From Monday. Ed Daniels and I tag-teamed him.
This offense has scored 30 or more points in seven straight games, something that had not been done since 1998, but Amare Jones said Saturday it still was not where you guys wanted it to be. Where do you feel like the offense is right now?
"Well, one thing as a coach you always talk about is you want to improve as the year goes on and obviously we've done that. We're getting better and better. Like we said at the beginning of this year, we are going to be a good offense at some point. We hope that happens tomorrow, and it's taken us a little while to get to this level. We've had a lot of young guys playing. Everybody knows that. We've had a ton of injuries. Everybody knows and understands that. And we've got a young quarterback who's going to be a great player, but we battled through it. I'm really proud of our coaching staff, especially coach Kennedy on the O-line shuffling those guys around. Our kids have just embraced what we're doing, and we've gotten better each week. We really felt like we left a lot of points out on the field the last three weeks. We felt like we easily could have had 50 this past week if we complete a few more passes that we have there. The week before we fumbled a ball going across the goal line and dropped a long pass that would have probably given us 50 that week, so we've just got to continue to clean up some things and we've got a chance to be really good going down the stretch. And the good thing is every one of them's back. Tyjae Spears will be coming back from injury and we'll recruit again like mad men like we always do, so the future's very bright."
Willie Fritz says now you are able to run the offense you wanted to run when you got here because of the threat of a consistent passing game. How much has that helped in what you're doing?
"Yeah, you want to be balanced, and what is balance? People think balance means if you snap it 80 times, you run it 40 and you throw it 40. That's not what balance is. Balance is being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it, and it's being able to do whatever is called for by the looks the defense is giving you. We're getting to that point obviously. Last week they really wanted to take the run away, so we threw it more. Early in the game versus East Carolina it was the same way, and then we loosened them up and got the run game going, so you've got to be able to do both. When you run into a good team that's also well coached, they can take one side of it away, so when you can do both it allows you to be consistently high octane."
How important is Michael Pratt's accuracy to what you are able to do offensively?
"I can't say enough about Michael, not only as a player but as a person. All great teams through the history of time had a tough guy at quarterback, and Michael's a tough guy. We talk all the time with our guys toughness is not winning a bar fight. A real man with real toughness is how many blows can you take, how much adversity can this world put on you and you still bounce back every day and handle your obligations and responsibilities and do what you're supposed to do. Michael does that every day. He impacts people around him. He battles through being banged up, and he's just been really fun. He's got such a bright future."
Thursday will be your third game in 12 days, and you were harping on that in practice today, saying embrace the grind. Do you feel pretty good about the ability to do it with a short turnaround?
"Yeah, with him (Pratt) and (Corey) Dublin and (Stephon) Huderson and (Joey) Claybrook and (Ben) Knutson, those guys, they want to win and they want to raise the standards of this program. They understand where we are going down the stretch. We have a chance to finish strong and go to three straight bowl games. Looking long term, we've got a chance to win out and win more regular season games than been done in a long time and just continue to raise the standard for this program, which is why we all came here."
What is your definition of great when you talk about Pratt?
"I'll say the same thing I tell my two sons. Great is getting the most out of what God gave you, so greatness is different for every human being. For Michael, I think greatness is being an elite quarterback in this conference and this level. I think the sky's the limit for how good he can be. I think he can be an All-Conference quarterback. I think he can be a draft pick, so just him maximizing his fullest potential, continuing to work in the weight room and getting stronger. He can still get a little bit faster. His arm can get a little bit stronger and just learning the offense and just working hard every day."
When you have a quarterback of his ability as a true freshman, does that make it harder to entice quarterbacks to come in here or not?
"You know I can't say any names, but we've got some pretty good ones committed right now. What sells to quarterbacks is what Tulane is. When coach Fritz brought me in here, I said, "Coach, don't worry, relax, we are going to be able to recruit quarterbacks. That's not going to be a problem. We're going to run an offense the quarterback loves, we're going to be in a city that quarterbacks want to come play in. We're in the South, we're in New Orleans, there's great looking girls everywhere, we got great academics and we run an great offense. What quarterback doesn't love all those things? Man, why wouldn't you want to come play quarterback here."
What has gotten Pratt's completion percentage to rise so much with each start?
"The people around him have gotten better. He's been consistent from the jump. His first start against Houston he played lights out under extreme duress. Thenext week versus SMU he played great under duress. We had some O-line injuries. We lost Jacob Robertson and Sorrell Brown at receiver, which were two starters at the beginning of the year. You lose Tyjae and Corey Dauphine, so he had some other guys growing up around him. Now all of a sudden we're going into game 10 and Jha'Quan Jackson's become a really good player, Duece Watts has become a really good player, Phat is really comfortable in the offense now, our tight ends have grown. Mike Jones continues to progress. All of a sudden the people around him are playing better. We're completing more passes and more people are getting open.
"He is better. He's getting through his reads faster than he was earlier in the year, but he's playing at a high level."
The sack total has gone from 15 in his first three starts to five in his last three. Is that a byproduct of Claybrook coming back or him getting the ball out quicker?
"Let's talk about that. In the first three games (of the year) we gave up one sack. All right. The week going into Houston our starting right guard gets mono, our starting left guard pulls his calf, our backup left tackle breaks his hand and then in game versus Houston our starting left tackle separates his kneecap, so within the first two drives of that game we've lost four O-linemen, so we had a makeshift group out there for the rest of that game and gave up a lot of sacks in that one, and then for the next two weeks we played two really good teams with a lot of guys out and we gave up some sacks. We got behind and had to throw it in passing situations. What you've seen the last few weeks is we've gotten our O-linemen back and we've been able to maintain leads early in the game where we could control and dictate the tempo of the game with run and pass and they weren't defined passing situations. It goes back to what I said earlier about being balanced, being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. So really that's why the sack total went astronomical for a few games and why it's gone back down."
The offensive line has a lot of depth now. How much has that group improved since the adversity you just mentioned?
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and we've got a lot of guys that have played and they are all coming back. Ben Knutson's really stepped up at tackle, and all these young guys that we've played are only going to be better for it, and now we've got Claybrook back, Dublin's back healthy, Remetich is back, Knutson's come on, Tim Shafter's back. I've just named four guys that are starting that were out with injury during that stretch we're talking about. We've got a lot of guys that played a lot of minutes and we're just playing well and coach Kennedy has done a good job of shuffling them around and they have a lot of confidence right now."
Stephon Huderson is running really well but he's put the ball on the ground for four straight games. Has that become a mental thing?
"We work on it every day. He's a kid that through his career here has not been a fumbler. He doesn't fumble at practice. It's just something that's kind of happened. He cares. Hud loves Tulane as much as anybody does. He does what's right all the time. I think it's something you're going to see go away because of his character and the way he works and he knows it matters. It's been a lot of different things that have caused it. He's got to address it and fix it and I've got a lot of confidence thathe will."
This offense has scored 30 or more points in seven straight games, something that had not been done since 1998, but Amare Jones said Saturday it still was not where you guys wanted it to be. Where do you feel like the offense is right now?
"Well, one thing as a coach you always talk about is you want to improve as the year goes on and obviously we've done that. We're getting better and better. Like we said at the beginning of this year, we are going to be a good offense at some point. We hope that happens tomorrow, and it's taken us a little while to get to this level. We've had a lot of young guys playing. Everybody knows that. We've had a ton of injuries. Everybody knows and understands that. And we've got a young quarterback who's going to be a great player, but we battled through it. I'm really proud of our coaching staff, especially coach Kennedy on the O-line shuffling those guys around. Our kids have just embraced what we're doing, and we've gotten better each week. We really felt like we left a lot of points out on the field the last three weeks. We felt like we easily could have had 50 this past week if we complete a few more passes that we have there. The week before we fumbled a ball going across the goal line and dropped a long pass that would have probably given us 50 that week, so we've just got to continue to clean up some things and we've got a chance to be really good going down the stretch. And the good thing is every one of them's back. Tyjae Spears will be coming back from injury and we'll recruit again like mad men like we always do, so the future's very bright."
Willie Fritz says now you are able to run the offense you wanted to run when you got here because of the threat of a consistent passing game. How much has that helped in what you're doing?
"Yeah, you want to be balanced, and what is balance? People think balance means if you snap it 80 times, you run it 40 and you throw it 40. That's not what balance is. Balance is being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it, and it's being able to do whatever is called for by the looks the defense is giving you. We're getting to that point obviously. Last week they really wanted to take the run away, so we threw it more. Early in the game versus East Carolina it was the same way, and then we loosened them up and got the run game going, so you've got to be able to do both. When you run into a good team that's also well coached, they can take one side of it away, so when you can do both it allows you to be consistently high octane."
How important is Michael Pratt's accuracy to what you are able to do offensively?
"I can't say enough about Michael, not only as a player but as a person. All great teams through the history of time had a tough guy at quarterback, and Michael's a tough guy. We talk all the time with our guys toughness is not winning a bar fight. A real man with real toughness is how many blows can you take, how much adversity can this world put on you and you still bounce back every day and handle your obligations and responsibilities and do what you're supposed to do. Michael does that every day. He impacts people around him. He battles through being banged up, and he's just been really fun. He's got such a bright future."
