MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football head coach Steve Campbell, offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield, defensive coordinator Greg Stewart, along offensive lineman Josh McCulloch and safety Keith Gallmon met with the media Monday to recap the UAB game and preview Saturday's Sun Belt Conference road opener at ULM.

Below are some highlights:

Head coach Steve Campbell
- On ULM:
"ULM is a very good football team, when you look at who they've played this year and how they've played them they have been in every game.  They beat Grambling then took Florida State to overtime, and they played Iowa State — who is a really good football team — really, really tough for a half; they had opportunities early in the game to actually go ahead, they created a couple of turnovers in the first half but weren't able to capitalize or else that game would've been much closer than what it was.  If you look, they put up a lot of yardage and have scored a good bit of points, and against Iowa State they had an opportunity to do more; they are an outstanding team.

"Their quarterback, who has been playing for a couple of years now, is a very explosive guy, he can hurt you with his feet and with his arm.  They have a big back they can give the football to who is a very physical runner, they have a good offensive line and some weapons on the outside.  Defensively they are a good football team, Coach [Mike] Collins — their defensive coordinator — does a really good job of changing their fronts and bringing pressure from all sides.

"They are a good football team, but we're excited about getting into [Sun Belt] conference play.  We think that our non-conference schedule has prepared us to be able to start conference play.  Everybody is starting off 0-0, we're excited about starting this trek in the Sun Belt."

- On what he learned about the team so far this season:
"That we are a young football team.  We've got a lot of guys who are playing extremely hard under some adverse conditions, a lot of which we created ourselves.  The things that we focus on we tend to get better at.  Early in the year I thought we played well against Nebraska and Jackson State, we did a lot of good things; we kept both under 300 yards and against Jackson State we rushed for over 400 yards.  It's there.  Things that were hurting us in the first two games were the penalties and the turnovers, the last two weeks they have not been our issue.  Now, we need to put points on the board offensively; we've played some teams that are really good defensively, but that is what we're going to see in the Sun Belt each and every week.  We need to find a way to make some plays against good people and we've got the people to do that, and we need to keep protecting the football.  Defensively we need to get off the field on third down, we were good on third down against Nebraska and Jackson State but the last two weeks we have not been able to get off the field on third down and that's big.  We had UAB multiple third-and-sixes and third-and-eights, we had an opportunity to get off the field and didn't do it.  It could've made a difference in that ballgame putting ourselves in better shape to have a chance to win.  I think we've made improvement in our kicking game, which was something that wasn't as sharp earlier in the year.  There have been some things we have focused on that we have gotten better at, now we need to keep coming along in some of the other phases to put ourselves in contention to beat ULM this week."

- On making changes offensively:
"We can draw up new plays, but it is still going to be about a little thing here and a little thing there.  It's not what we're doing but how we are doing it.  Obviously we need to get the ball to Tra Minter and make sure that KB [Kawaan Baker] gets opportunities.  We need to get the ball Jalen Tolbert and Davyn [Flenord], and I like our tight ends — Khameron Taylor and Zac Crosby are both good football players — so we need to find a way to get them in the mix offensively."

- On the team's attitude:
"The thing I told our guys the other day is that we are starting over, it's a new season right now.  Texas State and Georgia State played the other day, they are the only ones who aren't 0-0.  Every goal that you had in front of you is still there and very attainable.  Adversity is a part of life, I talked to the team last night about how football mirrors life — you're going to have rough times.  The only thing we can control is our attitude, so come to work every day and let's get better.  I've been here before, when you come out on the other side you're a lot better from having pulled through the tough times.  They say adversity builds character, but I know it reveals it.  We have really good character on this team, we have a large group of guys who are battling and getting better.  UAB is a good football team, we could've played a lot better so we need to make improvement to get to a point where we beat a team like that; we weren't quite there yet last week.  We watched the film last night as a group to show that if we do something a little bit better — it's not magic, or a guy needing to be 6-foot-8 or weighing 300 pounds or running a 4.29 — and take a different step and do this a little different on the first drive we take it down and score.  If we do things differently on the first third-and-six we get off the field and they punt.  You have to show them the things were we are close, there were a lot of things the other day where we were very close.  We're going to keep chopping wood, keep getting better and pushing forward.  We have a lot of young guys who are playing and getting better, going through the non-conference schedule that we had has helped prepare a lot of those guys for the conference schedule that we have coming up."

Offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield
- On ULM's defense:
"We're excited because it is a chance to get into [Sun Belt] conference play. Our slate starts over; we can be 1-0 at the end of this week. We had a really good practice last night. Looking at ULM on tape, I think there are some things we can do to help ourselves. First and foremost, we have to convert third downs. We were doing a really good job of that early, and we didn't do such a good job on third down this past game [UAB]. When you get in third and long, it makes it difficult so we have to do a really good job on first and second down of having opportunities to get into third and short. That's our key – not get in a lot of third and longs. They [ULM] are a pressure front; they like to pressure from the edges and inside. When you get to the red zone, they're going to play a lot of zero coverage. One of their things is that they are going to try and create havoc to get you behind the chains. We're going to have to do a good job of hitting them when they do that in the seams that are available. We're excited to get going and see if we can do better than we did this past week."

- On what he saw from backup quarterbacks Tylon Morton and Desmond Trotter's play at UAB:
"About what I have been seeing; Cephus (Johnson) is ahead by far, to me. I don't think Tylon was expecting to play as much, that's just my gut feeling. But as the game got going, he got a little better. Desmond did some nice things. He is a really high-competitive guy, and you can see that in there and in practice. I still think there is a bright future for both of those guys as we continue on."

- On the option game:
"That's something we try to get going every week. If we can get the numbers right, it creates problems and makes everybody play assignment football. Hopefully, it will make the defenses we face be really sound on some things."

Defensive coordinator Greg Stewart
- On Saturday's opponent ULM:
"As a team, they're averaging about 280 yards per game and that'll be a good challenge for us. Everyone knows about No. 6 [Caleb Evans] their quarterback who's a great player. He makes plays with his legs and he can throw it. They also have a running back who came to them after playing in junior college [Josh Johnson]. He's a really good player and he's had some really good runs [this season] against some really good teams. We're going to have to do a good job against him. [ULM] runs some option stuff and we're going to have to play assignment football. They runs some RPO, run-pass-option stuff, so it'll be a good game.

"No. 12 [Markis McCray] who played against us a little last year and they are putting him in [Marcus Green's] role from a year ago. He can really run and their offensive line has a lot of players that look familiar to us, so they've got experience and they do a good job up front. You can really tell [ULM] is coached up and that they execute. Defensively we're going to try to make calls, execute and get after it."

- On what the defense has to correct early on in games:
"It's like we talked about earlier. You have to execute. When you play really good teams and you call a defensive play against them, you have to do everything exactly right. If you don't against good teams, they're going to take advantage of it; even the little stuff. It may be something like a foot this way or a foot that way, or coming down a yard this way. When you play good teams, stuff like that are where you have to get it done. We'll get that fixed. We've shown areas we've been pretty good. We just have to sustain those things, stay locked in and stay focused from the first play to the last.

"I'm excited about our players; we have a bunch of good kids that work hard. We're still chopping wood."

- On who's stepped up in Tyree Turner's absence:
"Maurice Strong, Charles Coleman, Jeremiah Littles and a bunch of the younger players have stepped it up and done some good stuff out on the field. All of those reps that those guys are getting are important for those young guys because they're going to help us. You can see improvement in them guys every week. Kelvin Johnson at linebacker is getting better every time he takes a snap. The young guys just need to stay locked in on the defensive calls and it's going to happen for them sooner rather than later."

Offensive lineman Josh McCulloch
- On opening Sun Belt Conference play:
"All of our goals are still in front of us. The coaches have implemented that into this week's game plan. We can still go out and do everything we want to accomplish; we can still win a bowl game and be conference champions. We just have to remain focused. It's been a tough non-conference schedule, but we made it through. We're just excited to get into conference play and show everybody what we can do."

- On what they learned from the UAB game:
"Offensive line-wise, we've got to be more physical. We have been physical, but it's a matter of doing the little things, putting more effort in here and there and maybe it's a different game. We're going to focus on being more disciplined, more physical and finishing more."

- On ULM:
"We keep an eye on all of our conference rivals. We've seen what they can do. They had a good game against Florida State and just got hit in the mouth this past week. I'm pretty sure they're going to be firing out this week, ready to get off to a 1-0 start in the conference. We'll just have to stay the course, remain focused and trust the process, and hopefully we can end up 1-0 at the end of this week."

Safety Keith Gallmon
- On opening Sun Belt Conference play:
"I'm looking forward to conference play. Now is the time to really step up and focus on what we need to focus on. I feel like we need to start faster going into games going into conference play, and I think ULM is a pretty good team. If we execute and do what we need to do, we'll be fine."

- On what they learned from the UAB game:
"Defensively, we need to start playing faster starting the game. We've come out in the second half and shut people out, but if we can do that from the jump, we'll be fine. We had a couple of missed assignments and a few things we could have done better the last few games: stopping the big play and getting people down on some plays.

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