I saw almost nothing positive in this game other than Tulane getting a much-needed victory. The good news is teams do not play the same way every week because that performance will not get it done in the AAC. Some of the problems, like the lack of a pass rush or the ability to finish sacks when there is pressure, have been there all year, but there is still time to correct some of them. Right now this is not a very good team. Maybe next Saturday I will feel differently. Makhi Hughes played well while under the weather, and they are using Ty Thompson effectively as a short-yardage wildcat QB (except for the time he lined up as a running back and looked like he had no idea how to find the hole).
Jon Sumrall, Jack Tchienchou, Rayshawn Pleasant and Makhi Hughes talked after the game.
SUMRALL
"We won. It didn't look pretty at times. I saw a lot of good things and saw a whole lot of bad things. We've got to get better in a lot of areas or we're going to get our ass beat next week. It was a good team today. I'm glad we won the state championship. Goal No. 1 for our team was win the state. We played Southeastern Louisiana and we played Louisiana-Lafayette, and goal No. 1 for the coaching staff when we went over it this summer was win the state. We got that done and we're going to celebrate that tonight. Goal No. 2 for us was win the conference, If we don't get better real fast, we've got no shot. Like no shot, so we have a lot of work to do. I'm very disappointed in our defense in a lot of ways. I'm a little sick over it. We've got a long way to go. I'm proud of some of the individual efforts. I'm proud of the team for fighting, but I'm just not pleased with maybe how clean we're playing on defense at times. I'm not accustomed to that and we're going to get it fixed. Kickoff return, interception return (for touchdowns), you do those two things, you should never lose, and we still made it interesting because of self-inflicting, too many DPIs. We had five on the day. That's atrocious. A couple of them were good calls. A couple of them were awful on our end. One or two I don't know, but some of them we were too handsy and we've got to clean that up, and it's gotta happen fast. We have to play better in the throw game on offense. We ran the ball really well. Some of the things they were doing dictated to us to run the ball. If you're going to play one safety in single high at 15 yards (deep) or both safeties at 12 or 14, you should run it. Makhi Hughes had a good day. Not surprised. He's a little under the weather. He would have probably gone for more, but he was a little under the weather today. He wasn't quite 100 percent health wise, wasn't feeling his best, but still, he's a grown man and he plays like it. We did a good job of getting Ty Thompson involved in the offense in different ways, and I think he's going to continue to grow."
On defensive collapse in third quarter:
"They did a really good job of scheming up some things and getting some holes in a certain coverage we were in a couple of times. Familiarity. Our staff has played these guys the last three years now, so they've seen our defense as much as anybody and we have to adapt a little on when we play teams that have seen us this much and maybe tweak some things. We also weren't quite as clean as we need to be on communication in the back end on whether we were matching some stuff with some over routes or waiving their deep crossers, dropping it off, so we have to clean some of that up. They did a good job of holding some stuff. I felt like they held some pass concepts they didn't run in the first half, more in the second. We're just not playing clean, man, back end wise, and at times we're in the quarterback's face and not getting him down, too. We had two or three where we were right there to get a sack and just didn't finish the play. The long run right after the kickoff return was just a misfit defensively, a first-level guy not getting as far as we would like him to get and a second-level guy not falling back off the action as fast as we like, so that long run was just us not fitting right. I'm going to watch the tape probably tonight on the ride back, and we've got like 500 things to fix on defense and we only played 62 plays. I can think of a lot of things we have to fix."
On heat being a factor:
"Conditions were most certainly a factor. It was hot today. Really hot. This was very similar to our Tuesday practice, except we were off the field by 10:30 so it wasn't quite this hot. It was probably about the same. It affects you a great deal. Our plan going in was run the ball, control the clock and try to tire them out. If you can control the line of scrimmage in a game like this, you want to have explosive plays, but being able to run the ball and grind out the run game and make them stay on the field really plays to your advantage on both sides of the ball. It helps your defense, so without question our game plan, we have three keys to win every week and it's not always the same, but key No. 1 this week was win the run game. Like we had to win the run game to win the game, and we did. I felt like it was going to fit the environment for sure with the heat."
On working the officials:
"A couple of the DPIs I thought were right. A couple of them, I had questions, and then there were a couple of no calls on the other side that I thought were pretty obvious, like the grounding they weren't going to call until they went to the review. I could see the ball mark. Little black pebbles flew up a half yard behind the line of scrimmage. I didn't want to use a timeout to review it, but I was telling them y'all need to look at that, that's pretty glaring, and they got the message. But there were just a number of things. Look, officiating is not perfect and never is going to be. There were some things i wanted clarity on, and I know those guys. Thats a Sun Belt crew, a very good crew. Those guys have had me a few times, so they know how to deal with me. If you work a game as an official that I'm coaching, they know I'm going to talk to them because I just want information."
