Here's what Fritz had to say today. He addressed the bowl game, recruiting and his search for a new offensive coordinator.
Opening Statement:
“We are very, very excited to be the 12th team in the 125-year of Tulane University to qualify for a bowl game. This’ll be the first time since 2002 that a Tulane team has ventured outside the state of Louisiana to play in a bowl game. I’ll admit it, I was a little bit partial to trying to get into that Cure Bowl. I think it’s an excellent bowl. A lot of things for our young men to be able to do during the time we’re going to be able to be there. We’ve got a lot of alums from that area of the state of Florida. That’ll be neat as well. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of people travel down from New Orleans and the state of Florida and around the country to celebrate the university and the football program going to a bowl game. We’re pumped up about it.”
On the process of deciding which bowl Tulane would be attending:
“You know I’ve really had our athletic director, Troy Dannen, handle everything. He talked with representatives from our conference, (Associate Commissioner for Football) Scott Draper in particular. Just was unsure exactly of what was going to happen and we wanted to wait until we had all the T’s crossed and the I’s dotted. ESPN is a big player in where you go as well. So we kind of had to wait for some of the games to get finished to decide what was going to happen. We had a pretty good idea that this was the bowl we would have the opportunity to go to, and it ended up working out. I’m was really happy with this option.”
On playing an in-state opponent in UL:
“I know coach Napier a little bit. We did some camps in the summer with him. He’s done a super job with their program. We played them a few years ago and Tulane played them in a bowl game last time they played in a bowl I believe. So, yeah, it’ll be a real good opponent.”
On energy in the program right now:
“They’re very excited. We had a great practice Saturday. It was neat because we had a bunch of recruits in and they were able to watch us practice which is a bonus we haven’t had in the last couple of years. They’re very, very excited. For all the hard work you put in, you want to have this kind of opportunity. I especially feel good for our seniors. They’ve really invested a lot in Tulane University, in particular the football program, this is a big deal for those guys along with the coaches and the administration, the fans. We’ve got a lot of loyal fans. They’ve stayed with us and they want to see this type of success. We’ve got the program going in the right direction, we need to go down there and play well.”
On who will call plays after offensive coordinator Doug Ruse was let go:
“Our interim offensive coordinator for this game will be Alex Atkins. He’s going to work in collaboration with the other offensive coaches. This will be a little unique. Coach Ruse did a great job for us. Unfortunately we decided to go in a different direction. Alex will do an excellent job.”
On what Tulane’s offensive will look like come the spring:
“We’re open…I always want to have a strong running game. That’s always going to be a part of our offense. I think teams that win big have got good running attacks. We’re certainly going to emphasize that. But, we’re also going to make some changes. There’s going to be some things we’re going to do a little bit differently. That’s going to be my job to find the right guy based on interviews and past successes the guys have had. We’ll get somebody really good in here.”
On what specific scheme he’s looking for an offensive coordinator to run:
“Right now we’ve got bowl preparation, we’ve got recruiting and also looking right now for an offensive coordinator. A bunch of people have applied for this position. That’s a good problem to have. I’m trying to really try to work it with four, five or six guys. But I’ve been really happy with the people who have applied. When you hire someone I think you have a vision as a head coach. Unless you’re the guy that’s specifically calling it, but you have a vision that you want the guy to be able to do for you. But I also think I’m open to new ideas. I’m sure I’ll hear some good ideas and make a good decision about the direction we’ll go in. I’m hoping that sooner rather than later, but I also want to make sure we do a good job with recruiting and bowl prep and I don’t want that to take away from me being around here. It’s hard to be in three different places.”
On whether how he recruits is impacted by the time of offense he’ll run:
“The big thing in recruiting is you’ve got to replenish the positions where you’re losing guys, and also you’re hoping to elevate the type of player that we’ve been recruiting. We feel like we’ve done that every year we’ve been here. We’re going to continue to keep doing that. But most offenses that I’ve been around that have been pretty good have got big, tall, fast physical guys. So we’re going to try to add those dudes. [laughs] I’m not trying to be a wise guy. We want good athletes. I want to be a 50-50 team. I’m not looking to – we’re not all of a sudden going to become an air raid team that throws 65 times a game, all that kind of stuff. We’re not going to do that. But I’m open to tempo. I still want to incorporate some option elements in our offense. But this is a great opportunity for me to learn more football. I love getting in these interviews and hearing these things. If you get a bunch of good guys, it’s a hard decision. I hope it’s a very difficult decision.”
