What Charles Kelly said before Jax State's CUSA opener vs. Middle Tennessee

Charles Kelly does not want his team reading its own press clippings.

Jacksonville State enters its Conference USA opener Saturday against Middle Tennessee after erasing a 14-point halftime deficit to beat Georgia Southern 31-27. The Gamecocks scored 21 unanswered second-half points, rallying behind a 75-yard punt return touchdown from Caleb Nix and a defense that Kelly said held the Eagles to 128 yards and three points after halftime. It was the kind of win that generates momentum — and Kelly spent the opening minutes of his Tuesday press conference warning his players not to let that momentum become complacency.

"All that is rat poison for these guys," Kelly said of the praise following Saturday's win. "You're just feeding it. And all of a sudden, they think, 'Okay, we did this.' That has nothing to do with execution and what we got to do."

Kelly turned his attention to Middle Tennessee head coach Derek Mason, whom he has known since their days as rival defensive coordinators — Mason at Stanford and Auburn, Kelly at Florida State and Alabama. Kelly said the Blue Raiders are much improved, particularly at quarterback with Roman Gagliano running the offense and receiver Cam'ron Lacy providing a dynamic playmaking threat. He also highlighted MTSU linebacker Korey Smith as the standout on the defensive side of the film.

Offensively, Kelly said the passing game has been the most improved position group over the first three weeks, crediting the development of receivers Darius Cannon, Deondre Johnson, Luke Gilbert, Jameson Scissum and Dylan Gentry. But Kelly was clear that he values passing efficiency — yards per catch, touchdowns, explosive plays — over raw yardage.

"The number one thing is turnover ratio," Kelly said. "But if you look at the other critical statistic, it's pass efficiency on offense and pass efficiency defense. If you limit people yards per catch, you limit touchdown passes, you limit explosive plays."

He also offered his most detailed public praise yet for Nix, calling him a player he "wouldn't trade for anybody." Nix plays safety, returns punts, holds on field goals, plays on the kickoff team and threw for over 3,000 yards in high school. Kelly said the versatility is a product of Nix's work ethic and unselfishness.

"Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games," Kelly said. "I'm convinced of that."

Full transcript

On the Georgia Southern comeback and what he saw on film:

Coach Kelly: "There were a lot of things in the first half that we didn't execute very well that put us in those situations. What we felt like is if we could get those things corrected, we could play a better game. At no time in that game did I feel like we were out of the game. That's what we talk about — playing a game, not paying attention to the scoreboard. It doesn't matter what the scoreboard says, you should play the game a certain way. I give a lot of credit to our players first of all. They're very resilient. They stuck to the process. And I give a lot of credit to our coaches for making the adjustments. But we've got to learn from that just like we have on a lot of those other games where we have to improve. That's our focus — what we got to do to improve."

On Middle Tennessee and head coach Derek Mason:

Coach Kelly: "I guess because I'm the oldest coach in Conference USA — and according to somebody's tweet on my birthday, I'm the 18th oldest coach in the country — I know a lot of these coaches. I've known them for a long time. I have a ton of respect for Derek Mason. I've known him for a long time. We were both defensive coordinators at the same time. We've always shared ideas. I think he's done a really good job. They're a much improved football team. They had a good football team last year. If you look at their record, they lost a ton of one-score games in this conference. He's going to have his team very well prepared.

"I think they're playing really good at quarterback. Roman is from Opelika High School, so I'm familiar with him. They've got a really good receiver, Cam'ron Lacy, from over in Toccoa, Georgia. He's dynamic. They're going to do whatever they can to get him the ball. On defense, they're very sound in what they do. They make you earn everything. Korey Smith just stands out to me watching their video. He plays linebacker for them. He is sideline to sideline. They're good defensively — good up front, good at linebacker, good in the back end and good in the kicking game. Cam'ron is a punt returner and he's dangerous with the ball in his hands."

On the "rat poison" of past success:

Coach Kelly: "I know what everybody's saying — 'Hey, it's the first conference game.' All that is rat poison for these guys. Everybody's going to say, 'Great win Saturday night. What you did last year, blah blah blah.' You're just feeding it. And all of a sudden, they think, 'Okay, we did this.' That has nothing to do with execution. What we got to do is be able to execute. It doesn't matter who we play. I got a ton of respect for this team, but it doesn't matter about anything in the past. It matters what we do for 60 minutes."

On the run game opening up in the second half:

Coach Kelly: "I think a couple things. First of all, I think our guys are very well conditioned. I give our coaches a lot of credit. I give Dr. Wright a lot of credit for that. That's one thing we can control — being the best-conditioned team. Early in the game, they play guys seven yards from the line of scrimmage. You got to throw it over their head. You might not hit it, but you got to show them that you're going to throw it. So I think as we started getting some passing game going, it opened it up for the run game.