On Pleasant's kickoff return for TD:
"It was huge. You go into the halftime and we're up 4, and it makes it a two-score game. It's momentum. You talk about wanting to get points on the first drive. Well, there you go, you get it on the opening kickoff, how about that? Rayshawn has worked so hard. He's such a tremendous worker. He gives great effort. He's a great teammate. He has a really bright future. This was really his first week being a full-time kickoff returner because of injury to Shaadie (Clayton-Jonnson). I think Shaadie will be back, but I'm not going to call Shaadie tonight and tell him that he lost his job by being out, but we'll see because that was a pretty impressive return. It was definitely a game-changing, momentum-changing play for sure. Now we go back and give them a long run right after it, which was just dumb by us on the fit, but we'll get better. Big-time play by Rayshawn. I say all the time the guys that work really hard, they play pretty good. Well he's been working really hard. He's had a great summer and he gets everything he deserves because he works really hard at it."
On Tchienchou interception return for TD making it three interceptions for the team on the year and all of them being touchdowns:
"How about that? That one and then the hit that he had, that was a grown-man hit. He laid the wood there. Jack's got to be a little cleaner in some areas. He got a little too nosey a couple of times. He's got a really bright future, too. Smart kid. Talented kid. Big-time upside. That was a huge play right there going into the half to get that pick-six for sure."
On tough game against rested team while coming off losses to two ranked opponents:
"To me, our team's been tested. I don't worry about getting a test. Right now, it's are we playing detailed enough, disciplined enough to win the next one. That's where my mind's at. We're a tough group. I like the culture in the locker room. We just have to start playing with better detail and better discipline or we're going to give a game away here that we shouldn't. I'm proud of the fight and I think we have.a culture that's gritty and tough and blue collar, but we just have to play better football at times and it's got to happen fast."
On Ethan Head:
"There No. 21, the running back, is a dude returner. He was one of the best in the country last year. Touchbacks are huge when you're playing that kind of return guy, and then field goals and extra points he's been handling well. If he makes that at the end, he probably puts the game on ice. He's a true freshman. We brought the two true freshmen in, him and (Patrick) Durkin to see which could go win the kickoff job. Well Durkin's been down a little with a slight injury, and then Barnes goes down. I think Jacob will be back next week. There's a chance Durkin could be back, too, but both of them were out today, and we knew that for sure on Thursday, and so he (Head) had to kick both roles. Last week his first extra point was less than desired. When he came off I told him the good news is it can't get any worse, and he responded pretty well. He made a big field goal. Missed that one at the end. It was definitely long enough. It was just a little left. He kicked it solid. He'll bounce back. He's resilient. He performed well today."
On any trouble with cramps:
"We had four IVs at halftime, which is not outrageous on a day like this. Fourth quarter several cramps. Second quarter one or two. We had two or three guys lock up at different times. Rishi (Rattan) on a kickoff. He doesn't play a lot of snaps, but that kickoff, he wasn't sure if he'd pulled a muscle or cramped right there."
Jon Sumrall, Jack Tchienchou, Rayshawn Pleasant and Makhi Hughes talked after the game.
SUMRALL
"We won. It didn't look pretty at times. I saw a lot of good things and saw a whole lot of bad things. We've got to get better in a lot of areas or we're going to get our ass beat next week. It was a good team today. I'm glad we won the state championship. Goal No. 1 for our team was win the state. We played Southeastern Louisiana and we played Louisiana-Lafayette, and goal No. 1 for the coaching staff when we went over it this summer was win the state. We got that done and we're going to celebrate that tonight. Goal No. 2 for us was win the conference, If we don't get better real fast, we've got no shot. Like no shot, so we have a lot of work to do. I'm very disappointed in our defense in a lot of ways. I'm a little sick over it. We've got a long way to go. I'm proud of some of the individual efforts. I'm proud of the team for fighting, but I'm just not pleased with maybe how clean we're playing on defense at times. I'm not accustomed to that and we're going to get it fixed. Kickoff return, interception return (for touchdowns), you do those two things, you should never lose, and we still made it interesting because of self-inflicting, too many DPIs. We had five on the day. That's atrocious. A couple of them were good calls. A couple of them were awful on our end. One or two I don't know, but some of them we were too handsy and we've got to clean that up, and it's gotta happen fast. We have to play better in the throw game on offense. We ran the ball really well. Some of the things they were doing dictated to us to run the ball. If you're going to play one safety in single high at 15 yards (deep) or both safeties at 12 or 14, you should run it. Makhi Hughes had a good day. Not surprised. He's a little under the weather. He would have probably gone for more, but he was a little under the weather today. He wasn't quite 100 percent health wise, wasn't feeling his best, but still, he's a grown man and he plays like it. We did a good job of getting Ty Thompson involved in the offense in different ways, and I think he's going to continue to grow."
