Tulane's second shutout of the century was not nearly as pretty as that statistic would indicate, but Darian Mensah's performance at quarterback was a huge positive tonight. Tulane will need to play better to beat Kansas State next Saturday, but the shakiness was understandable considering it is a new coaching staff and a whole bunch of new players. I saw more positives for the immediate future than negatives tonight.
Sumrall, whose voice was half gone, Mensah, Mario Williams and Tyler Grubbs (subbing for an AWOL Rayshawn Pleasant) talked after the game.
SUMRALL
"Before I even address the game, I'd like to thank our student section. The turnout was amazing, and then sticking around through the weather. I was worried whether we were going to kick off on time tonight because of potential lightning. For them to show up the way they did, the student section was big time tonight. They definitely made a difference. They brought a lot of energy to the stadium. You could feel it on the sideline. Never a bad win. I'll never complain from a win. The scoreboard looked nice. We have a whole lot to clean up. That was a really average performance to be quite honest with you. We'll celebrate tonight and have a good time, but if we think that was our standard, we're going to get exposed here real fast, like the next few weeks are going to be a rude awakening. We've got a lot to improve upon. Some of the things that really stood out to me as negatives we have to clean up fast--we used two first-half timeouts that were poorly used. One was because of communication subbing from punt safe to punt block/return. The other was a third down offensively that we didn't quite get the play in clean enough to the quarterback. We ran into the kicker early. That was a dumb call by the coach. That was on me. That wasn't on the kids. I'll eat that one. Our kickoff coverage unit was really poor, like that was embarrassing. That's not good enough. We didn't rush the passer very well. They got the ball out quick. They weren't really going to hang out back there and give us much time. Tackling, we gave up some leaky yardage, and offensively one of Mensah's two incompletions was a drop and should have been a touchdown. The other was a 50-50 ball down our sideline. They were in good coverage and played that ball well, but we had another third down we converted with a little option route to Yulkeith (Brown) that we got a procedure penalty for being aligned incorrectly on offense. When you convert third downs and then lose 5 yards and have to convert third downs over, that's not how you win games. It's how you lose games. I'm very happy with 52-0. I'm not really just thrilled with how we played. We played OK. The upcoming gauntlet of games we've got, the way we played will get you losses. We've got to get some stuff cleaned up fast."
On Mensah:
"We wanted Darian to get a full run. Kai has started games and played games here. We don't have the privilege in college football of playing preseason games like the NFL. I'm not treating our non-conference schedule as preseason games because they all go on your record. They all count, but our biggest goal is let's go compete for a conference championship, and we've got to figure out what gives us the best opportunity to do that personnel wise. Probably thought we would use the other two guys a little earlier. Ty's stuff was more packaged, and we wanted to see him run the normal offense when he had the opportunity to later in the game. We just hoped it would happen a little earlier. You know, it's a 14-0 game until Rayshawn has the pick six. It's about to be 14-7, and the floodgates opened after that, but it was a very competitive game until late in the second quarter, and I told our team that coming into this game. Southeastern last year against Mississippi State, it was 10-7 with three minutes left in the second quarter. It was 7-7 versus South Alabama with three minutes (actually four) left in the third quarter, so I knew it was going to be a dogfight tonight. I would have liked to get the other guys in a little earlier, but I wanted to give Darian a full run of it because it was his first college in-game experience. He performed pretty well. 10 of 12, the run game helps that. We ran 38 carries for 240 yards or something like that (39 for 241). He played well, he played efficiently, he protected the football. He's got a little confidence. I don't know if y'all feel it, but I feel it. I feel like I'm a better coach when I'm around him. I think we can win with any one of those three. I really do. What those three guys do is different a little bit. We've got to tailor the package to whoever's in the game."
On Mensah looking very similar to how he looked at practice:
"He looked very similar tonight. He's very calm. He's very confident. He's got really good poise. There are going to be some things that come the next couple weeks. The opponents will maybe make him speed up, so we'e got to prepare for that, but he really handled the first game really well for a guy that's never played in a college game. That's a big deal, and he handled it really well."
