ABILENE, Texas – McMurry University Athletics held its weekly football press conference Thursday afternoon in the Athletics Annex. The War Hawks take on Sul Ross State at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.

Head coach Jordan Neal,  junior defensive end Jalen Gomez and freshman running back Dee Robinson answered questions from the Abilene media during the press conference.

For footage of the press conference via Facebook Live, click here.

Below are some of the highlights:

Coach Neal's opening statement

We're excited about our next opportunity against Sul Ross. We play at 2 o'clock, which is a little bit of a different deal since we normally play at 1 (p.m.). It's a Military Appreciation-themed game, so it's a neat opportunity for some of our service members and the folks from Dyess (Air Force Base) that will be in attendance. We're looking forward to honoring them at the game and honoring them with our play and our performance.

I feel like our team played better this past week in many ways. In some ways, we took a step back, but collectively as a program and as a coaching staff, as players, I feel like we've learned a lot. We're looking forward to another opportunity to get back out there.

Jalen Gomez on the conditioning of the team

We've been hitting it pretty hard. We've had pretty good conditioning since I've been here. This year was probably one of my best (fall) camps since I've been here (at McMurry). It was one of the hardest camps, conditioning wise, because the heat played a factor. It seems to get hotter every year, but I think we will be ready for this week…conditioning went really well.

Dee Robinson on contributing as a freshman

I had belief. Coming from a small town, I felt I had to prove something. Coming from something that's real small, (some people) really don't think you have enough to contribute, so I had to mold and make myself ready for the competition I'm going against this year.

Coach Neal on Robinson's breakthrough performance last week

He's exactly right. Coming from the metropolis of Rice, Texas, one thing I knew when we were recruiting Dee out of high school, it was not only his coaches at his high school that spoke so highly of him and the tape that showed what he was capable of, but it was the coaches around the league that played against him saying 'I'm ready for him to be gone.' They were tired of watching him run through their defenses.

You never know how a freshman is going to transition to the college life, the workload with classes, and it's still very early. You also don't know how they're going to compete and whether the game speed is going to be too much for them. But Dee came in, and as a freshman you come in at the bottom…but he didn't let that bother him. He didn't let that get in the way of him working hard every day. He caught up to the game speed really fast…and you saw what he was capable of (last week).

Coach Neal on Sul Ross State

I've always said this about Sul Ross…ever since I was a player, coaching against them at other teams in our conference and now certainly going into this game. You know they are going to be physical, they're going to try to hit you hard, they're going to get under your skin. If you give them an inch, they will take a mile. I've always believed that. Playing at home, traveling, it never seems to matter for them. They show up and they're physical. I respect Coach (John) Pierce…he'll have his guys ready to play.

Jalen Gomez on scouting the Lobos' offense against two strong defenses

I've watched plenty of film on them, and I've seen that they've been going against some really good defenses (Hardin Simmons and Texas A&M-Kingsville) and didn't really have much success against them. In their mind, they're going to come in like this is their first opportunity to play a defense that is not at that high of a caliber, even though we see ourselves as high caliber. We still want to keep them scoreless.

Dee Robinson on facing a youthful team similar to McMurry

If they have a lot of freshmen, they are pretty much in the same position that I am. They are going to come out with the same mentality. We have to go out and get it.

Coach Neal on facing a young team with a young team

I love the mentality of a freshman. A freshman who gets an opportunity to play on a Saturday, they don't care about the past and what the score of the game last year was. They are just trying to prove themselves. They're just looking for an opportunity to play, compete, do their best and prove themselves. That's exactly the mentality you get from Dee and a lot of our players.

At the same time, we feel like we've got some upper-class leadership and some guys that are performing better and better all the time. We feel like that's something that can help carry us over the top. That can be a big separation factor going into this game.

Jalen Gomez on the enthusiasm of the underclassmen

With this being my third year, this is one of the biggest classes that's stayed. Usually through camp, a lot of guys can't handle it and quit…I know I won't be around much longer (as a junior), but seeing the freshman this year, I know I can leave confident knowing that these guys are going to be good. I see that with Dee, I'm one of his fans. When I see those guys put in work and do great things, I get excited myself. It makes me want to go out there and get the ball back for them, get a turnover and dunk the ball in our Turnover Trashcan. The energy that (the freshman) bring and the energy we give each other is always good.

Dee Robinson on having a competitive stable of running backs

We feed off energy. We have energy backs like me and Kam (Session) who are about the same size almost, then we have the rest of our guys who are a little thicker but little. We just feed off each other's energy and keep each other hot. If we drop a pass, we hold each other accountable and make sure that we have a high attitude.

Coach Neal on having a lot of running backs at his disposal

It's a really good problem for us as coaches to say 'how do you slice the carries up for those guys,' because every one of them can contribute. What you saw last week was really just a guy that got a hot hand. It wasn't anyone being demoted, it wasn't anyone being phased out. We just felt like Dee got a hot hand and he was running with an attitude. He was running physical.

It was really neat to see Kam run a kickoff back for a touchdown. You saw the explosiveness he has. Then you have guys like Leo Brownfield IV and Davian Smith. They were limited on their carries (against Howard Payne), since we had to throw the ball a little bit more than we would've liked. But those guys, they can run stretch, they can catch the ball out of the backfield and they can block. Not a one of those guys are selfish, they pick each other up and they're each other's biggest fans.

Jalen Gomez on the importance of the Battle of I-20 trophy

It's a real big tradition at McMurry. I've only played two games in this rivalry, but the atmosphere of this game, you can feel it. It's real intense. We've played each other 88 times, and it's about to be 89. It's a real big game feeling, no matter how you slice it. It's almost like a championship game for us. There's a little something extra knowing it's the I-20 Battle, and being on both sides with a win and a loss, it feels much better with a win.