On defensive collapse in third quarter:
"They did a really good job of scheming up some things and getting some holes in a certain coverage we were in a couple of times. Familiarity. Our staff has played these guys the last three years now, so they've seen our defense as much as anybody and we have to adapt a little on when we play teams that have seen us this much and maybe tweak some things. We also weren't quite as clean as we need to be on communication in the back end on whether we were matching some stuff with some over routes or waiving their deep crossers, dropping it off, so we have to clean some of that up. They did a good job of holding some stuff. I felt like they held some pass concepts they didn't run in the first half, more in the second. We're just not playing clean, man, back end wise, and at times we're in the quarterback's face and not getting him down, too. We had two or three where we were right there to get a sack and just didn't finish the play. The long run right after the kickoff return was just a misfit defensively, a first-level guy not getting as far as we would like him to get and a second-level guy not falling back off the action as fast as we like, so that long run was just us not fitting right. I'm going to watch the tape probably tonight on the ride back, and we've got like 500 things to fix on defense and we only played 62 plays. I can think of a lot of things we have to fix."
On heat being a factor:
"Conditions were most certainly a factor. It was hot today. Really hot. This was very similar to our Tuesday practice, except we were off the field by 10:30 so it wasn't quite this hot. It was probably about the same. It affects you a great deal. Our plan going in was run the ball, control the clock and try to tire them out. If you can control the line of scrimmage in a game like this, you want to have explosive plays, but being able to run the ball and grind out the run game and make them stay on the field really plays to your advantage on both sides of the ball. It helps your defense, so without question our game plan, we have three keys to win every week and it's not always the same, but key No. 1 this week was win the run game. Like we had to win the run game to win the game, and we did. I felt like it was going to fit the environment for sure with the heat."
On working the officials:
"A couple of the DPIs I thought were right. A couple of them, I had questions, and then there were a couple of no calls on the other side that I thought were pretty obvious, like the grounding they weren't going to call until they went to the review. I could see the ball mark. Little black pebbles flew up a half yard behind the line of scrimmage. I didn't want to use a timeout to review it, but I was telling them y'all need to look at that, that's pretty glaring, and they got the message. But there were just a number of things. Look, officiating is not perfect and never is going to be. There were some things i wanted clarity on, and I know those guys. Thats a Sun Belt crew, a very good crew. Those guys have had me a few times, so they know how to deal with me. If you work a game as an official that I'm coaching, they know I'm going to talk to them because I just want information."
On Pleasant's kickoff return for TD:
"It was huge. You go into the halftime and we're up 4, and it makes it a two-score game. It's momentum. You talk about wanting to get points on the first drive. Well, there you go, you get it on the opening kickoff, how about that? Rayshawn has worked so hard. He's such a tremendous worker. He gives great effort. He's a great teammate. He has a really bright future. This was really his first week being a full-time kickoff returner because of injury to Shaadie (Clayton-Jonnson). I think Shaadie will be back, but I'm not going to call Shaadie tonight and tell him that he lost his job by being out, but we'll see because that was a pretty impressive return. It was definitely a game-changing, momentum-changing play for sure. Now we go back and give them a long run right after it, which was just dumb by us on the fit, but we'll get better. Big-time play by Rayshawn. I say all the time the guys that work really hard, they play pretty good. Well he's been working really hard. He's had a great summer and he gets everything he deserves because he works really hard at it."
On Tchienchou interception return for TD making it three interceptions for the team on the year and all of them being touchdowns:
"How about that? That one and then the hit that he had, that was a grown-man hit. He laid the wood there. Jack's got to be a little cleaner in some areas. He got a little too nosey a couple of times. He's got a really bright future, too. Smart kid. Talented kid. Big-time upside. That was a huge play right there going into the half to get that pick-six for sure."
On tough game against rested team while coming off losses to two ranked opponents:
"To me, our team's been tested. I don't worry about getting a test. Right now, it's are we playing detailed enough, disciplined enough to win the next one. That's where my mind's at. We're a tough group. I like the culture in the locker room. We just have to start playing with better detail and better discipline or we're going to give a game away here that we shouldn't. I'm proud of the fight and I think we have.a culture that's gritty and tough and blue collar, but we just have to play better football at times and it's got to happen fast."
On Ethan Head:
"There No. 21, the running back, is a dude returner. He was one of the best in the country last year. Touchbacks are huge when you're playing that kind of return guy, and then field goals and extra points he's been handling well. If he makes that at the end, he probably puts the game on ice. He's a true freshman. We brought the two true freshmen in, him and (Patrick) Durkin to see which could go win the kickoff job. Well Durkin's been down a little with a slight injury, and then Barnes goes down. I think Jacob will be back next week. There's a chance Durkin could be back, too, but both of them were out today, and we knew that for sure on Thursday, and so he (Head) had to kick both roles. Last week his first extra point was less than desired. When he came off I told him the good news is it can't get any worse, and he responded pretty well. He made a big field goal. Missed that one at the end. It was definitely long enough. It was just a little left. He kicked it solid. He'll bounce back. He's resilient. He performed well today."
On any trouble with cramps:
"We had four IVs at halftime, which is not outrageous on a day like this. Fourth quarter several cramps. Second quarter one or two. We had two or three guys lock up at different times. Rishi (Rattan) on a kickoff. He doesn't play a lot of snaps, but that kickoff, he wasn't sure if he'd pulled a muscle or cramped right there."