"But it's interesting that you said that. I said it in staff meeting yesterday — to me, that told us a lot about our team. When everybody knows you're going to run it and you can run it, that's what you want to be able to do. We still got a long way to go in that area. But that's why you got to have balance, because those things help the run game open up when you can throw the football as well."

On the growth of the passing game and the new receivers:

Coach Kelly: "I told them last week I thought in the last three weeks they might be the most improved group. Darius will probably tell you — I've been over there in the drills. I challenge them because I know they have talent. What I like is we're spreading the ball around. One game it may be Darius, one game it may be Deondre, it may be Jamill, it may be Luke Gilbert, it may be Jameson Scissum. Dylan Gentry made some plays the other night. We got guys that can make plays.

"What I look for is not the number of yards that you pass for — it's the passing efficiency, because that is a critical factor in winning football games. The number one thing is turnover ratio. If your turnover ratio is good, you're going to win more games than you lose. But the other critical statistic is pass efficiency on offense and pass efficiency defense. If you limit people yards per catch, you limit touchdown passes, you limit explosive plays. When you create them on offense, it gives you a better chance to win because the name of the game in college football, because the way the rules are, is about how many points you score. It's points per possession.

"We didn't have the ball that many times the other night. I think we had 52 plays in the game on offense. We got to get more than that. We created some of that on our own with a turnover, a three and out. You got to move the ball. But it comes down to points per possession. The efficiency in the passing game is what I'm more excited about than necessarily yards."

On Caleb Nix's importance to the team:

Coach Kelly: "I wouldn't trade Caleb for anybody else. First of all, he's a super young man. Really smart. He's a really good leader. He plays everything. He is our starting safety. He's on the kickoff team. He's been on the punt team. He holds on field goals. He returns punts. And the truth be known, the guys would tell you — if you ask him to, he could be a backup quarterback. He threw for over 3,000 yards in high school.

"That's just what kind of athlete he is. But I think because of his work ethic and how he works at everything, he's a good influence on the rest of the team. He's very unselfish. It just happens to be his time. He'll be the first to tell you the play doesn't care who makes it. It just depends on if you're ready in that moment. Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games. I'm convinced of that. He means a ton to this program — not only the production that he brings, but just as an overall teammate."

On his familiarity with opposing coaches and how it impacts preparation:

Coach Kelly: "I know all these coaches because I'm so old. But you were with them. They're one of your colleagues. There were things that I studied that Derek did when he was the defensive coordinator at Stanford. I was really impressed with what he did with those players. He was at Auburn when I was at Alabama. Even though we were rivals, we had a lot of mutual respect for each other. Respect him as a person, what kind of man he is.

"You do sometimes go back and look at what guys may have done against you four or five years ago. I can remember the year we won the national championship, we go down to Auburn to play. He's the defensive coordinator, and for four quarters — well, three quarters and about 14 minutes — he gave us fits. Bryce made a play at the end of the game. But he's a really good coach. You go back and you look at those things they've done in the past. You try to leave no stone unturned."

On Caden Creel's passing efficiency and what the offensive line has done for him:

Coach Kelly: "First thing, you got to give the O-line credit because one of the things that we've been really good with the offensive line this year is protection. He's had clean pockets. The only time I can remember that he hasn't had clean pockets is when we were in extremely long yardage situations or a two-minute situation. We've given up a couple of pressures. So I think he has confidence in the guys up front.

"The other thing I think that Caden has done is he's trusted his eyes more. Learning to take what the defense gives you. I've mentioned it before — there's always a stress point in the defense. The whole object on offense is to find that stress point, and he's done a good job of that. I think he's more comfortable. Coach Housewright's done a great job with him. He's a heck of a coach and a good play caller. He understands what Caden can do.

"I tell all of our coaches this — our guys are good at a lot of things. Let them be good at what they're good at. Don't ask somebody to do something that they can't do. I think some of the schematics that we do with Caden have helped him as well. He takes a lot of pride in it. I think we got some good young quarterbacks as well that people haven't seen yet. They can do some things."

On Luke Gilbert's development at tight end after playing quarterback in high school:

Coach Kelly: "A lot of these guys that we have at skill positions played quarterback in high school because usually the high school coach is going to take their best athlete and put the ball in his hands every snap, or at least get the ball to him as much as they can. It might be tailback. It might be wide receiver. Even a lot of the DBs that we sign are playing quarterback.

