Sorry for the late report. I did not make it to practice today because they moved it to the Superdome, but I talked to Willie Fritz, Jack Curtis, Chase Kuerschen and Patrick Johnson, asked two questions to Dana Holgorsen on the AAC coaches teleconference and listened in on an interview with P.J. Hall.
Fritz said he thought Lawrence Graham would play against Houston and said Joey Claybrook was fine. I thought he would say Graham definitely would play, but the news about Claybrook is good. I don't have an update on Tyler Johnson, but his status will be evident tomorrow. Tulane cannot afford to be without both starting tackles on Thursday.
FRITZ
On practicing in Dome:
"We wanted to make sure we could get it in, so that’s why we did it there."
On the challenge of facing Houston QB D'Eriq King:
"He’s just a real quick player. He’s got really quick feet, great speed and is tough and he throws it well. He’s one of those guys that throws it well on the run."
On defending his running:
"You have to attack him with leverage and not let him cross your face. The year before we did a good job besides one play early in the game of playing with leverage with tight man coverage and we did a good job with rush lanes. Last year they were able to run the ball effectively and they had the whole arsenal going, not just him."
On advantage of playing at home in game with short rest:
"It’s good. I’m glad we’re not having to travel. There will be a lot of familiarity and I think it’s good for us."
HOLGORSEN
On King:
"He’s extremely competitive and is really doing a good job of learning another offense. It’s unfortunate he’s had to learn like three or so offenses in his college career. What you’re going to see is him just continue to get better with it. He manages a game better last week than he has in the previous couple of games. We’re having success with him in the running game. We’ve got to continue to work hard to get as much success as we can in the passing game. We’re a little unbalanced right now but we’re working hard to fix that."
On getting proper run/pass balance:
"The defenses have something to do with that. You have to look and see what they’re doing defensively and what they’re plan of attack is and you have to pick the right plays. Tulane brings big problems in what they do defensively. They load the box, so we don’t want to just ram him up in there with a whole bunch of people. I’ve always talked about balance being able to really identify what the defense is doing and attack them. They can kind of dictate what you do."
On King as special QB:
"He’s a dynamic football player. My job is to get him to be the best quarterback that I can possibly do. He’s played a lot of ball and had a lot of success and he just wants to win. He’s dynamic with his feet and he’s dynamic making plays. He’s done a great job getting into the end zone and we’ve got to get the rest of the group there on the same page to have more success."
JACK CURTIS
On King:
"We have to make him a quarterback and keep him in the quarterback and make him hand the ball and throw the ball to beat you. If he can do those things and run the ball, it can be a long night for us because once he gets in the open field, he is so fast and athletic. He can make a lot of plays with his feet. Two years ago he made some plays but we were able to keep them out of the end zone and he didn’t make the throws that he needed to make at times. Again, make him a quarterback, make him have to beat you throwing the ball."
On King as breakaway threat:
"He can take it to the house. Unfortunately for us they’ve got so many other weapons, you can’t just say, hey, we’ve got to stop the quarterback and they’ve got wide receivers probably as good as anybody in the country. There are times you are going to have to have a spy on, and you have to pick and choose when you go after him?
On having personnel to contain King:
"We have to do a great job in stopping the run and get him behind the chains where he’s having to throw the ball and keep him in the pocket. Can he be accurate and hit those passes, can we get off the field on third down. That's going to kind of be the game. If they get it all going like last year, they had everything going for them and we didn’t play very well. He was a big part of that."
On advantage of playing at home on short week:
"They had one more extra day to prepare but they have to travel. Fortunately we were able to handle business last week and some of the starters only played 20 snaps, so we should be fresh. We’ve done well on short weeks in the past. Hopefully we can be fresh and play well Thursday night."
On D against Missouri State:
"We went about business and handled it the right way. We did what we had to do, what were expected to do. They hit us with a couple of plays. They had one run that was 25 yards but other than that I think they had 24 yards (on the ground; it was actually 29) and then they had the little touchdown pass. It was a nice play. Give those guys credit. They did a nice job, but from a standpoint of getting off the field on third down, we did that. They were 2 of 12 on third down. We stuffed the run. They had 54 yards rushing. When we do those things, we are going to win big."
On play of Larry Brooks and secondary:
"Larry has a lot of upside to him. He’s learning more and more as well as Macon (Clark), so we’ve got four safeties that are playing a pretty good bit. It keeps us fresh and we've got confidence all four of those guys can get through a game without a dropoff. The more those younger guys play, the better they are going to be. They have a real big upside to them in the future here at Tulane."
On pass defense breakdowns against Auburn:
"One of them they flat out ran right by us. Fortunately it was the guy with a cast. He has world-class speed. We are playing well. We’re not playing perfect yet, but I am pleased with the way the secondary has performed. We’re seeing the ball and we do a lot of work on playing the deep ball and trying to come down with it. They are doing better. We put them on the spot a lot. We are in a lot of one-high safety, so it's man free or cover free, which is a one-on-one situation. We are going to do that, stop the run first and see if we can get people in third down."
P.J. HALL
On King:
"We saw him last year but we haven’t faced anybody like him yet this season. He’s a great runner, good passer, but we are going to be ready for him. We really have to tackle him in the open field. He’s a great open-field runner. Easily that’s his greatest strength. It’s challenging when you play a dual threat like him, but we have to be sound when it comes to tackling and have everybody stay in their gap and I think we’ll be all right."
On Houston's other weapons:
"They've got some pretty good running backs. They've got some receivers. They are solid all around on offense."
On what he remembers from last year's game:
"Everything. We didn’t play well, we didn’t tackle well and we didn’t cover well. We're goign to watch the tape a little bit from last year, go over it and see what they've done this year and we’re hoping for a different outcome. It's a little motivation. You always remember the losses, but we aren’t really focusing on it being a motivating game. It's just next game. That's all we're focusing on."
