MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football head coach Steve Campbell, offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield, defensive coordinator Greg Stewart, along offensive lineman Brian Ankerson and wide receiver Jordan McCray met with the media Monday to preview Saturday's homecoming game against ULM and recap the Arkansas State game.

Head coach Steve Campbell
Opening statement:
"Our attention now turns to a very good ULM football team. They are coming off of a big win over previously undefeated in conference play Georgia Southern. They handled them pretty handily jumping out on them 20-0. It was 27-3 before Georgia Southern scored some late points. ULM is probably the hottest team in the conference right now as they have now won their last three. It's a big challenge for us, but we're looking forward to it. I know our guys are anxious to get back out on the field and play. Right now, we're facing adversity. It's easy when everything is going your way and everybody is patting you on your back, but right now it's tough. We've struggled this year and we haven't had the success that we wanted to have, but you have to keep fighting, keep scratching and keep clawing.
"I thought our guys played hard this past week against a good Arkansas State team. We were tied with them for the first 28 minutes of the game. We gave up a touchdown right before the half and then returned the kick to tie it up, but we got a bad break with the penalty that called back the 95-yard touchdown. In the second half, the game kind of got away from us as we were a little thin on depth and we wore down a bit.
"Now though, we turn to a good team in ULM. We're looking forward to getting better and getting the 'W' in front of a good homecoming crowd at Ladd-Peebles Stadium."

On the team leaders and coaches keeping up the morale:
"It's on all of us as coaches. You get into coaching for a few different reasons. First of all, you get into it because you love football and then because you want to help young people. This is my 20th year as a head coach and 30-something as a coach, and you realize that there is going to be adversity. Life isn't all rainbows and popsicles and cotton candy. There are tough times, and I think more than anything else, it's up to us coaches to teach our players.
"Not to slight any other sport out there, but to me the thing about football is that football is a great teacher of life. I have three children, two that are grown, and a grandchild and you learn in life that things don't always go exactly the way you want them to and there is always adversity. That's what we as coaches have the opportunity to teach our players about. It's our obligation to teach our young people that is how life is going to be. I want to win every single game; you fight, scratch and claw to do that, but when you don't accomplish that, you don't start pointing fingers. You let everybody else do that. You have to get back up and start battling the next one. You don't have time to do anything but give it your best with a smile on your face every day. "That's what we as coaches have to impart to those leaders. When I was their age I didn't understand all that. I think you have to go through things to understand it and this is one of those things that they are going through right now, and they'll be better because of it. We need to have a big win this week. Those wins are going to start coming and when they do, you can look back on the struggle that you went through. That makes it that much sweeter."

On getting younger players more reps the remainder of the season:
"That is something that we talked with the team about last night. We owe it to the senior class to send them out as winners and play the best football we can play. At the same time with the new redshirt rule, guys get to play in four games and we have a good hand full that have played in a game or two. We need to be strategic in how we play them down the stretch. We will do some of that."

On Cephus Johnson's play Saturday:
"I thought that Cephus did a really good job in the fourth quarter. He led us on a touchdown drive and made a couple of throws. He was efficient with the football and he pulled it down and ran it well. He did some things with both his legs and his arm under some adverse conditions. He'll be better this week because of what he did last week."

Offensive Coordinator Kenny Edenfield
On the ULM defense:
"Looking at their defense, one of the things that I noticed is they have a really quick front line. They're probably not as big as some of the other teams we have played, but they do a lot of movement, get off of blocks really well and run well. They start off with a two-high defense, but most of the time they're going to get to someone high, whether it's some man-combo kind of stuff – I think they're pretty similar as far as what we've seen all along. It's more of a 4-2 kind of front with a little zero nose once in a while. I think a lot carryover from what we've seen will be this week. The thing we've got to do is – early in the year we were able to convert some big plays and score some points, but we have not been able to do that the last couple of weeks. As a coaching staff, we have to generate ways to make it a little easier for our guys to make some plays down the field and we'll work on that hard this week."

On Cephus Johnson's play at Arkansas State:
"First of all, I ran him in early which was the plan. You could tell he was a little nervous; he stuck the ball out and it got caught on the running back's hip and he had to fall on it. But after that, he kind of settled down. We put him in when Evan (Orth) got a little banged up, and he did a really nice job. He came in a couple of series and executed what he was supposed to, and I thought he did a really good job of trying to execute what we wanted executed during the last two series of the game. He threw the ball to the right spots, when it got hairy at times he broke down and took off running – those are his strengths. But he threw very accurate balls and made good decisions. I think if he'll continue to do that and grow, then he'll be a good player here like we think he will be."

Defensive Coordinator Greg Stewart
On the ULM offense:
"Their quarterback [Caleb Evans] is a good player, as is No. 3 [Marcus Green] – a really good receiver. They jumped on Georgia Southern really fast this past weekend, and scored a bunch of their points in the first quarter. The quarterback makes plays with his legs, he can throw the ball into tight spaces – a really good player. They execute what they do, and do about what everybody else does. He [Evans] does a good job with the RPO on the little slant route. They have some confidence right now, but I think it is a team that, if we go out and do what we're supposed to do and put two halves together, I think we'll put ourselves in a situation where we can win the game."

On the progression of the defense:
"There's a lot of growing pains, tough times. But like the saying goes, 'Tough times don't last, but tough people do.' I think we have some tough guys, and we're going to keep grinding and keep trying to get better. It's coming, and it's going to be fun when we get there."

Offensive lineman Brian Ankerson
On the traditions surrounding homecoming and preparing to play ULM:
"We want to get a win at home, especially with this being the last homecoming for our seniors and the second-to-last home game for the season. We want to let them go out in the right way."

On the mentality of the team and being so close to breaking through:
"We're just looking at it as adversity that we have to push through. We know we're going to get stronger from this. Obviously, it hasn't been what we wanted, but we're still pushing and we want to go out the right way these last couple games."

Receiver Jordan McCray
On the traditions surrounding homecoming and preparing to play ULM:
"This week is a big week for us. Coming off what we did last week, we want to get back to playing our type of football and bringing a win to our stadium and our fans, especially on homecoming. That's when a lot of alumni come out to support us, so we really want to go out and give it our best this week."

On the mentality of the team and being so close to breaking through:
"I think as a whole, we want to bring in some wins and start a tradition. This game starts a tradition of winning. We're pretty hurt by the loss, but that's life. You're going to get knocked down, so we just have to come back, fight adversity, and come together as a team."

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