Coach Jones Monday Press Conference
Head coach Joey Jones spoke with the media on Monday to preview his team’s trip to Navy on Saturday. Below are some highlights from the press conference.
“We’re looking forward to the game in Annapolis with Navy,” Jones began. “They are a great football team — they took Notre Dame down to the wire, 38-34 — and haven’t had any trouble moving the ball on anybody. They’ve done a good job offensively and play real scrappy defense. It’s going to be a good football game, I’m looking forward to it.”
Jones spoke about the environment he expects on game day in Maryland. “One thing we have to keep in mind is we are going to play a football game and not get caught up in whatever is around the stadium and what is going on during the game. From what I hear it’s going to be an exciting atmosphere in Annapolis, they are very proud of their football team. But we are very proud of our team too and are excited about going up there and playing them.”
Jones talked about what he wants to see out of his team this week while preparing for Navy. “We’re just trying to get better fundamentally. We worked three days last week, I thought we got better, and thankfully we had three days to work on their offense because they are very difficult to prepare for. I don’t think people understand the difficulties in playing this offense. But we have a good plan, we have to go out and execute it.”
He then answered a question about the most difficult aspects of defending Navy’s triple-option offense. “They make adjustments to everything you do, they know teams can’t prepare and have a lot of schemes against them. Most teams have two or three plans against the option attack, but they’ve been doing it long enough where they have answers to that. The most difficult thing will be for us to adjust in the game. Hopefully we can respond and make a few adjustments on the sideline during the game, that’s the biggest thing we will have to do.”
Jones also answered a question about what he wants to see from the Jaguar offense on Saturday. “Their defensive front is a little different from most teams we play, but they play extremely hard. They are real sound in what they do, they are a bend-but-don’t-break defense. We have to be able to sustain drives, we have to keep their offense off the field, and we can’t have three-and-outs and expect to win the ball game. We’ve got to be able to drive the ball down the field and change the field position at worst but hopefully score.”
Talking about the offense and what the team needs to do offensively against Navy, Jones had this to say. “I don’t think it’s different from what we’ve been doing, we are going to try and isolate some players if we can. We have to be smart about what we call because we can’t get into a pass-happy game either, we’ve got to be able to run the ball as well. It’s very critical that you stay ahead of the chains where you are not third-and-eight or third-and-10 against them, because they can make you pay.”
He spoke about being aggressive defensively against the Navy offense. “You can do some things aggressively, but you have to be careful about your blitzing because if they find that you’re blitzing inside they are going to get the ball outside, pitch it on you and be around the perimeter. But you can definitely mix things up and be aggressive, but what we have to do for the most part is play great technique. That’s the best way teams can play against this offense, if you try to get fancy and draw things up that look good on the board, all of a sudden they’re in the end zone.”
South Alabama and Navy will kick off at 2:30pm in Annapolis, Maryland. The game will be broadcast on 105.5FM and WNSP.com with television converage by CBS Sports.