Michael Katz gave very thorough answers to an expanded list of questions. I usually only do five, but he asked me to answer eight for a feature that is running in the Northeast Mississippi Daily News, so I added a couple.

I had someone on twitter ask me about injuries, and when I was non-committal in my reply, they suggested I ask about injuries during Fritz's Zoom calls. If it not clear to everyone by this point, I will make it clear--Fritz is loath to give out injury information and benefit an opponent. I no longer ask about injuries in most cases because he, politely, will not divulge that information. His stock answer about known injuries is that guys will be a game-time decision.

One other note: Engaging the Enemy will make its return tomorrow morning. Michael Katz, the Ole Miss beat writer for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, and I exchanged questions and answers this week.

Tulane practiced at Legion Field for a final time today and will head to Oxford tomorrow. Here is what Fritz said.

FRITZ

"It's been so great for us to come and use that facility. We'll be taking off tomorrow afternoon early, playing the game Saturday night, coming back here and loading the buses early Sunday morning. We'll be back about 2 or 3 in the morning and take off at 9 a.m. and get back to New Orleans. The kids are excited to be coming back home."

On new helmets for game (I know a ton of people care about this stuff a lot. I happen not to be one of them, and Fritz does not care, either).

"I just noticed it yesterday. I didn't know we were doing that. It's a neat deal for them to do that. They do an excellent job of figuring out our uniform combinations and helmets and all those things. We're lucky we've got outstanding colors and are able to do a lot of combinations."

On uniforms for game:

"I don't know. I think it might be white, white, white. That's how much I'm involved in that. When I first got here, they'd always ask me my opinion and I told them I could care less. I'm worried about us always looking the same playing good, but I think we're going to be white on white with white helmets."

On if team has lucky jersey:

"I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so. If there is, we need to go to it every week."

On importance of beating Ole Miss:

"Oh it would be big without question. This is an SEC school and they've got a great squad, so we're putting everything into this just like we do every single week."

On Spears being close to full confidence and comparing him to a clearly compromised Saquon Barkley, coming off a similar injury for Giants:

"I don't think so. I think he feels pretty darn good. The game last week was kind of a runaway. We're still monitoring him. He's not practicing every single day. We're holding him out of some things, but he's really close to full speed right now and is going to play a bunch on Saturday. We didn't have very many guys play very many snaps on Saturday. The game allowed us to do that."

On Tulane being team where offensive game plan can change significantly from week to week because team is so versatile (my only question of the day):

"I think so. We like to be a 50-50 team if at all possible, but sometimes they crowd the box and don't allow you to do that. Sometimes they are not crowding the box and it allows you to run the ball more. That's one of the great things about our offense. We've got a lot of scheme to run and pass. Our guys just have to execute it and we just have to be careful to make sure the guys understand exactly what they are doing and can do their assignments full speed and you don't have too much. That's what you have to beware of as well."

On importance of controlling the clock:

"It depends on how the game's going a little bit. Sometimes you'll go tempo and if it's bothering a team, you'll do more than you anticipated. Other times you're running the clock. We're going to do both, and in reality Ole Miss does that, too. They go real fast sometimes and the next series their getting it down to single digits on the play clock. Most of the time they're snapping it around 15 to 20 on the play clock. In this day and age, the advantage for you is if you can change tempos. Back in the old days you couldn't do it and people didn't want to do it. The score of the game kind of dictates. In the first game against Oklahoma we got behind and we had to go fast, so we were going tempo more and trying to snap the ball with 20 seconds on the play clock each time if at all possible. There are other incidences where we want to run a lot of play clock off."

On Tyrick James playing like NFL player:

"A couple of games does not a career make. He's had a great career for us, but we've thought he could do this for us all along. We're utilizing him a little more, but he's a big body, he's close to 6-2 and 240 pounds plus with soft hands. The thing I was impressed with last week was he was really mixing it up on the line of scrimmage blocking, physical blocking. When he's on, he's a very good tight end."

Guerry,

Can you get an interview with Moon Ursin that at least you transcribe here? She has taken an interesting path to Tulane and the timing is like manna from heaven. Out of nowhere, she may salvage Stockton’s career arc.

Don’t know if anyone saw recently but all of Tulane’s Rival commitments have been updated! Picked up a couple more 3 stars!

When Morgan State scored on the final play Saturday, the Bears covered the spread I created by 1 point, burning all of us who picked Tulane. I wanted a spread that would create a nearly even split and I succeeded, even if I cost myself two points in the process.

Diverdo had a nearly perfect week, missing only on Ohio State-Oregon.

