It was a pitiful last two games after what had the makings of a tremendous season. Tulane cost itself a chance to hang with Army tonight with a plethora of mental errors on offense and special teams, but the defense simply got its butt kicked. I thought the Memphis game would prove to be an outlier, but it wasn't. For whatever reason, Tulane fell apart defensively for two consecutive games. The Wave could not get off blocks tonight and simply did not match Army's effort. Players started losing their composure long before Josh Remetich took the ridiculous retaliation penalty for an Army player making a good stick on Dontae Fleming. It was simply bad all the way around. I'm not sure whether Jon Sumrall will stay, but what happened on Thanksgiving night and tonight will leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
Kudos to Mario Williams, though. He came to play tonight. He just did not have many teammates join him.
Sumrall, Darian Mensah and Sam Howard talked after the game. I then got Sumrall to the side to ask him questions about his future.
SUMRALL
"Disappointing loss. We didn't play our best football or anywhere near it. Frustrating way for our regular season conference season to end. Heartbroken for our guys. We didn't do a good enough coaching or preparing. Hats off to Army. Really good team. Quarterback is a warrior. He's a warrior. Total respect for Bryson Daily. Coach Monken and his staff do a tremendous job. Heartbroken for our guys. We didn't play well enough, didn't coach well enough. We have to do a lot better job and have to look in the mirror and own it, but I love our team. I told our team after the game this does not change how I feel about this team. I still love those guys and am grateful to them for what they've given Tulane football and what they've meant to our university. The good news is we've got one ball game left to go play so we can maybe try to rectify how we feel tonight."
On not being able to stop Army's ground game:
"I don't know that we felt like we could really stop them. We tried to maybe limit them. I don't think you're going to stop them. The schematics they do present challenges, and the players they have are really good players. Kanye Udoh, Noah Short is really fast. Bryson Daily is like a linebacker carrying the football, so you know they are going to get yards. They bullied us a little bit and got a lot of extra yards that we just didn't tackle very well. I don't think we came in here thinking we should stop them. We probably felt like we were going to limit some of their runs more than we did, and we did not. They were very explosive in the run game and very physical and they created a lot of positive plays and we didn't really create many negatives."
On where Army ranks among teams Tulane played:
"They're as good as anybody we've played all year if not better. They are one of the top teams. What's impressive is you can tell this team is very veteran, they're senior-laden. They are physical up front, and there's a lot of guys I remember playing against last year. This is a really quality team. When you start slow the way we did by missing two field goals early, you don't do yourself any favors because once they get a lead, a couple of scores, it's really hard to overcome."
On stopping fourth-down pitch when trailing 14-0 and thinking it was chance to get back in it:
"Yeah, I felt like it was an opportunity for a momentum swing maybe. We had missed two kicking opportunities to get points. They were coming down about to make it 21-0 if we don't get a stop, and that stop we felt like OK, maybe we stopped the train going the wrong way on the tracks and sort of maybe could reverse that, but we just could not capitalize and keep it going right there."
On penalties on Army's opening TD drive:
"The face mask (on Sam Howard) on the drive, that wasn't an intent issue. It's just we went to go make the tackle and the hand ended up on the face mask. I don't really get upset over that. That's just a guy playing and something happening. The personal foul we had later in the game when we were moving the bowl (it would have been second-and-2 at the 10 down 28-7 in third quarter), that's not OK. Love the guy that did it (Josh Remetich). He's a veteran player who played a lot at Tulane the last five years. It's unfortunate, not characteristic of who we've been all year. Army's a really good team. We didn't need to help them, and we beat ourselves at times and didn't play maybe to the standard we've known in a lot of games this year."
On sending in field goal team on opening possession with fourth-and-2 and what happened on the kick that never was:
"I did consider going for it there, yeah. I thought let's get points, take the lead. Getting a lead in a game like this is a huge deal, and so I thought about it. The very next drive when we did kick as well, we were going to go for it and then we had the sack, and we were not going to go for it on fourth-and-extra-long. I didn't get a chance to go look at it on the IPad on the sideline because of the flow of the game, but it looked like the snap was OK, maybe not perfect but OK. He might have like double-clutched the catch, it looked like to me live. The two holds weren't really clean or smooth. The snap I think was OK. The hold wasn't ideal. That's what it looked like live and that's what the guys that watched it on the device on the sideline were able to kind of relay to me."
On Army's fourth-and-5 passing conversion during first drive of second half:
"It was a critical play. We didn't coach it very good in my opinion. We should be playing more match coverage there. We were a little bit too far off and gave too much of an access throw. We've got to challenge a little bit more and play the sticks a little bit more, and we got a little too soft in our coverage and they made a nice throw and catch and that's a critical play. We should probably be a little more snug in our coverage."
On what changed so dramatically in last two games:
"I don't think we tackled great and played to our level of physicality in the run game the last couple of games. I'll have to look back as we reflect on the year and see did we wear down, were we tired, I don't know. It also happened to be last week against Memphis a running back who I think is as good as anybody in the country and then this week you're playing an offense that runs the ball as good as anybody in the country, the whole offense itself. You have to give credit to two teams, and we have to reflect and try to figure out if there's something we can do better to put our guys in better situations. Neither game did I feel like we really tackled well with great physicality or straining to get off the blocks the way we had the previous games. It's unfortunate because we didn't play our best when our best was required."
On if he is considering leaving Tulane:
"I haven't even thought about it. I have had zero contact with anyone about any jobs. I have deferred all that until after the game. Typically you get to the others side of the last game and then think about what's going on. I don't have a decision to make. I've had no interaction with anybody. There's a lot of speculation, but there's been nothing that's been done."
On if an interview has been set up with North Carolina:
"I don't have anything set up that I'm aware of. Could there be any time ever with anybody ever? I don't know, but I've got nothing. What I've got on my schedule is to get back on the plane with the team and get home and then I'll wake up tomorrow, go watch this tape and kind of work through what we'll look like Sunday."
DARION MENSAH
On two-minute drill for TD at end of half:
"We knew we had to go fast and try to go score quick. We were playing catch-up at that point down 21-0 just before the half. It was tough. Credit to Army for playing a great game tonight. I'm just hurting for our guys."
On how much the cold weather affected them:
"Me personally, it didn't really affect me to be honest. The coaching staff had me warm all game. I wouldn't say the cold was a factor for us. It was getting down in the red zone and not scoring. Those (first two possessions) hurt the most, but the cold didn't really affect us."
SAM HOWARD
On why shut out Navy and gave up 35 points to Army:
"I think we just played a better game against Navy. This game we just didn't execute the way we did that game. They played better than we did."
On if weather was a factor:
"We just didn't play our best. We had self-inflicted wounds and we were playing a really good team."
Kudos to Mario Williams, though. He came to play tonight. He just did not have many teammates join him.
Sumrall, Darian Mensah and Sam Howard talked after the game. I then got Sumrall to the side to ask him questions about his future.
SUMRALL
"Disappointing loss. We didn't play our best football or anywhere near it. Frustrating way for our regular season conference season to end. Heartbroken for our guys. We didn't do a good enough coaching or preparing. Hats off to Army. Really good team. Quarterback is a warrior. He's a warrior. Total respect for Bryson Daily. Coach Monken and his staff do a tremendous job. Heartbroken for our guys. We didn't play well enough, didn't coach well enough. We have to do a lot better job and have to look in the mirror and own it, but I love our team. I told our team after the game this does not change how I feel about this team. I still love those guys and am grateful to them for what they've given Tulane football and what they've meant to our university. The good news is we've got one ball game left to go play so we can maybe try to rectify how we feel tonight."
On not being able to stop Army's ground game:
"I don't know that we felt like we could really stop them. We tried to maybe limit them. I don't think you're going to stop them. The schematics they do present challenges, and the players they have are really good players. Kanye Udoh, Noah Short is really fast. Bryson Daily is like a linebacker carrying the football, so you know they are going to get yards. They bullied us a little bit and got a lot of extra yards that we just didn't tackle very well. I don't think we came in here thinking we should stop them. We probably felt like we were going to limit some of their runs more than we did, and we did not. They were very explosive in the run game and very physical and they created a lot of positive plays and we didn't really create many negatives."
On where Army ranks among teams Tulane played:
"They're as good as anybody we've played all year if not better. They are one of the top teams. What's impressive is you can tell this team is very veteran, they're senior-laden. They are physical up front, and there's a lot of guys I remember playing against last year. This is a really quality team. When you start slow the way we did by missing two field goals early, you don't do yourself any favors because once they get a lead, a couple of scores, it's really hard to overcome."
On stopping fourth-down pitch when trailing 14-0 and thinking it was chance to get back in it:
"Yeah, I felt like it was an opportunity for a momentum swing maybe. We had missed two kicking opportunities to get points. They were coming down about to make it 21-0 if we don't get a stop, and that stop we felt like OK, maybe we stopped the train going the wrong way on the tracks and sort of maybe could reverse that, but we just could not capitalize and keep it going right there."
On penalties on Army's opening TD drive:
"The face mask (on Sam Howard) on the drive, that wasn't an intent issue. It's just we went to go make the tackle and the hand ended up on the face mask. I don't really get upset over that. That's just a guy playing and something happening. The personal foul we had later in the game when we were moving the bowl (it would have been second-and-2 at the 10 down 28-7 in third quarter), that's not OK. Love the guy that did it (Josh Remetich). He's a veteran player who played a lot at Tulane the last five years. It's unfortunate, not characteristic of who we've been all year. Army's a really good team. We didn't need to help them, and we beat ourselves at times and didn't play maybe to the standard we've known in a lot of games this year."
On sending in field goal team on opening possession with fourth-and-2 and what happened on the kick that never was:
"I did consider going for it there, yeah. I thought let's get points, take the lead. Getting a lead in a game like this is a huge deal, and so I thought about it. The very next drive when we did kick as well, we were going to go for it and then we had the sack, and we were not going to go for it on fourth-and-extra-long. I didn't get a chance to go look at it on the IPad on the sideline because of the flow of the game, but it looked like the snap was OK, maybe not perfect but OK. He might have like double-clutched the catch, it looked like to me live. The two holds weren't really clean or smooth. The snap I think was OK. The hold wasn't ideal. That's what it looked like live and that's what the guys that watched it on the device on the sideline were able to kind of relay to me."
On Army's fourth-and-5 passing conversion during first drive of second half:
"It was a critical play. We didn't coach it very good in my opinion. We should be playing more match coverage there. We were a little bit too far off and gave too much of an access throw. We've got to challenge a little bit more and play the sticks a little bit more, and we got a little too soft in our coverage and they made a nice throw and catch and that's a critical play. We should probably be a little more snug in our coverage."
On what changed so dramatically in last two games:
"I don't think we tackled great and played to our level of physicality in the run game the last couple of games. I'll have to look back as we reflect on the year and see did we wear down, were we tired, I don't know. It also happened to be last week against Memphis a running back who I think is as good as anybody in the country and then this week you're playing an offense that runs the ball as good as anybody in the country, the whole offense itself. You have to give credit to two teams, and we have to reflect and try to figure out if there's something we can do better to put our guys in better situations. Neither game did I feel like we really tackled well with great physicality or straining to get off the blocks the way we had the previous games. It's unfortunate because we didn't play our best when our best was required."
On if he is considering leaving Tulane:
"I haven't even thought about it. I have had zero contact with anyone about any jobs. I have deferred all that until after the game. Typically you get to the others side of the last game and then think about what's going on. I don't have a decision to make. I've had no interaction with anybody. There's a lot of speculation, but there's been nothing that's been done."
On if an interview has been set up with North Carolina:
"I don't have anything set up that I'm aware of. Could there be any time ever with anybody ever? I don't know, but I've got nothing. What I've got on my schedule is to get back on the plane with the team and get home and then I'll wake up tomorrow, go watch this tape and kind of work through what we'll look like Sunday."
DARION MENSAH
On two-minute drill for TD at end of half:
"We knew we had to go fast and try to go score quick. We were playing catch-up at that point down 21-0 just before the half. It was tough. Credit to Army for playing a great game tonight. I'm just hurting for our guys."
On how much the cold weather affected them:
"Me personally, it didn't really affect me to be honest. The coaching staff had me warm all game. I wouldn't say the cold was a factor for us. It was getting down in the red zone and not scoring. Those (first two possessions) hurt the most, but the cold didn't really affect us."
SAM HOWARD
On why shut out Navy and gave up 35 points to Army:
"I think we just played a better game against Navy. This game we just didn't execute the way we did that game. They played better than we did."
On if weather was a factor:
"We just didn't play our best. We had self-inflicted wounds and we were playing a really good team."