On how logistically the timing of the bowl game will impact recruiting:
“I think it’ll help us, yeah. I do think that’ll help us. And then the other part we’ve got, too, that we’re having to juggle is finals. T his is our last week of class and then finals a week from Monday. We’re leaving for the game on Wednesday [December 12]. We’ve gotta do a whole lot of things. I’ve played in a lot of bowl games, but they haven’t been where you left this early. A lot of them were playoff games which are completely different.”
On Alex Atkins:
“Alex is our assistant head coach. He coaches our offensive line. I think he’s chomping at the bit. He’s never had an opportunity to call. This will give him some real good experience as well. I’m sure he’s going to take some suggestions from our other offensive staff as well as the head coach.”
On how the bowl impacts recruiting schedule:
“Yeah, normally, you have a weekend – that weekend, the 14th, 15th and 16th of December. Now we’re not going to be able to do that. That’s OK. We’ve got 25 schoalrships that we have available. I think we’ll sign 25 guys during that early signing period. If we don’t it might be one or two guys we sign in the February signing period. We’ve got a really good response to our season. I think people around the country understand – No. 1, I think we were the 12th-most difficult schedule in the country. We played some really good people. [Ed: Tulane’s schedule was 29th-most difficult based on FBS opponent winning percentage as of December 1] No. 2, I think they’re beginning to understand the level of play in the American Conference. It’s a really competitive conference from top to bottom. You’ve got a bunch of great teams. I wish UCF would have had the opportunity to maybe be in the Final Four. I don’t know what they ended up. Have they figured that out yet? [He is told UCF finished eighth in the final CFP rankings] They’ve done a great job this season. We’ve got a lot of good teams in this league. Kids are starting to understand that. When you combine that with the academics here at Tulane and also the city of New Orleans, you’ve got a lot of recruit towards.”
On winning a bowl giving Tulane a winning record:
“It’s a big deal. I talked to our guys about that. I told them that getting prepared for this game and playing the very best you can and winning the game, that’s first, it’s second, it’s third, it’s fourth, it’s fifth. Having a good time is [moves his hand toward the floor] it’s down here. We want to go out and represent Tulane University and our conference in the right way. I believe it’s five winning seasons in the last 36 years here at Tulane. We want to be six.”
On the Cajuns’ running game:
“They’ve got some good backs. I’ve had a chance to watch a little bit of their game yesterday. You’ve got to defend both against them. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t watched a whole lot of tape on them. I know that a team that plays for the Sun Belt Conference Championship is a good ballclub.”
Opening Statement:
“We are very, very excited to be the 12th team in the 125-year of Tulane University to qualify for a bowl game. This’ll be the first time since 2002 that a Tulane team has ventured outside the state of Louisiana to play in a bowl game. I’ll admit it, I was a little bit partial to trying to get into that Cure Bowl. I think it’s an excellent bowl. A lot of things for our young men to be able to do during the time we’re going to be able to be there. We’ve got a lot of alums from that area of the state of Florida. That’ll be neat as well. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of people travel down from New Orleans and the state of Florida and around the country to celebrate the university and the football program going to a bowl game. We’re pumped up about it.”
On the process of deciding which bowl Tulane would be attending:
“You know I’ve really had our athletic director, Troy Dannen, handle everything. He talked with representatives from our conference, (Associate Commissioner for Football) Scott Draper in particular. Just was unsure exactly of what was going to happen and we wanted to wait until we had all the T’s crossed and the I’s dotted. ESPN is a big player in where you go as well. So we kind of had to wait for some of the games to get finished to decide what was going to happen. We had a pretty good idea that this was the bowl we would have the opportunity to go to, and it ended up working out. I’m was really happy with this option.”
On playing an in-state opponent in UL:
“I know coach Napier a little bit. We did some camps in the summer with him. He’s done a super job with their program. We played them a few years ago and Tulane played them in a bowl game last time they played in a bowl I believe. So, yeah, it’ll be a real good opponent.”
On energy in the program right now:
“They’re very excited. We had a great practice Saturday. It was neat because we had a bunch of recruits in and they were able to watch us practice which is a bonus we haven’t had in the last couple of years. They’re very, very excited. For all the hard work you put in, you want to have this kind of opportunity. I especially feel good for our seniors. They’ve really invested a lot in Tulane University, in particular the football program, this is a big deal for those guys along with the coaches and the administration, the fans. We’ve got a lot of loyal fans. They’ve stayed with us and they want to see this type of success. We’ve got the program going in the right direction, we need to go down there and play well.”
On who will call plays after offensive coordinator Doug Ruse was let go:
“Our interim offensive coordinator for this game will be Alex Atkins. He’s going to work in collaboration with the other offensive coaches. This will be a little unique. Coach Ruse did a great job for us. Unfortunately we decided to go in a different direction. Alex will do an excellent job.”