WEEK 2 RESULTS

8

diverdo

7

tacklethemanwiththefootball
p8kpev

6

charlamange8
DrBox

5

2DatWuzAGoodDay2
chigoyboy

4

Guerry
ny oscar
WaveON
MMBBE

3

MNAlum
paliii
Kettrade1
winwave


OVERALL STANDINGS

12

diverdo

11

p8kpev
DrBox

10

2DatWuzAGoodDay2

9

charlamange8
MNAlum
chigoyboy
paliii
Kettrade1

8

tacklethemanwiththefootball
winwave

7

WaveON

6

ny oscar

5

Guerry

4

MMBBE (missed 1 week)


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Morgan State 8
Oregon 4
Iowa 13
Michigan 12
Arkansas 4
Pittsburgh 9
South Carolina 11
Mississippi State 3

We all know the TP doesn’t provide you a reasonable budget to cover Tulane. However you did it yesterday and your coverage matters to us fans

your nimbleness in providing real time deadline Journalism on the Coltrin story was especially useful and enjoyable to this reader

Because of the human interest angle to it, I expect it may get some distribution in other outlets. Good work. Thanks

Tulane practiced for about two hours at Alabama's indoor facility in Tuscaloosa this morning due to rain in Birmingham, using that option for the second time since making Birmingham its home away from home due to Hurricane Ida.

Willie Fritz said tight end Will Wallace, who missed the Morgan State game with a concussion (I did not realize he was out until afterward), has been cleared to play against the Rebels. Tulane has pretty good depth at the position, but Wallace could make a difference going against a team from his native state.

After getting a boatload of quotes yesterday, today was much lighter, with Fritz and Joey Claybrook on Zoom and no other reporter asking questions.

FRITZ

On practice:

"It was spirited. I once again appreciate coach Saban and his crew allowing us to come over there and practice. Very nice of them. It was the second time we've done that and hopefully the last (Tulane is set to return to campus on Sunday)."

On extra motivation playing Ole Miss for Mississippi players on roster:

"I'm not sure. I'm sure some of it is probably a big deal for them, but we've got a lot of really good players from Mississippi. It's a great football state. That area from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Panhandle of Florida, we probably have over half of our team from that area (58 of 85 scholarship players by my count, including 11 from Mississippi--Nick Anderson, Jeffery Johnson, Cameron Carroll, Joey Claybrook, Duece and Phat Watts, Will Wallace, Trey Tuggle, Kiland Harrison, Nik Hogan and Haydan Shook), so we've got some really good players from the state of Mississippi.

On Jeffery Johnson, the one Tulane player who had a firm offer from Ole Miss during recruiting:

"He's really benefited from losing that weight. His movement is just excellent for a guy his size. Every time I walk by him in a meeting--we're out here kind of in the open with our meetings right now, so I don't have to walk in and out of doors--he's always taking notes. He's always learning football. He's always back up here (for) extra (time), so he's putting everything into it. He's going to have a fantastic year for us."

On Ole MIss D, which is now a base 3-2-6:

"In order to be able to run that style of defense, you've got to be real good up front because you only have three guys there. You have to have two excellent edge rushers on the outside, and certainly they've got that. It appears that there's openings, there's areas where maybe you can attack that area, but they do a good job of choreographing their movement and they'll bring a guy down from the third level and they'll bring a guy from the second level to make it a four-man front. Sometimes they'll just rush three and drop eight, and with those really good pass rushers on the edge, they can still provide pressure. A lot of teams have gone to this style of defense. The guy from Iowa State has had quite a people who have gone and run what he's running. I know their defensive coordinator has a lot of experience and has done a great job with this defense every place he's been, so they've made quite a radical change from what they were doing last year and it's really worked well for them their first two games."

JOEY CLAYBROOK

On if he grew up a Miss St. fan in Starkville and if Ole Miss recruited him at all:

"No, not really, they didn't. I got recruited by State a little bit, but my uncle played at Alabama so I grew up an Alabama fan and used to live in Tuscaloosa."

On if he wanted to stay in state if that had been real option:

"There was nothing specific for me. I wanted to go to the best school and football program (ULL, Georgia State and South Florida were his heaviest recruiters other than Tulane) that I possibly could. When Tulane came around, it was kind of official for me coming here. The football we get to play year in and year out matches the best in the country. We play in a great conference and play a great out-of-conference schedule as well, and it's also a great school, so it had everything I was looking for."

On not having extra on line against Ole Miss:

"There's a little bit, but it's just another game. I'm treating it like another game, like coach Long says, a faceless opponent. We just have to do everything that we can to be the best that we can be."

On what has clicked in for offense once season started:

"Just buying into this offense and coach Long and practicing as hard as we possibly can mentally and physically to get everything down and run the plays the best that we can."

On learning through failure in preseason under Long:

"Oh yeah. We were extremely motivated. You have to learn from your mistakes, and we've definitely done that throughout preseason and it's something that we've got to continue to do. Just not make mistakes twice."

On Ole Miss defensive ends:

"They are great players. It's going to be big on me at tackle this week. We're just doing everything we can to study them and get ready to beat them."

On big game:

"It's a big game, there's no doubt about that. We all know that, but we can't treat it like a big game. It's another game and we can't let that hype get to us. Everybody knows it's a big game, but we just have to keep working as hard as we can in practice every day and perfect what we're doing and not worry about anything that's going around this game."

On team excelling through distractions:

"We've come closer than we ever have been since I've been here, just playing for the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana and everybody that was affected. It's just a bond that we've all created in these hard times, it's really helped us do everything we can not to make an excuse. But yeah, we've come together and become a better team."