On when he decided to have Mensah out there first:
"About a week and a half ago we probably knew, but just like anything, you have to keep showing up to earn it. We told him 10 days ago, hey, you're going to go the majority with the 1s here. We're not naming you the starter. You're probably going to get the start, but you still have to practice really well and prepare really well. If he didn't show up to practice and work hard, I wasn't going to start him. If he doesn't show up tomorrow on time to meetings, he won't start next week. Everything's earned. You gotta keep showing up. You gotta do the right things week in and week out, but after the Thursday scrimmage we had two weeks ago from today, that first drive with the 1s, I was like all right, we need to give the guy a little run here. He's been really consistent through training camp. But our staff didn't make the final decision until a couple of days ago because if he had come out there and practiced awful, I wasn't going to start him."
On defense from end of spring until now:
"In the spring I thought we sucked on defense. I didn't just not know what we had. I knew what we had and it sucked. We had a goal line period during the spring where I don't know if anybody on defense really hit anybody. I was livid after practice. Six of the 11 that started on defense tonight were transfers. Ray made the big play, but Micah and Johnathan started tonight. Then you got Jalen Geiger at free safety, Caleb Ransaw at nickel, Adin Huntington at field end, Terrell Allen at bandit. That's six, right? (he momentarily forgot about Sam Howard at LB, making it seven). Over 50 percent. Sam Howard, too. We're trying to come together. It's really frustrating at times because we shut them out, but we didn't really play great. We played average. We didn't rush the passer at all. We didn't affect the quarterback hardly at all. I was kind of disgusted watching it. I'm happy with the shutout, but we're not where we need to be yet. If we have any expectations of winning our conference or anything remotely close to that, we gotta get better really fast."
On Pleasant's pick six:
"Game-changing. It's 14-0 and if they score a touchdown there, it's 14-7. They converted one right before that play on a coverage mistake on our side, and if they score, the game feels a whole lot different at 14-7 at the half. We get the pick six and it's 21-0 and we know we're getting the ball coming out of the half. Now all of a sudden you're like all right, now we have a chance to really get this thing going. That was the pivotal play of the game without question."
Sumrall, whose voice was half gone, Mensah, Mario Williams and Tyler Grubbs (subbing for an AWOL Rayshawn Pleasant) talked after the game.
SUMRALL
"Before I even address the game, I'd like to thank our student section. The turnout was amazing, and then sticking around through the weather. I was worried whether we were going to kick off on time tonight because of potential lightning. For them to show up the way they did, the student section was big time tonight. They definitely made a difference. They brought a lot of energy to the stadium. You could feel it on the sideline. Never a bad win. I'll never complain from a win. The scoreboard looked nice. We have a whole lot to clean up. That was a really average performance to be quite honest with you. We'll celebrate tonight and have a good time, but if we think that was our standard, we're going to get exposed here real fast, like the next few weeks are going to be a rude awakening. We've got a lot to improve upon. Some of the things that really stood out to me as negatives we have to clean up fast--we used two first-half timeouts that were poorly used. One was because of communication subbing from punt safe to punt block/return. The other was a third down offensively that we didn't quite get the play in clean enough to the quarterback. We ran into the kicker early. That was a dumb call by the coach. That was on me. That wasn't on the kids. I'll eat that one. Our kickoff coverage unit was really poor, like that was embarrassing. That's not good enough. We didn't rush the passer very well. They got the ball out quick. They weren't really going to hang out back there and give us much time. Tackling, we gave up some leaky yardage, and offensively one of Mensah's two incompletions was a drop and should have been a touchdown. The other was a 50-50 ball down our sideline. They were in good coverage and played that ball well, but we had another third down we converted with a little option route to Yulkeith (Brown) that we got a procedure penalty for being aligned incorrectly on offense. When you convert third downs and then lose 5 yards and have to convert third downs over, that's not how you win games. It's how you lose games. I'm very happy with 52-0. I'm not really just thrilled with how we played. We played OK. The upcoming gauntlet of games we've got, the way we played will get you losses. We've got to get some stuff cleaned up fast."
On Mensah:
"We wanted Darian to get a full run. Kai has started games and played games here. We don't have the privilege in college football of playing preseason games like the NFL. I'm not treating our non-conference schedule as preseason games because they all go on your record. They all count, but our biggest goal is let's go compete for a conference championship, and we've got to figure out what gives us the best opportunity to do that personnel wise. Probably thought we would use the other two guys a little earlier. Ty's stuff was more packaged, and we wanted to see him run the normal offense when he had the opportunity to later in the game. We just hoped it would happen a little earlier. You know, it's a 14-0 game until Rayshawn has the pick six. It's about to be 14-7, and the floodgates opened after that, but it was a very competitive game until late in the second quarter, and I told our team that coming into this game. Southeastern last year against Mississippi State, it was 10-7 with three minutes left in the second quarter. It was 7-7 versus South Alabama with three minutes (actually four) left in the third quarter, so I knew it was going to be a dogfight tonight. I would have liked to get the other guys in a little earlier, but I wanted to give Darian a full run of it because it was his first college in-game experience. He performed pretty well. 10 of 12, the run game helps that. We ran 38 carries for 240 yards or something like that (39 for 241). He played well, he played efficiently, he protected the football. He's got a little confidence. I don't know if y'all feel it, but I feel it. I feel like I'm a better coach when I'm around him. I think we can win with any one of those three. I really do. What those three guys do is different a little bit. We've got to tailor the package to whoever's in the game."
On Mensah looking very similar to how he looked at practice:
"He looked very similar tonight. He's very calm. He's very confident. He's got really good poise. There are going to be some things that come the next couple weeks. The opponents will maybe make him speed up, so we'e got to prepare for that, but he really handled the first game really well for a guy that's never played in a college game. That's a big deal, and he handled it really well."
On when he decided to have Mensah out there first:
"About a week and a half ago we probably knew, but just like anything, you have to keep showing up to earn it. We told him 10 days ago, hey, you're going to go the majority with the 1s here. We're not naming you the starter. You're probably going to get the start, but you still have to practice really well and prepare really well. If he didn't show up to practice and work hard, I wasn't going to start him. If he doesn't show up tomorrow on time to meetings, he won't start next week. Everything's earned. You gotta keep showing up. You gotta do the right things week in and week out, but after the Thursday scrimmage we had two weeks ago from today, that first drive with the 1s, I was like all right, we need to give the guy a little run here. He's been really consistent through training camp. But our staff didn't make the final decision until a couple of days ago because if he had come out there and practiced awful, I wasn't going to start him."
On defense from end of spring until now:
"In the spring I thought we sucked on defense. I didn't just not know what we had. I knew what we had and it sucked. We had a goal line period during the spring where I don't know if anybody on defense really hit anybody. I was livid after practice. Six of the 11 that started on defense tonight were transfers. Ray made the big play, but Micah and Johnathan started tonight. Then you got Jalen Geiger at free safety, Caleb Ransaw at nickel, Adin Huntington at field end, Terrell Allen at bandit. That's six, right? (he momentarily forgot about Sam Howard at LB, making it seven). Over 50 percent. Sam Howard, too. We're trying to come together. It's really frustrating at times because we shut them out, but we didn't really play great. We played average. We didn't rush the passer at all. We didn't affect the quarterback hardly at all. I was kind of disgusted watching it. I'm happy with the shutout, but we're not where we need to be yet. If we have any expectations of winning our conference or anything remotely close to that, we gotta get better really fast."
On Pleasant's pick six:
"Game-changing. It's 14-0 and if they score a touchdown there, it's 14-7. They converted one right before that play on a coverage mistake on our side, and if they score, the game feels a whole lot different at 14-7 at the half. We get the pick six and it's 21-0 and we know we're getting the ball coming out of the half. Now all of a sudden you're like all right, now we have a chance to really get this thing going. That was the pivotal play of the game without question."
