MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football head coach Joey Jones along with offensive lineman Dominic Esposito and defensive lineman Rocel McWilliams met with the media Monday to preview Saturday's game against Louisiana and recap last week's game against Georgia State.

Head coach Joey Jones
Opening statement: "Obviously, it was a tough loss last week for us.  I thought our kids played hard, but we have to bounce back from the loss and move forward.  We need to have a good practice week this week and get our fundamentals back.  We didn't run the ball well this past week and I didn't think we blocked that well up front and [Georgia State] kind of dominated us, which made us press a little bit throwing the ball; we weren't in a comfortable position, so we have to get back to running the football better this week."

On if there is a since of urgency this week: "I always feel urgency.  In this business you always feel that; if you don't, you don't need to be in it.  Our players understand where we are and [Louisiana] is in the same boat that we are.  We both have our backs up against the wall and it's going to come down who plays best at the end of the year when deciding who's going to a bowl [game] from our conference.  Our conference is a tough conference and there are a lot of teams that are similar to us, and whoever makes those three to five plays that we always talk about in these remaining games is who will win the game; we have to be the team that does that."

On what the offense needs to do better: "We have to run the football, which I've already mentioned.  I felt like that we didn't make enough explosive plays [against Georgia State].  We had a lot of explosive plays against Troy and ULM.  When you're, as I call it 'nickel-and-diming it', when you're gaining four and five yards throwing the football and you have to keep executing all the way down the field, there is going to be a breakdown somewhere.  For us the other night, we had to settle for three field goals and left points on the field; that's where we have to improve.  We have to be more consistent and make more plays down the field.  We have to be able to push it down field more, but when you're not able to run the football, it puts a damper on what you're trying to do offensively in my opinion."

On the down-field passing game: "We probably should've thrown it down the field more the other night against Georgia State looking back on it.  We have players able to make those plays and the previous two games we had made a bunch of those plays.  We have to be able to make those plays and open it up a little bit more."

On the theme for the week: "It's funny that the players mentioned [getting back to the basics].  Sunday I showed them a film of about eight plays on offense and eight plays on defense where we either dropped a pass or didn't get in the right gap.  The second play of the game, we had a ball that our receiver tipped to a defensive back who ran it down to the five-yard line.  We just need to make those average run-of-the-mill plays; we're not asking them to make the spectacular plays.  We just want them to make the simple plays.  If you execute those plays, the big plays will happen eventually, and that's the point I've tried to get across to them.  It always comes down to those fundamental plays.  If you execute them, you have a chance to win and if you don't, you don't."

On Corliss Waitman: "We are one of the best punting teams in the country and that's because Corliss is kicking the ball extremely well and we are covering punts well too.  I'm happy for him winning the national award today.  Before this year, his issue was consistency, but he's done a great job this year of being consistent."

Dominic Esposito
On what they need to do to win this week: "We have to get back to the basics.  We talked about it yesterday.  We need to execute and get away from the errors.  I had some that cost us.  We need to get back to the football we were playing the past couple of weeks."

On if there is a sense of urgency in every practice after last week's loss: "We have never given ourselves any slack, because we expect to win every game.  We want to change the culture from 6-6 to something better.  We still have a chance to be the best South team to come through here.  We still have to win three out of four [for bowl eligibility], but the way everyone is looking at we have to win four out of four."

On what the offense needs to do to create bigger plays: "Keep it simple and execute.  We got away from what we have done early in the season. We need to go back to the fundamentals and that's what we did at practice yesterday."

Rocel McWilliams
On what they need to do the rest of the season: "We need to take it one game at a time.  We don't need to not worry about things on the outside and just focus on us."

On if there is any more urgency to reach the team's goals after last week's loss: "I'm aware of our situation, but I just want to take it one game at a time.  We have to win the rest of the games, but it's one game at a time and one day at time."

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