NEW ORLEANS – University of South Alabama head coach Steve Campbell spoke Monday at the Sun Belt Conference's annual Football Media Day at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, addressing local, regional and national media during a thirty-minute session in the afternoon.

Highlights from the Jaguar head coach included:

Opening statement:
"We're very excited about getting started with the 2019 campaign. Our guys have been working tremendously hard since January in preparation for this upcoming season. It will be very challenging, but it's a schedule that we really look forward to playing. We've got a great home schedule and an outstanding schedule on the road which opens up August 31 against Nebraska. We're really looking forward to this upcoming year."

On the process of building a strong, competitive team at South Alabama:
"That's one of the reasons I'm so looking forward to season two, just to see how much progress we've made. I know we're going to be a lot better football team in year two than we were year one. I thought we started playing better football towards the end of last year. We traveled over to Lafayette and played a University of Louisiana team to a four-quarter football game, and they were a team that of course went on and played in the conference championship. We gave ourselves a chance to be very competitive in that game. Then the following week we really jumped on top of Coastal Carolina and held on and won that game, and they were a team that was fighting for bowl eligibility. So I liked the way that we played towards the end of last year. I like the way the guys attacked the offseason in January. I thought we had an outstanding spring training. The summer program has been very, very productive. We're a bigger, faster, stronger football team. At each phase of the program we've made improvement, and we were able to get in some transfers to give us an immediate infusion of talent and speed. I'm with you; I'm anxious to see where we're at in year 2 because I know we've made a lot of progress."

On players who have stepped up and grown into leaders during summer workouts:
"We've had quite a few at each level, from the lines to the big skill group to the skill players who have stepped up. One of the guys I'm most impressed with is Cephus Johnson, who is our starting quarterback entering this year. The guy has really worked hard; he's put on about 10 pounds of muscle and has really taken on a leadership role for us at the quarterback position. Jalen Tolbert is another offensive skill guy with Jamarius Way, of course, moving on due to graduation it left a big void there. There were 60-something balls that Jamarius Way caught that have to be made up somewhere, and Jalen Tolbert has really stepped up as a leader there. Davyn [Flenord] is a guy who played a lot of special teams last year, but now his role will be different entering this year. He's really stepped up and taken on a leadership role. A year ago, Roy Albritton was a guy I was hoping was ready to step up and be a guy to give us some help on the offensive line. Here we are a year later, and I'm counting on him to be an all-conference kind of guy. Troy Thingstad was kind of thrust into a starting position last year and now he's got 12 starts under his belt. A year ago our starting center, Brian Ankerson, had never played a college football game and this year he's on the Rimington Award Watch List. A guy who had as good a spring as anybody, Jeffrey Whatley has stepped up and has really become a leader for us defensively. Nick Mobley is a linebacker that last year was thrust in due to injury, he had to start six or eight games at linebacker. This year, I'm looking forward to him starting, I like the way he finished the year. I love the spring that he had, and I love the way that he's working this summer. I feel really good about him in one of our starting linebacker spots."

On his approach to opening the year at Nebraska and to the complete schedule:
"I think our schedule sets up really well for us.  If you could draw it up and open with anybody in the country, who would you want to open with? You'd want it to be somebody who is nationally renowned, you'd want to go somewhere where they're going to be boisterous and loud and going to pack the place. Well, nobody has had more home sellouts in a row in the history of football than Nebraska. There's a lot of ways to skin a cat. Some people don't get too high or too low. We get tremendously high, and we do wear our heart on our sleeves, and we're going to put everything we've got into that one game. And then when that game is over, we're going to put everything we've got into that next game. Then when that game is over, we're going to do the same thing next week. That Nebraska game, we're putting a lot into it. And then when that one is over, we'll put that one behind us and we'll start getting ready for Jackson State, and we'll do that 12 times."

On the program's facilities:
"We'll put our facilities up against anybody in the country. One year ago, we opened up the largest indoor practice facility in the state of Alabama. This year it was great having the NFL Network. It was great having Jon Gruden and John Elway, all those guys out too our Jaguar Training Center to train for the Senior Bowl. You throw in one of the largest indoor practice facilities in the country at any level, and now we're well underway with the new Hancock Whitney Stadium; that stadium is somewhere close to 50 percent completion. So the facilities, when you look at the indoor practice facility, the new stadium will be second to nobody in the country. Through the leadership of our president and our athletic director, we're setting the tone as far as our facility enhancements are concerned."

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

Join the South Circle, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics.  Contributions to South Circle directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/give

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