What Major Applewhite said before South Alabama's game against Troy

South Alabama head coach Major Applewhite opened his weekly press conference by addressing the end-of-game decision from Saturday's 28-26 loss at Louisiana. Asked if he would play for the field goal again, Applewhite was direct: probably not. "Still try to get in position with two minutes to go score and win," he said.

Applewhite said quarterback Bishop Davenport was productive in his return to the starting lineup against Louisiana after missing time with a shoulder injury. "He was very accurate, especially early on on third down," Applewhite said. "Eyes in the right place." On the quarterback situation broadly, Applewhite said injuries have driven every change between Davenport and Jared Hollins — not performance. "Bishop, you didn't lose your job," Applewhite said he told Davenport. "You were playing damn good."

The Jaguars have lost three straight — at Marshall (20-13), to Louisiana Tech (35-20) and at Louisiana (28-26). Applewhite described the losses as sharing the same symptoms: turnovers, unfinished drives in the red zone, special teams errors. He said the team is not far off. "I wouldn't lie to you and tell you if we're way off, we're not way off," he said. "We're in the ballpark, but we're just not at home plate right now."

South Alabama (4-5, 2-3 Sun Belt) hosts Troy (4-5, 2-3 Sun Belt) at 6 p.m. CT Saturday at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Both teams need two wins in their final three games to reach bowl eligibility. The loser drops to 4-6 and must win out.

Full transcript

Coach Major Applewhite

On Troy's defense:

On Bishop Davenport's performance against Louisiana:

On whether this week feels different because it's Troy:

On what hasn't gotten done during the three-game losing streak:

"It was a close ball game. We don't play for close by any stretch of the imagination. It sucks. It hurts to lose three games in a row. Two of them by one score, one of them by two scores, but should have been a one-score game. It's tough, but that's the small margin of error that we've got to close as a staff to help our kids in those games. And then as players, we've got to understand where our part is, too. That was part of the conversation with guys yesterday. I wouldn't lie to you and tell you if we're way off, we're not way off. We're not way off."

"When you get your opportunity to get a job — I don't care if it's a quarterback, center, guard — you never want to get your job due to injury because that's your teammate, but at the same time, you want to play your ass off and hold on to it. And so guys, we're going to play whoever's healthy and gives our team the best opportunity to win. And when you get that opportunity, run with it. That doesn't mean you can't be supportive of each other and cheer for each other because at the end of the day, you're cheering for our team.

"Both those guys have a tremendous amount of character. And Jared was Bishop's best friend and best supporter until he was hurt and couldn't play and then vice versa from that standpoint. And then after the Louisiana Tech game, as you go throughout the season, get to week eight, people get banged up and roles reversed this week. And fortunately, nobody's sitting there pouting. Because when Jared got his first start and opportunity, he played well. And then when Bishop got his start again last week, he played well and gave our team a chance to win. It's just quarterback. We don't talk about rotating linebackers and rotating defensive ends, but we do talk about rotating quarterbacks. But everybody gets banged up come week eight, week nine."

"I don't feel like we have a lot of guys that are loose cannons from that standpoint. They play the game the right way. They understand what they need to do and focus in on understanding that those five to seven, eight seconds is where they need to go play. But if you play enough, I don't care if it's in high school or even if it's college ball, you played in rivalry games, you understand by about the second or third play, all that stuff's kind of died down anyway. And most of that stuff's for the fans and you've got to lock it on your assignment. Go execute."