MOBILE, Ala. - University of South Alabama football head coach Joey Jones fielded questions on the team's next opponent and his overall outlook for the season during Monday's media day at the USA football field house.
The Jags return to the field for the first time since winning their first-ever game when they host Army Prep at 4 p.m. on Sept. 26 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Highlights from Monday's press conference follow below:
On the Jags' next opponent, Army Prep:
"We're starting to prepare for Army (Prep) this week. We know they're a triple option offense, similar to what Army runs and what Navy ran against Ohio State in its first ballgame. It's a tough offense to defend from the mental standpoint, so it's going to take every bit of two weeks to get ready for their style of offense. We'll go out for four days this week, Monday through Thursday, and have four tough practices, then give the kids a weekend off and get back to work on Sunday."
On if winning helped keep the players motivated while waiting for the next game:
"You don't want just winning to be the reason you're ready to come back and work the next day, but I've found that they had a little bounce in their step when they came in on Monday morning. It always helps to win, but they came in with a good week of work last week, knowing we had three weeks before our next opponent, so that's been tough. I'm glad we won, because that did help with the attitude toward practice."
On how he felt going into the first game:
"I told the kids before the game that I felt good about the way we prepared, probably as good as any game I've ever prepared for. I went into the game confident that we'd play well, but I didn't know how good Hargrave would be, I just knew they had a bunch of great athletes. I was very pleased with the way we played."
On how having three weeks between games has affected practice:
"It had to affect practice last week because we cut it back a little bit, but we have to be smart as a coaching staff. Last week we took the attitude that we were going to work our kids on fundamentals, offensive, defensive and special teams fundamentals. We got that done, and we also worked a lot of our twos and threes. We scrimmaged three days with those guys to get them better, and we need to find some depth at certain positions, so we had to use that week as a positive, so that's the way we used it."
On the feedback he's received from fans:
"It's been great. It was a great atmosphere at the ballgame. I'd lift my headset off just to hear the crowd sometimes because they were so into it. I was very proud of that, and very proud to have been down on the field with that team and that kind of crowd pulling for them."
On if the team has a chance to go undefeated:
"The next two games are going to be very critical. Army will have a very disciplined team. If you had to look at our schedule and pick one team that was probably the team we had to beat, that would've been Georgia Military - they were number six in the country in junior colleges last year. They're one of the top junior college teams in the country, and I know they signed 13 kids off of that team to play Division I. They're going to do that every year, so you would think they'll be the toughest team we play. A lot will be said about our team in the next two games."
On recruiting locally:
"The type of crowd we had at the game helps. When you get a kid that gets on the internet and sees the kind of crowd we had at the first ballgame, that's got to excite those guys. We had some great recruits at the game that came down on an unofficial visit, and I think they were very excited as well. We're going to recruit hard locally. We had six kids out of 30 we signed last year from the Mobile area, so you're talking about 20 percent of our class came from this area. That will always continue. There are kids in Mobile who want to stay here, and there are some great athletes here as well."
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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