Sam Miller Sam Miller

Blazers Look to Stifle Navy’s Ground Game in AAC Opener

NAVY (1-1 OVERALL, 0-1 AMERICAN) AT UAB (1-2 OVERALL, 0-0 AMERICAN)

PROTECTIVE STADIUM

FRIDAY, 6 P.M. CST, ESPN

When Navy has the ball: While it sounds simple, getting off the field is one of the biggest objectives for the UAB defense on Friday. The Blazers can’t afford to get into a game where Navy moves the chains with consitency, controls the clock and repeatedly reaches the red zone. The Midshipmen are toward the middle of the FBS pack in third down conversion percentage with a 43 percent success rate over the first two games. If they have success moving the chains then they’ll eventually reach the red zone, which is not good news for opponents. Navy is one of 31 FBS teams perfect in the red zone thus far and joins Toledo as the only teams that have scored a touchdown in each of its red zone trips. Navy’s is a relatively small sample size – five red zone trips in two games – but the Midshipmen offense is traditionally tremendous near the goal line and that will not change. UAB’s defense has not made a red zone stop this season and opponents scored touchdowns on eight of 10 trips into the red zone in three games. UAB has spent less time this week worrying about Braxton Woodson’s ankle injury than getting ready for what Navy does offensively. Navy will do what it does, no matter if it’s Woodson or Jackson Gutierrez taking the snaps. Navy is second in the country (trailing Army) in rushing yards per game at 376. Stopping the run has not been a strength for the UAB defense. The Blazers allow 192 yards per game on the ground, which is 124th in the country. So how do the Blazers limit running success on Saturday? “I think it's just going to come down to knowing our job, doing our job at a high level, and really just focusing on the details,” said UAB defensive end Tylin Jackson. The other challenge piece against a Drew Cronic-coached Navy offense is the big play threat in the passing game. Eye discipline and recognition is critical for the UAB secondary on Saturday. Navy threw the ball 23 times in the loss to FAU, largely because of the big halftime deficit. Gutierrez has touchdown passes of 64 yards to Jordan Collins and Charles Robinson. Don’t expect that many passes on Saturday – unless UAB can build a big lead – but do expect some timely deep passes.

When UAB has the ball: Can UAB break out of a passing game slumber? Stats suggest this could be a good game for that to happen. FAU shredded Navy with the pass two weeks ago. The Owls threw for 386 yards and five touchdowns with each score and most of the yardage coming in the first half and opening second half drive. But FAU is an offense built on the pass while UAB is working with a run-first mentality thus far. Will UAB head coach Alex Mortensen emphasize the passing game a little more on Saturday? Ryder Burton has shown flashes of good things in the passing game – none brighter than the perfectly thrown 43-yard touchdown strike to EJ Reid to provide the winning points against Louisiana Monroe – but has not been consistent. Overall, he is 41-of-72 for 478 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. One of the problems has been the pass protection. Burton has been sacked seven times but that number could be much higher without Burton doing a good job in avoiding sacks by scrambling to either throw the ball away or get some yardage with his legs. Navy has done a solid job in the pass rush with six sacks in two games. With all that said still look for UAB to work on establishing the run game. “I don't anticipate us veering too far from who we are,” Mortensen said. Running the football against Navy is difficult, for sure, but maybe not as difficult as it currently looks on paper. Navy is currently ranked second in the country after allowing 40.5 rushing yards per game. But Navy did that against an overmatched FCS team (Towson) and a FAU team that had a 50-yard loss on a punt team blunder and 22 lost yards on three sacks. Those 72 yards are included in FAU’s rushing total of 44 yards. FAU gained 116 yards on 39 running plays. UAB had its worst rushing game of the season last week at Louisiana but will work to get back on track this week.

Special teams: In a game where hidden yardage is important the Blazers need to get their punt game settled. Badger Hargett came into the season as the starter and averaged 48.5 yards per punt on his two punts in the opener against Illinois. Oliver Straw, who is third in all-time punting yards at West Virginia, was added to the UAB roster after the season began. UAB didn’t punt in the win over Louisiana-Monroe and Straw took over as the starter at Louisiana. It was an inconsistent game for Straw, who averaged 37 yards on five attempts with his 21-yard punt setting the Ragin’ Cajuns up for a 40-yard touchdown drive in the first quarter. Hargett punted once in the game for 49 yards. Obviously, UAB needs more consistency in its punting game.

