Tulane was sloppy offensively from the very start, but if Mario Williams had not dropped one of the easiest touchdown catches you will ever see on the Wave's third possession, this might have been the 38-10 final score I predicted in the newspaper. But I counted five dropped passes, the three false start penalties on Josh Remetich in the first half and several errant throws by Darian Mensah, all of which could have gotten this team beaten by a better team. It's hard to win by only 14 when you win the turnover battle 5-0, although Wlllie Fritz actually lost two games with the same margin in his tenure--one against Houston in 2020 and another against an opponent I can't recall at the moment.
Jon Sumrall, Makhi Hughes, Sam Howard and Micah Robinson spoke after the game.
SUMRALL
"I'd like to thank our fans. I thought we had great turnout. Our student section was outstanding. All and all proud of getting the win. Always going to celebrate a win and never going to apologize for a win. We did not play our best football, in particular on offense. We have a lot to clean up. Some of the fears you have coming out of a bye week when you've been playing pretty good is getting in a rhythm and finding your flow, if you will, of how you're playing the game. We just didn't play clean. We had some drops that were critical. We had some throws that weren't our best today. We had a lot of things offensively that maybe weren't our best performance. Defensively we gave up too many yards after contact and didn't play our best. The turnovers were the huge component. That's the story of the game. You win the turnover battle like that, you should win the game, so that was big. Excited for our guys to get the win. Hopefully we've got our full attention that we're not a finished product and we haven't arrived and we have a whole lot of getting better to do."
On the five turnovers forced:
"Micah's pick was a big one. It was 10-10 at that time down in the red zone there. That was a huge one. Obviously the scoop and score there at the end was a big one. Grubbs' was an unbelievable catch. Could have had two but he gave Adonis (Friloux) the second one there at the end by deflecting it. Sam had his hands on another one I thought he was going to get, but the guys were making plays on the ball, which is exciting. We talk a lot about the keys to victory being run the ball, stop the run, explosive plays, which includes the kicking game, and win the turnover margin, and when you win the turnover margin plus two, you should win, and the way we won it today, I'm a little disappointed we didn't have a bigger margin of victory because of the way we played, but we have a lot to clean up. I'll sleep better with the win, but I'm still a little frustrated with maybe some of the things we didn't do our best today."
On his frustration level at getting only 17 points on offense:
"Extremely. We didn't play good, we didn't coach good. That's on me. That's on our staff first, not the players. It was bad football at times. And give Rice credit. They did some really good things defensively. I will say this, I think Rice is maybe one of the best coached teams we have played this year. Coach (Mike) Bloomgren does a great job. Tui (offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo) is creative in the pass game, gives you fits, and then defensively they attacked us really well with some things. Our problem though, we had some self-inflicted stuff. Multiple drops. Just things you can't do and win a lot of games, so we've got to get some stuff cleaned up. I'm frustrated with a lot of parts of the game, but we'll take a win."
On defense forcing 10 turnovers while offense has committed zero in last three games:
"If I knew the exact why, then I could bottle up and I'd be able to sell it for a lot of money. The defense is being opportunistic. In the previous two games you get a lead and you sort of make them a little bit one-dimensional where they have to get out of the run game. You saw tonight, once it got to the end of the game in the fourth quarter--we had to make them throw the ball to probably have a chance to get back in it--if we know it's a pass, our defensive staff can call the game a lot easier. Now all of a sudden we can do some different front mechanics on the D-line pass rush-wise. We can change some coverage stuff because we don't have to be whole in the box. We can be a little light in the box, so it allows you to maybe play with some coverage emphasis, and then guys played with great effort. A couple of those picks, you look at Champaigne's against UAB on a deflection where Sam knocked the ball loose on a screen, and that was an effort play because Elijah was turning and running to the ball out of the pass rush, and similar to Don's today. The pass happens and he could just stop, but he didn't. He played with great effort and pursued where the ball was thrown, and the ball found him. If you're playing hard, the ball finds you. A lot of guys are getting confidence in tracking the ball. We've got to tackle better on the perimeter. Sorry, I'm getting off, but I was pissed off by the tackling. And then offensively we put a premium on ball security. We talked about ball in jeopardy, BIJ, make sure the ball's away, and if you win the turnover margin, you are going to win more often than not, so it's huge for us to continue that trend and continue to create turnovers and protect the football. We talk about it every day."
On conversation with Darian Mensah after he took nasty blind side sack and went down:
"Honestly, I think he was more stunned than anything. Dr. Stewart, when he saw him come off, told him to go down. He said go down and let's check you out. He went down, and I walked over and Dr. Stewart said he's fine, I just wanted him to compose himself and evaluate him without him trying to get off in a rushed manner. So he took a seat. Darian said I'm good, I just was startled because I didn't really see the hit coming. So we have to protect him better."
On how game would have been different without dropped passes:
"Yeah, just catch and throw the ball. It's not that hard. Catch it, throw it, and then the game's probably a lot different outcome. Like, they could have probably taken their DBs out there when we dropped them. Just unforced drops which we've got to improve, which we will. Our guys work hard. They take pride in their work. We'll get that cleaned up, but very frustrating because it was just fundamental miscues. Not anything major, just simple, easy stuff that we have to execute better."
On having Makhi Hughes take over on go-ahead drive:
"The message all the time, we talk about when you have the ball in your hand, you have the program in your hand, and our program's in good shape when 21 has the ball in his hands. He's really consistent, really steady, really physical, really tough, great teammate, plays really hard, does the right thing. He's the model citizen of our team. I can't get him to say five words. When y'all get him up here, his answer will be yes and no. He's such a hard-working kid, but you know what you are going to get every day out of 21. Makhi shows up to practice, I don't wonder like, hey, I wonder if Makhi's ready to practice today. He's one of the most consistent, steady people in our entire program, coaches included. He's one of the most consistent people in the building. We're better as a team when he's carrying the ball."
On Hughes showing emotion on decisive drive:
"We hadn't played great on offense, and sometimes in the run game you have to feed a guy like that carries. I think of some great runners, and one of the first guys that comes to mind, I watched Shaun Alexander play and I always thought the more he got the ball, the better he got. Makhi's the same way. He's not a give him eight to 10 carries and let's see how it goes. If you give him 20 or 25, that's when he really starts to make the other team pay because he wears them down. That's his style of play, and he just gets bigger runs as the game goes because that's how he runs the ball--physically."
