He was asked 11 questions (nine from New Orleans beat writers and columnists, including three from me), which has to be a record for the AAC teleconference and a Tulane coach. Of course. the Green Wave is coming off a tough overtime loss to Wake Forest that featured a lot of self-inflicted wounds and, stop me if you've heard this before, offensive line issues. Tulane hosts Nicholls State this Saturday.
Here's the transcript:
"It was a tough game for us. Unfortunately we made some first-game mistakes that didn't help us. Wake Forest's returns a lot of veterans, 10 of 11 starters on the offensive side of the ball, and I thought their true freshman really came out and played with a lot of poise. Defensively they were active. The defensive line did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage. There were just a couple of times we put ourselves in bad situations with some penalties that got us in some long-yardage situations that make it difficult for anybody to convert.
" I liked out fight. I liked the effort that our guys gave. We have to make sure that we play as error free as possible. That's what you want to try to accomplish from week 1 to week 2. It's a big game this week. Nicholls went in and defeated Kansas at Kansas to get their first win against a Power Six team. I was very impressed. I coached FCS ball for a long period of time, and they've done a really nice job of putting together an excellent squad, combining a lot of high school kids that have really panned out for them with quite a few transfer guys that are also doing a good job for them.
"They have a good, salty offensive and defensive line and some good skill kids, so this will be a super challenge for us on Saturday."
What can you say about the litmus test of being close against a team like Wake Forest but ultimately not winning in OT? What is your takeaway?
"It's frustrating, there's no doubt about that. You've got to just keep forging ahead when you get these games. Our expectations are very high here. When I first came in, there were very little expectations. Just lining up right and playing hard were a plus to a lot of people, but now we feel like we're at a point in our program where we need to start winning these games and playing better throughout the game because they are going to be close games. It's just the nature of Division I football. There's a lot of parity, and we need to make those plays when they come to us. Obviously no moral victories, but it's game 1. You have to move on. We had a good sitdown with our team about that this morning, and that's what we'll do."
Off of the field, what are you seeing the culture becoming right now?
"It's the expectations. At one point in time the expectations were not very high. Our AD is doing a good job of helping change the culture of the entire athletic department, not just the football program. We feel like we've really taken some steps forward, particularly recruiting. We've got some better athletes here and more of them. That's what we need, is to keep improving and to start seeing it on the scoreboard."
What do you tell your team after such a hard fought, close game, but not getting the win, and keeping them on the right track?
"When they watched the tape, they could see how close it was. A play here or there, a little bit smarter play here or there, a better call here or there and we have an opportunity to win. Wake Forest. that coach has done a great job there. Coach Clawson, they beat Texas A&M in a bowl game last year and they've won a lot of games in that conference. It was frustrating as I've said before, but you just have to keep plugging away and learning from your mistakes and not repeating those mistakes and making plays when you need to. I think our guys understand that. Also know that this was one of 12, not all 12 of the games that we play this season."
Nicholls won at Kansas this weekend. How much did that get the attention of your players so they will not see this as a lower-division school?
"Oh, I think they had our attention no matter what. Coach (Tim) Rebowe has done a tremendous job with that program. He's played in the 1-AA playoffs last year and competed for a conference championship in the Southland Conference. I'm an old FCS coach myself. A lot of these kids played with the guys that play at Nicholls. He's done a really good job of putting a roster together. He's got a lot of veterans. Probably the big difference between his program the last couple of years and now is the offensive line and defensive line are really formidable. They've got some good size, some good athletes and a lot of them. It's not just one or two. I know it was always difficult for me when I was at Sam Houston putting together some depth on the offensive and defensive line. We maybe had two guys that stood out and maybe two guys you had to hide a little bit. That's not the case with these guys. They are really good across the boards with both lines in size and ability, and they've got some really good skill guys as well on the offensive and defensive side."
Do you find yourself recruiting the same players that they did?
"Yeah, without question. There's a lot of carry-over in recruiting. There are four or five kids that when I first got the job, I came in and it's just hard to figure out the lay of the land. There are quite a few kids I wish I would have jumped on and recruited. That's just how it goes. With 1-AA sometimes, I'm not sure coach coach divvies up his scholarships, but sometimes you can get a kid on a quarter or . half. You can divide them up at the FCS level, and all of a sudden that guy turns into a great player for you. I had a few guys that turned into All-Americans for me at Sam. That's a neat deal as well. You can go around and recruit guys and develop those guys once they get into your program. They've certainly done a super job of that."
You had a lot of young or inexperienced guys that appeared to be pretty active defensively against Wake. What was your assessment of them?