Hello my name is: Elijah Hall. The defensive end transfer from Liberty had limited snaps the first two weeks. However, with Blanche Gold out with injury at Louisiana, Hall got a season-high 26 snaps against the Ragin’ Cajuns. He responded with three tackles, including one tackle for loss, and showed he’s capable of contributing.

Trend to follow: Surprisingly, Navy has not forced a turnover in two games. Navy averaged 11.3 interceptions and 8.3 fumble recoveries per season in Brian Newberry’s first three seasons as the head coach. Taking away the football is something the Midshipmen are known for. In 2024, Navy had 17 interceptions and the 2023 defense had 14 fumble recoveries. Newberry said earlier this week that he expects the turnovers to come.

How Navy wins: Let’s stay with turnovers. Navy is at its best when winning the turnover battle. Shutting down the UAB running game is a focus and playing a clean offensive football game is important. Mixing in a big play or two in the passing game would also be nice for Navy.

How UAB wins: It begins with playing a relatively clean game in regards to penalties, turnovers and assignments. Unforced errors will get the Blazers beat. Ending red zone trips with touchdowns is vital, having balanced success on offense would be helpful and limiting missed tackles is critical.

Coach’s corner: Navy coach Brian Newberry is 27-13 since taking over as the program’s head coach in 2022. That marks a tie with the coach he replaced, Ken Niumatalolo, for the second best start as the Navy head coach.

One more thing: The numbers support that UAB is hurting itself with penalties thus far. In the FBS statistics UAB is tied for 113th in fewest penalties (26), tied for 118th in fewest penalties per game (8.67), tied for 117th in total penalty yards (225) and tied for 121st in penalty yards per game (75). Only one of Trent Dilfer’s UAB teams had more penalties and penalty yards after three games. The 2024 team had 28 penalties for 242 yards in the first three games.

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Whoever Starts at QB for Navy, UAB Knows the Assignment

The UAB defense has prepared this week without this without knowing which Navy quarterback they will see when the teams meet in an American Conference game on Friday night at Protective Stadium.

Will it be the explosive Braxton Woodson or the versatile Jackson Gutierrez? Or will it be both?

Woodson is the team’s starter at quarterback but the 6-foot-3, 215-pound fourth year player suffered an ankle sprain in the 38-30 loss to FAU on Sept. 12. The injury came on the opening drive of the third quarter. At that time, Woodson had 96 rushing yards on 12 carries with a touchdown but FAU held a 31-7 lead that grew to a 31-point deficit on the next series. Gutierrez, a 6-foot, 207-pound third year player from San Antonio, stepped in to account for 176 yards and three touchdowns to nearly lead the Midshipmen to an improbable comeback victory.

So which quarterback will take the first Navy snap on Friday night in Birmingham?

It depends on Woodson’s injured ankle. Navy head coach Brian Newberry said earlier this week that Woodson’s availability was “day-to-day” and added that he was “encouraged” in the healing process. He also said that Gutierrez was the starter at that point.

“Right now Jackson is the guy,” Newberry said of Gutierrez, whose father, Gary, was former UAB quarterback Jacob Zeno’s head coach at John Jay High in San Antonio.

Either way, not much changes for the Navy offense or UAB defense as they prepare for Saturday’s game. While there are certainly some differences in the top two Navy quarterbacks the offense doesn’t change when Gutierrez is on the field.

“That's gonna be the test of our defense, how disciplined we can be for 60, 70 plays,” said UAB linebacker Muaaz Byard, who is the team leader in tackles with 30. “Can you do your job even if you're not making plays or if you are making plays? Just do your job consistently over and over again because that's what they're banking on. They're banking on somebody to mess up. So as long as we do our job every play, make sure our eyes in the right spot, we should be good.”