On what Tulane’s offensive will look like come the spring:
“We’re open…I always want to have a strong running game. That’s always going to be a part of our offense. I think teams that win big have got good running attacks. We’re certainly going to emphasize that. But, we’re also going to make some changes. There’s going to be some things we’re going to do a little bit differently. That’s going to be my job to find the right guy based on interviews and past successes the guys have had. We’ll get somebody really good in here.”
On what specific scheme he’s looking for an offensive coordinator to run:
“Right now we’ve got bowl preparation, we’ve got recruiting and also looking right now for an offensive coordinator. A bunch of people have applied for this position. That’s a good problem to have. I’m trying to really try to work it with four, five or six guys. But I’ve been really happy with the people who have applied. When you hire someone I think you have a vision as a head coach. Unless you’re the guy that’s specifically calling it, but you have a vision that you want the guy to be able to do for you. But I also think I’m open to new ideas. I’m sure I’ll hear some good ideas and make a good decision about the direction we’ll go in. I’m hoping that sooner rather than later, but I also want to make sure we do a good job with recruiting and bowl prep and I don’t want that to take away from me being around here. It’s hard to be in three different places.”
On whether how he recruits is impacted by the time of offense he’ll run:
“The big thing in recruiting is you’ve got to replenish the positions where you’re losing guys, and also you’re hoping to elevate the type of player that we’ve been recruiting. We feel like we’ve done that every year we’ve been here. We’re going to continue to keep doing that. But most offenses that I’ve been around that have been pretty good have got big, tall, fast physical guys. So we’re going to try to add those dudes. [laughs] I’m not trying to be a wise guy. We want good athletes. I want to be a 50-50 team. I’m not looking to – we’re not all of a sudden going to become an air raid team that throws 65 times a game, all that kind of stuff. We’re not going to do that. But I’m open to tempo. I still want to incorporate some option elements in our offense. But this is a great opportunity for me to learn more football. I love getting in these interviews and hearing these things. If you get a bunch of good guys, it’s a hard decision. I hope it’s a very difficult decision.”
On how logistically the timing of the bowl game will impact recruiting:
“I think it’ll help us, yeah. I do think that’ll help us. And then the other part we’ve got, too, that we’re having to juggle is finals. T his is our last week of class and then finals a week from Monday. We’re leaving for the game on Wednesday [December 12]. We’ve gotta do a whole lot of things. I’ve played in a lot of bowl games, but they haven’t been where you left this early. A lot of them were playoff games which are completely different.”
On Alex Atkins:
“Alex is our assistant head coach. He coaches our offensive line. I think he’s chomping at the bit. He’s never had an opportunity to call. This will give him some real good experience as well. I’m sure he’s going to take some suggestions from our other offensive staff as well as the head coach.”
On how the bowl impacts recruiting schedule:
“Yeah, normally, you have a weekend – that weekend, the 14th, 15th and 16th of December. Now we’re not going to be able to do that. That’s OK. We’ve got 25 schoalrships that we have available. I think we’ll sign 25 guys during that early signing period. If we don’t it might be one or two guys we sign in the February signing period. We’ve got a really good response to our season. I think people around the country understand – No. 1, I think we were the 12th-most difficult schedule in the country. We played some really good people. [Ed: Tulane’s schedule was 29th-most difficult based on FBS opponent winning percentage as of December 1] No. 2, I think they’re beginning to understand the level of play in the American Conference. It’s a really competitive conference from top to bottom. You’ve got a bunch of great teams. I wish UCF would have had the opportunity to maybe be in the Final Four. I don’t know what they ended up. Have they figured that out yet? [He is told UCF finished eighth in the final CFP rankings] They’ve done a great job this season. We’ve got a lot of good teams in this league. Kids are starting to understand that. When you combine that with the academics here at Tulane and also the city of New Orleans, you’ve got a lot of recruit towards.”
On winning a bowl giving Tulane a winning record:
“It’s a big deal. I talked to our guys about that. I told them that getting prepared for this game and playing the very best you can and winning the game, that’s first, it’s second, it’s third, it’s fourth, it’s fifth. Having a good time is [moves his hand toward the floor] it’s down here. We want to go out and represent Tulane University and our conference in the right way. I believe it’s five winning seasons in the last 36 years here at Tulane. We want to be six.”
On the Cajuns’ running game:
“They’ve got some good backs. I’ve had a chance to watch a little bit of their game yesterday. You’ve got to defend both against them. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t watched a whole lot of tape on them. I know that a team that plays for the Sun Belt Conference Championship is a good ballclub.”