MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football head coach Steve Campbell, offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield, defensive coordinator Greg Stewart, along with offensive lineman Ryan Alexander, safety DJ Daniels met with the media Monday to recap Alabama State and preview the Troy game.

Head coach Steve Campbell
Opening statement:
"It was a good win for us against Alabama State, the thing I liked about it was that we played well in all three phases.  Offensively we were 8-of-12 on third downs, we were perfect in the red zone, we had zero turnovers, we had one penalty; there were a lot of things we were working on where we definitely showed improvement.  Defensively we held our opponent to 219 yards, which is tremendous.  We gave up one play for the touchdown and that was all they were able to muster on the night.  On special teams we hit a 50-yard field goal, we returned a punt for a touchdown, I thought we covered kicks well, we pinned them inside the one[-yard line] on a punt, there were a lot of good things to build off of.
"It was a good night for us in all three phases, we needed to show improvement in all three phases and we did to lead into a big [Sun Belt] Conference game against a very tough Troy football team.  They are outstanding, [head coach] Neal [Brown] has done a great job of building that program up.  They are the defending conference champions.  It's Tuesday night and the 'Battle For The Belt,' but more than anything else it's the next game so it is the most important game of the year and we need to have a great week of practice and preparation to get ready to play an outstanding Troy team."

On having two extra days to prepare to play Troy:
"Yesterday we gave our kids off, they did not come in for meetings or anything else. We're headed into the eight game of the year and you include the four weeks of preseason camp that's 12 weeks in a row with basically football every day, so we gave them the day off and will get into our preparation today.  Troy does a couple of different things defensively, the last couple of weeks we've seen a lot of odd and three-man fronts even though they normally use more of a four-man front.  We will use the extra days to work on a lot of special teams and fundamentals, but also to take an extra look at some of the things Troy does a little bit different defensively."

On the team at this point in the season:
"Last week we had our best week of practice, and I thought Wednesday in particular was probably our best practice of the year.  Whenever you get into week seven and you're still getting better, that's a positive.  We thought we would be — and need to be — a football team that got better with each week, we did that early and then definitely hit a lull but we bounced back and made of a lot of improvement last week.  We need to keep building on that and have a good week this week.  When you look at our leading tacklers from this past week you have names like A.J. DeShazor, Jeremiah Littles, DJ Daniels, Nick Mobley; there are a lot of young guys who are getting better as the season goes on, that's a big positive.  I loved the way that we practiced last week, we need to get back out with this extra time and have great preparation and practice this week.  With the West [Division] wide open the way that it is, we need to keep taking it one game at a time.  It's the biggest game of the year not only because it's the next game and we still control our own destiny in the West Division.  We've played well in Mobile, to this point we've played three games here and won two and the one that we dropped if we would've had five more minutes I believe we would've won it."

On playing a rivalry game at home:
"It's very important, but to me it doesn't matter if you're at home or on the road.  We have played better so far this year at home, which is a good thing.  This is my first year as part of this rivalry, but the history of this rivalry from what I understand is that the road team has had the upper hand lately.  We need to turn that around, and this would be a great year to do it because we have played very well in Mobile."

On facing his alma mater:
"Troy is a special place, we had a great time and a great run there, we had some good seasons back in the 1980s.  That was a long time ago, but it's a very special place with good people."

Offensive Coordinator Kenny Edenfield
On the Alabama State win:
"One of the things I was most proud of was we had zero turnovers. We reached all of our offensive goals for the first time this year, which was really impressive; that's hard to do in any football game – you set goals that are attainable, but rarely do you ever do that. I thought our guys did a great job of that. We had another good week of practice. We had talked about getting closer to having that game where we really played well, and I think it goes down to a play on 3rd and 12 on the second drive. Evan [Orth] makes a throw [Kawaan] Baker, and after that we just kind of got rolling and made some plays. The guys did a great job in that, now the key will be coming back and seeing what couple of mistakes we made, correct them and then go get ready for Troy."

On Troy:
"They have a great football team; they've been at the top of the league the last couple of years. They stubbed their toe last week and didn't play as well as they have played up to that point. I'm sure they'll get back to work and will be ready to roll. This rivalry game has always been a tough game for both teams. I'm excited about getting an opportunity to play, and I'm glad we're playing at home. I like playing at home, and we've played better there than we have on the road so maybe that will give us an advantage this week."

On if there is any advantage of having been at Troy last year:
"Not really, I went against [Troy defensive coordinator] Vic [Koenning] every day in practice. He's really good at changing up what he does and trying to find your weaknesses. He has a couple of injuries so he'll move some guys around to try and hurt us in some spots, but college football is really all the same. Everybody is going to play either two-high safety or one-high safety, and he does both. At the end of the day, our guys will be ready to go and it's just a matter of making plays. What we did great last week was run our base plays really well; guys were really comfortable in what we were doing, and that's our job as coaches to make sure we get our guys comfortable this week."