On grading his performance and O-line through two games:

"Pretty well. We want to be perfect in everything we do, so we just keep working to be perfect in every film study just trying to learn exactly what we can do on each play to perfect each play."

On pass-first offense in first two games but still confident in running game:

"We're very confident. We have a great running back room. We are very confident in those guys and are just doing everything we can to block for them and be perfect and give those guys a chance to make plays out in space."

On coming back to New Orleans:

"It's great just to get back home and be around the community and be back at Tulane. It's exciting. We've been treated amazing here in Birmingham. No complaints at all with that. It's been a real good experience. Even though it's a bad situation, we've definitely taken it positively."

I'm slowly catching up on stuff after Ida's disruptions. My son is back in school today, although it is online for the time being do to damage, so I have a little more time to devote to "work."

WEEK 1 STANDINGS

6

MNAlum
paliii
Ketrrade1

5

2DatwuzAGoodDay2
DrBox
winwave

4

chigoyboy
p8kpev
diverdo

3

charlamange8
WaveON

2

ny oscar

1

Guerry
tacklethemanwiththefootball


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 5 of 14
Georgia 4
UCLA 1
Texas 11
Alabama 10
Texas Tech 4
Penn State 10
Iowa 5

WILLIE FRITZ

"We just got done with practice. We went over to Legion Field. After a W we celebrate by having snoballs. There's actually a NOLA Snoball bus here in Birmingham, so we were able to go ahead and do that. I thought we were going to have wait until we got back to NOLA, but we were able to do that today, which was fun. We had a good, spirited practice. Worked out a little bit yesterday as well. Just trying to have a good grasp of all the unique things that Ole Miss does."

On Ole Miss averaging 600 yards

"We have to stay over the top and do a good job of tackling in space because they do a super job of getting there playmakers the ball in space by pass or run. They've got a really good running game, much better than people probably give them credit for. I don't know everything with the offense and who's calling what and all that stuff. I think it's a little bit of a combination. Coach (Lane) Kiffin has had fantastic offenses for years and years and years. Coach (Jeff) Lebby, the offensive coordinator, is from that Art Briles Baylor (offensive approach). He went down to UCF and its a tough offense to defend. They'll tempo yo at times and sometimes they'll go regular speed as well, but if you let that quarterback get back there and pat the ball, he's going to find somebody open. They have dynamic pass catchers and and guys that can run the ball."

On having already faced Oklahoma helping:

"There are some similarities between both of them. I don't know if they are exactly the same family as far as where they learned everything and all that, but they are both going to spread you out and they both have much better running games than people give them credit for. They really run the ball effectively outside and inside. Oklahoma probably ran more counter from what we've see. Ole Miss will run some counter, but they are very explosive offenses that spread you horizontally and vertically."

On needing pass rush against Matt Corral:

"We need some pressure to make him at least throw the ball out of rhythm. That certainly helps you. We always want to try to get some pressure. Sometimes you have to rush three. Sometimes you rush four. Sometimes you sell the farm and try to bring more than they have to block. When he sits back and pats the ball, we have to be really good in coverage both underneath and over the top.

On needing to score a lot of points to have a chance (LSU intercepted Corral five times last year and almost gave up 50 points anyway):

"We are going to have to score some points, there's no question about it. We have to do a good job of controlling the ball. It looks like they changed up quite a bit from last year what they do defensively. They are doing a little bit more of a high three safety type look. Iowa State has had a lot of success with that. They may have visited with them. I don't know. We have to understand that a gain of 5 is a good play, and we've got to be patient and understand that they are set up to limit big plays."

On running game and offensive line being being equipped to win:

"I hope so. We have to do a good job of protection. We even had a couple of snaps losing that on Saturday. We've got to balanced. If we stand back there with too long developing routes on every play, it's going to be very difficult for us. They've got a heck of a front. They've got some really good pass rushers. No. 7 (Sam Williams) is a dynamic pass rusher. They have a bunch of big, fast guys up there."

On Pratt transforming offense:

"He's done an excellent job. He's picking the game up and the game. has slowed down for him a little bit. He's seeing things pre-snap, he's accurate and has a strong arm. He has better movement that people give him credit for. We're excited we have an excellent quarterback, and you've got to have that in these type of games."

On this being a breakthrough game:

"We've been awfully close. We go into every game with the expectations of winning. That's what we want to do each and every week, and we are going to prepare that way. We have to play to the best of our ability. I really feel like if we play four strong quarters, we have an excellent opportunity, but we've got to do that. Ole Miss has done an excellent job offensively and they are very good in the kicking game. We are going to have to play really well on Saturday witbout question."

On coming back home for UAB game:

"Our guys were very excited. I got a standing ovation when I announced that yesterday, but we are going to play the game Saturday night, load up and come back to Birmingham, get up early Sunday morning and load the buses, load the pets. load all the families and head back to NOLA. We're very excited about getting back, and that's not to diminish all the great things everybody here in Birmingham has done for us. It's awesome. We've gone a couple of times now, Jim Wilson and his father, Big JIm Wilson, he's had our athletic center is named after him, he's had all the student-athletes, support staff and administration and coaches to one of his hotels for dinner last Tuesday and last night as well, so he's been awesome. The people at Mountain Brook High School that let us use their weight room has been great. Legion Field has been awesome, and the people at the hotel have been outstanding, but we'd like to get on home, too. I know the guys were excited about getting back home, too."