Fritz said he thought Lawrence Graham would play against Houston and said Joey Claybrook was fine. I thought he would say Graham definitely would play, but the news about Claybrook is good. I don't have an update on Tyler Johnson, but his status will be evident tomorrow. Tulane cannot afford to be without both starting tackles on Thursday.
FRITZ
On practicing in Dome:
"We wanted to make sure we could get it in, so that’s why we did it there."
On the challenge of facing Houston QB D'Eriq King:
"He’s just a real quick player. He’s got really quick feet, great speed and is tough and he throws it well. He’s one of those guys that throws it well on the run."
On defending his running:
"You have to attack him with leverage and not let him cross your face. The year before we did a good job besides one play early in the game of playing with leverage with tight man coverage and we did a good job with rush lanes. Last year they were able to run the ball effectively and they had the whole arsenal going, not just him."
On advantage of playing at home in game with short rest:
"It’s good. I’m glad we’re not having to travel. There will be a lot of familiarity and I think it’s good for us."
HOLGORSEN
On King:
"He’s extremely competitive and is really doing a good job of learning another offense. It’s unfortunate he’s had to learn like three or so offenses in his college career. What you’re going to see is him just continue to get better with it. He manages a game better last week than he has in the previous couple of games. We’re having success with him in the running game. We’ve got to continue to work hard to get as much success as we can in the passing game. We’re a little unbalanced right now but we’re working hard to fix that."
On getting proper run/pass balance:
"The defenses have something to do with that. You have to look and see what they’re doing defensively and what they’re plan of attack is and you have to pick the right plays. Tulane brings big problems in what they do defensively. They load the box, so we don’t want to just ram him up in there with a whole bunch of people. I’ve always talked about balance being able to really identify what the defense is doing and attack them. They can kind of dictate what you do."
On King as special QB:
"He’s a dynamic football player. My job is to get him to be the best quarterback that I can possibly do. He’s played a lot of ball and had a lot of success and he just wants to win. He’s dynamic with his feet and he’s dynamic making plays. He’s done a great job getting into the end zone and we’ve got to get the rest of the group there on the same page to have more success."
JACK CURTIS
On King:
"We have to make him a quarterback and keep him in the quarterback and make him hand the ball and throw the ball to beat you. If he can do those things and run the ball, it can be a long night for us because once he gets in the open field, he is so fast and athletic. He can make a lot of plays with his feet. Two years ago he made some plays but we were able to keep them out of the end zone and he didn’t make the throws that he needed to make at times. Again, make him a quarterback, make him have to beat you throwing the ball."
On King as breakaway threat:
"He can take it to the house. Unfortunately for us they’ve got so many other weapons, you can’t just say, hey, we’ve got to stop the quarterback and they’ve got wide receivers probably as good as anybody in the country. There are times you are going to have to have a spy on, and you have to pick and choose when you go after him?
On having personnel to contain King:
"We have to do a great job in stopping the run and get him behind the chains where he’s having to throw the ball and keep him in the pocket. Can he be accurate and hit those passes, can we get off the field on third down. That's going to kind of be the game. If they get it all going like last year, they had everything going for them and we didn’t play very well. He was a big part of that."
On advantage of playing at home on short week:
"They had one more extra day to prepare but they have to travel. Fortunately we were able to handle business last week and some of the starters only played 20 snaps, so we should be fresh. We’ve done well on short weeks in the past. Hopefully we can be fresh and play well Thursday night."
On D against Missouri State:
"We went about business and handled it the right way. We did what we had to do, what were expected to do. They hit us with a couple of plays. They had one run that was 25 yards but other than that I think they had 24 yards (on the ground; it was actually 29) and then they had the little touchdown pass. It was a nice play. Give those guys credit. They did a nice job, but from a standpoint of getting off the field on third down, we did that. They were 2 of 12 on third down. We stuffed the run. They had 54 yards rushing. When we do those things, we are going to win big."
On play of Larry Brooks and secondary:
"Larry has a lot of upside to him. He’s learning more and more as well as Macon (Clark), so we’ve got four safeties that are playing a pretty good bit. It keeps us fresh and we've got confidence all four of those guys can get through a game without a dropoff. The more those younger guys play, the better they are going to be. They have a real big upside to them in the future here at Tulane."
On pass defense breakdowns against Auburn:
"One of them they flat out ran right by us. Fortunately it was the guy with a cast. He has world-class speed. We are playing well. We’re not playing perfect yet, but I am pleased with the way the secondary has performed. We’re seeing the ball and we do a lot of work on playing the deep ball and trying to come down with it. They are doing better. We put them on the spot a lot. We are in a lot of one-high safety, so it's man free or cover free, which is a one-on-one situation. We are going to do that, stop the run first and see if we can get people in third down."
P.J. HALL
On King:
"We saw him last year but we haven’t faced anybody like him yet this season. He’s a great runner, good passer, but we are going to be ready for him. We really have to tackle him in the open field. He’s a great open-field runner. Easily that’s his greatest strength. It’s challenging when you play a dual threat like him, but we have to be sound when it comes to tackling and have everybody stay in their gap and I think we’ll be all right."
On Houston's other weapons:
"They've got some pretty good running backs. They've got some receivers. They are solid all around on offense."
On what he remembers from last year's game:
"Everything. We didn’t play well, we didn’t tackle well and we didn’t cover well. We're goign to watch the tape a little bit from last year, go over it and see what they've done this year and we’re hoping for a different outcome. It's a little motivation. You always remember the losses, but we aren’t really focusing on it being a motivating game. It's just next game. That's all we're focusing on."