On the rivalry:
"I think both teams get excited about playing. There was a great atmosphere a couple of years ago when we came down, and there has been a great atmosphere at Troy in the past. It's always a heated rivalry, mainly because we're a few hours away and it's kind of made that way. I know our guys get excited about playing, and I know I'm excited about getting to go again. The other thing is just playing against the top teams in the league. The last time we played against one of the top teams in the league, we didn't play very well. Now we're getting a chance to do that again, let's see if we can perform better this week."

Defensive Coordinator Greg Stewart
On the play of the defense against Alabama State:
"I've heard our players talking about how our practice week last week was better; we put together some consecutive [good] days back-to-back-to-back and we practiced better. We were focused, we were locked in and I thought we did a good job of handling our assignments. That's usually how it works, if you practice well during the week, you reap the benefits on Saturday and we did some good stuff [against Alabama State]. We stopped the explosive plays, which was a big thing and something we've been wanting to get better at and we did. We did give up the one, but it was because of a busted coverage and we have to make a play on that ball. I was proud of the way we played and it was something good to build on. Our guys are fired up and they saw what happens when you play that way. I feel they'll be fired up this week to make the same things happen again."

On Troy:
"Troy's a really, really good team. They have not only good old tradition, but more recent tradition as well. They have good players and a great running back [B.J. Smith]. Even the new quarterback [Sawyer Smith] is a good player. They have some very athletic receivers and I think the strength of their team is their o-line. They run really good plays and it'll be a challenge, but it'll be fun."

On how different Troy is with the new quarterback:
"Watching the film, I really haven't seen them do much differently offensively. You can tell that the execution was a little better with [Kaleb Barker], but I'm sure they're working on that. There were a couple of plays [in their last game] that the timing was off a little bit, but [Smith] is a good player. He's a good quarterback; he just lacks in some experience. He can run the ball a little bit and he can throw it."

On playing his alma mater:
"It's just the next game. I met my wife there and that's a good thing. They're going to have a different colored jersey on and we're going to try to beat them."

Offensive lineman Ryan Alexander
On the Alabama State win and the upcoming home game against Troy:
"These have probably been our best Tuesday and Wednesday practices. During these practices we played hard and everybody was playing to win. Hopefully we can come in with the momentum to go against Troy and do the same thing we did this week to win again."

On the impact of having everything come together going into the last five games:
"We understand and see what we can do when we accomplish the game plan. I think it's as simple as doing what we did last week, practicing hard, and understanding the game plan and what's in front of us to play Troy this week."

On beating Troy in 2017 and the style of defense they play:
"They were a good team; we were just a better team that week. We had a lot of big plays that game and we're trying to do that again – get to the big plays as soon as possible. If we're able to score and play with them, it will be a good game. It's a rivalry game and hopefully the momentum of that atmosphere is going to give the game a different feel."

On playing on Tuesday and having a few extra days to prepare:
"I think it's huge. It's going to give a lot of people a couple more days to go in and watch film. As far as getting ahead and mentally preparing for the game, it's a good week to restore your body. We're going to be really prepared going into this week. It's like coming off the first game of the season; it's going to be a lot of constantly preparing for what we have to do and knowing the game plan in order to succeed."

On the Troy rivalry:
"It's the biggest game of the season right now. The only thing that really matters is playing Troy. We waited this long to play them. The rivalry has been good for the last two years. Since I've been here, it's been a back and forth battle. It would be nice to be the first team in this rivalry to win two times in a row."

Safety DJ Daniels
On the Alabama State win and the upcoming home game against Troy:
"This whole week of practice – Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday – we had a great week on both sides of the ball, offense and defense and even special teams. Each day, Coach Campbell preached about continuing to have that 1-0 mindset and to go into Troy with the same mindset."

On the impact of having everything come together going into the last five games:
"Everyone on all sides of the ball has to buy in. As you can see, on Saturday, everyone bought in. There are things we can still grow up on and learn from, but we have to put it all on the field on Tuesday night."

On playing on Tuesday and having a few extra days to prepare:
"It's going to come down to mental and physical preparation. We have a longer time to prepare ourselves, but everyone has to buy in. We have to get extra film in and make sure our bodies are right."

On the Troy rivalry:
"I understand it's a rivalry game, but at the end of the day it's just like any other game. We'll go in with the mindset of going 1-0 and keep pushing throughout the season."

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