MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football head coach Joey Jones along with senior offensive lineman Dominic Esposito and senior safety Kalen Jackson met with the media Monday to review Saturday's Sun Belt Conference opener against Georgia Southern and preview this weekend's league road opener at Louisiana-Lafayette.

South Alabama Head Coach Joey Jones
On Saturday's game and next week's opponent: "First of all, I think that our kids fought and anyone who watched the game saw that.  We just had a few more mental mistakes against Georgia Southern that we didn't have against Mississippi State [in week one].  Some of our players mentioned that we had small mistakes like a missed assignment here, a missed assignment there.  It all accumulates and adds up and comes down to either winning or losing.  The more we can get rid of those types of mistakes, the better we're going to be.  We've got a good football team.  These guys are together as a team; we have some playmakers and guys that can play football.  As long as we focus on ourselves and work on the things we need to, we're going to be fine.  

"As far as [Louisiana-] Lafayette goes, this has been a big game for us the last four years.  They've beaten us twice over there and we've beaten them twice over here [in Mobile].  The home team seems to win pretty much every time.  They are well-coached by coach [Mark] Hudspeth.  He does a great job.  Our kids are looking forward to the game.  I thought last year's game was a really good game and it came down to the wire.  Our kids were able to fight through and win it, so we're looking forward to the game this Saturday."

On Louisiana-Lafayette's quarterback Anthony Jennings: "He's a good one.  He's a big guy with a good arm and he can run it.  You can tell he's more comfortable in their offense and has really come along now after their second game.  He was pretty good in their first game against Boise State and he looked much more comfortable Saturday in their second game against McNeese State."

On the struggles with the run game through the first two games: "There's no doubt that we've got to run the ball better.  Some of [the struggles] have to do with going against and SEC defensive line in the first week.  Georgia Southern also has a very good defensive front and linebackers.  They are as good as it gets.  They are very good and they have a lot of size.  They are also quick up front.  I thought we did a good job of moving the ball down the field, but we need to run the ball better in order to win and keep our defense off the field.  We've got to a better job of that."

Offensive Lineman Dominic Esposito
On what they are doing to prepare for Louisiana-Lafayette and the team's mind-set heading into that game: "We're excited to have another chance and another week to try to get a 'W'.  We're trying to clean up some small things that we did wrong in our last game to make sure we don't repeat those same mistakes.  We look to get after it.  You can tell everyone is hungry after what happened Saturday.  We're ready for this game."

On the biggest mistakes from Saturday's game against Georgia Southern: "We didn't do a bunch of the little things right and that ended up piling up and costing us.  I can talk from what I did wrong; if you look [at the film] my snaps were low all night and that made things hard on Dallas [Davis].  He's got enough going on back there and I've got to make it easier on him.  We just need to work on the little things like that; not making the right block or getting to the right place.  We're really looking to clean that up this week and make sure we're ready for Saturday."

On confidence going on the road again after opening the season with the road win at Mississippi State: "I would say absolutely that we have confidence going on the road.  I'm fully confident we can beat any team put in front of us and I think everyone on the team will agree with that.  The past is the past, but we'll feed off the energy of going to and beating Mississippi State at their place.  That's a huge thing and we won't forget that; we'll feed off of it going against future opponents."

On what the offensive line needs to do better to help out the run game: "We need to clean up the little things.  On Saturday, there was just one block that we weren't getting to.  Definitely this week, we need to focus on who we're responsible for, who we're working to and make sure that we move that line of scrimmage.  As [offensive line] coach [Richard] Owens says, 'It starts up front'.  If we relocate that line of scrimmage two or three yards behind our opponent, we're going to win that game so that's what we're going to look to do."

Safety Kalen Jackson
On what they are doing to prepare for Louisiana-Lafayette and the team's mind-set heading into that game: "We're just coming into this week with a sense of urgency and trying to embrace the challenge that we have in front of us.  We are very excited and the team is coming together more than ever."

On the positives they can take from Saturday's game: "I could see that even though we were down that our team didn't get down on one another.  We stayed up beat the whole time.  We had a lot of guys banged up, but they continued to fight through.  There wasn't any complaining and we stuck together.  We know that we all have each other's back.  It was really good to see that we fought together and stayed together."

On what Louisiana-Lafayette does offensively that will present some problems: "They have some nice playmakers.  Their running back is a playmaker and we're going to have to contain him.  I know they are going to try to run the ball on us, but we've just got to use relentless execution the whole game and just do the small things right.  Doing the small things right will help the big things fall into place."

On confidence going on the road again after opening the season with the road win at Mississippi State: "Saturday night is just another opportunity for us to attack the field wherever we play, whether it's home or away.  We've learned from last week's loss and we're going to be together as a team and stay together.  We look to see some great things from here on out."

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

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