Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2008
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FEDORA: 90 MINUTES WITH THE COACH
Sun Herald interviews Larry Fedora
By JIM MASHEK
jwmashek@sunherald.com
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Football
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Larry Fedora challenged Southern Miss fans to fill M.M. Roberts Stadium for last weekend's spring football game. It didn't happen, but the first-year Southern Miss coach was not deterred.
"We had 11,000-something, and the atmosphere was awesome," Fedora said in Thursday morning's meeting with the Sun Herald. "That's what we'll be shooting for next year. Eventually, there's going to be a point where you can't get a seat at a spring game. That's what's gonna happen."
Fedora touched on a variety of subjects in his 90-minute interview at the newspaper, including his early influences growing up in Bryan, Texas, and his desire to become a football coach while still in high school.
"Even though I had a very stable home life," Fedora said, "those coaches still had a major impact on my life."
Fedora, 45, succeeds longtime coach Jeff Bower, who won four Conference USA championships and compiled a 119-83-1 record.
"We met the day that I took the job," Fedora said. "We sat down in his office and visited. Jeff welcomed me and he told me he wanted the best for Southern Miss, that it was his university. He wants us to be successful. Exactly what you'd expect from him.
"I want to continue with his legacy and take this thing to the next level."
Fedora coached some explosive offensive teams while at Florida and Oklahoma State, but he said he's flexible enough to adapt to his personnel. The Golden Eagles have one of college football's unique talents in junior running back Damion Fletcher, a former Biloxi High standout who won the Conerly Trophy last season.
"When I got to MTSU (Middle Tennessee State in 1999), I had to find an edge," Fedora said. "I knew the option was a great equalizer. But I saw our quarterback and knew we had no chance to be an option team. We decided to spread it out and throw the football."
Fedora consulted with several college coaches when he decided to leave Oklahoma State for Southern Miss last year, including ex-Ole Miss coach Billy Brewer, Brewer's son Gunter, and ex-Baylor coach Grant Teaff, his first coach at the collegiate level.
"Billy Brewer said tremendous things about the program," Fedora said. "The history, the toughness of the players there. It was just something about the players at Southern and how they played the game. There was so much potential. They felt like you could go as far as you wanted to take it."
Ultimately, however, Fedora knows he'll be judged by winning football games.
"The first thing is we've got to put an exciting product on the field," he said. "We've got to win football games. That's what generates excitement. When I got here, and I actually saw the facilities in place, and what was being built... it was more than I expected, to be honest.
"I want people to see the same vision I have."