"It bothers me to look at a player at a skill position when he's not getting the ball a lot, because that tells me the high school coach doesn't think he's that good. At the tight end position, anytime you have a tight end that can create mismatches — which we feel like Luke can do, Jameson can do that, David can do that, Andrevius is going to be one of those guys — that's why we want to have good tight ends in our program. It just helps you. But he definitely, athletically and the way he can run, he can be a mismatch at that position."

On transitioning quarterback-athletes to other positions:

Coach Kelly: "Jameson Scissum was a quarterback in high school. Really good one. The one thing about guys that play quarterback — they have to be able to process information. Football, especially at all positions and really on the offensive line and defensive line, it's about processing information. Those guys have been processing a lot of information throughout their career. Might be something different that they're looking at.

"That's why a lot of guys when they move to safety, it's just like playing quarterback from the other side. You're just seeing from the opposite side. A lot of the great linebackers were running backs because they see the same thing that running backs see — they're just on the other side. The quarterback position — you have to be a pretty good athlete, you have to have good feet, you have to process information. I think that's the biggest thing that goes into it. We evaluate that part of it. Sometimes it takes some growth. It took Jameson some growth. He and I were talking this morning — he's just starting to get into it. He's one of our most improved guys on the team. You grow up playing quarterback, that's what you play, and then all of a sudden you're asked to play another position. There is a little growth there. But once those guys settle in, I think their experiences at quarterback help them."

On Conference USA's competitive balance:

Coach Kelly: "This league and these teams in this league are very competitive, and they're very competitive because there are a bunch of good football coaches in this league. Everybody's well prepared. It's hard to tell a huge difference in personnel. Everybody's got good players in certain spots. Some people may be a little bit better at running back. Some people might be a little bit better at receiver. There are good quarterbacks in this league. I can't think of a team in this league that doesn't have a good quarterback.

"Our whole deal — it's nothing of disrespect for the other team, but we try to focus more on us than we do the other team because it's about us executing for 60 minutes and putting a complete game together. We haven't even come close to putting a complete game together — offense, defense and special teams. We've had some great moments. We've had two blocked kicks. We had a punt return for a touchdown. We played really good in the second half defensively the other night — gave up 128 yards in the second half and three points. That's hard to do in today's football. But you got to do it the first half, too. And on offense, for 60 minutes — dominating the game in time of possession, creating explosive plays. That's what we try to focus on, and that's going to be what determines whether you get the result that you're looking for."

On what he wants to see heading into conference play:

Coach Kelly: "The biggest thing is executing for 60 minutes. Not just playing a full 60 minutes — there's a difference between playing and executing, because you can play hard, but if you don't execute, you're not going to get good results. We've got to be able to execute for 60 minutes in all three phases. I do think our team understands that it is all three phases. A lot of people don't realize one out of every six plays in a football game is a special teams play. It's a lot of plays. If you don't put the emphasis on it and you're not focused as a player to do my job in those situations, it'll bite you."

Player interviews: DL Quay Hood, WR Darius Cannon

On having his brother Marquis Hood as a teammate:

Quay Hood: "It's been good. I played a part in the recruiting phase. He had nine or 10 sacks at Reinhardt University. It just feels good playing with him. I played with him in high school. I was actually a left tackle blocking for him. He was running back and then he played D-line. So it just feels good."

On the defense's halftime adjustment against Georgia Southern:

Quay Hood: "The message that we got from our D-line coach was he asked us what was the score. Obviously it's 0-0. We don't care about the score. He just told us to go out there and play our football, spot-the-ball mentality. That's all we got."

On his comfort level in the offense and the passing game's growth:

Darius Cannon: "Starting off, we weren't really executing how we were supposed to. Now that everybody's getting comfortable with the offense, I feel like everybody's just more chemistry."

On getting five receptions against Georgia Southern:

Darius Cannon: "It felt real good, just getting more comfortable. I didn't get the targets in the beginning, but getting it all in one game made me feel real comfortable with the quarterback, more chemistry going."

On handling confidence without letting it become "rat poison":

Darius Cannon: "You just got to execute. It can be confidence, but it can also be a poison. So you just got to keep executing."

On not knowing about Caleb Nix's punt return touchdown:

Quay Hood: "I didn't know either. I was the same way as Walker. I was on the iPad. So Nix — I guess because he has to hold right after that. We just went back out there on the field. I was on the iPad. They said, 'D, we back up.' Went back out there."

Darius Cannon: "I love it. It's electric. I was warming up getting ready to go onto the field and I didn't even know Caleb Nix returned it. I just heard the crowd going crazy. That's when I looked up and I just seen him in the end zone."

On what brought him to Jacksonville State:

Darius Cannon: "My position coach Dossi. Whenever I came here on my visit, it felt like a real genuine connection. And whenever I played them last year, I seen what they could do. And I feel like I can fit good into the offense."