Being in the right spot isn’t always enough to stop Woodson, who is the fourth leading rusher in the country and leads all quarterbacks with 148 rushing yards per game. It’s the third consecutive week that UAB’s defense is facing a running threat quarterback, whether it’s Woodson or Gutierrez. The experience of playing Louisiana-Monroe’s Austin Carlisle and Louisiana’s Lunch Winfield could be helpful this week.

“It's another week and another really good running quarterback,” UAB defensive end Tylin Jackson said. “Those guys can scoot. You know, they're fast, they make plays. But I think it just comes down to the details on the defense. Like, we have to do our job because these guys can hurt us if we're not on one accord.”

As usual, Navy has a threat at fullback in Vic Listori, who has 116 yards and a touchdown in two games, but they aren’t the focus.

“Everything goes through the quarterback,” Byard said, speaking about Woodson. “He's a great athlete. He can run. I know the running backs number 40 (Listori) and 42 (Mac Barrow II), those are bigger backs and things like that. But everything gonna go through the quarterback. He's the heart and soul of the offense. So if we stop him, we can stop them.”


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Samford Looks To Break Through Against VMI

Two Southern Conference teams needing a win badly will meet on Saturday afternoon at Samford’s Pete Hanna Stadium.

Samford is not only still searching for the first win with John Grass as the head coach but the Bulldogs are also riding a eight-game losing streak dating back to the final five games of the 2025 season. On the other side of the football, VMI has a 14-game losing streak, including the first four games of Ashley Ingram’s tenure as the program’s head coach.

It’s guaranteed that one losing streak will end on Saturday.

“I think we need a win bad,” Grass said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning. “We really do. This bunch has done everything we've asked them to do. They've bought in. They're still bought in. So, I think a win would do a lot of people well. You'll get back to even in the conference. This team's goal was to finish at the top of the conference and that goal is still attainable. But you got to win these games. Losing the first one kind of put some pressure on all the rest of them, so you got our backs against the wall as far as the conference. This is a must-win when it comes to conference play.”

One advantage for Samford is the Bulldogs are rejuvenated after the team’s first bye week of the season. The extra week of work came following close losses to UNA and Southern Illinois and a tough outing at Tennessee Tech in the SoCon opener.

“You know, the first three didn't go the way we wanted 'em to go but we got better every week,” Grass said. “We had a chance to win some games in the fourth quarter there with the first two and then with explosive plays (at) Tennessee Tech, it got away from us early but had a chance to get back in that game as well. You learn a lot about your football team in those first three games, so we got to build on that, and that's kind of what we did last week.”

The extra work also allowed the Samford defense an opportunity to get extra work on defending the triple option attack brought in by the new staff. Ingram was an offensive lineman on three national championship teams at UNA, which ran the option, and spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach at Navy.

“Well, I mean, I think it's tough,” Grass said of getting ready to play an option attack for the only time this season. “I think this conference used to have two or three teams at all times that, that run the triple, so you would see it from week to week. I asked our guys, ‘How many of y'all played against the triple in high school?’ Surprisingly, more of them played against it than what you thought.”

But it still takes a healthy dose of adjustment in preparation.

“The biggest difference to me, (after) you played three spread offenses the first three games, is pad level,” Grass said. “It's under the center offense. It gets on you a lot quicker than a gun offense does. The pad level of your offensive lineman is way lower than it is out of the gun. So, I mean, it's an adjustment. It's gonna take us a series to adjust to the pad level of the game because they're rolling off the ball, man. They're in a four-point stance and they're coming off the ball. It's a power run game, and they want to be able to crease with that fullback. So it is different. But like I said, the knowledge on our team was better than what I had suspected in that deal.

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Sweeting’s Game Preparation Goes Beyond the Playbook

Game preparation isn’t done solely in meeting rooms, video rooms and the practice field, at least not for UAB cornerback Darrell Sweeting. He also mixes in a healthy dose of homework.

You see, Sweeting is a talker on the football field. This is where the homework shows up.

“I prep every week,” said Sweeting, a 6-foot, 185-pound redshirt junior. “I ain't gonna lie, I'm looking at their Instagrams and who they date. I'm looking at all that. I’m looking at who they named (after), their first name, their mom’s name. I'm trying to get under their skin, so when I get on the field, I'm just saying all different types of things. Not disrespectful but something where they’re saying ‘What, how you know that?’”

