I thought the bowl staff had done my transcribing for me when they emailed the quotes, but they were severely edited unlike at the major bowls when every word is on there, so I did it myself except for the intro, when a glitch on my computer rendered Fritz silent until I accessed the call on my phone.
"Nevada is a good team. I want to give them credit. I don’t want to act like everything is because of us. We had some mismatches and they exploited it early in the ballgame on the perimeter throwing the ball to their taller guys. They did a nice job of setting that up with good throws and catches.”
“I’m proud of our guys. We fought back in the second half. We did an excellent job of getting back in the ballgame. We had a chance to go down and take the lead and we couldn’t get that done. When you’re playing a team like Nevada you can’t be minus in the turnovers and takeaways.”
(Here is where I picked it up)
On the series with three sacks in three plays (Tulane had taken over at the Nevada 27 while trailing 32-20):
"Yeah, it was real critical. We were trying to get help from the back chipping where we knew we had a mismatch, and I was disappointed one time we kind of chipped him and had it protected on the edge and they got pressure inside and got a sack as well. Hindsight's 20-20. I've got a coordinator who was working his first game and we had a bunch of receivers out. Tyrick James is out. Jha'Quan Jackson is out. Duece didn't make the trip. We had guys playing different spots. I know we had 19 guys that did not play in this game. Shoot, we were probably at 25, 26 at the end of the game and they all kind of play the same position."
On how tough the wind was (Nevada coach Jay Norvell said they ran the ball repeatedly on their opening drive because it was hard to throw in that direction):
"It was difficult to throw. We had a big drop early with the interception (that deflected off of Phat Watts). That hurt us. That catch to move the sticks that leads to their first score was tough. The wind kind of died down in the second half a little bit, but it certainly was a factor early in the game."
On Remetich and Tuggle not playing:
"They were unavailable I'll say. The times we live in right now."
On challenge of even playing 12 games:
'It was real challenging. You were kind of holding your breath from week to week. I thought everyone did as good a job as we could. There was a position we were thin at and we got thinner during the game today. There were a lot of challenges. It was a long season. We've been going since June 15 with very few days off, and the kids did an excellent job, but we also are looking back at some woulda, coulda, shouldas that could have been able to happen but didn't."
On defensive performance:
"I thought we had a few stops later in the game that were pretty good, but that was a big stop there early."
On status of program going into year 6:
"There are some good things that we've done. Three bowl games in a row. We play in a great conference. Our margin for error is very slim. We gotta do the little things every game to come out with wins. It's not roll the ball out and just beat people. That's just not going to happen. We have to do things right all the time, and we didn't do that the whole game. We didn't execute as cleanly as we needed to. There are a lot of good things we accomplished this year, but there's also some things we left out there on the field. But there are a lot of things to build off of."
On going for it on fourth down instead of attempting short field goal while trailing 26-7 late in first half:
"We got a (analytics) book and go by the book, and sometimes it puts you in bad situations unfortunately."
On long wildcat touchdown for Nevada on fourth down that made score 26-7:
"It was a real big play. We get a stop there and we're in pretty good shape right there. There were a lot of turning points in this game. You look back it and there were probably 10 to 15 plays that were big both ways that would have given us momentum. When we had it 26-20 and got the football, that would have been big if we could have gotten a score there, but we weren't able to."
NICK ANDERSON
On keys to loss:
"I feel like it all goes back to execution, and that's been a problem all year in the games we've come short. It's execution and have a heart to say my man is not going to make the play and I'm going to do my one-eleventh, and including me, the whole defense didn't do that today. We didn't execute. We had 10 practices and the concept, the defensive scheme, has been the same those 10 practices. We did a poor job of execution. It's on me. It's on the defense. It's not on the coaches. We've got to execute what they call."
On absence of Patrick Johnson and Cam Sample:
"Pat and Cam are both NFL guys. In a couple of months they'll be on somebody's team. They are excellent pass rushers and they do their job very well, but I'm also proud of Darius (Hodges) and Angelo (Anderson). This was their first career start and they went out and handled it well. They exceeded my expectations. They went out there and did their job, so we can't blame them because they are young. They handled their business today and I'm very proud of them."
On weather conditions:
"It was cold, but New Orleans cold is different because of the humidity. It was a dry cold, so it wasn't anything that really bothered us. I can't blame anything on the weather. You can't blame anything on the coaches. It comes down to us executing. We knew it was going to be cold. It was something we prepared for."
On season amid COVID:
"This season was definitely tough. Not being able to go home and at the beginning of the season not being able to see your family and friends. We made a lot of sacrifices, and I think that's the biggest thing that hurts right now is after all we sacrificed this season, to come up short and not get that goal of going back to back to back and win this bowl game. That's what hurts the most, considering everything we've been through this season and not even knowing we were going to have this many games and not even knowing we were going to have a bowl game. This was a missed opportunity. It hurts, but it's time to look forward to 2021 and next season and look forward to the spring with two new coordinators to really become better players on the mental side of things. It's not the physical side. It's more mental, and that's the reality of college football these days. it's changed from physicality to more your mentality, and that's something we have to grow as a program. We have to get mentally stronger, mentally tougher and handle execution because at the end of the day we can't blame the coaches because we are not executing what the coaches call. Execution is the biggest thing we've got to focus on going into this next season."
