NEW ORLEANS – As part of activities at 2015 Sun Belt Conference Media Day, held Monday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, University of South Alabama football student-athletes Roman Buchanan and Chris May spoke with members of the media.

Highlights from the duo's 30-minute availability session included:

Roman Buchanan
On what how important is it for the program to take the next step:
"I feel that this year is the year for us to prove that we are a unit.  Losing some players [from last season] on defense doesn't mean anything.  The way in which we do things [on the field] is why we win.  What we are trying to implement in our program is that the way you watch film, the way you run, just everything you do every single day.  Our ways is what makes us win."

On what he has seen in practice from the defensive unit and what he expects from them:
"I'm just ready for fall camp, because based off our 7-on-7s, workouts and everything we've been doing, the competition level is neck-and-neck.  Right now, I feel we are two-deep at the corner.  I feel like the battle at the corner position is going to be so steep that if you stub your toe, you may lose your starting job.  It hasn't always been that way for us.  At linebacker, Demarius Rancifer had an extremely good spring and he's still learning.  On the defensive line, I really expect Tyree [Turner] and Roy [Albritton] to come in and make a splash. They've shown the will to learn the defense, the will to get better every single day.  They came in this spring with the right attitude and I love it.  As a whole though, I feel that we've taken what we did last year and shown that we believe we can be even better than that."

On how important he feels his role on the team will be this season:
"What Maleki [Harris] was last year and what Romelle [Jones] was the year before, I feel that that's me now.  Those guys helped me so much to get to where I am right now.  I can't remember exactly when it was last season, but Maleki came to me during a practice and told me that it was my turn.  He told me that this was my defense now, that I had to take ownership of it and that I had to hold guys accountable.  I think I've done that.  I wasn't a very vocal guy when I got here, but I've gotten better."

On how his versatility in high school has helped him at this level:
"I feel like from that experience that I understand the game so much better and deeper than your average defensive player.  There are very few things that an offense can throw at me that confuses me or causes me to play slower.  I think the triple-option offense, which you rarely see in college, is the only thing that I've had to get used to.  Because of those experiences, I feel like I know what the offense is trying to do and I know what I would do if I was an offensive player, so there is very little that you can do to get me off my game.  What I love about playing safety is that I have total control over the defense. I can make calls at all three levels.  Because I know what the offense is trying to do, [assistant] coach [Travis] Pearson has a lot of confidence in me and gives me freedom back there.  It's kind of like being a quarterback back there."

Chris May
On being a leader entering his senior year:
"Honestly, I just want to leave a legacy of building leaders, not just being a leader of our offense or our team.  It's more about putting time in with the younger guys and trying to develop them as well because when the older guys leave we have to have someone who will provide the foundation."

On how the transfers from Alabama-Birmingham have fit in:
"When they first got here it, even though they fit in, it was kind of awkward; what they went through was a traumatic situation.  But this summer we've been able hang out — cooking out, going bowling, things like that— to build chemistry with them, which has been awesome."

On the goals of the offense in 2015:
"Coach Vincent has been pounding into our heads that we want to be the best offense in our conference and one of the best — if not the best — in the country.  We had the weapons last year to be a lot better than we were, and we have the weapons now to be a lot better than we were last year.  A lot of people are pointing out that we lost a lot of people from our defense last year, but I think the finger should be pointed at us; we need to learn how to develop better chemistry and instead of underachieving we need to overachieve."

On adjusting to [assistant] coach [Bryant] Vincent returning just before the bowl game last season:
"He did a very good job of using what we were already doing, but tweaking it to make it his own.  He didn't really change a lot of terminology, he didn't change a lot of plays, he just tweaked some stuff to do what he wanted to do.  We only had one game, and we couldn't completely reinvent our offense in one week.  We really haven't changed a lot of stuff, we're going to do things a lot faster and be a lot more aggressive, so it's not a huge transition.  It's a different mentality but the same type of system."

On taking the field at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl last year:
"The process of getting to the bowl was really cool, and then running onto the field with the fireworks was a cool experience even if it caught me off guard.  But once the game started the feeling was gone, it was just another game.  It was a really cool experience."

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