South Alabama Jaguars College Football Pregame Quote, 09/05/2022

I’m excited to clean up some things from the game on Saturday. We talked about our unit identity showing up. Our unit identity on offense is to win the double positives and own situational downs, with the double positives being creating explosive plays and then ball security. In fact, Major [Applewhite] did an eight-year study when he was a GA [graduate assistant] at Texas over the games they had won and lost there, and those double positives were the number one indicator of wins; every time they won the double positives, they won the game. I thought we did a good job creating explosive plays in the game [against Nicholls] and we took care of the football.

From a defensive standpoint, we want to be all about the ball, and I thought we attacked the ball. We had some opportunities to create a couple of takeaways. We got two of them and probably could have had a couple more, but I thought our guys played very fast and very physical.

We limited the amount of mistakes; I thought that was probably one of the cleaner games that we’ve played since we’ve been here, certainly in all three phases. I thought our guys did a really good job in the ‘core four’ special teams units. That was a drastic improvement from where we were a year ago.

I’m really excited about the improvement of our offensive line. I feel we are moving in the right direction in establishing a run game, and credit the o-line, the tight ends. We certainly have some dynamic running backs on the field, and I’m excited to see the growth of that unit as we maneuver into week two of the season.

On what is considered an explosive play:

We consider an explosive play a run of 12 yards or a pass of 16 yards. If you can win the explosive play battle and win the turnover battle, it’s a huge indicator of winning the game.

On Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain and their offense:

I’m really impressed with them. I’ve known [CMU head coach] Jim McElwain for a number of years. I believe one of the first times that we were able to be around each other was in Livingston, Ala. He was recruiting a defensive lineman and I was at Jacksonville State, when he was at Alabama. I think he’s done a tremendous job over the course of his career. [South Alabama assistant] Rob Ezell actually coached for him at Colorado State and played for him at Alabama as well. He also has Paul Petrino [CMU offensive coordinator] who was with us in the spring. I’m very happy for Paul that he got the offensive coordinator there. I think Paul has done a tremendous job to this point already [with their offense].

You see the efficiency of Daniel Richardson, their quarterback. I thought he did a tremendous job of managing their offense in game one. He’s very accurate, knows where he wants to go with the ball. He’s very efficient in their passing game, and a good compliment to [running back] Lew Nichols II who led FBS in rushing a year ago. He’s got a great frame as a 220 pound back. He has really good vision and great balance and body control. He’s not necessarily a speed back, but I think he’s a good down-hill back with really good vision. He’s able to create those yards after contact. We have to be able to limit those things.

On South Alabama’s third-down issues against Nicholls:

Overall, it was about execution. You’re not going to be great when you get a lot of third-and-seven-plus situations. Out of the 13 that we had on Saturday, I believe there were eight third-and-seven pluses, and that’s going to put you in a scenario where you’re not going to execute a majority of those or your fair share of those.

Some of those situations are indicators of not doing well enough on first and second down. Some of that is the fact that we’re a team that will go for it on fourth down in what we call ‘Go’ situations. We’ll sequence ourselves into a ‘Go’ scenario where if it’s third-and-seven and we know fourth-and-three is a go, we will try to put ourselves in position to go for it on fourth. Maybe we catch [our opponent], because we’d like to not have to go for it on fourth down, but there maybe some scenarios where we feel we can catch them in a run to get us into a ‘Go’ scenario, whereas if it’s third-and-seven and you throw the ball and the pass is incomplete, you’re forced to punt rather than running into a “Go’ scenario.

On playing on the road with an early kick time:

Winning on the road is hard. We’re creatures of comfort, so knowing what to expect when you walk into Hancock-Whitney Stadium is different from a road venue. Our players know the routine at home. We try to keep our routine as consistent as we can on the road, both the night before and certainly on the day of the game with our pregame routine. Those are things that can help, but ultimately it comes down to your ability to execute regardless of the circumstance, and that’s something that this program in its history has not done to the standard that we need to. I think our guys see it as a real opportunity. This is a really good football team that has had a winning history, and that’s something we’re working towards ourselves. It’ll be an opportunity for us to show that we can operate at a high standard when we go on the road, but it’s something our players and coaches are looking forward to.

On having the advantage of Carter Bradley’s previous experience in both the MAC and against Central Michigan:

I think with Carter previously being in the MAC and playing against Central Michigan in the past, I feel it is an advantage. Experience is a huge advantage. It’s an advantage for us going into year two in the Sun Belt [Conference]. Our coordinators understand the expectations and know what to expect from most teams, so for Carter to have that advantage from the quarterback position is something that is a positive going into the game.

On Adrien Strickland’s play on Saturday and the offensive line as a whole:

Adrien did a really good job. It was really great to get a young guy like Adrien Strickland, who has such an upside, meaningful reps. He’s 6-foot-6, 330 pounds, and can really move his feet. I thought he played fast, which was probably one of the things we wanted to see from him, the improvement in his foot quickness and his anticipation. I think we saw both and took another step up on game day, which was really encouraging.

We had really four new starters on the offensive line, and [center] James Jackson was only able to play a portion of the season last year, so you’re looking at a really new offensive line. I think our athleticism has greatly improved there from where we were a year ago.

On Caullin Lacy having a bigger role:

Caullin did a tremendous job. We’ve been talking to him about having a bigger role. He’s a very consistent player. He knows what to do. We can move him around. Last year, we used him out of the backfield because of our running back depth. This year, we’re fortunate enough that we have some pretty dynamic players in the backfield and some depth. The challenge for Caullin is, can he create more after the catch? We saw that in the punt return game on Saturday, and then on offense, he was targeted seven times and came away with six catches, one of which was a really great catch and our first explosive play of the game of an unbalanced play action. I expect some big things from him as we continue to maneuver through the rest of the season.