BATON ROUGE— Southern University head coach Terrence Graves held a news conference Tuesday afternoon ahead of the Jaguars season opener.

Graves was selected as Southern's head coach last December after serving as interim head coach for the 2023 Bayou Classic. He served as an assistant coach before ascending to the top coaching job.  

Southern is set to face McNeese State University in Lake Charles on Saturday at 7 p.m. 

Graves told the media he believes his team is ready to play. 

"It's been a long camp, its been a hot camp. Those guys are tired of hitting one another, tired of going against one another. It's time to actually hit someone when it counts," he said. 

The new head coach was also asked about how he is adjusting to the new role.

"I do more non football stuff now than I did as an assistant coach, because I let my coaches coach. They run the offense, the defense, the special teams and I'm pretty much seeing the external, internal stuff so I kinda miss it," he said. 

You can rewatch the full news conference here: