I had someone on twitter ask me about injuries, and when I was non-committal in my reply, they suggested I ask about injuries during Fritz's Zoom calls. If it not clear to everyone by this point, I will make it clear--Fritz is loath to give out injury information and benefit an opponent. I no longer ask about injuries in most cases because he, politely, will not divulge that information. His stock answer about known injuries is that guys will be a game-time decision.
One other note: Engaging the Enemy will make its return tomorrow morning. Michael Katz, the Ole Miss beat writer for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, and I exchanged questions and answers this week.
Tulane practiced at Legion Field for a final time today and will head to Oxford tomorrow. Here is what Fritz said.
FRITZ
"It's been so great for us to come and use that facility. We'll be taking off tomorrow afternoon early, playing the game Saturday night, coming back here and loading the buses early Sunday morning. We'll be back about 2 or 3 in the morning and take off at 9 a.m. and get back to New Orleans. The kids are excited to be coming back home."
On new helmets for game (I know a ton of people care about this stuff a lot. I happen not to be one of them, and Fritz does not care, either).
"I just noticed it yesterday. I didn't know we were doing that. It's a neat deal for them to do that. They do an excellent job of figuring out our uniform combinations and helmets and all those things. We're lucky we've got outstanding colors and are able to do a lot of combinations."
On uniforms for game:
"I don't know. I think it might be white, white, white. That's how much I'm involved in that. When I first got here, they'd always ask me my opinion and I told them I could care less. I'm worried about us always looking the same playing good, but I think we're going to be white on white with white helmets."
On if team has lucky jersey:
"I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so. If there is, we need to go to it every week."
On importance of beating Ole Miss:
"Oh it would be big without question. This is an SEC school and they've got a great squad, so we're putting everything into this just like we do every single week."
On Spears being close to full confidence and comparing him to a clearly compromised Saquon Barkley, coming off a similar injury for Giants:
"I don't think so. I think he feels pretty darn good. The game last week was kind of a runaway. We're still monitoring him. He's not practicing every single day. We're holding him out of some things, but he's really close to full speed right now and is going to play a bunch on Saturday. We didn't have very many guys play very many snaps on Saturday. The game allowed us to do that."
On Tulane being team where offensive game plan can change significantly from week to week because team is so versatile (my only question of the day):
"I think so. We like to be a 50-50 team if at all possible, but sometimes they crowd the box and don't allow you to do that. Sometimes they are not crowding the box and it allows you to run the ball more. That's one of the great things about our offense. We've got a lot of scheme to run and pass. Our guys just have to execute it and we just have to be careful to make sure the guys understand exactly what they are doing and can do their assignments full speed and you don't have too much. That's what you have to beware of as well."
On importance of controlling the clock:
"It depends on how the game's going a little bit. Sometimes you'll go tempo and if it's bothering a team, you'll do more than you anticipated. Other times you're running the clock. We're going to do both, and in reality Ole Miss does that, too. They go real fast sometimes and the next series their getting it down to single digits on the play clock. Most of the time they're snapping it around 15 to 20 on the play clock. In this day and age, the advantage for you is if you can change tempos. Back in the old days you couldn't do it and people didn't want to do it. The score of the game kind of dictates. In the first game against Oklahoma we got behind and we had to go fast, so we were going tempo more and trying to snap the ball with 20 seconds on the play clock each time if at all possible. There are other incidences where we want to run a lot of play clock off."
On Tyrick James playing like NFL player:
"A couple of games does not a career make. He's had a great career for us, but we've thought he could do this for us all along. We're utilizing him a little more, but he's a big body, he's close to 6-2 and 240 pounds plus with soft hands. The thing I was impressed with last week was he was really mixing it up on the line of scrimmage blocking, physical blocking. When he's on, he's a very good tight end."
One other note: Engaging the Enemy will make its return tomorrow morning. Michael Katz, the Ole Miss beat writer for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, and I exchanged questions and answers this week.
Tulane practiced at Legion Field for a final time today and will head to Oxford tomorrow. Here is what Fritz said.
FRITZ
"It's been so great for us to come and use that facility. We'll be taking off tomorrow afternoon early, playing the game Saturday night, coming back here and loading the buses early Sunday morning. We'll be back about 2 or 3 in the morning and take off at 9 a.m. and get back to New Orleans. The kids are excited to be coming back home."
On new helmets for game (I know a ton of people care about this stuff a lot. I happen not to be one of them, and Fritz does not care, either).
"I just noticed it yesterday. I didn't know we were doing that. It's a neat deal for them to do that. They do an excellent job of figuring out our uniform combinations and helmets and all those things. We're lucky we've got outstanding colors and are able to do a lot of combinations."
On uniforms for game:
"I don't know. I think it might be white, white, white. That's how much I'm involved in that. When I first got here, they'd always ask me my opinion and I told them I could care less. I'm worried about us always looking the same playing good, but I think we're going to be white on white with white helmets."
On if team has lucky jersey:
"I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so. If there is, we need to go to it every week."
On importance of beating Ole Miss:
"Oh it would be big without question. This is an SEC school and they've got a great squad, so we're putting everything into this just like we do every single week."
On Spears being close to full confidence and comparing him to a clearly compromised Saquon Barkley, coming off a similar injury for Giants:
"I don't think so. I think he feels pretty darn good. The game last week was kind of a runaway. We're still monitoring him. He's not practicing every single day. We're holding him out of some things, but he's really close to full speed right now and is going to play a bunch on Saturday. We didn't have very many guys play very many snaps on Saturday. The game allowed us to do that."
On Tulane being team where offensive game plan can change significantly from week to week because team is so versatile (my only question of the day):
"I think so. We like to be a 50-50 team if at all possible, but sometimes they crowd the box and don't allow you to do that. Sometimes they are not crowding the box and it allows you to run the ball more. That's one of the great things about our offense. We've got a lot of scheme to run and pass. Our guys just have to execute it and we just have to be careful to make sure the guys understand exactly what they are doing and can do their assignments full speed and you don't have too much. That's what you have to beware of as well."
On importance of controlling the clock:
"It depends on how the game's going a little bit. Sometimes you'll go tempo and if it's bothering a team, you'll do more than you anticipated. Other times you're running the clock. We're going to do both, and in reality Ole Miss does that, too. They go real fast sometimes and the next series their getting it down to single digits on the play clock. Most of the time they're snapping it around 15 to 20 on the play clock. In this day and age, the advantage for you is if you can change tempos. Back in the old days you couldn't do it and people didn't want to do it. The score of the game kind of dictates. In the first game against Oklahoma we got behind and we had to go fast, so we were going tempo more and trying to snap the ball with 20 seconds on the play clock each time if at all possible. There are other incidences where we want to run a lot of play clock off."
On Tyrick James playing like NFL player:
"A couple of games does not a career make. He's had a great career for us, but we've thought he could do this for us all along. We're utilizing him a little more, but he's a big body, he's close to 6-2 and 240 pounds plus with soft hands. The thing I was impressed with last week was he was really mixing it up on the line of scrimmage blocking, physical blocking. When he's on, he's a very good tight end."
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