I am not in Birmingham but was on the Zoom call with Willie Fritz, Nick Anderson and Sincere Haynesworth. I transcribed everything but the questions about Mykel Jones from an Oklahoma reporter.
FRITZ
"We just got back from Alabama. We practiced indoors. It's raining pretty hard here right now in Birmingham. We really appreciate the people in Birmingham. We are staying at the Sheraton and they are treating us unbelievably well and then we appreciate Alabama football allowing us to come over and use their facility. We made one phone call and boom, they got it all set up. We're also practicing at Legion Field right now but because of the rain it was going to be difficult for us to get a practice in. We are just working on our preparation for the Sooners."
On what the last 48 hours have been like:
"We decided to leave on Saturday evening. Obviously it was a good call by our people on campus and we drove over here to Birmingham. We weren't sure what to expect. We've got enough clothes for a few days. I told the guys to pack up until Tuesday. I guess that was wishful thinking. I think we're going to over here quite a bit longer than that. It's a very unfortunate situation. We feel for the people in New Orleans. We've all got family, friends. fellow students for our student-athletes that are there. A lot of people lost their homes. We've got some guys on our team that weren't able to hear from their people back home for a few days because cell service wasn't functioning there in New Orleans, but it sounds as if we got out the worst of it and everybody is doing OK as far as our team and their families are concerned."
On if there was thought of not playing this game:
"We weren't quite sure what was going to happen. We were hoping we would be back in New Orleans in a couple of days. When that didn't occur, our athletic director worked with the athletic director at Oklahoma and they came up with this to go ahead and move the game to Norman."
On thoughts about game:
"Well they are ranked No. 2 in the country for a reason. They've got great players across the board offensive, defense, kicking game. It was interesting in the kicking game it looks like they are going to play a lot of starters. We'll do the same thing. Sometimes teams don't do that. They've really improved defensively over the last couple of years and just are an extremely potent offense. I don't know if their offensive line gets enough credit for the tremendous protection they give their quarterback. They've got a lot of lot of long developing routes in their arsenal, and the reason they are able to do that is the fantastic protection their offensive line provides. Just a very talented team and very well coached. They have a lot of explosive guys on all three sides of the football."
On how tough to lose chance to play Oklahoma at home:
"Well, we got a curveball and we just have to adjust to it. There's no other way to do it. Our players are really champing at the bit with the opportunity to play a high-caliber team like Oklahoma regardless of whether we were playing them here in Birmingham or New Orleans or going up there to Norman."
On institutional knowledge from 2005 and Katrina:
"A bunch. We've got an evacuation plan that we go over all the time. We went over it again right before Ida came, so there are a lot of plans in place at Tulane and the city of New Orleans. They did as well as they possibly could. The president is very involved in it as well as our athletic department. The plan of coming over here to Birmingham has been in the works since Katrina, so that's what Tulane's done. I believe they came over here one other time in 2012 as well, so this is something that we practiced. Our football ops people go over here every year and check the hotel out. We're in a a really good situation with the hotel. It's a hotel for conferences, and they don't have a conference right now, so we're really the only ones in the hotel. They are taking great care of us."
On this being platform for program to make a statement:
"We're on national TV. I think there's only one other game going on at that time on Saturday (actually there are five others on national TV, but the only significant one is Penn State at Wisconsin). so people that are going to be watching football, the majority of them are going to be watching the Green Wave playing the Sooners. It's a great opportunity for our program without question. Guys that are competitors want to play against the very best. Certainly Oklahoma's proven that throughout the years."
On hospitality in Birmingham and if next two home games would be played in Birmingham:
"Number one, everybody's been awesome in Birmingham. Like I said before, the hotel's great. The downtown area is fabulous. They put a lot into it. Our guys are going out there and eating at different places, and I here them coming back and telling me about this place being excellent, this other place being excellent, so we appreciate everything the Sheraton and in the city of Birmingham have done for us. We hae a couple more home games We play a week from Saturday against Morgan State. The following week we go up and play at Ole Miss and then our last game in September is against UAB. I'm not sure what the powers that be that make these decisions have decided or what they are going to decide. We're kind of like the Terminator. Just kind of point us in the right direction and we just go there. We'll find out after the damage has been assessed in New Orleans and on our campus, when we're going to be able to go back. I know right now we went and picked up some extra equipment over there. We were lucky enough to get on campus and get some stuff. We didn't have our uniforms. We didn't have our cleats. There's a lot of things we don't have and hopefully we're going to be able to get that all back here. I think we'll find out here in the next few days what the plans are for the next few games. Legion Field has just been awesome in opening up their stadium, locker room, everything else, and if we need to, we'll go over there and play. That's a very historic stadium. There have been some big-time games there. If we need to, we'll have the opportunity to play over there."
On how different or similar this Oklahoma team is to team in 2017:
"There's a lot of similarities in sets and formations. Defensively they are totally different, but there are some things that are similar with the offense. Coach (Lincoln) Riley was calling the game, too, and he's calling it now, so there's a lot of similarities. Each year everybody evolves a little bit. They add things to their offense, their defense, their kicking game. This is the 2021 Sooners we will be playing, so there's not a whole lot to take from playing them back a few years ago."
On Marvin Moody and Jaylon Monroe having played at Okahoma four years ago:
"Sometimes that's overrated. You get out there and one thing you have to do is block everything out externally and concentrate on what's going on on the field, the 120 yards, the 53 1/3 width of the field and just play the best you can. The coaches and the players that have issues and problems are the ones who are worried about all the other stuff going on. That's what we have to concentrate on."