On intensity:
"Most definitely. We were short-handed, but I feel like we did a great job of getting the backups prepared in those 10 practices."
"Nevada is a good team. I want to give them credit. I don’t want to act like everything is because of us. We had some mismatches and they exploited it early in the ballgame on the perimeter throwing the ball to their taller guys. They did a nice job of setting that up with good throws and catches.”
“I’m proud of our guys. We fought back in the second half. We did an excellent job of getting back in the ballgame. We had a chance to go down and take the lead and we couldn’t get that done. When you’re playing a team like Nevada you can’t be minus in the turnovers and takeaways.”
(Here is where I picked it up)
On the series with three sacks in three plays (Tulane had taken over at the Nevada 27 while trailing 32-20):
"Yeah, it was real critical. We were trying to get help from the back chipping where we knew we had a mismatch, and I was disappointed one time we kind of chipped him and had it protected on the edge and they got pressure inside and got a sack as well. Hindsight's 20-20. I've got a coordinator who was working his first game and we had a bunch of receivers out. Tyrick James is out. Jha'Quan Jackson is out. Duece didn't make the trip. We had guys playing different spots. I know we had 19 guys that did not play in this game. Shoot, we were probably at 25, 26 at the end of the game and they all kind of play the same position."
On how tough the wind was (Nevada coach Jay Norvell said they ran the ball repeatedly on their opening drive because it was hard to throw in that direction):
"It was difficult to throw. We had a big drop early with the interception (that deflected off of Phat Watts). That hurt us. That catch to move the sticks that leads to their first score was tough. The wind kind of died down in the second half a little bit, but it certainly was a factor early in the game."
On Remetich and Tuggle not playing:
"They were unavailable I'll say. The times we live in right now."
On challenge of even playing 12 games:
'It was real challenging. You were kind of holding your breath from week to week. I thought everyone did as good a job as we could. There was a position we were thin at and we got thinner during the game today. There were a lot of challenges. It was a long season. We've been going since June 15 with very few days off, and the kids did an excellent job, but we also are looking back at some woulda, coulda, shouldas that could have been able to happen but didn't."
On defensive performance:
"I thought we had a few stops later in the game that were pretty good, but that was a big stop there early."
On status of program going into year 6:
"There are some good things that we've done. Three bowl games in a row. We play in a great conference. Our margin for error is very slim. We gotta do the little things every game to come out with wins. It's not roll the ball out and just beat people. That's just not going to happen. We have to do things right all the time, and we didn't do that the whole game. We didn't execute as cleanly as we needed to. There are a lot of good things we accomplished this year, but there's also some things we left out there on the field. But there are a lot of things to build off of."
On going for it on fourth down instead of attempting short field goal while trailing 26-7 late in first half:
"We got a (analytics) book and go by the book, and sometimes it puts you in bad situations unfortunately."
On long wildcat touchdown for Nevada on fourth down that made score 26-7:
"It was a real big play. We get a stop there and we're in pretty good shape right there. There were a lot of turning points in this game. You look back it and there were probably 10 to 15 plays that were big both ways that would have given us momentum. When we had it 26-20 and got the football, that would have been big if we could have gotten a score there, but we weren't able to."
NICK ANDERSON
On keys to loss:
"I feel like it all goes back to execution, and that's been a problem all year in the games we've come short. It's execution and have a heart to say my man is not going to make the play and I'm going to do my one-eleventh, and including me, the whole defense didn't do that today. We didn't execute. We had 10 practices and the concept, the defensive scheme, has been the same those 10 practices. We did a poor job of execution. It's on me. It's on the defense. It's not on the coaches. We've got to execute what they call."
On absence of Patrick Johnson and Cam Sample:
"Pat and Cam are both NFL guys. In a couple of months they'll be on somebody's team. They are excellent pass rushers and they do their job very well, but I'm also proud of Darius (Hodges) and Angelo (Anderson). This was their first career start and they went out and handled it well. They exceeded my expectations. They went out there and did their job, so we can't blame them because they are young. They handled their business today and I'm very proud of them."
On weather conditions:
"It was cold, but New Orleans cold is different because of the humidity. It was a dry cold, so it wasn't anything that really bothered us. I can't blame anything on the weather. You can't blame anything on the coaches. It comes down to us executing. We knew it was going to be cold. It was something we prepared for."
On season amid COVID:
"This season was definitely tough. Not being able to go home and at the beginning of the season not being able to see your family and friends. We made a lot of sacrifices, and I think that's the biggest thing that hurts right now is after all we sacrificed this season, to come up short and not get that goal of going back to back to back and win this bowl game. That's what hurts the most, considering everything we've been through this season and not even knowing we were going to have this many games and not even knowing we were going to have a bowl game. This was a missed opportunity. It hurts, but it's time to look forward to 2021 and next season and look forward to the spring with two new coordinators to really become better players on the mental side of things. It's not the physical side. It's more mental, and that's the reality of college football these days. it's changed from physicality to more your mentality, and that's something we have to grow as a program. We have to get mentally stronger, mentally tougher and handle execution because at the end of the day we can't blame the coaches because we are not executing what the coaches call. Execution is the biggest thing we've got to focus on going into this next season."
On intensity:
"Most definitely. We were short-handed, but I feel like we did a great job of getting the backups prepared in those 10 practices."
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