Thursday will be your third game in 12 days, and you were harping on that in practice today, saying embrace the grind. Do you feel pretty good about the ability to do it with a short turnaround?
"Yeah, with him (Pratt) and (Corey) Dublin and (Stephon) Huderson and (Joey) Claybrook and (Ben) Knutson, those guys, they want to win and they want to raise the standards of this program. They understand where we are going down the stretch. We have a chance to finish strong and go to three straight bowl games. Looking long term, we've got a chance to win out and win more regular season games than been done in a long time and just continue to raise the standard for this program, which is why we all came here."
What is your definition of great when you talk about Pratt?
"I'll say the same thing I tell my two sons. Great is getting the most out of what God gave you, so greatness is different for every human being. For Michael, I think greatness is being an elite quarterback in this conference and this level. I think the sky's the limit for how good he can be. I think he can be an All-Conference quarterback. I think he can be a draft pick, so just him maximizing his fullest potential, continuing to work in the weight room and getting stronger. He can still get a little bit faster. His arm can get a little bit stronger and just learning the offense and just working hard every day."
When you have a quarterback of his ability as a true freshman, does that make it harder to entice quarterbacks to come in here or not?
"You know I can't say any names, but we've got some pretty good ones committed right now. What sells to quarterbacks is what Tulane is. When coach Fritz brought me in here, I said, "Coach, don't worry, relax, we are going to be able to recruit quarterbacks. That's not going to be a problem. We're going to run an offense the quarterback loves, we're going to be in a city that quarterbacks want to come play in. We're in the South, we're in New Orleans, there's great looking girls everywhere, we got great academics and we run an great offense. What quarterback doesn't love all those things? Man, why wouldn't you want to come play quarterback here."
What has gotten Pratt's completion percentage to rise so much with each start?
"The people around him have gotten better. He's been consistent from the jump. His first start against Houston he played lights out under extreme duress. Thenext week versus SMU he played great under duress. We had some O-line injuries. We lost Jacob Robertson and Sorrell Brown at receiver, which were two starters at the beginning of the year. You lose Tyjae and Corey Dauphine, so he had some other guys growing up around him. Now all of a sudden we're going into game 10 and Jha'Quan Jackson's become a really good player, Duece Watts has become a really good player, Phat is really comfortable in the offense now, our tight ends have grown. Mike Jones continues to progress. All of a sudden the people around him are playing better. We're completing more passes and more people are getting open.
"He is better. He's getting through his reads faster than he was earlier in the year, but he's playing at a high level."
The sack total has gone from 15 in his first three starts to five in his last three. Is that a byproduct of Claybrook coming back or him getting the ball out quicker?
"Let's talk about that. In the first three games (of the year) we gave up one sack. All right. The week going into Houston our starting right guard gets mono, our starting left guard pulls his calf, our backup left tackle breaks his hand and then in game versus Houston our starting left tackle separates his kneecap, so within the first two drives of that game we've lost four O-linemen, so we had a makeshift group out there for the rest of that game and gave up a lot of sacks in that one, and then for the next two weeks we played two really good teams with a lot of guys out and we gave up some sacks. We got behind and had to throw it in passing situations. What you've seen the last few weeks is we've gotten our O-linemen back and we've been able to maintain leads early in the game where we could control and dictate the tempo of the game with run and pass and they weren't defined passing situations. It goes back to what I said earlier about being balanced, being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. So really that's why the sack total went astronomical for a few games and why it's gone back down."
The offensive line has a lot of depth now. How much has that group improved since the adversity you just mentioned?
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and we've got a lot of guys that have played and they are all coming back. Ben Knutson's really stepped up at tackle, and all these young guys that we've played are only going to be better for it, and now we've got Claybrook back, Dublin's back healthy, Remetich is back, Knutson's come on, Tim Shafter's back. I've just named four guys that are starting that were out with injury during that stretch we're talking about. We've got a lot of guys that played a lot of minutes and we're just playing well and coach Kennedy has done a good job of shuffling them around and they have a lot of confidence right now."
Stephon Huderson is running really well but he's put the ball on the ground for four straight games. Has that become a mental thing?
"We work on it every day. He's a kid that through his career here has not been a fumbler. He doesn't fumble at practice. It's just something that's kind of happened. He cares. Hud loves Tulane as much as anybody does. He does what's right all the time. I think it's something you're going to see go away because of his character and the way he works and he knows it matters. It's been a lot of different things that have caused it. He's got to address it and fix it and I've got a lot of confidence thathe will."
