MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football head coach Steve Campbell, offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield, defensive coordinator Greg Stewart, along with offensive lineman Brian Ankerson and linebacker A.J. DeShazor met with the media Monday to preview Saturday's Homecoming game against No. 21 Appalachian State.
Below are some highlights:
Head coach Steve Campbell
- On the Appalachian State game:
"The expectations are to go out and play really well on Saturday; let's get a 'W' and go 1-0 this week. Appalachian State is a heck of a football team, they are playing really well right now and they have gotten better as the season as progressed. They gave up some points early in the year, but they've been getting better and better on the defensive side. It will be a big challenge for us, but it's one that we are definitely looking forward to. Regardless of what they are ranked, they are a good football team. In or out of conference, it's a big football game because it's the next game. It's an opportunity for us to play a team that is the defending Sun Belt Conference champion and undefeated right now. We're looking forward to having a great week of preparation — the guys have bounced back strong and had a really good practice Sunday night — and a great game on Saturday."
- On being able to play looser as an underdog on Saturday:
"I thought our guys have been going out and turning it loose the last couple of weeks, we played hard and had a lot of opportunities at ULM and against Georgia Southern and Troy. What we have to do is keep playing better and when an opportunity presents itself we have to go ahead and make the play to put us in the end zone when we get down in the red zone or to make the play to get off the field on third down defensively. There are areas where we have made marked improvement, what we have to do is sustain the things we've done better because there are still a lot of things we need to be better at. We need to make some progress and find a way to get a 'W' this week against a very good Appalachian State football team."
- On what he thinks the team can improve on:
"The thing we definitely need to improve on is third down on both sides [of the ball], we need to get off the field defensively and offensively we need to convert. And in the red zone, this past week against Troy we had multiple opportunities inside the three-yard line and weren't able to cash in on touchdowns. Those are things that definitely could've changed the outcome of this past week's game, and it could've changed the outcome of the ULM game."
- On how to make those improvements:
"We got down there in the last game and miss a block in the red zone, we just have to make the play. You can call a different play, but if you don't block it I don't care what play you run. I was beating myself up for not running a quarterback sneak, you've got to be able to run that, but I saw a team or two try to run it this weekend and the ball went 99 yards the other way. We have to do a better job of executing, and my job as head coach is to make sure we execute better."
Offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield
- On Appalachian State:
"They are really good on defense. They have a lot of guys who have played some football for them. They're not as big up front, but are really active and move around a lot. They like to keep their outside linebackers close to the box, but then they stay really deep over the top of you. They're trying to keep things in front of you and keep you away from the run. Last year we had some success late in the game, we just waited too long. We have to make sure this game doesn't get away from us. We have to hold on to the football, which means we have to convert third downs; I think we are making improvement on that. And we have to score touchdowns in the red zone; we have to do a better job of that, and I think we did that this past week (at Troy) even though we got in a couple of times and they took them away. We worked hard on that this week, and I thought the guys were really spirited on that last night. They are excited about playing a ranked team. It will be a big challenge, but we're fired up about going to play them."
- On keys to getting running game going:
"You have to be able run the ball some against them (App State) or else you are in third down and long. You can't get one- and two-yard plays; you have to manufacture a way to get four- and five-yard plays so third downs are more manageable. There is a real mixture. Some of our passes need to be kind of like long extended runs, where they are real high percentage, and I thought we did a good job of mixing those in and taking our shots against Troy. We are going to have to get out on the perimeter, because they crowd the box. They just make it difficult for you to do that."
Defensive coordinator Greg Stewart
- On what he's seen on film from watching Appalachian State's offense:
"Appalachian State is a great team; probably the best team that we've played this year. They have a number of weapons. No. 3 [Darryington Evans] is a great player and their quarterback [Zac Thomas] is a great player. They also have a couple of wide receivers that get down the field and multiple backs No. 4 [Daetrich Harrington] and No. 26 [Marcus Williams Jr.] that are also really good players. You can tell that their offensive line has played a lot of football together and they do a really good job of doing what they do. App State has explosive capability. When the defense starts looking at [Evans], all of a sudden [Thomas] will take it out the back door. You have to do a really good job of playing sound, assignment football.
"They [Appalachian State] play really hard and that's one thing that we will have to match them with – the intensity of the play. It'll be exciting. They are really good and will be a good opponent."
- On whether the breakdowns defensively are more due to physical or mental mistakes:
"They are more mental. Are you the coach that says it once and does it 1,000 times, or you the type of coach that does it a 1,000 times says it once. You try to do it 1,000 times. There are things that happen in a game that causes you to make an adjustment that makes it not look like it did in practice, and you have to make that adjustment just by knowing the realm of the defense. As coaches, we can sometimes give the players too much or not enough [to prepare for]; there's always a fine line as to what is too much and what's not enough. For the most part, our guys have been pretty good about handling that. I feel that in the ULM game, we had too many. Against Troy, I don't think it was necessarily mental mistakes; we went into the game with a plan to really get after their pass game and kind of control the run, which I think we did [for the most part]. We let them run for about 40 or 50 more yards than we should have, which would have made a difference in the game. Back to your question though, it's all mental and about doing more reps to make it happen."
Offensive lineman Brian Ankerson
- Opening thoughts:
"We've had a little extra time, so we started our game install a day early on Sunday night and I feel like we have a good plan coming in this week. We're hoping to have a good game against App State."
- On building on things the offense did well at Troy:
"We ran the ball effectively and had some good tempo plays; we caught Troy when they weren't ready for us. Our big improvement needs to be in the red zone; we struggled in the red zone last week, especially on the offensive line, and we're going to improve that this week."
- On sustaining drives:
"It's very important. Last week our defense gave us several opportunities with turnovers. We were able to take advantage of some but not others, and it's important for us as an offense to support the defense and keep them off the field."
Linebacker A.J. DeShazor
- Opening thoughts:
"We know they're a good team; their record speaks for itself. We had a good practice Sunday and we're trying to follow that up for the rest of the week, having good practices consistently, and playing with a mindset to go out there and win on Saturday."
- On Appalachian State's offense:
"They're bringing a lot of guys back on the o-line. They have playmakers with the running back and their wide receivers. At the end of the day, on the defensive side, as long as everybody is doing their job, playing fundamentally sound, 11 hats to the ball and playing tough, that's how you stop them."
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