That went pretty much as I expected. Tulane was going to beat Navy comfortably even if Blake Horvath had not exited with an injury, but once he was gone, there was almost no way Navy had any chance to score.
Tulane is peaking, but it's chance to make the college football playoff took a slight hit when Kansas State and ULL lost tonight. Boise State trailed San Jose 14-0 in the second quarter and the Spartans had fourth-and-1 at the 2-yard line when a trick play backfired, and that was all she wrote. Boise State went 94 yards and 88 yards on back-to-back drives to tie it before halftime and continued its season-long second-half dominance, benefiting from some strange bounces and an awful reverse call on third-and-2 that became another turnover.
Boise will not lose to Utah State or Oregon State, so it will come down to Tulane beating Memphis and Army and having Boise State lose the Mountain West Championship Game, with Colorado State the likely opponent but UNLV a possibility. Colorado State would have to lose to Fresno State next Saturday to create the opening for UNLV.
Sumrall, Makhi Hughes, Darian Mensah and Sam Howard talked after the game.
SUMRALL
On Mensah scrambling for touchdown on third down:
"That's really probably the area I've challenged him to grow the most. He's got great pocket awareness and anticipation, throws the ball with anticipation at an elite level in regard to seeing windows come open. I kidded around in the locker room, I said he almost looked like Michael Vick running the ball today. That's not been his M.O. He's a better runner than he probably realizes. I've still got to work with him on ball security. He leaves the ball out there a little bit longer than I'd like. He sometimes carries it like a loaf of bread, but to score with his feet, he's growing right before our eyes. He's just scratching the surface of what he can become."
On Makhi Hughes:
"His character is off the charts as a person and a player. He brings it every day. I never have to go to practice and wonder about how Makhi is going to practice today. He's the same guy every day, a model of consistency, a great team guy. He doesn't really like the attention. He's just a very humble young man and plays the game the right way."
On defensive domination:
"It took us a while to get going. The first three games of the year, we couldn't stop anybody. We had four returning starters. We lost five starters in the transfer portal from last year's team that were gone, so there was so much to replace, and trying to get everybody on the same page and cohesive, everybody understanding their job, who they're communicating with, and then our defensive staff. Greg Gasparato. I'm a defensive-minded head coach, and I walk into that room and tell them two or three things and try to get out of their way because I've got a real good chance of screwing them up. I direct some things, but man, they are unbelievable, Gas and that group in the staff room are as good as there is, and I could not be more grateful for them and our players buying into wha they're asking of them each week."
On choosing not to go for it on fourth down from the Navy 39 with 23 seconds left in the first half:
"I was pissed off that we freaking threw the ball. We got it second-and-4 and we threw the ball. I wasn't going to do something dumb. I was mad. We probably could have milked the shot and gone for it on fourth-and-9, but we were at second-and-4 and we get sacked. That's bad football. I was pissed. We had a chance to maybe go get another score there, and we didn't quite execute at the end of the half the right way. That's on me. I didn't handle it right with our offensive staff."
On how his defenses have allowed zero points in the last eight quarters to service academies (Troy vs. Army last year, Tulane vs. Navy this year):
"Leverage the ball. Everybody's got a job to do, do your job. I tell them all the time do your job and be late to somebody else's. Make sure your job is done all the way before you go to somebody else's job, and then tackling. They are going to get players in space. They had one shot play where they could have connected. They got by us on one. We gave up an opportunity and they did not connect, but it's a challenge. Every player is challenged on every play. Nobody gets a play off, and so they force you to be really disciplined and detailed, and credit to our guys for doing that."
On if Navy jumped first before Micah Robinson went offside on punt to give Middies a first down:
"Their guy.moved first. That was them. You want a ruling, that's the ruling. Watched it on I Pad. They moved first. They moved and then we reacted to them. I actually think two guys might have moved. I didn't get a chance to watch it closely, but I think their tackle and guard moved. I know the tackle moved."
On how much game plan changed when Horvath exited:
"Not a lot. The thing about them, they run three-back option with him, they run Wing T with him, they run some shotgun stuff with him. With him the package is so expansive, it's a lot of football to defend. When he goes out, I don't want to say it's simpler, but the other guy didn't quite do as much of the package. They kept it a little bit simpler and a little bit cleaner in regards to the volume of offense. When he's in the game, they do so much on offense you can't sleep at night. I don't know if our defensive staff slept all week. It's a ton of offense."
On three straight years in AAC Championship Game:
"It's unbelievable. What a testament to our administration for being committed to football because if you'd of said probably 20 years ago Tulane was going to be in three straight conference championship games, somebody would have looked at you like you were funny, It's such a testament to our administration, our fan base, our alumni. Everybody around Tulane has decided we want to be good at football, and we can be as good as we want to be. We can go as far as we want to go on this. It's exciting to watch. I'm most proud of the guys that stayed. Alex Bauman, Makhi Hughes, Josh Remetich, Pat Jenkins, Tyler Grubbs, Slim Despanie, Eric Hicks. The list goes on and on, but a lot of guys stayed when it would have been real easy to leave, and I'm so proud of those guys for finding a way to stick together and keep this program together and help us get back to this point."
On replacing Ethan Head with Patrick Durkin on kickoffs after he sent his first one out of bounds for second straight week:
"The plan was to alternate Head and Durkin all game. After that one hit, we just said we're going to go with Durkin the whole time. Obviously he kicked all the extra points. He's doing a really nice job. I'm glad we have him back."
On fourth-down incomplete pass when Navy was at Tulane 35:
"As he was going to the ground, you have to survive the ground for it to be a catch. I didn't think it was a fumble live, and on the replay I could tell the ball was moving as he hit the ground. The way the rule is, you have to survive the ground."
HUGHES
On TD run at start of second half after being hit behind the line:
"I just had to use my full strength to get in that end zone. Navy has a good red zone defense, but they didn't stop me. I had to get in the end zone."
On putting it away with that TD:
"Yeah, the defense played lights out. The offense had a high result, too. We had to score, and we did."
On third straight conference championship game:
"It's a blessing to be in another conference championship. These guys work so hard in the spring and all the way through fall camp. Now we're ready. We've got a bye week, and we'll get ready for Memphis and the conference championship."
On atmosphere:
"It was pretty fun. I love the fan base. They were real loud. I couldn't even hear the play calls, but it was a great atmopshere. I really enjoyed it."
On the play where he got dinged up:
"It was a shoulder. I'll be all right."
