University of South Alabama football head coach Joey Jones, offensive lineman Brian Krauskopf and linebacker Logan Bennett sat down with the media Monday to discuss Saturday’s win over Edward Waters (Fla.), which marked the program’s first-ever road game, as well as Saturday’s matchup with Kentucky Wesleyan.

A few highlights from Monday’s press conference are below.

Head coach Joey Jones

Opening statement:
 “I’m very pleased with where we are as a football program right now, we have come a long way.  In particular, I’m proud of the way we have advanced from last spring up to now; we’re a much better football team in every aspect.  Some of those things have evolved over the last several months — we’ve become more mature, we’ve grown as a team and come together.  We have a ways to go in some areas, but the bottom line is I’m real pleased with where we are right now.”

On the next couple of weeks:
 “We have some opponents that are good teams.  What we have to do, and what we need to battle every day, is worry about ourselves and not our opponents.  I know I keep preaching that and saying that to our team, but it’s true.  I think that in most areas of life you do battle yourself and not opponents.  Most of the time people or teams lose games; they don’t win them.  If we can battle that and be a team that doesn’t make mistakes, if we do what we’re supposed to do every play, know our assignments and do what it takes to win, the flip side of that is usually success.
 “The bottom line is that we have to battles ourselves and not our opponents at this point, and I’ll always believe that.”

On how he gets the team to focus on improving every week:
 “The reality is if we’re not a better football team three, four and five weeks from now, then we’re going to get our tails beat.  We can’t look at our scores, we can’t look at the teams we’re playing; we functionally have to be a better football team to play those teams down the road.  Our challenge is if we don’t get better in practice every day, if we don’t go out and get better as an offensive line, as a defensive back or quarterback, if we don’t improve each area of our team, three weeks from now we will be beat.
 “That’s our motivation to get better.  If they don’t understand that, then they are not competitors.  We preach that every day, we let them compete against each other in practice, there is competition at each position.  There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t get off the field and try to make a change when someone is doing better, to move them up.  So there is competition between ourselves and also with the offense against the defense during practice.
 “You really get better as a team in practice, I don’t care who you’re playing.  You become more experienced as a team playing games, because you’re on the field against great competition, but you get better fundamentally at practice.  We preach that and believe that.”

On whether he wishes the program’s 2010 schedule was tougher:
 “In retrospect, probably so.  We didn’t know two years ago when we set the schedule where we would be at this point.  It’s kind of hard to have a crystal ball and know what you’re going to be like down the road.  But it is what it is, and next year it completely changes where we get into playing more Division I-A and I-AA schools, and it will be all Division I after that.”

On how the schedule affects the program:
 “We have to work to get better every day at practice.  I know it is a coaching cliché, but we have to get our kids to believe that, and I think they do.
 “For instance, in my opinion, we are not good enough on special teams to win right now.  We’ve have challenged our players and challenged our coaching staff, if we don’t get better there we’re not going to beat teams down the road.
  “You always have something to work on as a team.  I preach to our players all the time that you have to work on your weaknesses, and be honest enough to admit your weaknesses.  We got exposed some against Nicholls State, they exposed us in different areas, so we had to go back and work on that.
  “We realize when we start playing competition such as that down the road that we better have worked on it and are better at those weaknesses, because if not we’ll have trouble.”

On whether everyone played Saturday in the win over Edward Waters (Fla.):
 “I think so.  I don’t want to swear to that, but I told every coach to get every kid in the game, and I think they did that.”

Offensive lineman Brian Krauskopf

On where the offense stands at this point in the season:
“We take the same approach to our opponent each week. We show them respect and train hard. The ultimate goal is to get better every day and to improve ourselves for later on, whether that’s this week or down the road.

On improving each week:
“You always have something to improve on, so you can’t be content with yourself.”

On focusing on opponents:
“We all like competition, so it can get old sometimes when you blow someone out. But we take the same approach to every team and respect them. They’re all trying just as hard as we are, so you can’t let up at all. But we like competition; it gets us going more.”

On playing on the road:
“I think it was a good experience, but it’s a different experience on the road. You’re not in front of all of your fans and it’s a different environment. You’re not as comfortable because it is a different atmosphere, but it was actually a good experience.”

Linebacker Logan Bennett

On where the defense stands at this point in the season:
“We’re basically just trying to get better each and every week, because we have a tough stretch of games later on in the season. We’re just trying to work on our weaknesses so when we get to the tougher games, they will turn into strengths and we’ll become better players.”

On focusing on opponents:
“On defense we have a standard that we play to every game. Coach [Bill] Clark won’t accept anything less than that. That’s what he expects and that’s what we’re going to play to every game.”

On playing on the road:
“It teaches you to play and how to adjust in a different environment so when we go somewhere and play a tougher opponent, we’ll already know how it feels. 

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

-USA-