Tulane continued to get ready this morning for South Florida, practicing at Yulman Stadium. Bailey Despanie picked off Darian Mensah in 7 on 7. Chris Rodgers had a nice interception on a pass that deflected off a receiver deep in scout-team work. Josh Remetich did not practice, but as you'll see, Jon Sumrall is not concerned. Lu Tillery and Jahiem Johnson got work with the first-team defense, but that seems to be a thing in practice that does not mean anything when the game arrives. The top three corners remain Micah Robinson, Johnathan Edwards and Rayshawn Pleasant.
Sumrall, Shadre Hurst, who had the crazy reception off the deflection against ULL, and Jalen Geiger, who had the clinching interception, talked in the Tuesday press conference.
SUMRALL
"Wrapping up last week, good win. No bad ones. Good to get an in-state win. Hard-fought game. One of the hottest games I've been a part of. I was proud of our guys, the preparation with their hydration and just being ready to go play in those conditions. I think it was high 130s, maybe 140 on the field. That's what I've heard, and so, hot day. We didn't play our best but found a way. There were a lot of bright spots. You think about a pick-six, a kickoff return for a touchdown and the way we ran the ball were really positives. Defensively we had some flash plays that were positive. We had some major flash plays that were negative that we have to improve upon quickly. We played pretty good in the kicking game as a whole. Had the one kick we'd like to make to put the game on ice, but all in all, we played pretty clean in the kicking game and played well.
"Turning the page now, we have a really good South Florida team coming to town, a team that's very veteran. Out of their 11 on offense and 11 on defense, 16 of their 22 starters are seniors. Maybe five more are juniors, so that's 21 out of 22 that are juniors or seniors, so that usually bodes well for having an opportunity to be successful when you have that veteran of a team, that mature of a team. It starts with their quarterback. A really good player. He's the straw that stirs the drink. He makes it go. He's great throwing the ball, great running the ball, dual threat guy. Can launch the ball down the field, throw it intermediate, throws the screen game well, runs it, big guy, hard to tackle. Offensive line does a nice job executing what they run. They. play with a lot of tempo. The receivers are good. This little No. 38 (Sean Atkins, who has 24 catches for 289 yards), he's a dude. He plays the game the right way. He's involved in their return game as well. They've got three good backs. Big challenge for our defense. I think they play as fast as anybody in the country. And then defensively, that's where they probably are most improved. Last year there were some ups and downs. You watch them on defense this year, and while maybe the score doesn't indicate it last week (a 50-15 loss to Miami), they are playing pretty good defense. They are really aggressive. They're physical. They're big inside. They are fast on the perimeter, and they are really good at linebacker. The kicking game, they use two field goal kickers--an intermediate and short guy and a long guy. They run a lot of trick plays, gimmicks, things you have to be prepared for in the kicking game. They surprised one onside last week. They run a reverse or fake reverse on a kickoff return. They are going to fake punts. We've got to be prepared for all of that because those are things that they do a lot of. The challenge is on our games to play a good game here at home."
On staying in AAC:
"I like where we are. Those are decisions that are well above the head football coach's chair. That's more of an administration decision, but I'm on board with whatever we feel like we need to do there to position ourselves. I like the American Conference. I like their new commissioner, Tim Pernetti. He's awesome. He's going to be here Saturday. He's got great energy trying to figure out ways to push our league further. Geographically the league makes a lot of sense. There's tons of things that go into making that decision. We're where we are. I'm happy to to be in our league. I like our league. Nothing against the other league, but I'm been so focused on trying to get a win each week that conference realignment has not been my first thought when I wake up or when I go to bed. I can promise you that."
On advantages, disadvantages of playing in extreme heat:
"The turf at Louisiana-Lafayette isn't like our turf. It's got the black pebbles on it that gets even hotter. Our turf is a newer style. The pebbles are lighter in color. They deflect the heat a little bit better, so our turf doesn't get quite as hot. Yeah, when we're playing other people, there's a lot of heat and humidity. The Tuesday practice of Kansas State was the hottest we've had all training camp or all. It felt about like that the other day but maybe even a little bit hotter. Maybe not quite as humid, but hotter. We're prepared for heat and humidity. We get it a lot. Our opponent this week is prepared, too, so it doesn't really draw an advantage. Maybe if we were playing a team from the Northeast or Northwest it might help us, but it does train you mentally to be a tough-minded guy. We've been in enough of those practices that Saturday it wasn't like how do we deal with this? We've been there."
On Makhi Hughes:
"What a stud, man. Not at his best health-wise. He was a little under the weather Saturday. He's a lot better now. I think he might have given me what he had, but he just brings it every day. He's a model of consistency and ability, extremely reliable, very detailed, great teammate, hard-working guy. It's amazing. You've got 10 percent of your team you deal with about 90 percent of the time because they're high maintenance. Makhi is the exact opposite. He has never come to me to say can I get this or I can do this or can we do more of that. He just shows up and works. When your best players do that, it bodes well for your team. He's a great teammate. I'm proud his success. He deserves all of it and he's earned all of it. He works incredibly hard."
On what he has learned about his team through four games:
"We're resilient. We're mentally tough. We have some fighters. We're still not a very polished team in a lot of areas. I'm disappointed and frustrated with just how clean we're playing the game at times. I've referenced this. We've got seven guys starting most weeks on defense that weren't here when I got here. I think six of those seven got here post-spring (actually five). We're trying to get cohesion, but you've seen our team get battle-tested. We played a quality FCS team, and then you go play Kansas State, Oklahoma and Louisiana-Lafayette. Lousiana-Lafayette's been to a bunch of bowl games in a row. I'm pretty sure Kansas State and Oklahoma have, too. All three of those teams are going to test you. Physically it's taken a toll on our team a little bit. We're a little beat up, a little bruised, a little battered, but at the same time it prepares you for the long haul. All right, we've measured ourselves against good people, but we're still not a team I'm pleased with all the details. I like a lot of the things I've seen. We still have so much more improvement left out in front of us."
On Shadre Hurst's reception off a deflection:
"We might move him to tight end if you don't watch out. Shadre's a really good player. It was funny watching him get that reception the other day. He's a high-level player with a bright future in this game. He's a fantastic teammate as well, with a high ceiling. Y'all's favorite play was probably the catch off the deflection. My favorite play, I showed it to the team on Monday, was him knocking a defender about 15 yards down the field and just mauling the guy. That's what it looks like to play offensive line. I showed it to the whole team. I didn't show his deflection to the team, his catch."
On Josh Remetich status after sitting out Tuesday practice:
"He practiced yesterday. A little muscle soreness. Nothing structural it doesn't look like. Had an image (taken) and he was fine. The human body does funny things, but I think it's just muscle fatigue and maybe some soreness, tightness after yesterday's movement. He's played a lot of snaps. We'd like for all of our guys to practice as much as possible, but after evaluating him yesterday, we thought it was in his best interest to limit him today. We'll see as the week goes."
