campus, Bower could have brought the team back home. But too many uncertainties remained -- was the water contaminated? Were all the players' apartments with power? -- made Bower's decision easy.

The team would stay in Memphis, bus to Birmingham on Friday and play in Tuscaloosa on Saturday.

Todd McCall, the team's head trainer (and 1996 Alabama graduate), factored into the decision. He estimates the team goes through 400 gallons of water a day, and he didn't want to take a chance on any contaminated water creating an even worse situation.

"Even you look at washing clothes, if you got some kind of toxin in the water system, that could cause breakouts," McCall says.

So far, the Eagles have had an injury-free camp in Memphis, and McCall, true to the coach's dictates, sees some good in the relocation and cancelation of the Tulane game, which would have been on Sunday.

"The time off, I definitely think it helped us get our legs under us," McCall says. "In a positive way, it helped us get some of the bumps and bruises healed up."

When he was a junior in high school, McCall's hometown of Elba, Ala., was decimated by a flood, and he ended up graduating from a trailer court.

"You go through one natural disaster, you think that's enough for a lifetime," he says.

As the team practices, the atmosphere turns serious. A wide receiver drops a pass, and the tone in an assistant coach's voice suggests that kickoff is coming.

Bower, at one point, becomes frustrated with the kickoff team.

"Be a smart player," he hollers.

Beyond the setting, with the blue and gray decorating the brick UofM facility, there are only a few signs that this is anything other than a normal Southern Miss practice. The defense is on one field, the offense on another. The uniforms are black, white, yellow and red (for the scout team) all over.

Because Southern Miss keeps handy a bowl checklist for equipment, McCall and other staff had little trouble bringing enough necessary supplies.

Look close, though, and you see that the assistant equipment manager's wife, Brandy Windham, is in charge of blowing the airhorn to signify the beginning and end of sessions.

One player, Justin Harris, is conspicuous because of his headgear -- a royal blue helmet with MEMPHIS on the front and TIGERS on the back. Harris left his helmet in Hattiesburg, and had to borrow one from the UofM.

Which brings us back to Bower, Norman Vincent Peale in a coach's golf shirt and ballcap.

"Memphis has been great, Tommy West and everybody else," Bower says. "We feel fortunate they reached out to us and welcomed us without any hesitation."

Mike Montoro, the media relations director, points to another unintended positive for the program -- national exposure.

National media outlets were ringing his cell phone even as Katrina battered Hattiesburg, and ESPN will run a segment tonight chronicling USM's Memphis sojurn.

"For a bad situation, it's good for the program to get that kind of publicity -- you can't put a price on it," Montoro says.

Hurry on back

In focusing on Southern Miss's plight, it is easy to forget there is a huge game for the program on Saturday. The Golden Eagles are well aware what a win at Alabama could do for the program, which some believe is the favorite to win Conference USA this season.

"If we come out and play hard and do everything we need to and win," says Causey, the tight end, "it'll come back and put a smile on people's faces in Hattiesburg."

Everyone involved with the Southern program emphasizes that he does not feel like a victim. Their needs have been met since arriving on Thursday, and, unlike Tulane and other football programs in Louisiana, they know they will be home soon.

Miller, the director of football operations, has been in contact with Tulane, which is being hosted by SMU, and offered to help.

That could include Tulane playing a home game in Hattiesburg later in the season.

Hattiesburg is sure to host another big conference rival this year, too. On Nov. 19, the UofM comes to town, though this year's version of the old "Black and Blue" game is certain to have a different feel.

If all goes well for Southern Miss, there is another date circled on the calendar: Dec. 31, when the Conference USA champ plays in the Liberty Bowl.

The Golden Eagles wouldn't mind spending another week in Memphis after all.

"That's the long term goal," Miller says. "And if you are looking for something positive, this whole experience has brought our team closer together."

-- Zack McMillin; 529-2564

Truly a class act - and much appreciated - by Memphis.