Just announced by Tulane.

Guerry, have you had a chance to speak to current commitments and potential recruits on their perspective about our play in Norman?

Any news on the recruiting front you can share?

I'm not sure how many kids played yesterday against Morgan State; Coach Fritz said everyone who was dressed. One place on the official site said 93 but the box score listed 102. Whatever, that's the most I've ever seen take the field for the Wave in one game. At least 25 walk-ons saw the field. Unbelievable. The two most obvious misses to me were Christian Daniels and Trey Tuggle. I assume they are hurt but I've not noted anything regarding that. Does anyone know what's up with the two?

Roll Wave!!!

I got to sit behind the bench during the game and could hear and see the coaches. They were coaching just as hard with all the walk ons in the 4th qtr as they were at the start of the game.

Chip Long is intense. He got in Pratt's face when he missed a read and was all over Ibieta a few times. When Justin had a wide open receiver in the end zone and made a terrible throw bouncing it a few yards short Long screamed and slammed all his play cards down. The wind blew them around and players were running around picking them up. When #13 came to the sideline and Long was yelling at hime Justin had his head down. Long screamed "F'in look at me when I'm talking to you"

I know our WR coach Conway has taken a lot of heat. I will say he was intense as well. He was always talking with his guys and was not happy at times with messed up routes. When Presley made a sorry effort on a ball in the end zone and it ended up getting picked Conway blew him up. When he was done Long blew him up. When our true freshman #17 got in the game and had some extra pushing and shoving after a play Conway got all over him as well.

I know Guerry has commented on Presley looking the part but not putting it together in practice. I could see it yesterday. When he finally got in the game his body language was bad. He was slow and sluggish getting lined up. Instead of stopping and high pointing the ball in the end zone he just drifted and let defender pick it.

I am hearing that Blake Gunter, a 3-star TE from Madison, Miss, is about to commit.

It's no wonder why after watching what Tyrick James has done in the first two games under Chip Long.

Login to view embedded media

This is the latest I've ever gotten one up. I blame the chaos caused by Ida.

As always, home teams are listed first, neutral sites are listed, the Tulane game counts double and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com consensus. With no official line out on Tulane-Morgan State, I made up my own. This is a terrible week for good matchups.

Tulane (-50) Morgan State (Birmingham)
Ohio State (-14.5) Oregon
Iowa State (-4) Iowa
Michigan (-6.5) Washington
Arkansas (+7) Texas
Tennessee (+3) Pittsburgh
East Carolina (+2) South Carolina
Mississippi State (+2.5) North Carolina State

Students moving back to campus Sept 24-26 with on campus classes starting Sept 27.

Virtual classes start this Monday thru Thursday the 23rd.

What this means for football I don't know. Lots of possibilities. I think the team almost certainly is in Bham for another week.

I hope we can play the UAB game at home. I think the only reasonable way to make that happen would be for it to be a night game.. I don't think they can have a day game at the same time students are all returning to campus and moving back in. If we have the personnel to host a game it sure would be awesome to get all the students in there to celebrate their return to campus

I never got a chance to post yesterday's quotes because I was doing yard work and other errands cleaning up from Ida. Here are today's, and I will try to get the best of yesterday's up at some point. Looks like I will head to Birmingham on Saturday morning, so I will be cutting it close and need no traffic snarls on the Interstate to get to my press box seat by noon.

FRITZ

"We had our second practice of the week. We didn't get a chance to go on Monday because of Labor Day. We had another good practice today. We're going to start cutting down on Thursday. We try to really get after it on Tuesday. Wednesday we back off a little bit and we back off quite a bit Thursday and we back off a whole bunch on Friday, which some schools do and some schools don't. They take Thursday off and kind of do a fast Friday. I've just haven'r ever really seen the benefit of that. We're on a good pace to play lights out on Saturday. It's going to be a noon kick, free admission to the game and no parking price as well. Hopefully we'll have a nice little crowd out here to be able to watch the Green Wave versus Morgan State."

On getting guys ready to play against Morgan State team that really struggled in opener:

"Well I just get after them every week the same way. As we always tell our guys, every game counts one. The Oklahoma game wouldn't have been two and every loss counts one. We talk all the time about in-season heroes and not putting your best effort forth in January, February, March, April, May, June and July but doing it during the season. This is a mental and physical grind, and some guys relish it and other guys succumb to the grind. I think our guys understand this is an important one. You want to play and improve every single week."

On Morgan State only getting seven first downs against Towson and selling to team that Bears can move the ball on them:

"Well, it was the first time they played in two years. The last time they played was 2019, so surely they are going to make a lot of improvement. We talked about how good teams make their biggest improvement between week 1 and week 2, and I'm sure that's what Morgan State is also telling their guys. We just want to improve and play better than what we played last week. That's in all three phases."

