Quotes Following Tulane's Media Day On Saturday
Aug 11, 2007 | Football
HEAD COACH Bob Toledo
Opening comments
"First of all I want to welcome you all to Tulane, and I want to thank you for coming. I know you have busy schedules and all, but it's kind of important for us to get off on a good foot and hopefully we'll do that today.
"It's an exciting time for all of us. We've had so much fun since we've been here in January. We've done so many great things and created a lot of enthusiasm and excitement; it's a shame we have to play football games. We are very anxious to get started. We start this afternoon; we took pictures this morning. I think if you talk to our players, they're anxious to get started as well. We had 91 players report, so basically we're ready to go.
"This summer we had an off-season conditioning program which our strength and conditioning coaches did. We don't know what kind of real physical shape we're in right now. We'll find out this afternoon when we start running around. Basically the first couple of days are to get acclimated. Today and tomorrow, we'll just have helmets on. The NCAA rule states that we have to do that and two more practices we'll have helmets and shoulder pads, and then Saturday, we'll put on full gear.
"We're going to try to get back to where we were for spring. We felt we had a great spring practice. We threw an awful lot at our players; they learned an awful lot about us and we learned an awful lot about them. After spring what we did was we went back in and after evaluating all the players, we tweaked some things offensively and defensively to fit our personnel. Coaching to me is doing what your players do best. So we're going to try to get the best people we can on the field and use plays and defenses that kind of go along with their abilities."
On Quarterbacks
"If you look at our offense, everybody is talking about the quarterback position. We have four young men in the program right now. Scott Elliott is the junior, he's got the most experience, and he's one on the depth chart because we've got to start somewhere. We're excited about him. We think he's a very focused young man; he's got a lot of ability. As we met this morning I told him along with Dan, I want the quarterback to manage the game and don't get us beat. If he can win it for us that's great; I think he has that ability.
"Anthony Scelfo, the backup quarterback a year ago, got in and did some nice things and did a good job in spring. He also had a situation where he played left field for the baseball team in the spring, and in the summer he played baseball. He's an athletic kind of quarterback; can not only throw the ball, he can use his legs as well.
"Then there's a freshman redshirt Kevin Moore out of Texas. He's about 6-4 and about 230. He's got a big arm but he's a young inexperienced guy. I hope he learned an awful lot throughout the spring practices, and we'll find out today and through the coming days how much he really learned. Then there's the freshman Joe Kemp out of Texas who we think has a lot of ability, but again, being a young guy, it's going to be hard for him to get a lot of reps and get ready to play. We've got to get somebody ready to play."
On Running Backs
"I'm not going to go over all the positions, but I will talk about running back a little bit because I think we've got a guy who is very special. I think we've got a group that is probably the best on our football team as far as quality depth. Matt Forté, right out of Slidell here, is in my opinion a great running back. Of course he's got to go out and prove it, and I believe he will and he'll get every opportunity to do that. He's 6-2, he's 225 pounds; he runs 4.5. He's got speed, he's got quickness, he runs with power, and he can catch the football. You'll see him in a lot of positions. He'll block, he can throw the football and he can even kick the football. So, don't be surprised if he does all those things this year.
"Behind him is Ray Boudreaux, who is a real good football player for us. He played a lot the last couple of years, had a real good spring. He'll also play some fullback positions for us. And then Ade Tuyo is the other young man who had a real good spring; had one of the longest runs of the spring scrimmage for a touchdown. So we feel good about our depth there."
On Wide Receivers & Tight Ends
"Our receivers, our really good receivers, we've got a bunch of them. We think Brian King and Jeremy Williams are two guys coming back who have a lot of experience and a lot of ability. We will utilize them as long as they stay healthy and we'll incorporate several other guys as we go along.
"We will utilize the tight end position. Our tight ends will catch passes. We'll play a lot of times with two tight ends in the backfield; one is like an H-back that will kind of replace the fullback. We feel that Gabe Ratcliff and Justin Kessler - he'll also be like the fullback position. Those two are really good football players."
On The Offensive Line
"We're going to juggle guys around. We've already juggled guys around in the spring. We continue to juggle. We have not decided on a group yet. A lot of them have experience. What we're going to do is we're probably going to move Aryan Barto, who played left guard last year, to center. We're going to move Michael Parenton, who was the center, to right guard. We're going to move Troy Kropog, who was the tackle, we're going to move him to left guard. And then at tackle we're going to play a young man in Nick Landry, who played a little bit last year, so he's only a sophomore but only played a little bit. He'll start at right tackle. And then Pete Hendrickson, a redshirt freshman, will start at the left tackle position. And then we'll look at other people besides that. So offensively that's kind of what's happening."
On The Secondary
"We feel that we've got some good football players. The strength is in the secondary at out safety position. David Skehan was an all-league performer last year and will do a good job for us. Joe Goosby is a good leader. They moved him to outside linebacker last year, but we moved him back to safety this year. In some nickel packages, he'll also be like a linebacker this year as well.
"The corners are up for grabs right now. We graduated a couple seniors. So we're going to look and see what happens in this fall camp."
On Linebackers
"Our linebackers...Evan Lee was a starter last year; he did a nice job. James Dillard, if he stays healthy - he missed all of spring with a hamstring injury - will be the other inside linebacker. And then there's David Kirksey and Cody Sparks, the other man we redshirted a year ago. So those are the linebackers."
On The Defensive Line
"Defensive line, that's where we have our seniors. You look at Frank Morton, Avery Williams, Antonio Harris - those are the three seniors who will play a lot of football. At least two of them will probably end up starting. We've got some other young guys that we want to get in the mix, and we'll give them all a chance in fall camp to prove their ability."