The genesis of this approach includes the position that he plays. Be honest, have you ever known a quiet cornerback? But the roots of Sweeting’s journey into trash talking began long before he became a college football cornerback. It came on the youth football fields of West Palm Beach, Fla., where trash talking is part of the game.

“If you ain't got a little dawg in you, you can't play down there, I ain't gonna lie to you,” said Sweeting, who was 6 years old when he first joined a team. “When I first started playing football, they installed trash talking into me. I’ll give you a quick story. When I was young, I used to be scared to run into people hard, you know what I'm saying? So my coaches would talk trash (to) make me mad. When they talked trash, I used to go running into people fast and hard. I got rid of that fear fast.”

The fear was gone but the need for trash talking remained. But that’s just part of his process.

“You got to back it up,” Sweeting said. “The confidence comes from the work you put in, obviously, in practice, in off-season training, in the weight room and all the running we do as a team. That's where the confidence first builds and comes from. I think the trash talking is just to get you going. It's like a mental game for myself as well, to go in there like, "OK, cool, if I'm gonna talk trash, I gotta go in there and do my job.’"

Sweeting’s job these days comes on the defensive side of the ball. In high school, at The Benjamin School in West Palm Beach, he was a standout in all three phases. As a junior, he had 70 catches for 1,261 yards with 17 receiving touchdowns. He also had 48 tackles, five interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown, and a kickoff return for a score.

Sweeting played in eight games over his first two college seasons at Temple. Last season, he played in 12 games at Marshall and contributed 37 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack and an interception. He came to UAB in January and immediately made a good impression. Sweeting latched on to one of the first team cornerback spots in spring practice and never let go.

“I think you just start with character, just showing the type of person you are,” Sweeting said. “Then you gotta go out there and play. I think over the course of the spring I did really well. My first day I came out with two picks. I put my name out there real fast in front of the team. I think I ended the spring with like eight or nine picks, so I was able to earn respect from the team. Coming into fall camp, I was able to just keep building off that. Now I'm in season, so I gotta just build off that.”

The next step comes on Saturday against Louisiana, which features standout dual threat quarterback Lunch Winfield. With Winfield’s ability to beat a defense with his legs and arm it’s a challenging game for the entire UAB defense. Sweeting does have the advantage of previous experience against Winfield, even though that didn’t go so well. Winfield came off the bench last season at home against Marshall and led the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 54-51 win in overtime. Winfield accounted for 254 yards and five touchdowns in about two quarters of action and scored the game-winner on a 10-yard run.

“He was a explosive guy,” Sweeting said when asked what he remembers from that game. “He could throw the ball, he’s got a strong arm. He can run the ball like crazy. If you let him have too much space, he'll run it. We got to just be on top of it, keep him contained in the pocket and then take away his throws.”

Getting a little extra information from social media might also be helpful.

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Alex Mortensen Meets With MEdia Ahead of Trip to Louisiana

The satisfaction is still lingering over last weekend’s victory over Louisiana-Monroe but the UAB football team has turned the page toward what is next. UAB head coach Alex Mortensen held his weekly press conference on Monday, where he talked about the win over the Warhawks and looked ahead to Saturday’s visit to play Louisiana.

Opening statement: “First of all, just to recap our game last week, I know we spoke a little bit after the game already, but was really pleased with our team's grit, their toughness. I thought our overall unity, competitive spirit was really good. And then we're gonna see them this afternoon and we're gonna really challenge them to have better detail in a lot of areas. But really, really pleased with the intangibles.