On what impresses him the most about Jadon Canady:

"He picks things up. He's a really smart player. Just this morning for example, I sit in the back of our meetings every day and take notes and try to help my coaches with teaching strategies, and he answered three or four questions this quick. He's really picked up what we're doing. This is not basic mathematics. This is advanced algebra. It's good, tough stuff with all the formations and sets and motions that people are playing. You've got the blitz package, the short-yardage package. We try to take a little bit of weight off of him by not playing him much in the kicking game, but he's smart and he's able to process things quickly and he pulls the trigger. You've got to go get it. Some guys know the difference between come here and sic 'em. He knows the difference. He goes and gets them. Other guys see it and hesitate a little bit. He can pull the trigger quickly. That doesn't take athletic ability. That takes understanding what's going on and boom, going in and getting after it. He did that about three times Saturday. One was that interception he had on the second play of the game. He also did it a couple of times on run plays. You talk about playing the ball over the block. Some guys are so concerned about the blocker that they don't understand that manageable distance between the ball and the blocker, but he can pull the trigger and go get it."

On it being unusual trait for true freshman who did not go through spring practice:

"Pretty unusual. It really is. Larry Brooks can pull the trigger. Macon Clark can pull the trigger. Rod Teamer can pull the trigger. That's why he's playing in the NFL. He's a very good athlete, but he understands the game and can pull the trigger. You can develop that ability, but it's not very often guys come in here and they have it. You don't practice and tackle all the time, so you don't get a chance to evaluate it as much in practice."

JADON CANADY

On not feeling nerves against Oklahoma:

"The nerves probably kicked in the first play, but after that I settled myself down. I was calm after that."

On interception:

"The whole week during film, that route I picked off, coach Hampton went over in a lot of detail. It was cover 3 and I saw the route from the film and I knew I could go get it and I picked the ball off. I was definitely excited. That boosted my confidence all the way up. I was a man of the world right there."

On brothers' athletic success preparing him for college:

"When I was 14, I went to all the colleges with my brothers, so I definitely knew what college was already about and I was familiar with the atmosphere. That was a huge help for me."

On toughest thing to learn:

"The playbook was definitely the biggest jump from high school to college, but after a month or so I had it down pat."

On grading himself against Oklahoma:

"I'd say I had a pick and I didn't let anyone get a catch on me and I had six tackles. I thought I did a pretty good job, As a defensive team we were good in the second half, but the first half was shaky. We definitely came through in the second half. I'm definitely excited to see where this defense can go. I feel like it's only up from here."

On if he were under-recruited:

"I'm grateful for any chances I had. I had a total of 13 offers. I want to prove to the big schools I can play there as well as I play here, but to me there's not difference."

On interception knack:

"Number one, you have to have ball skills. You have to a good eye for the ball and judgment."

On getting ready for Morgan State:

"We go through the film the same way, practice the same way, practice hard and keep the same intensity up there. We should be good to go."

DORIAN WILLIAMS

On Morgan State getting seven first downs and not taking them lightly:

"We like to treat every game as a championship game and we want to treat these guys the same way we treated Oklahoma and the same way we treat every game going forward."

On no shutouts since 1997:

"We would love to have a shutout every game if we could. It's something every defensive coordinator dreams of, so it would be nice to have during our season. I feel every week can be a shutout if we execute to our standard."

On rating defense's performance against Oklahoma:

"I think we did all right. We had a couple of miscues and missed some tackles. We could have played better than we played, but that's something we expect out of ourselves--not missing tackles and not having busts coverage wise."

On being praised for loss:

"Everybody here wanted to win that game. We took great pride in trying to win the game for back home. Yeah, that hurt a lot. All of the stuff in the media saying how we played hard was nice, but everybody wanted to win. Nothing beats winning."

On if more confidence now about season:

"First game is really when you see how your team is going to be, so I feel more confident going in knowing what we can do and what we can improve on."

JEFFERY JOHNSON

On grading defense performance against Oklahoma:

"Altogether I think we played pretty well. First game for everybody, and I know we just have to capitalize on the mistakes we make. There's always opportunities to get better, but we performed pretty well."

On weight loss:

"I would say I lost 50 to 55 pounds from last year. I was probably around 345 to 350. That was the most I got up to."

On feeling like different person:

"I do. I'm able to move around more, chase down more balls and make tackles on the back end, stuff like that."

On no shutouts since 1997:

"I mean, I would love a shutout. That's something we've been working towards. That's our goal, to have our defense get a shutout one game."

On having same intensity this game as last:

"That's just kind of our thing as a defense and as a team. We attack every game like it's the same and put in the same work and the same effort going into every week."

On Canady:

"He's just a go-getting hard working guy. He's been doing this since he got here. I expected nothing less."