"I thought our guys played fast. They really did. There were a few errors that we made during the game, and for the most part we really played fast and physical. We had some young guys in the secondary for us that really handled themselves well. Then also the linebacker position, Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody, that was by far the most those guys had played, and they did a good job. Up front, big Jeffery (Johnson) played a lot of snaps and did a good job at the point. Davon Wright played a bunch for us up front, also, and probably got 20 to 30 snaps. A lot of young guys played for us on Thursday night, and they handled themselves well for a first Division I game."
Jonathan Banks made three tremendous, difference-making plays in the second half, but the consistency for the whole offense wasn't there throughout the game. How would you assess his performance?
"Jonathan is probably like everybody on offense and defense and special teams. There was some really good play to learn from and also some play he'd like to have back and be able to do over again. The thing with the quarterback, as I've said many times before, is he probably gets too much credit when things go well and way too much blame when things don't go well, kind of like the head football coach. Overall for his first game (this year), I thought he made some really competitive plays, particularly like you talked about in the second half. We've got to get consistency with all 11 guys in order to do what we want to do offensively."
You mentioned after the game the offensive line got a little tired at the end. When you watched the tape, how did you feel the group played overall?
"Yeah, it kind of was that way after I watched the tape. Wake Forest has a really good defensive line, a lot of movement and penetration, and really good athletes up there. They are much better than I anticipated, so for a first game of the year, that was a crew to really go against, which is good because we are going to play against another real good defensive line this week."
What did you think about the linebackers' performance against Wake?
"They played well. Zach Harris had another good game for us. He's really fully healthy right now. He's been banged up the last couple of years a little bit, and once you get into the season, you maybe haven't seen him at full speed, but he played fast on Thursday night. The other two guys did, too. It's a unique offense. They run the inside zone play with the RPOs and the zone read, but they run it a little differently than other people where they ride that mesh for what seems like about a minute. I thought they (the linebackers) showed some really good patience, which is what you have to do in order to be gap solid."
P.J. Hall had a team-high 11 tackles. How did he do in his first game at safety?
"He did a nice job. He's just a Steady Eddie type player. He just doesn't get himself out of position very often and is just a really smart, cerebral player. He has a high football I.Q. That's probably the biggest reason why he's an effective player."
What do you need to do better offensively up front going into this week?
"We have to be assignment sound. We have to do a good job of staying on our blocks. We got whipped a few times up front. A lot of that was technique, just not stepping properly. As I said before, we are going to see it again. This is a very active front with Nicholls, and we need to see some big-time improvement between week 1 and week 2 with our offensive line. It's a big challenge coming out of the gate playing Wake Forest. They've got a very talented front, but we are going to see that again this week."
Here's the transcript:
"It was a tough game for us. Unfortunately we made some first-game mistakes that didn't help us. Wake Forest's returns a lot of veterans, 10 of 11 starters on the offensive side of the ball, and I thought their true freshman really came out and played with a lot of poise. Defensively they were active. The defensive line did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage. There were just a couple of times we put ourselves in bad situations with some penalties that got us in some long-yardage situations that make it difficult for anybody to convert.
" I liked out fight. I liked the effort that our guys gave. We have to make sure that we play as error free as possible. That's what you want to try to accomplish from week 1 to week 2. It's a big game this week. Nicholls went in and defeated Kansas at Kansas to get their first win against a Power Six team. I was very impressed. I coached FCS ball for a long period of time, and they've done a really nice job of putting together an excellent squad, combining a lot of high school kids that have really panned out for them with quite a few transfer guys that are also doing a good job for them.
"They have a good, salty offensive and defensive line and some good skill kids, so this will be a super challenge for us on Saturday."
What can you say about the litmus test of being close against a team like Wake Forest but ultimately not winning in OT? What is your takeaway?
"It's frustrating, there's no doubt about that. You've got to just keep forging ahead when you get these games. Our expectations are very high here. When I first came in, there were very little expectations. Just lining up right and playing hard were a plus to a lot of people, but now we feel like we're at a point in our program where we need to start winning these games and playing better throughout the game because they are going to be close games. It's just the nature of Division I football. There's a lot of parity, and we need to make those plays when they come to us. Obviously no moral victories, but it's game 1. You have to move on. We had a good sitdown with our team about that this morning, and that's what we'll do."
Off of the field, what are you seeing the culture becoming right now?
"It's the expectations. At one point in time the expectations were not very high. Our AD is doing a good job of helping change the culture of the entire athletic department, not just the football program. We feel like we've really taken some steps forward, particularly recruiting. We've got some better athletes here and more of them. That's what we need, is to keep improving and to start seeing it on the scoreboard."
What do you tell your team after such a hard fought, close game, but not getting the win, and keeping them on the right track?
"When they watched the tape, they could see how close it was. A play here or there, a little bit smarter play here or there, a better call here or there and we have an opportunity to win. Wake Forest. that coach has done a great job there. Coach Clawson, they beat Texas A&M in a bowl game last year and they've won a lot of games in that conference. It was frustrating as I've said before, but you just have to keep plugging away and learning from your mistakes and not repeating those mistakes and making plays when you need to. I think our guys understand that. Also know that this was one of 12, not all 12 of the games that we play this season."
Nicholls won at Kansas this weekend. How much did that get the attention of your players so they will not see this as a lower-division school?
"Oh, I think they had our attention no matter what. Coach (Tim) Rebowe has done a tremendous job with that program. He's played in the 1-AA playoffs last year and competed for a conference championship in the Southland Conference. I'm an old FCS coach myself. A lot of these kids played with the guys that play at Nicholls. He's done a really good job of putting a roster together. He's got a lot of veterans. Probably the big difference between his program the last couple of years and now is the offensive line and defensive line are really formidable. They've got some good size, some good athletes and a lot of them. It's not just one or two. I know it was always difficult for me when I was at Sam Houston putting together some depth on the offensive and defensive line. We maybe had two guys that stood out and maybe two guys you had to hide a little bit. That's not the case with these guys. They are really good across the boards with both lines in size and ability, and they've got some really good skill guys as well on the offensive and defensive side."
Do you find yourself recruiting the same players that they did?
"Yeah, without question. There's a lot of carry-over in recruiting. There are four or five kids that when I first got the job, I came in and it's just hard to figure out the lay of the land. There are quite a few kids I wish I would have jumped on and recruited. That's just how it goes. With 1-AA sometimes, I'm not sure coach coach divvies up his scholarships, but sometimes you can get a kid on a quarter or . half. You can divide them up at the FCS level, and all of a sudden that guy turns into a great player for you. I had a few guys that turned into All-Americans for me at Sam. That's a neat deal as well. You can go around and recruit guys and develop those guys once they get into your program. They've certainly done a super job of that."
You had a lot of young or inexperienced guys that appeared to be pretty active defensively against Wake. What was your assessment of them?
"I thought our guys played fast. They really did. There were a few errors that we made during the game, and for the most part we really played fast and physical. We had some young guys in the secondary for us that really handled themselves well. Then also the linebacker position, Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody, that was by far the most those guys had played, and they did a good job. Up front, big Jeffery (Johnson) played a lot of snaps and did a good job at the point. Davon Wright played a bunch for us up front, also, and probably got 20 to 30 snaps. A lot of young guys played for us on Thursday night, and they handled themselves well for a first Division I game."
Jonathan Banks made three tremendous, difference-making plays in the second half, but the consistency for the whole offense wasn't there throughout the game. How would you assess his performance?
"Jonathan is probably like everybody on offense and defense and special teams. There was some really good play to learn from and also some play he'd like to have back and be able to do over again. The thing with the quarterback, as I've said many times before, is he probably gets too much credit when things go well and way too much blame when things don't go well, kind of like the head football coach. Overall for his first game (this year), I thought he made some really competitive plays, particularly like you talked about in the second half. We've got to get consistency with all 11 guys in order to do what we want to do offensively."
You mentioned after the game the offensive line got a little tired at the end. When you watched the tape, how did you feel the group played overall?
"Yeah, it kind of was that way after I watched the tape. Wake Forest has a really good defensive line, a lot of movement and penetration, and really good athletes up there. They are much better than I anticipated, so for a first game of the year, that was a crew to really go against, which is good because we are going to play against another real good defensive line this week."
What did you think about the linebackers' performance against Wake?
"They played well. Zach Harris had another good game for us. He's really fully healthy right now. He's been banged up the last couple of years a little bit, and once you get into the season, you maybe haven't seen him at full speed, but he played fast on Thursday night. The other two guys did, too. It's a unique offense. They run the inside zone play with the RPOs and the zone read, but they run it a little differently than other people where they ride that mesh for what seems like about a minute. I thought they (the linebackers) showed some really good patience, which is what you have to do in order to be gap solid."
P.J. Hall had a team-high 11 tackles. How did he do in his first game at safety?
"He did a nice job. He's just a Steady Eddie type player. He just doesn't get himself out of position very often and is just a really smart, cerebral player. He has a high football I.Q. That's probably the biggest reason why he's an effective player."
What do you need to do better offensively up front going into this week?
"We have to be assignment sound. We have to do a good job of staying on our blocks. We got whipped a few times up front. A lot of that was technique, just not stepping properly. As I said before, we are going to see it again. This is a very active front with Nicholls, and we need to see some big-time improvement between week 1 and week 2 with our offensive line. It's a big challenge coming out of the gate playing Wake Forest. They've got a very talented front, but we are going to see that again this week."