12/14 GMAC Bowl Article from Memphis' Commercial Appeal

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West trying to make best of extra practices

By Phil Stukenborg
December 14, 2004

Practice for the GMAC Bowl began Friday for the University of Memphis football team.

The Tigers also practiced Saturday, took Sunday off, and resumed workouts Monday at the Murphy Athletic Complex. They'll practice daily through Thursday, taking Friday off to travel to the bowl site in Mobile, Ala., before resuming workouts at an area high school.

It's an additional two weeks of practice that serves as a fringe benefit of the postseason. Not only do the workouts prepare the team for the bowl game, but they give the returning players beneficial repetitions.

"We're working some of the younger guys in fundamental drills that we do prior to our team scout work," Tiger coach Tommy West said. "We're involving everybody, where during the year you just involve the guys that are playing because you have to move so fast.

"Now you can slow down, take your time and you can work everybody. All the (young) wideouts and running backs and linebackers are getting work."

West said Monday it's not as productive a period as it used to be. Before NCAA scholarship reductions were mandated, teams had as many as 150 players.

"I can remember in the 1980s (as an assistant coach at Clemson), we used to keep our young guys out and scrimmage after the travel squad (finished practice)," he said. "We'd always leave the week before the week of the game and went somewhere else and practiced."

West said the only restriction was the team had to stay within 60 miles of the game site.

"If we played in Orlando, we went and stayed in Daytona," he said. "If we went and played in Jacksonville, we stayed in Daytona.

"We'd practice six days prior to going to the bowl site. And I tried to do that my second year (as head coach) at Clemson (in 1995) when we came in second (in the Atlantic Coast Conference) and went to the Gator Bowl."

West said the experience was a disaster.

"By the time we got to Jacksonville, those kids were ready to go home," he said. "And by the time the game was to be played, they didn't even want to play.

"It was the worst. I knew we were in trouble."

West said some of college football's most prestigious programs falter in bowl games for similar reasons. Alabama went 0-7-1 during an eight-year stretch from 1968-75 under legendary coach Bear Bryant. Michigan went 0-7 from 1970-79 and Ohio State went 2-8 between 1970-80.

"Some of the great, great coaches were not good in bowl games," West said. "Nebraska had a terrible bowl record. One of the reasons was they preached, 'We'll have our fun after the bowl game.'

"Then they go through two-a-days and work their players like dogs up until the game. You don't have enough people to do that anymore."

West said it's important for this program to use the bowl experience to its benefit, not as a detriment.

"The impact of a bowl game for us now is from a recruiting standpoint and an attitude standpoint," West said. "We're close to being a team that expects to go to a bowl game."

While the workouts leading up to the Dec. 22 game against Bowling Green won't be much different than they were for any other opponent during the season, West said being able to extend the season is a positive.

Having a postseason date boosts the program, giving it another two weeks of exposure.

"It just helps the overall attitude of your team," he said. "We're not the pits anymore. We don't dress in a locker room that leaks. We walk a little bit different, we talk a little bit different. We don't boast about what we're going to do. We carry ourselves a little different because we are expected to play well and win. And with that comes a different attitude."

Briefly

Tiger officials said those who purchased tickets to the GMAC Bowl from the U of M ticket office can pick up their orders today, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m to 7 p.m. at the school's Athletic Office Building.

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Here's another article in today's Commercial Appeal

DeAngelo is All-American

Junior running back makes AP third team

By Phil Stukenborg
December 14, 2004

University of Memphis running back DeAngelo Williams, the leading rusher in school history and a two-time Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year, added another honor to his growing resume Monday.

Williams, a junior from Wynne, Ark., was named to the 2004 Associated Press All-America Third Team. Williams became the first Tiger to make one of AP's first three teams since defensive back Jerome Woods in 1995.

"That's big," Williams said after Monday's practice. "I was amazed when I found out."

Ranked first nationally in scoring (12 points per game), Williams rushed for a school-record 1,828 yards during the regular season. He can add to his total in the Dec. 22 GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., where the Tigers (8-3) will play Bowling Green (8-3).

Williams is the sixth Tiger to be chosen to an AP All-America team, joining Harry Schuh (1964), David Berrong (1969), Mike Stark (1971), Joe Allison (1992) and Woods.

"This is something big for our program," Williams said. "It'll bring some more national attention to our program."

Whether Williams returns in 2005 for an opportunity to make the AP first team -- or compete for the Heisman Trophy -- remains in question.

During Monday's press conference at the UofM for the upcoming bowl game, Tiger coach Tommy West discussed Williams's upcoming decision: to enter the NFL Draft before the mid-January deadline for underclassmen or return for his senior season.

"We have talked every day since the last game (Nov. 27 at South Florida)," West said. "And if I'm not talking to him, somebody (on the UofM staff) is.

"I think my job is to give him all the information I can give him that is straight up because this faction is going to be giving him information the way they want and (that) faction is going to try and sway him that way. My job is go give him the pros and cons of staying and the pros and cons of going."

West expects Williams to make a decision shortly after the Tigers return from the bowl game, a timetable Williams confirmed.

As West's press conference was concluding Monday, Williams walked in and suggested he'd liked the Tiger blue sweater West was wearing. West joked that he could "cut a deal" with Williams to get him the sweater, implying a decision to return to the UofM.

"Those have been his favorite words (cut a deal) these past three weeks," Williams said.

All-american Tigers

DeAngelo Williams is just the sixth U of M player to be named an Associated Press All-American:

OT Harry Schuh, 1964 (second team)

DB David Berrong, 1969 (third)

OL Mike Stark, 1971 (first)

K Joe Allison, 1992 (first)

DB Jerome Woods, 1995 (third)

RB DeAngelo Williams, 2004 (third)

[BelieveNBG]

I hope this doesn't happen to us, because our players haven't had a break since Thanksgiving. I can't believe Memphis just started practicing...

West said some of college football's most prestigious programs falter in bowl games for similar reasons. Alabama went 0-7-1 during an eight-year stretch from 1968-75 under legendary coach Bear Bryant. Michigan went 0-7 from 1970-79 and Ohio State went 2-8 between 1970-80.

"Some of the great, great coaches were not good in bowl games," West said. "Nebraska had a terrible bowl record. One of the reasons was they preached, 'We'll have our fun after the bowl game.'

"Then they go through two-a-days and work their players like dogs up until the game. You don't have enough people to do that anymore."

West said it's important for this program to use the bowl experience to its benefit, not as a detriment.