WILLIE FRITZ

"We went out and got into Legion Field. We weren't able to get out there yesterday because of Labor Day, so we lifted. The people of Mountain Brook High School have just been awesome. That's where Chip Long played high school football. They allowed us to use their fine weight room facility and they gave us 50 cases of water and PowerAde and snacks and all sorts of stuff. They are going to give us some more today. We appreciate the people in the city of Birmingham. They have just been tremendous, so we went out and practiced today and it was a good workout. I told our guys this is our home field this weekend. I told our guys the first day we were out there about all the big time games that have been played there. I made the mistake of saying I used to listen to Keith Jackson broadcast games. They didn't know who the heck I was talking about, but it's very nice of Legion Field to allow us to practice there and get access to their locker room. It's just a neat situation for us."

On if Oklahoma video revealed anything than different than he saw live:

"No. I thought we were really aggressive. The kids really brought the fight to them. We hit well. We just made too many mistakes. We talk about a plan to win and I've had the same plan every place I've been, and number one is winning the turnover/takeaway margin. We were minus-1. When you play a team of the caliber of Oklahoma, it's got to be plus-1, plus-2, plus-3. We weren't. We just had a bad spurt in that second quarter. The thing that was good about it was the defense answered and held them to field goals when they were put in adverse situations when they had short fields to go. I was proud, the final part of our plan is finishing and we feel like we dominated the game in the fourth quarter. We outscored them 13-0. There are some good things to take away. We'd rather learn those lessons from a W than from an L, but like I told them, we've got a 24-hour pout rule and we've got a 24-hour gloat rule. After we win, we have to move on to the next thing. Sometimes guys are sitting around and they revel in past successes and are not as good the next time they go out, and other times they are still worried about last week's game and don't play very well. We've turned the page and are on to Morgan State. We just want to play better. The biggest improvements are between week 1 and week 2, and we certainly want to do that."

On not overlooking Morgan State:

"We want to go out and play great. We want to play better than we did last week. It's an opportunity for us to get out there and show big-time improvement. We're attacking."

On Cincinnati, Houston and UCF apparently leaving for Big 12:

"I saw something about it the other day. It's really none of my business. I just want to do the best job I can for Tulane."

On dream offense for tight ends:

"We line them up all over the place. We line them up as the widest guy on the field, the No. 2 guy, the No. 3 guy, they'll have their hand in the dirt where they are an attached tight end. They'll be in the backfield kind of as a fullback. The guys have to be smart to do all those different things, and there's opportunities to catch balls. They are going to be open. I think they caught seven balls for a little over 100 yards (actually nine receptions for 120 yards). There were four or five of them where they were wide open with nobody around them. The big part of what coach Long has got us doing offensively is it's really a diverse offense. There's a lot of things going on, a lot of moving parts. If you are a smart guy, you can take advantage of it because you are going to be on the right spot. Those guys are all smart. Tyrick (James), Will (Wallace), Reggie Brown is going to start playing some more and the same thing with Keitha Jones. He didn't play last week because he was banged up a little bit, but he's healthy now."

On two tight ends making for better run/pass balance:

"I think you're right because it's a good matchup sometimes when you have a big guy on a little guy out on the perimeter. Tyrick is probably 240, 245. Will's about 235, 240, so it's a little bigger guy out there on the perimeter. A lot of times people playing nickel are a little more cover guys, and you get them matched up on that nickel, you might be blocking a 180, 185-pound guy."

On if praise after a loss bothers him a little bit:

"It does a little bit. I'm proud of the kids. I'm proud of the effort. We fought through some adversity. It's an unusual story right now. We're in a hotel right now and I don't know how long we're going to be here. We're getting well taken care of. I told my guys at our team meeting yesterday I hadn't been in a hotel this nice until I was over 40 years old. This is a nice play here, the Sheraton. We've been fed well and everything else, but we are disconnected from what normal is right now. We just want to get better. It's easy for me to do that. I've got to convince a bunch of 18-to 22-year olds that every day we have to get out there and focus and concentrate and get better. We're not doing school right now either. We don't have that distraction. Don't let President Fitts hear me say that, but we're not taking classes right now, so we have plenty of time. I told my guys grab these coaches at night. We're all here in the hotel. We're not hard to find."

On if not having classes helps for the short term:

"Well, we still have the 20 hours a week rule. The problem we get into is going to the weight room is a drive and coming back is a drive. Meeting rooms, I'm trying hard not to walk through other people's meetings because we just don't have as many meeting rooms as what we normally have. Guys come down every morning and are trying to find their loop. Our equipment staff has done a phenomenal job, but sometimes they put loop 46 and goof up and put it where 86 is at, and now these guys are all trying to find stuff. It is different, but we've been here long enough now where it is normal."

On having veteran team helping in this situation:

"I think it does. The big part if we've got pretty mature young men. When we go out and recruit, I tell my coaches, hey, find a guy that has had a good 18 years. If he's had a bad 18 years, we are going to have a hard time changing him and getting him to do things the way we want him to do it. We've got good young men. I've got very few problems. I stay on top of these guys. A big part of my job is to help them through this transition from 18 to 22 years of age, but thank goodness, I don't have to just rail on them constantly. Ninety-nine percent of these guys know the difference between right and wrong 24-7."

On if he hopes team will be back in New Orleans next week:

"I have no idea. We'd like that as soon as we can, but we can't go back until everything's fixed and safe for us to go back. I'm putting that in the experts' hands."