I thought ULM and Coach (Bryant) Vincent did a really good job. We expected them to be ready to play and expected them to have a good plan. I thought they did. We also had to prepare for both quarterbacks last week. We suspected they were gonna do what they did, but we had to get ready for both. So I thought we adapted well in the game. I think we held them to three points in the second half. I thought we did a really good job at halftime on both sides of the ball. We had to overcome some self-inflicted wounds, if you will. Some of the obvious ones, an interception, two minutes before the half was really bad. And then the punt return, you know, where we gave them the ball. Those were two significant errors in the game. There were many others, too, we could talk about, whether it's offsides in the red area, a couple other things. But our resiliency, our fight, our toughness, to be down in a game like that, was just awesome. Really good to see. Ultimately, we were able to prevail. I think we held them to 257 yards of offense, and then I think we ended up with 381. I think the thing that stands out is we rushed for 266 yards on, I think, 52 run attempts. So our offensive line, our receivers, did a good job. Tight ends, you know, a lot of people are involved in the running game. And of course, our backs I thought were great. So that was, that was really positive. That kind of shrunk the game. I think on paper we had nine possessions, but that last one, I think the counts, where we knelt on the ball. We really had eight possessions on the game. So just kind of one of those games.

I think one of the things we want to emphasize is trying to win the fourth quarter. I think we won the fourth quarter, 13-0. So that, that was positive. But again, they did a great job and ton of respect for them and Coach Vincent, the plan, the job they did, how they had their guys inspired and played hard. They've got some good players, too. They really do. They have some really good players in spots, so they've done a good job putting their team together.

Jonah (Delange) obviously was outstanding, you know, kicking field goals, so that was really good to see. Then, once again, I will say we want to finish with the ball in the end zone more and rely on him less. We've got to do a better job in the red zone. We've got to do a better job in the high red zone. Now, again, two games in a row, we've shrunk the game. So, if you're looking at the scoring percentage, it's probably OK. But again, you'd rather trade some of those field goals for touchdowns. We're obviously we're gonna work to, to improve that. Those, those things happen for a variety of reasons.

Anyway, it's a new week, you know. Let's turn the page and we're moving on. We're playing, obviously, University of Louisiana. Uh, Mike Desormeaux. Coach Desmeaux's done a great job. He's been there for some time. You know, I remember when he was a part of Coach (Billy) Napier's staff there as an assistant. He's got a long history there, obviously. He does. And they've got good players. I think they've always done a good job recruiting and putting a roster together. It's an area that's rich with talent, too, just geographically. Lunch Winfield's playing really good quarterback for them. They've got a really good defensive team. You know, they scored 30 points on Southern Cal last week. So, you know, definitely expect it to be a challenge. (Offensive coordinator) Tim Leger has been there on offense for some time. He's been a part of those staffs for a long, long time to help and run the offense. Jim Salgado is their defense coordinator. He's got a good history in the NFL. You know, was at the Buffalo Bills for a while, where they had some great defenses. So, really good staff. They got good players. Again, certainly expect it to be a challenge going on the road and going to their place.”

On facing a dual threat in quarterback Lunch Winfield: “I think when you have a guy that can do both, when you have a quarterback that's athletic, you've gotta kind of be prepared, one, to defend all the quarterback runs and have a plan for that and then still be effective enough defending the passing game. I think the next layer to it is when the passes are called, he's got scramble ability. That adds another dimension. So, it  is hard. It's just like anything else. You know, I think part of the reason you seek balance on offense is if the defense tilts one direction really heavy, it gives you other things. I think when you've got a quarterback that's got the ability to do both things, it just, it can, it can stretch you thin and make it hard. I think it makes it that much more important for our guys to play with the effort, fundamentals, technique, and to be able to defeat blocks, shed blocks, or if we're singled up in coverage go win those matchups and win those battles. Ultimately, I think it is really hard, but sometimes fundamental execution can help you if you lose a numerical advantage because of the quarterback run game or something like that.”

On the play of the UAB offensive line: “I think the offensive line is doing a really good job in the running game. There are certain things where we need to protect better and we can protect better. We're working internally to get some of those things cleaned up. Again, protection's kind of an all-encompassing endeavor. There are a lot of people involved with it. You know, there's the quarterback involved with it pre-snap and post-snap. The line's involved, you know, depending on the protection. The tight end's involved, the back's involved. The receivers are involved. You know part of it, hey, if a receiver or whoever's in the route, they've got to be where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there on time. That allows the quarterback to play on time. If the quarterback and the receivers are playing on time, that can take stress off of the offensive line. So there are a lot of things involved with it. There’s some things we need to improve and I expect we will. I think we got a good plan to do that.”

