Frankly, I was almost out of questions by the time I talked to Sumrall and a couple of players at the team hotel yesterday after getting access five times the previous week in New Orleans. Sumrall said he was not sure he could talk about the newcomers from the transfer portal, so he elected not to say anything about them.
By the way, I had thought about trying to talk to DJ Douglas, but I learned from my Florida beat writer friends that he had a terrible year, getting benched after a particularly awful performance against Texas A&M when he got beaten like a drum. He played a much smaller role the rest of the way, so I'm pretty certain he would not have been willing to talk even in the unlikely event the Florida football SID had agreed to make him available (trust me, it would have been a long shot anyway).
SUMRALL
On how the team has been treated by bowl:
"It's been a great event. The bowl's done a great job entertaining our guys. We got to practice at the Bucs' (facility) on Tuesday, which was a great experience for our team. I was talking our staff like how many teams in college football can say they practiced at three NFL practice facility this year. We practiced at the Saints when there was thunder and lightning, and we practiced at the Giants (upon arrival for the the AAC championship game at Army) and now the Bucs. It's been fun. We did a great team event yesterday trying to do some hurricane relief and recovery stuff, packing some meals for people. That was a fun event for our guys, and today we're getting ready to go the (MacDill) Air Force Base, and Monday we went to Busch Gardens. It's been a great reward for our players and a lot of fun."
On seniors who were part of cultural transformation:
"They've been an agent of change. He's not a senior, but (Michael) Pratt was at our practice yesterday and he talked a lot about that. Probably half of my conversations with Michael Pratt have been about that change to 2-10 to what happened the next year and what's gone on. I'm so proud of that group, the guys that have seen this thing all the way through. Like I always say, the first guy that comes to mind is Josh Remetich. He's kind of like the poster child of seeing it all, doing it all, being around it all, but really a lot of guys in that group that have given so much to this place and have left a legacy. They've got something they can be very proud of that they're leaving behind, the culture they've established."
On key to winning:
"The simplistic things of take care of the ball, don't turn it over. When we win the turnover battle this year, we haven't lost, and when we've lost it, we haven't won (actually, Tulane beat Temple while losing the turnover battle 2-0). That's a big one. We've got to tackle better in the run game in particular. Those backs are good. We can't give up shots. And then on offense we have to be able to function the right way. One nice thing is everybody wants to make a big deal about our quarterback situations, but everybody else is playing. All five linemen, the running backs, the tight ends and the receivers are playing. We don't have an opt-out. Show me many teams that have that. We have some guys that may not play because they are beat up, but not an opt-out. Everybody here is playing."
On Shaadie Clayton-Johnson entering portal:
"He's here. He was at practice today. It's probably similar to Ty (Thompson). It's not that there's no chance he could come back, but he wants to see what all the options are. He and I have had this conversation and we're good with that."
MICAH ROBINSON
On importance of winning:
"Honestly the last couple of games we haven't been playing up to our expectations, and coming in against the last opponent of the year we just want to send the seniors out the right way and just get back on track and win this game going into the offseason on a good note."
On how much he helped himself by playing well as starter coming from Furman:
"Just trusting myself and trusting God to get me to this point. I've known coach (Rob) Greene for the last five years, and he's been a big influence and a big part of how I've been playing as well as coach Gas and coach J.J. (McCleskey)."
On Tulane taking guys from smaller program and giving them an opportunity to excel:
"Usually it's just getting guys with good experience from winning programs to come to Tulane and continue the winning culture."
(I attended Florida interviews, too, since their team hotel was right across the street from Tulane's. I was the only one there for the Tulane interviews, but there were about eight reporters covering the Florida interviews)
I asked Billy Napier, who is much drier than Sumrall but very long-winded, about Sumrall saying he had watched film of Napier's ULL teams when he took the job at Troy to see how a championship team played and had modeled some of his ideas off of what he saw.
NAPIER
On Sumrall's comment:
"Jon's a good coach. They've got a formula that works for them, and look, it worked at Troy and then here they go, they're playing for the conference championship at Tulane. They are physical. They play good defense. They play good situational ball, are good on third down, good in the red zone. Yeah, Jon's a good coach. He's been around the block a little bit and will continue to get better in his second league, a little bit of a similar level but obviously two championships and played for one this year. I remember when I got to Louisiana, App State was on top to the mountain, and we studied their approach and kind of built our teams, the same thing we've done here. Georgia and Alabama were on top of the mountain and we've tried to build very similar teams. That's a good approach."
On special teams:
"We really took a step in the right direction, and I was proud of that. We did have a few hiccups here and there, but we are top three, four or five in about every national ranking, and if we don't have a kickoff return (against them) against Kentucky we might be No. 1 to be quite honest with you. To be No. 1 in any category is a good thing. We have a good group in there (coaching) and good specialists, so hopefully that can become part of our culture and DNA as a team."
(I asked defensive coordinator Ron Roberts about the difficulty preparing for an unknown quantity like Ty Thompson:
RON ROBERTS
On Thompson:
"The challenge is what are we really going to get? I don't know. I know he's big, physical, can run, is very athletic and has a big-time arm. He can make all the throws. Now I don't know if he's going to run or if it's going to be some part of the offense, but how much they do certain things will be totally (unknown) for us. There's going to be a first-quarter adjustment period of us trying to figure out, hey, what are they doing with this guy? We're going to have to play it by ear and make sure we adjust early."