On if Merek Glover kicked third extra point on Saturday:

"He did kick and did get an extra point. He's full go for this week. Before the game he felt like he was good, but we waited a little bit. He's full go now."

Tulane practiced at Legion Field again today in preparation for Morgan State. As is true every Thursday, Willie Fritz was the only person available for interviews, and I did not have much left to ask him. He began by talking about two quizzes he'd given his players on history, one involving Legion Field and the other involving Morgan State. The Legion Field question, which he asked yesterday, was about the impact of Sam "Bam" Cunningham, the former USC and NFL fullback who passed away a few days ago. In 1970, Cunningham was part of the first fully integrated team to play in Alabama, leading USC to a 42-21 rout of the Crimson Tide at Legion Field. Jeffery Johnson and walk-ons Aidan McCahill and Jackson Portis got that one right after some research. Fritz remembers watching the game on ABC with Keith Jackson calling it.

The second one was who from Morgan State had gone on to be an Pro Football Hall of Famer. There were four--Rosey Brown, Willie Lanier, Len Ford and Leroy Kelly. Six guys got that answer correct.

On Michael Pratt's health:

"We backed off a little bit on Monday and Tuesday, but he really looked good today, so he's full speed and ready to go."

On practice this week:

"We've looked good. Somebody asked if this is kind of normal now what we're doing, and it's still different, but we're getting into a little bit of a routine. Now the routine's going to switch next week because we' start (online) classes again and we have to go even earlier than we normally go because we're driving there and back. It's just what we're going to have to do. We're going to get started with practice over there about 8:15 and we normally get practice started (when classes are in session) at about 8:40. We'll start meetings at 6:45 in the morning and breakfast will be at 5:30, so we'll get up early."

On twitter picture of him in college with a mohawk:

"I lost a bet is what happened. All me and my roommates did it. I got that picture right behind my desk. I bring that out to correct poor behavior. Sometimes these guys think I'm so old that I can't relate to them. I point to the picture and i say, hey, I was young and tough just like you at one time, so listen to what I'm telling you and do what I'm telling you to do. They usually do that."

It sounds like this webinar will give an update on repairs and when students will be allowed to return to campus. They now list Fall break as TBD which makes me believe they are going to move it up to get students back on campus sooner rather than later.


This will also give us our first insight into whether we will be able to play UAB at home on the 25th.

The last time Tulane shut out anyone was 1997, when the Wave beat ULL 56-0 on Nov. 1 less than a month after blanking Army 41-0. That's a long damn time ago, before almost anyone on this team was born.

I bring it up because Morgan State presents a golden opportunity to get that elusive goose egg. Morgan State just got shut out by Towson, gaining 142 yards in four futile quarters. Tulane should have shut out Missouri State and UConn in 2019 but gave up one random touchdown drive in both games. Tulane would have shut out Temple last year if the Owls had not kicked an early field goal. This team should be better defensively than either of those years, and if the Wave does not hand Morgan State any points with turnover deep in Tulane territory, it is hard to see Morgan State scoring.

Only three teams that have fielded FBS teams every year this century have failed to post a shutout in that span, with Colorado State and Rice joining Tulane. Colorado State's last shutout came on Oct. 4, 1997, and Rice's last shutout came on Sept. 2, 1995.

Willie Fritz, Nick Anderson and Michael Pratt talked on the Zoom call today. I should have their quotes posted later.

I believe if Michael Pratt had gotten that first down instead of coming up a foot short, Tulane would have scored to go ahead of Oklahoma, and if that touchdown had occurred with less than 20 seconds left, Tulane would have won. If it had occurred any earlier, Oklahoma would have had time to hit a big pass play and send that kicker with the mammoth leg on to the field to either tie it or win it.

Willie Fritz, Michael Pratt, Nick Anderson and Tyrick James spoke on Zoom after the game.

FRITZ

"I was very proud of the guys. I thought they fought extremely hard throughout the game. We just made some critical errors in the first half that really hurt us--offense and defense and a couple of times poor ball security and missed assignments and we lost leverage. We had plays played that should have been 2 or 3 yards instead of 15 or 16 yards, and one of them was on a third-down situation. But there was some good stuff. We saw a lot of the kids kept fighting and scratching and clawing. I have two new coordinators and we're all breaking in each other--me with them and them with the other coaches. I'm really proud of the effort. Obviously we didn't come down here to play close. I thought we could have won the game. If we would have played better in the first half, we would have had a much better opportunity to do it. We'll be able to watch the tape and build on it."

On Michael Pratt's resiliency:

"He's a real tough, competitive young man. He's always been that way since he got here. He was that way in high school. That's one of the reasons why we recruited him. I remember he came in on an unofficial visit in the summer, and we were having a camp. Most guys won't compete in those camps. He said he wanted to do it. I told him he didn't have to. He came out there and ran 40s and did the vertical jump. It must have been 105 degrees the day he was there. It really showed me a lot about him and his mental toughness, so I'm very proud about him. He'd love to have a few plays back. But like that last play, what a gutty effort going and trying to get the first down for us. He's just a tough, hardnose, competitive, fullback kind of player."