On Louisiana: “Again, I, I think they're a really good team. I think they've got really good players on both sides of the ball. Southern Cal’s al's got a good team. To go out there on the road and have to play them at whatever it was, 10 o'clock Central Time, and put up 30 points, I think it says a lot about, you know, the team we're playing.”

On UAB’s success on the quarterback sneak: “There's definitely an art to it and there's technique involved. There’s certain things we want to coach them to do without getting too specific on how we want to execute it from a technique standpoint. It's not just we're all just having a scrum. There's a little more to it. For the quarterback to be in there doing it, I think it's something you kind of get used to. Obviously, they're physical plays. But they're not often high-collision plays. It's physical, but the contact happens in a pretty short area.”

On Ryder Burton’s scrambling ability: “I think it is (underappreciated). I think Ryder is a good athlete, probably better than people realize, and I do think he's a good scrambler. If he's exhausted his options or, you know, doesn't see anyone open, I think his ability to (scramble is important). One, there's an athleticism component. Then there's a decision-making component to it. I think he's good at both. And his instinct to usually go forward and not go backwards helps him as well. I think in the first two games, there's been a number of times he's escaped where there was air. Now, there are times to go around the pocket too, you know, depending on how it closes. But I think he's got a good feel for the space.

I think one of the interesting things, you know, every now and then we talk about Jacob Zeno's year in (2023), which was my first year here as a coordinator. You know, he's 10th all-time on the (single season) completion percentage list. I think he completed, like, just under 74 percent of his passes, which is pretty remarkable. Part of it, he was accurate (and) receivers did a good job getting open. We protected him. There's a lot that has to take place to do that. But the other part of that too is he was an intelligent scrambler. You know, when the options were exhausted, he took off. I remember hearing Bobby Petrino talk about that a long time ago with Stefan LeFors, who used to be near the top of the list, nationally in terms of completion percentage. Stefan was an intelligent scrambler. If his options were exhausted, instead of trying to stick a low-percentage throw in there, he could go five yards. I think that was something Zeno did a really good job of. Obviously, we have areas to improve and work on in our passing game. But I think one of the strengths of Ryder's game and is a real positive, is his ability to go do that.”

On having more snaps than the opposition by a wide margin: “I think every game is different in terms of whether you want to shrink a game or not. And when I say shrink it, try to minimize the amount of drives in the game. There's different ways to do that. I think the most undervalued statistic in football that people don't talk about enough is points per drive. You know, I think it's easy to get caught up in what's total yardage, what's the total points in the game. But, you know, a lot of it's still gonna depend on how many drives are in the game. If you have eight drives in the game, you know, your capacity to score points is less than it is if there's twelve drives in the game. Ultimately, when we get the ball our primary objective is to end the drive with points and ideally a touchdown, but at worst a field goal. Whatever that takes. If that takes an extended drive, that's fine. If there's an explosive play that gets us in the end zone or changes the field position and it's a shorter drive that's great too. The main thing we want to do when we get the ball is find a way to score. There's different ways to do that. You can work to stay ahead of the sticks and kind of play that way and play for the third and manageable. You know, I've also been a part of some great offenses where we were really good at third down avoidance and you convert more on first and second down. So, a lot of ways to do it.

I talked about this after the game and I've talked to our players about it. I still think, you know, a great comparison is a fight. You get into a fight, you know, a drive is like a fight and there's different ways you want to fight. And you can come out and you can knock somebody out in the first round. You can score on the first play. Or man, you can control that fight and wear them down and break them down and eventually you knock them out late. We just wanna make sure you knock them out. I think that the biggest thing is we just do whatever it takes to score on that drive, you know.”

