SUMRALL
"I'm excited about the bowl opportunity. Look forward to playing a really good Florida team. They've got a three-game win streak, SEC team, and a great location to play in Tampa. It should be exciting for our guys. Really frustrated with maybe the way things ended the last couple of games, but we get an opportunity to go play a good team in a great environment and look forward to it. Great reward for our guys for a good season. A nine-win season, not going to apologize for that. Would we have liked to have gotten more? Yes. For sure. We'd like to win a conference championship and didn't do it, came short, but love the group we have, proud of the group we have, grateful for everything they've done and excited about getting to play a game here in a couple of weeks."
On eager to get bad taste out of their mouth:
"The guys will take two days off. I say off, but they'll lift tomorrow and Tuesday and then we'll kind of get into a few practices middle of the week through the weekend, have a travel day, and you're always ready to go play. If you haven't won, you want to go play as fast as you can. You're ready to play."
On liking early bowl date:
"Yeah I do. If you ask me, it's kind of like we have a bye week and then we play two weeks after our last game. It's like a bye week sort of. We''ll get a touch ahead because at the bowl site we'll practice, but we're not going to go for two hours. I like to make it a reward, not punishment, so we'll practice down there and sort of use this week as a game week so down there we're a little ahead, but I would much prefer the Dec. 20 date. I think it's an outstanding date. I'm really excited about it. Other than my fifth-grade daughter. She was complaining and said I'm going to opt out of the bowl game because I have a function at school that day. I don't know about any players, but she's opting out."
On if players are excited:
"I think the majority are excited about going and playing. We just had our team meeting and had not met until today to talk through the schedule through the week. I can't speak for each guy. This world we live in now of transfer portal, opting out, all that's new. You can be crotchety and old and complain about why times have changed or you can get with the times. I try to see each guy with their terms and where they are. If a guy is chasing greener pastures and they don't want to be here, then I'm not going to make them be here, but I'd love for as many guys that can play to play. It's going to be a hell of a challenge because it's a really good team."
On Florida:
"They've got great players. Billy (Napier)'s done a great job there. The last few weeks you watch them play, you can kind of see the momentum they've created. The quarterback (DJ Lagway) has positively affected their team. He's really talented. I just watched a little bit of tape for like 20 minutes before coming down here. I was sitting in coach (Greg) Gasparato's office and they are really good, so we have our hands full. It's not going to be an easy task."
On chance to make a statement against SEC team:
"It definitely gets your attention really easily. You are playing a brand like Florida, an SEC team, a team that's a traditional power. Having coached in that league, that's one of the teams that you're always like, man, they're usually pretty good, just talent-wise and well coached. I think it helps at least. You better be prepared because they are really good."
On Napier:
"What we played earlier this year against Louisiana-Lafayette is very similar schematically. They are really disciplined, detailed, they run the ball well, they take great shots off of play-action stuff. He does a great job offensively of catering the offense around who the quarterback is. When he was at Louisiana-Lafayette, he had Levi Lewis and did some good things to cater to him. He has a good knack of catering to the quarterback. Defensively they are really well coached. Rod Roberts and Austin Armstrong on that side of the ball I've known for a long time and have a ton of respect for, and they have dudes. You turn the tape on and it's OK, this is an SEC team. This is what it looks like, so they are impressive."
On winning for seniors:
"When you get to this part of the year, the guys that have given themselves to the team, you want them to have positive experiences."
On his coaching status:
"Are you asking this question because I don't have a Tulane logo on. I went to church today. I don't wear team-issued gear to church. I don't like going to church in Tulane here. Am I here? My goodness. Do you want me to leave? I get asked about it every day right now. I know we lost two games and everybody wants to run me out of town, but I’m here. I showed up to work today.”
On if he interviewed with North Carolina:
“I’m not going to comment about hypotheticals. I’m trying to figure out how we can win a game. Look, people call. They call my agent. I don’t talk to them very often. Very little gets to me. Very little. Like almost nothing gets to me. I'm like I'm not talking, I'm not talking, I'm not talking. When it gets to me, it’s usually because I’m like this is something that can be really something I need to consider. Nothing’s getting to me right now. You can say that. Nothing's getting to me. Could that change? I don’t know. If some newspaper tripled your salary, you might go. I’m very happy. Other than we’ve lost the last two games—I’m pissed off about that, and everybody probably wants me to leave because we’ve lost twice. I don't know. My kids are mad at me. I want to win a game for these guys.
"I am happy. I will say this. The administration here and I have had great dialog about things we can do to try to continue to improve where we're going. I love this city. I love this place. I love everything about being here. Are there things I want to do to continue to see how we can get better as a program? Hell, yeah. Because I feel like I’m getting chased and I feel like some people we’re trying to chase and catch up to, and I don’t like being behind. I want to be ahead. There are some things that we have to improve. We’ll work on it. I believe that. Is it all there? Is it all done? I believe we’re working on it, but no, there hasn’t been a whole lot getting to me. I’ve kept everything pretty arms’ length.”
On if he is flattered when name comes up for other jobs:
"Y'all are going to kill me with these questions. I'm going to throw something. I don't get flattered by it. Any attention that the head coach usually gets is because he has a great staff and great players. When things are going good, everybody speculates about where you should go next, and when things are not going good, they try to figure out how can they get you out. I’d much rather them be figuring out, like, man it’s going really good, what should happen next? The last two weeks haven’t gone very well. I’m pissed off about it. I haven't spent a lot of attention on it. I don’t get flattered by any of it. It’s not my focus. My attention is how can I serve and develop our players. I wake up every day and think about how can I serve our players? I'm getting emotional now, it's about how can I develop our players? That’s it. I don’t like all the stuff, and I will say this--If it’s been a distraction for our team, I hate it. I hate it, because it hasn’t been for me. It has distracted me zero because my name gets thrown on Twitter or X or whatever it’s called now, and I don’t look at any of that. I don’t read any of that. I’m sure our players do. I didn’t address any of the stuff. I did address it one year at Troy and I’m like, we finished the season better (at Troy) than we finished it here, and I’m like, maybe I should have addressed it (with Tulane’s players). I didn’t want to make it a deal. It hadn’t been on my mind, so that's that."
