For all my USM brethren and friends, my wife and I attended the Southeast Central MS USM Alumni Assoc. Chapter dinner tonight in Waynesboro, MS with Coach Monken. It was a packed house with lots of questions. Here are some of the comments made by Monken:
1) Offense - He will be calling the plays. He said it is alot of work but he wants to call the offensive plays.
2) Defense - He said the 4-2-5 with a bandit (nickel) is great but it will be modulated to other formations from time to time.
3) He said the players are developing well. The strength is in the running back but he is looking for 1 quarterback or 2 to get the nod for starting...mentioned the Cal player and Ricky Lloyd. He also said, "You don't know it but there are situations right now on the offensive line where things are in the air as to who is going to start but you don't hear about them because those are not more prominent roles in the fans mind like QB, running back, receivers, etc." He said the strength of the team is running backs and that they were the toughest in the league in his opinion.
4) He said "We are going to make a statement first game." He said the players were ready to throw that frustration out on the first game.
5) Injuries are going down, still some it doesn't sound too good for Campbell right now.
6) He praised Coach Buckley for really doing a great job in recruiting. He said, "That is his strong point."
7) LOGO - Jeremy McClain (Deputy Athletic Director) answered this question. He said, "The current eagle head logo WILL NOT be on the new football field." He said "other" logos will be utilized throughout the athletic dept. with "Southern Miss" under the logos. So we have a couple of logos...could they be the ones being voted on for Homecoming??? He said putting "Southern Miss" under the eagle logo for now was "just a band-aid" which did not satisfy Iowa (his words). He said the current USM eagle head logo will more than likely be completely gone away in 2 years. They are going to aim at phasing it out. Is it possible we are going back to the modernized "attacking eagle"??? Will the playing turf just have "Southern Miss"???
8) New field turf is being installed in two weeks. The drainage problem has been fixed according to Jeremy.
9) Miami - Jeremy said, "There have been several talks but nothing has been put in writing yet. There are several factors still involved by both parties to reach an agreement." So we are talking to Miami right now.
10) Coach Monken said that he is already in the film room everyday studying our upcoming opponents. He is looking for "exposed points."
11) Coach Monken said he bought Ellis Johnson's house. His wife liked it. [HUMOR] One person said in the crowd, "Don't let anything rub off on you!"
12) He said they like Hattiesburg, but he said his family is tired of moving. He said he loves to get encouragement. He said that USM fans are wonderful. Very supportive and encouraging so guys get on Facebook and support him!
13) He said after Larry Fedora left, he applied for this job but USM turned him down. Interestingly, he said, "I wanted to be hired at Southern Miss bad! I could have jumped up and down waving my hands the hiring process really wasn't open."??? He said that Jeremy was influential in helping him reconsider coming to USM. Monken said he gave up on USM but Jeremy convinced him. Monken said, "I am making less than the former head coach and so is my staff so that should tell you how bad I want to be at Southern Miss." I LIKE MONKEN!
14) Monken said, "Well we lost a recruit to Ole Miss...boy I sure hate saying that name so I won't use it again."
*If I can think of other comments I will let you know. Overall, food, fellowship, and discussion was great! It lasted for over two hours but was really pumped after the dinner. Monken is a "straight shooter." He just tells it like it is and doesn't apologize for doing it. My wife and I got a picture with him and he was all smiles and happy to have come to Waynesboro.
SMTTT