On focus after hurricane issues:

"They were ready to play a game. Wednesday I had to cut back a little bit. I had to stop practice because they were kind of getting after each other and I was worried someone would get hurt, so we went just helmets on Thursday, but they were ready to play a game. We just didn't execute as well as we needed to. There are going to be a lot of (corrections). One time we didn't run the correct route. If we had run the correct route, I don't think the guy would have been anywhere (close) and it would have been an easy touchdown. We had some drops. We had some missed pickups on a few blitzes and some things we've worked on. Defensively same thing. There were some times we had opportunities to make some tackles and do some stuff. We weren't playing against an eighth grade team out there. That's a good ball club. They've got some great athletes. I just feel like it's going to be a tremendous learning experience for us. Obviously we'd rather learn with a W, but we'll need to learn from this."

On Pratt taking big hits:

"It is a very fine balance. We talk to those guys about touchdown, first down, get down. If you can get the touchdown, get it. If you can get the first down, get it. If you can't, get down and live to fight another day. It's in him to compete and get after it. That's a hard habit to break, which I'm fine with. I'd rather have it that way than the other way."

On conversation with Pratt after helmet came off and he checked on him:

"Yeah, he was all right. I just wanted him to sit there and collect himself. I wanted to talk to him a little bit and look him eyeball to eyeball and make sure he's all right. He answered.a few questions that I had. He was good. One of the great things about Tulane is we have Doc (Greg) Stewart and Dr. (Wendell) Heard over there on the sideline and they make all the decisions when it comes to those kinds of things. I'm definitely not a doctor and they're definitely not football coaches, so I let them do their job and they let me do my job. They felt he was fine and we let him back in there."

On if he felt like Tulane was a foot away from winning game:

"It would have been great to have the opportunity. We had a couple of timeouts in our back pocket. I think there was a minute and 50-something left, so we had plenty of time to get down the field. Everybody is going to come back and look at that play, but there were about 15 or 20 of them. Some of them occurred in the first quarter and a bunch of them occurred in the second quarter. If we do some things there, we have a chance and we're taking knees there at the end."

On comparison to 2017 team that lost 56-14 at Oklahoma:

"Our program has come a long way without question. We always talk about recruiting bonafide Division I student-athletes with character and I have a heck of a lot more than we had when I first got here. We had some really great top-end players, but we didn't have a whole bunch of guys to compete against teams like this. We have a whole lot more, so yeah, we're definitely a better looking team than we were when we came up four year ago, but more importantly we've got good players. To beat a team of this magnitude, you've got to be hitting on all cylinders, and we weren't. Our guys know we can play a lot better than we played today, and we're going to."

On pass interference that negated interception in fourth quarter:

"I'm not going to sit here and second guess the referees or anything else. It's a tough call to make over there in this day and age with quarterbacks throwing 50 balls, both with our quarterback doing it and their quarterback doing it. That was the call and we got to play it."

On not having Merek Glover:

"It (his groin injury) affected us a little bit. Graham Dable did a super job of playing his first college game here at Oklahoma and did a very nice job. Merek told me right before the game he felt like he was 100 percent. We've been very careful with during camp, so I think he'll be full go next week."

On on the tumult of last week:

"We're really blessed that our president, Michael Fitts, and our athletic director, Troy Dannen, had the foresight to have a plan for us to evacuate. We went to Birmingham. We're staying at a beautiful hotel. We're eating great meals. We're just worried about the people back home. Everybody on our team has someone who suffered during a hurricane. The toughest part was when we got there early Sunday morning and the cell service went out in New Orleans. A bunch of guys couldn't get ahold of their folks and their girlfriends, their uncles, their aunts, their grandparents, so that was difficult. That was two to three days. Our guys have handled it extremely well. I've got good, young men. I have very few problems with our guys."

On halftime speech:

"We told them Kansas State was down I think 38-14 and they came back and beat them, something like, at halftime. I said keep going. I said I don't know if we can play worse than we did in the first half. We were cooking with grease their for the first couple of series, and then we started shooting ourselves in the foot. We just have to play better, and they all understood that."

I realize there are more important things going on, but Tulane is still playing this weekend, so welcome to the return of pick 'em.

The rules are the same. Eight games each week with the Tulane game counting double, home team listed first, neutral games designated as such and the point spreads coming from VegasInsider.com consensus. You can miss one week and not be penalized much because your lowest score will be dropped at the end of the year if you enter every week.

Oklahoma (-27) Tulane
Clemson (-3) Georgia (Charlotte)
UCLA (+3) LSU
Texas (-8) UL-Lafayette
Miami (+19.5) Alabama
Houston (+1) Texas Tech
Wisconsin (-5.5) Penn State
Iowa (-3.5) Indiana

Classes canceled until Sept 12th. Virtual only classes start Sept 13th thru Oct 6th. Fall break follows then hopefully in person classes start after that. That timeline may move up if the city bounces back quicker than anticipated.

I can't imagine Tulane is going to play a game on campus until late Sept or early October at the earliest.

I imagine they will stay in Bham.

for Orleans Parish. That would be a great first step to getting students back on campus.