On Incoming Freshmen
"As far as freshmen there is a young man named Justin Adams, a defensive lineman who was here all summer, worked out in our strength program, and worked out with our players. He's not a real tall guy but he's very physical very fast and he might contribute. We've got a young man name Devin Holland out of Baton Rouge who is a safety who we think might contribute. Offensively, a young man named Andrew Nierman out of Curtis; we think he's physically gifted enough where he might be able to help us on the offensive line. Then we've got several fullbacks, and we need someone to step forward - There's Jordan Stephany, there's Josh Smith from Atlanta, and there's Cody Blackwelder. So there's three young freshmen that we're going to look at. We're excited about those guys."
On Kickers/Special Teams
"As far as the kicking game, (Ross) Thevenot will be the kicker right now. We've got a punter we brought in from Florida, Darren deRochemont, and I hope he can punt because we need him to."
Summary of the 2007 Green Wave
"We feel very good about the nucleus of our football team. We like their attitude right now, they're very enthusiastic. We will start football practice in the heat; we don't have an indoor facility, so we'll do the best we can. When we do practice twice a day, we'll only go 18 five-minute periods in the morning; we'll always go 24 five-minute periods in the afternoon.
"That's our football team. We're looking forward to seeing how they respond and what they'll do. We have starters as you can see right now, but I'm sure a lot of things will change between now and our first game."
On how he plans to handle the New Orleans heat during the preseason
"One of the unique things I'm going to try to do during the afternoon practice is we're going to take a 10 minute break and I'm going to send them into the locker room and let them cool down. They're going to drink water, Gatorade, go to the bathroom, do whatever they have to do. It's very similar to a halftime of a game. Everything we do is related to a game situation. Every drill that we run happens in a game. So we'll do the same thing. We'll actually have halftime; we'll let them go into the locker room, and I'll call them up, I'll say a couple things, and we'll go back on the field and we'll get ready to go again. So, it'll be serve two purposes. It'll give them a chance to cool down and relax a little bit, and it'll be very similar to a game situation."
On the schedule
"We're looking forward to playing this schedule. We've got 12 tough football games; we've got seven in the dome which is nice, four of our first games at home. We're looking forward to playing against the two Southeastern Conference teams along with the champion of our conference in Houston, and of course we play an in-state school in Southeastern Louisiana. We're looking forward to that month of September."
On advantages of being the last team to play a game in 2007
"Our old coaches get a little more rest (laughs). The NCAA says you can have 29 practice opportunities, and they basically tell you when you can start. Because we have a bye the first week of the season, we can't start until today. They tell you when you can and can't start practice. But there are some advantages. Some guys have already been out there and are banging and getting beat on, and we haven't. From that standpoint, that's an edge. On the other hand, they're getting reps, they're getting practice and we're not. But when we have to play, it's going to be 12 games in a row. There's not going to be a bye because our bye is at the beginning. If you're winning games and you're staying healthy, I don't like byes. But if you're banged up and beat up and you're struggling, then I think the bye is pretty good. We have no choice. Hopefully we can win games, stay healthy and keep that rhythm going."
On his spring and summer tours around Louisiana and the Gulf Coast
"What I found is that the [high school] coaches were very receptive. I think they were a little surprised we were showing up at their door, to be perfectly honest with you. I think if you talk to the high school coaches in the state of Louisiana, they'll tell you that they are very pleased with the effort that we're trying to make. We ended up the last couple weeks of recruiting actually signing some Louisiana players. Since that time, we went out in June and had our satellite camps. We went to six different locations, met a lot of high school coaches and saw a lot of good football players. I think there's been a real good response. I feel there's a lot of good football being played in the state of Louisiana. And as I said when I got the job, my first priority is to take care of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana before we go out and recruit players out of state."
SENIOR FREE SAFETY Joe Goosby
On the defense
"We're running a 4-3 defense. Once everyone gets on the same page, the defense is pretty easy to pick up. We'll be ready to make plays."
On practicing in the New Orleans heat
"I don't think [the heat] will be a problem. They'll have a lot of water out there, we'll take breaks. We have to. Coach told us if you feel dizzy, get some water, don't try and be a hero. Everyone knows their body, everyone's body is different. So, I don't think it will be a problem."
On starting a week later than most other teams
"There's an advantage for us with Mississippi State playing LSU. We'll have film on both teams - since we play them both this year - and Mississippi State won't have any on us. We'll get to see what they like to run. We have an extra week to watch them. The only disadvantage is that they've played a game and we haven't. So they can get all their wrinkles out because it will be their second game and our first game. That's the only disadvantage.
"You want to get out there and play. I have a couple friends on different schools which have started before we did. But it's all the same once the season gets started."
On Coach Toledo
"He came in and wanted to know about the person. He wanted to know about our families, where we came from and how we're doing in school before he found out what kind of players we were."
SENIOR RUNNING BACK Matt Forté
On the change in offensive philosophy
"Last year, we were in the shot gun most of the time, running draws and zone plays out of the shot gun. This year, I'll have a fullback in front of me, lead blocking. We'll be out of the I-formation, and we're going to run the ball a lot more. We tried to spread them out last year and throw the ball. So that's music to my ears, hearing that we're going to run the ball a lot more."
On Coach Toledo
"We all like Coach Toledo. He's a great guy, and when he first came in, he sat down with and did individual meetings with everyone on the team. He wanted to get to know you as a person first and then see what kind of player you are on the field. Everybody likes Coach Toledo."
