No practice news today because they worked out at the Superdome and I did not go there, but Willie Fritz said Darius Bradwell and Amare Jones were 100 percent after the open date and Tulane will be at full strength in the backfield. I will pass along the Fritz quotes when the sports info department passes them along.
Taking the advice of some of you, I will write a feature on Barge this week, assuming I get him for an interview tomorrow, the last day players are available.
Bradwell, Lawrence Graham and Justin McMillan spoke today at the Tuesday presser.
BRADWELL
How are you feeling?
"I feel good, a hundred percent. I'm just ready to get back and play the game I love and help this team win."
How frustrating was it to miss three games and have to watch from the sideline?
"It was very frustrating. I put a lot into it and something that's unexpected happened to me, which taught me a lot this past three or four weeks how to be patient and stay strong in my faith and stay confident in myself when I come back."
Will you run with the same reckless style?
"Yeah, that comes back to being confident and knowing myself and knowing my abilities. Like I said, I feel 100 percent now. I think you'll see that I guess recklessness and bully ball from me."
You are bowl eligible for the second straight year but everyone has talked about the goals being much bigger than that all year long. How important is this finishing three-game stretch against tough teams?
"Very important being my last year in the program. Every year since I've been here we've won one more game, one more game. Coach (Will) Hall told us we're a good team, but if we win out these last three, we'll be one of the great teams or a real good team, so that's our goal. We always had that goal and it's just a blessing to see how far we've come since 2016 to where we are now. We've made a lot of history this year and we are going to keep making history."
So did he (Hall) kind of challenge you guys?
"Yeah, coach Hall and coach Fritz, like he said yesterday, asked us to give them 20 days of just focusing on the opponents that we have upcoming and just give it our all because those are the last three guaranteed games we have until the bowl game. That's what we're going to do. We have a lot of great leaders and we're focused and are going to show it on the field."
How much did the bye week help you?
"I think the bye week can help out a lot, especially myself and a couple of people who are banged up. It gave us a little time to rest and also coach Fritz was a little generous. He canceled one practice, which was very shocking, but it helped us a lot. It helped me get back to 100 percent."
At this point of the season, are fresh legs are gigantic, right?
"Yes. A lot of people needed that. We've played a lot of big games, a lot of crucial games, and I can tell you this. All my teammates put a lot into it, so that bye week of just resting and to be rewarded with not having to practice (last Wednesday) helped us a lot."
Now that you've become bowl eligible, will it allow you to play more freely?
"A goal was to play in a bowl game, but I wouldn't say it will make us play freely. We still have three games that are big that we want to win, and like I said, these are three real good teams and this is going to be defining of our program, how good we are. I feel like we're one of the best teams in the conference and we have to beat the best. We are all competitors in this sport and know that we can't take our foot off the gas. We have to keep matching it, keep fighting, keep playing. It's not going to be easy, but we're up for the competition."
Is it kind of amazing to you that this is the home stretch and it feels like you just got here yesterday?
"Yeah, me and Corey (Dauphine) always talk about this. It's the journey. My high school coaches always used to tell me enjoy the journey and the process of getting there. Like they said, it goes by fast. I'm just blessed to be a Green Wave and have had great experiences with my former teammates and everything. I've loved it here and am truly blessed."
Now that you're back to 100 percent and Amare Jones is back to 100 percent, how much will it help you going on the road and playing in a cold environment?
"We know it's going to be cold. I don't think it will be a factor. It's different when you have all the pieces to the puzzle. When you don't have all the pieces, you have to strategize certain things. Having me and Amare, it's going to be a little more fluid. I guess my leadership and other leadership is going to get us started fast and be on the upward trajectory we want the program to be."
What do you need to do better against Temple than the last two road games, and I ask this knowing you didn't play against Memphis or Navy?
"First of all and I've been saying this for the past few years, we've got to play our game and be confident. When we're confident, we're going to play fast and be sharp. The last few away games that I've been watching, we just haven't had that spark in the beginning and it slowly started building up. As coach Hall said, we're a ticking time bomb and just go off. We need to go off at the start of the whistle, so that's our goal this week. As soon as they blow that whistle, we are going to start fast and come and play Green Wave football."
GRAHAM
You have been talking about leaving a legacy here. How big are these final three games of the regular season?
"They are really big. They are big in defining the season and they are big on week to week to knowing that we are the team we thought we were and we weren't overhyped or anything like that, just prove it to ourselves and our fans that watch us week in and week out that we're coming to play."
Coach said he asked guys to give him the last 20 days. What is the key to a fast finish?
"Giving everything you've got. Be committed, be all the way in. If you felt like you were like that at the beginning of the season, this is the opportunity in the last 20 days to make it up. Whenever you felt like you were slacking in your leadership or your responsibilities, this is your opportunity to do everything, just put it all out on the table, empty the water and give it all you've got for these last three games."
With the proliferation of spread offenses, how hard is it to play defense these days?
"Defense is defense. If we don't let them get anything, we are doing our job. We just line up and play football. Each week you are prepared for whatever they are going to throw at you because the coaches prepare you. There's a game plan installed, so it is no different. Some guys are faster and some guys spread you out more, but at the end of the day we just play football."
The last two games have not been good for the defense on the road, particularly early. What has to change?
"We have to come out fast, right away from the beginning of the whistle we have to come out hitting and mad. It's like it takes us to get punched in our face to really keep that spark going. Like Darius said, we're a ticking time bomb but we have to blow it at the start of the whistle."
Do you like the ticking time bomb reference?
"Yeah, I do. I like it. It's a good representation of how we've been just waiting for it to blow and the second it blows, it's like we're unstoppable but we've just got to get it going sooner."
What can you do to make it happen in the first quarter?
"To be honest I don't have just like one specific thing, but that's something that the leaders of the team and the people that follow the leaders, we just have to rally all together and before we step on the field we have to communicate with each other and explain what we're about to go out there and do. Everybody has to be bought in and somebody has to set the tone. We just have to do that early and not wait."
What are your thoughts on Tirise Barge?
"Tirise is a madman. He just does his thing and goes out there and plays football. I envy that to be honest because Tirise has the ability, no matter what it is, if Tirise is going to mess up, he's going to mess up full speed at a hundred miles an hour. That's what coaches preach 24-7. Coach Mutz says something, he says if you don't know your responsibility, take (a can of) whupass. That's what Tirise does. He plays football 24-7."
What did you think of the play where he took the QB down by his shirt and then grabbed the running back by his shirt and brought him down, too?
"I had to stop and just look at it. I was in amazement. That's something a D-lineman usually does, not a 185-pound nickel. He's out there making D-lineman plays. He's a dog."
Did it take him a little while to get the system down?
"I wouldn't say that. I would say its more a fact of being comfortable. He's finally comfortable with himself and he believes in what he can do and he's been doing it since high school. Shoot, you look at his high school tape and now he's just transferring it over to college."
