Live from the Peabody Hotel . . .

It’s finally bowl week and the players and coaches have reported. Everyone seems to be in a good and festive mood, and three of us scribes – Kyle Veazey of the Clarion Ledger and Ron Higgins of the Commercial Appeal – spent time talking with the players and coaches how to have fun while trying to win a game too.

And of course, staying out of trouble.

“We know what we came here to do,” Brown said. “It’s not to go out on Beale Street and walk the street and all that type of stuff. It’s to beat the opposing team. We’re grown men and able enough to separate business and pleasure. All the guys here are mature enough. As you’ve seen, we haven’t had any players have any trouble off the field this year.”
And that’s one of the reasons fourth-year coach Sylvester Croom trusts his players enough that there won’t be a curfew for the first two nights here.

Said Sylvester Croom, “I told the team before we left I was very, very proud of what they’ve done this year. As pleased as I am with the fact that we are in a bowl game, I am very pleased with the way we got here. We showed a lot of character, discipline and mental toughness. We did that in conjunction with having the best GPA our team has ever had. Also, I’m proud of the fact we’re coming into a bowl, considering what’s going on around the rest of the country, with all of our guys eligible.
“Now, it’s just a matter if we can handle, like men, the freedom and the success of being in a bowl game. That’s the question that has to be answered up here.”

As for the next two days, I won’t be here. I’ll be in Chattanooga with family before returning here on Christmas night. So, I won’t be reporting from practice or doing a lot of blogging. I had to promise my wife.

So, if we don’t talk again until Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon, have a great Christmas.