On receiver Lamar White getting his first career catch: “I’m just very, very, very proud of Lamar White. He made a big play in the game. You know, we ran a boot and they kinda covered the first couple options. He ran a great route. Had to adjust his route a little bit based on the coverage and made a really good catch there. I’ve had the blessing of watching him kind of really grow and just mature, just from being a young guy and a freshman just to now, like very tough, hardworking (receiver). His skill level too has really jumped up. I have to say, he had a very good spring unfortunately, he got beat up a little bit. He's had a couple injuries. He's getting himself back. I had pretty high hopes for the kinda year he could have. Still do. Really excited about the progress he's made and where he can go.”

On Louisiana defense: “One, I start with the players. I think they've got good players at all three levels. They've got, I think, a stout front on both inside and outside. They've got good size. You know, they're good at the second level. They have good linebackers that run well and then the DBs have both speed and some height and length. So they're good players at all three levels. You can't really go, ‘Hey, we're gonna go pick on you." Then I think schematically they do a good job. They've got a really good scheme and it's well-rounded and sound and it presents some challenges. So, They're just a really balanced group.”

On the problem with penalties: “The penalties, obviously you want to eliminate 'them. You're looking (and asking) ‘OK, are there themes?’ You know, are there commonalities. The good thing is, if you're looking for something positive, offensively, some of the pre-snap things improved, I think, from week one to week two. Now a couple young players on defense maybe had a couple pre-snap things last week. You hope they improve too.

There are a couple other things that we definitely need to clean up. How do you address it? I mean, I mentioned, you know, it's something we make a big emphasis on in camp. I start every team meeting in training camp, we show penalties from the day before, particularly pre-snap penalties. I apologize for being redundant, but I know I talked about this as well after our game, but we talk about our core values as a football team. You know, one, we talk about hard work, working hard. And then two, we talk about playing hard with effort and toughness. Three, we talk about playing smart. That's discipline and poise. And then finally, we talk about playing together, having unity. That third one I mentioned, playing smart and just having the discipline to do your job. I think one of the things that Coach Saban used to talk about is, ‘Hey, you want to play the game with emotion, but not emotional.’ Sometimes when guys get into competitive environments that there's things that rear their head that don't rear their head in practice. There are some psychological components to that. The part of it where it's, ‘Hey, we coach it, we train it, we reinforce when we do well, we, catch it when we don’t do it well in practice." Unfortunately, maybe some of these things have reared their heads in games, and you just hope that from game to game it gets better.”

On Louisiana’s offense: “They've always been pretty balanced. You go back to they've got a lot of guys that were on Napier's staffs there. I do think they've got good balance in their offense and then you've also got a dual-threat quarterback. One of the challenges is you have to play pretty honest and they've got, they've got a good mix of things they do.”

On moving forward after fighting through adversity on Saturday: “I think it does help. It should help tremendously, you know. Look, we try to have a hard off-season. You know, the off-season's hard. There are aspects of the winter that are really tough. Then in the summer, I mentioned the other day, in July our conditioning is hard. And yeah, there's physiological reasons for that, not just to get the guys in shape. We're trying to enhance our ability to perform physically. We talk about great effort. One of the prerequisites for effort is being in shape. But there's also a mental toughness component to that too. I believe that every time you answer the bell, when it starts getting hard, you get a little bit tougher. You get a little bit tougher mentally. Your self-talk gets better. You learn how to push through things.

But this is another stage. And the other thing is we practice hard. Practices are not easy here, you know. I say they're not easy, but part of it is our guys do love football. You come to practice and it's pretty competitive. It can get pretty violent and physical. Those are all parts of it. But then we got to carry it to the game. And so I think (we’re ready) getting to a game when you get in a tough position. Some of it is the opponent does a good job, some of it's self-inflicted. How do you respond to that? Do you feel the pressure of it? Do you get tight or do you stick to what we talk about and believe in, having a no scoreboard mentality? Each play has a history and a life of its own. Don't worry about the last play that just happened. Just play each play in the game and have the poise, competitiveness, toughness, and grit. And then the other part is, you know, staying together, not turning on each other, not turning on a teammate, a coach, or any of those things. But the positive energy that we had, all those things is really encouraging to see us go the right way when it got hard. That really was exciting. Now, that's one game, so we're gonna encounter more challenges, more adversity as the year goes on and greater difficulties. So we have to build on that. But that was a good sign. It was a really good sign.”

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