By the way, I had thought about trying to talk to DJ Douglas, but I learned from my Florida beat writer friends that he had a terrible year, getting benched after a particularly awful performance against Texas A&M when he got beaten like a drum. He played a much smaller role the rest of the way, so I'm pretty certain he would not have been willing to talk even in the unlikely event the Florida football SID had agreed to make him available (trust me, it would have been a long shot anyway).
SUMRALL
On how the team has been treated by bowl:
"It's been a great event. The bowl's done a great job entertaining our guys. We got to practice at the Bucs' (facility) on Tuesday, which was a great experience for our team. I was talking our staff like how many teams in college football can say they practiced at three NFL practice facility this year. We practiced at the Saints when there was thunder and lightning, and we practiced at the Giants (upon arrival for the the AAC championship game at Army) and now the Bucs. It's been fun. We did a great team event yesterday trying to do some hurricane relief and recovery stuff, packing some meals for people. That was a fun event for our guys, and today we're getting ready to go the (MacDill) Air Force Base, and Monday we went to Busch Gardens. It's been a great reward for our players and a lot of fun."
On seniors who were part of cultural transformation:
"They've been an agent of change. He's not a senior, but (Michael) Pratt was at our practice yesterday and he talked a lot about that. Probably half of my conversations with Michael Pratt have been about that change to 2-10 to what happened the next year and what's gone on. I'm so proud of that group, the guys that have seen this thing all the way through. Like I always say, the first guy that comes to mind is Josh Remetich. He's kind of like the poster child of seeing it all, doing it all, being around it all, but really a lot of guys in that group that have given so much to this place and have left a legacy. They've got something they can be very proud of that they're leaving behind, the culture they've established."
On key to winning:
"The simplistic things of take care of the ball, don't turn it over. When we win the turnover battle this year, we haven't lost, and when we've lost it, we haven't won (actually, Tulane beat Temple while losing the turnover battle 2-0). That's a big one. We've got to tackle better in the run game in particular. Those backs are good. We can't give up shots. And then on offense we have to be able to function the right way. One nice thing is everybody wants to make a big deal about our quarterback situations, but everybody else is playing. All five linemen, the running backs, the tight ends and the receivers are playing. We don't have an opt-out. Show me many teams that have that. We have some guys that may not play because they are beat up, but not an opt-out. Everybody here is playing."
On Shaadie Clayton-Johnson entering portal:
"He's here. He was at practice today. It's probably similar to Ty (Thompson). It's not that there's no chance he could come back, but he wants to see what all the options are. He and I have had this conversation and we're good with that."
MICAH ROBINSON
On importance of winning:
"Honestly the last couple of games we haven't been playing up to our expectations, and coming in against the last opponent of the year we just want to send the seniors out the right way and just get back on track and win this game going into the offseason on a good note."
On how much he helped himself by playing well as starter coming from Furman:
"Just trusting myself and trusting God to get me to this point. I've known coach (Rob) Greene for the last five years, and he's been a big influence and a big part of how I've been playing as well as coach Gas and coach J.J. (McCleskey)."
On Tulane taking guys from smaller program and giving them an opportunity to excel:
"Usually it's just getting guys with good experience from winning programs to come to Tulane and continue the winning culture."
(I attended Florida interviews, too, since their team hotel was right across the street from Tulane's. I was the only one there for the Tulane interviews, but there were about eight reporters covering the Florida interviews)
I asked Billy Napier, who is much drier than Sumrall but very long-winded, about Sumrall saying he had watched film of Napier's ULL teams when he took the job at Troy to see how a championship team played and had modeled some of his ideas off of what he saw.
NAPIER
On Sumrall's comment:
"Jon's a good coach. They've got a formula that works for them, and look, it worked at Troy and then here they go, they're playing for the conference championship at Tulane. They are physical. They play good defense. They play good situational ball, are good on third down, good in the red zone. Yeah, Jon's a good coach. He's been around the block a little bit and will continue to get better in his second league, a little bit of a similar level but obviously two championships and played for one this year. I remember when I got to Louisiana, App State was on top to the mountain, and we studied their approach and kind of built our teams, the same thing we've done here. Georgia and Alabama were on top of the mountain and we've tried to build very similar teams. That's a good approach."
On special teams:
"We really took a step in the right direction, and I was proud of that. We did have a few hiccups here and there, but we are top three, four or five in about every national ranking, and if we don't have a kickoff return (against them) against Kentucky we might be No. 1 to be quite honest with you. To be No. 1 in any category is a good thing. We have a good group in there (coaching) and good specialists, so hopefully that can become part of our culture and DNA as a team."
(I asked defensive coordinator Ron Roberts about the difficulty preparing for an unknown quantity like Ty Thompson:
RON ROBERTS
On Thompson:
"The challenge is what are we really going to get? I don't know. I know he's big, physical, can run, is very athletic and has a big-time arm. He can make all the throws. Now I don't know if he's going to run or if it's going to be some part of the offense, but how much they do certain things will be totally (unknown) for us. There's going to be a first-quarter adjustment period of us trying to figure out, hey, what are they doing with this guy? We're going to have to play it by ear and make sure we adjust early."