FRITZ
"We just got back from Alabama. We practiced indoors. It's raining pretty hard here right now in Birmingham. We really appreciate the people in Birmingham. We are staying at the Sheraton and they are treating us unbelievably well and then we appreciate Alabama football allowing us to come over and use their facility. We made one phone call and boom, they got it all set up. We're also practicing at Legion Field right now but because of the rain it was going to be difficult for us to get a practice in. We are just working on our preparation for the Sooners."
On what the last 48 hours have been like:
"We decided to leave on Saturday evening. Obviously it was a good call by our people on campus and we drove over here to Birmingham. We weren't sure what to expect. We've got enough clothes for a few days. I told the guys to pack up until Tuesday. I guess that was wishful thinking. I think we're going to over here quite a bit longer than that. It's a very unfortunate situation. We feel for the people in New Orleans. We've all got family, friends. fellow students for our student-athletes that are there. A lot of people lost their homes. We've got some guys on our team that weren't able to hear from their people back home for a few days because cell service wasn't functioning there in New Orleans, but it sounds as if we got out the worst of it and everybody is doing OK as far as our team and their families are concerned."
On if there was thought of not playing this game:
"We weren't quite sure what was going to happen. We were hoping we would be back in New Orleans in a couple of days. When that didn't occur, our athletic director worked with the athletic director at Oklahoma and they came up with this to go ahead and move the game to Norman."
On thoughts about game:
"Well they are ranked No. 2 in the country for a reason. They've got great players across the board offensive, defense, kicking game. It was interesting in the kicking game it looks like they are going to play a lot of starters. We'll do the same thing. Sometimes teams don't do that. They've really improved defensively over the last couple of years and just are an extremely potent offense. I don't know if their offensive line gets enough credit for the tremendous protection they give their quarterback. They've got a lot of lot of long developing routes in their arsenal, and the reason they are able to do that is the fantastic protection their offensive line provides. Just a very talented team and very well coached. They have a lot of explosive guys on all three sides of the football."
On how tough to lose chance to play Oklahoma at home:
"Well, we got a curveball and we just have to adjust to it. There's no other way to do it. Our players are really champing at the bit with the opportunity to play a high-caliber team like Oklahoma regardless of whether we were playing them here in Birmingham or New Orleans or going up there to Norman."
On institutional knowledge from 2005 and Katrina:
"A bunch. We've got an evacuation plan that we go over all the time. We went over it again right before Ida came, so there are a lot of plans in place at Tulane and the city of New Orleans. They did as well as they possibly could. The president is very involved in it as well as our athletic department. The plan of coming over here to Birmingham has been in the works since Katrina, so that's what Tulane's done. I believe they came over here one other time in 2012 as well, so this is something that we practiced. Our football ops people go over here every year and check the hotel out. We're in a a really good situation with the hotel. It's a hotel for conferences, and they don't have a conference right now, so we're really the only ones in the hotel. They are taking great care of us."
On this being platform for program to make a statement:
"We're on national TV. I think there's only one other game going on at that time on Saturday (actually there are five others on national TV, but the only significant one is Penn State at Wisconsin). so people that are going to be watching football, the majority of them are going to be watching the Green Wave playing the Sooners. It's a great opportunity for our program without question. Guys that are competitors want to play against the very best. Certainly Oklahoma's proven that throughout the years."
On hospitality in Birmingham and if next two home games would be played in Birmingham:
"Number one, everybody's been awesome in Birmingham. Like I said before, the hotel's great. The downtown area is fabulous. They put a lot into it. Our guys are going out there and eating at different places, and I here them coming back and telling me about this place being excellent, this other place being excellent, so we appreciate everything the Sheraton and in the city of Birmingham have done for us. We hae a couple more home games We play a week from Saturday against Morgan State. The following week we go up and play at Ole Miss and then our last game in September is against UAB. I'm not sure what the powers that be that make these decisions have decided or what they are going to decide. We're kind of like the Terminator. Just kind of point us in the right direction and we just go there. We'll find out after the damage has been assessed in New Orleans and on our campus, when we're going to be able to go back. I know right now we went and picked up some extra equipment over there. We were lucky enough to get on campus and get some stuff. We didn't have our uniforms. We didn't have our cleats. There's a lot of things we don't have and hopefully we're going to be able to get that all back here. I think we'll find out here in the next few days what the plans are for the next few games. Legion Field has just been awesome in opening up their stadium, locker room, everything else, and if we need to, we'll go over there and play. That's a very historic stadium. There have been some big-time games there. If we need to, we'll have the opportunity to play over there."
On how different or similar this Oklahoma team is to team in 2017:
"There's a lot of similarities in sets and formations. Defensively they are totally different, but there are some things that are similar with the offense. Coach (Lincoln) Riley was calling the game, too, and he's calling it now, so there's a lot of similarities. Each year everybody evolves a little bit. They add things to their offense, their defense, their kicking game. This is the 2021 Sooners we will be playing, so there's not a whole lot to take from playing them back a few years ago."
On Marvin Moody and Jaylon Monroe having played at Okahoma four years ago:
"Sometimes that's overrated. You get out there and one thing you have to do is block everything out externally and concentrate on what's going on on the field, the 120 yards, the 53 1/3 width of the field and just play the best you can. The coaches and the players that have issues and problems are the ones who are worried about all the other stuff going on. That's what we have to concentrate on."