Complete Transcript Of Saturday's Media Day Press Conference
Aug 9, 2008 | Football
Aug. 9, 2008
HEAD VOLLEYBALL COACH LIZ KRITZA
Opening statement
"Thanks to Coach Toledo for asking me to come out. I'd like to take a couple of minutes to tell you a quick story. This is my fourth year as a head coach, but Tulane volleyball has been a part of my life for the last 13 years. I played here, did my undergrad and served as an assistant coach. When I was asked to be the head coach, I knew that at some point, I was going to be able to stand up here and tell you that we are going to make the NCAA Tournament. That is more realistic than ever this season. I just came off the court from our first practice and they look pretty good."
On being picked No. 1 in the preseason C-USA poll
"I was talking with Coach Toledo and I asked him, `Should I be nervous on the first day of practice when they look like this? Is there anywhere else for us to go?' I'm pleased with where they are. We have 13 returning players - that's everybody off of last year's team - including four honorable-mention All-Americans. One of them is a three-time All-American (Sara Radosevic), she was our kills leader, she is going to rewrite the Tulane record book and she was the preseason Conference USA Player of the Year. We also have three preseason all-conference players: Bridget Wells, Jenn Miller and Ksenija Vlaskovic."
On the biggest factor to the team's success in 2008
"Basically the big thing for us is that we have all of our players back. We had a great run last year, and everybody and their mother thought last year that Tulane should have been in the (NCAA) Tournament - myself included. I can't tell you how many times after the season where I may be at our national convention and people were like, `coach, I'm sorry. Maybe we messed up on this one.' But I just respond to that by saying that it's okay. The big thing is that all 13 players come back and they're committed and dedicated along with my staff, and we're going to see what happens. "
On the 2008 volleyball schedule
"We going to play an extremely tough schedule - probably the toughest a Tulane volleyball team has ever played. In the first four weeks of the season, we play a Top 10 or Top 25 team every single weekend. We want to make sure the NCAA Selection Committee doesn't pass us up again. This should allow us to do that as well as get us ready for the Conference USA Tournament. C-USA has an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and in the past, only the team that has won the tournament has advanced to the NCAAs. We are going to do everything possible to make history and become the first Tulane University volleyball team to make the NCAA Tournament."
Closing comments
"We're going to work incredibly hard. I have no doubt that our seven seniors here - who were all freshmen my first season as a head coach - and I'm looking forward to having an exciting season. We're going to have an exciting home season, I promise you that."
HEAD FOOTBALL COACH Bob Toledo
Opening Statement
"First off, I'd like to wish good luck to Liz. She's a good friend and a heck of a coach. She was telling me, `hey, we're picked to win. I'm nervous.' I told her that it's a great thing. I want to be picked to win. I want people to come after me.
"Well, good morning. It's great to have you and we're all looking forward to another season here at Tulane."
(Toledo introduces his staff)
On day one of preseason practice on Friday
"First of all, let's start with yesterday. We got off to a great start. I was real excited about our football team yesterday. We did a heck of a job. We had 61 veteran players report who were on scholarship, we had 20 freshman that reported who are on scholarship and we had 19 walk-ons for a total of 100 players. I think we only had five or six walk-ons last year, so we had a real concerted effort to try and get more bodies on our football team. We've got a big group of young men who want to be a part of our football program. They came here on their own, they're paying their own way, they're getting their education and degree from Tulane, and they want to be a part of our program."
On Tulane's summer conditioning program
"Our summer program was really good. It's never as good as you want, but it was really good this year. We did a good job of lifting and conditioning, and the quarterbacks and linebackers pretty much took charge of those groups. They threw the ball around in the afternoon. Our offensive linemen, Michael Parenton, and some defensive players ran plays and did that kind of thing on their own. They really showed a lot of leadership and got us in a position where we're starting off practice and we're already ahead of schedule. That makes you feel good."
On the overall condition of the 2008 football team
"We are a stronger football team than we were a year ago. Are we there yet? No. But we are a stronger football team. I think we're a more athletic football team and we're certainly in better condition than we were a year ago at this time. We still have a few guys who continue to work, but we are way ahead of where we were last year. It's like night and day from a year ago at this time."
On the biggest difference between now and a year ago
"First of all, the players know the routine now. They know what we expect of them. Last year, we were kind of feeling our way through it. They didn't know what we really expected. And then they know the system. They know the offense and they know the defense. We had more plays put in yesterday. We could have played a game yesterday we got so many plays and defenses put in. So we're way ahead of where we were a year ago. The nice thing about it is the seniors and the upperclassmen, the guys who were here last year, gave good leadership to young freshmen and walk-ons who weren't here. They showed them what it's like to practice. This is what we expect at Tulane and they really did a nice job."
On Tulane's current injury report
"I'm going to tell you about some injuries so we can get that off our chest and move on. Right now, there is no contact for James Dillard. He had shoulder surgery right after the spring. We have no idea how much time it's going to take. He thinks he's about 80 percent but we don't know. We have to wait and he can't have any contact for a while. David Skehan - he had a sports hernia - and he had surgery. He's here and he can answer some questions later if you want. We move him back to safety. He's lost about 20 pounds and is probably in the best shape he's been in in a long time. But he can't have any contact for a while either. Those two guys, we just have to wait and see as we go along. They can run around a little bit and do various things, but no contact. We have three guys who have hamstring pulls. Phillip Davis has a hamstring, Antoine Duplessis did it yesterday. He caught a ball down the middle, got hit and got a slight pull of the hamstring. And Kris Rhymes, an incoming freshman, pulled it in one of the last days they were working out this summers. As far as time goes, hamstrings get healthy in different time frames so we'll have to wait and see. We had a bruised shoulder yesterday. Chinonso Echebelem went to grab a guy running by and had a slight separation or bruise of his shoulder. We have no idea how long it's going to be. Hopefully, it'll only be a few days. Adam Kwentua, we were really concerned about him and he didn't practice all spring. He's one of our anchors along with Reggie Scott at the end position. When they're both healthy, there's not a better pair of ends in this conference in my opinion. But Adam Kwentua went through practice and he felt good. We haven't put on pads yet. We haven't hit anybody. So hopefully he'll continue to feel good because he's a big part of our defense."
On Tulane's quarterback situation for 2008
"A lot of people have asked me about the quarterback position. Right now our starting quarterback, if we had to play a game today, it would be Kevin Moore. Kevin Moore split time with Anthony Scelfo last year, so he's got some quality reps. He's an improved quarterback. He has a much better understanding of our offense and he worked hard in some of the fundamental and techniques this summer. He's gotten better timing with the receivers because they worked together all summer. He looked really good and developed a little bit of a leadership attitude as well. Along with him is Joe Kemp, a young man that we redshirted last year. He's 6-4, 210 and broke the shuttle run for quarterbacks (record) a week ago when he tested with our strength coaches. He's got a strong arm and a very accurate arm. The only drawback right now is that he needs experience. One of things we are going to do, and Dan Dodd and I will monitor this, but we're going to try and get him in the game early when we play Alabama. We're not going to rotate and do the things we had with the two quarterbacks last year, but we'd like to get him some playing time early. Eventually, we want to settle on one quarterback. When we do, it'll be his team and the other guy is going to have to wait. But we will play two guys early in the year."
On replacing Matt Forté at the running back position
"How do you replace a guy like that rushed for over 2,000 yards? It's hard. Now that's not to say that we don't have capable tailbacks because I feel really good about our tailbacks. André Anderson had two excellent springs. A year ago, Matt (Forté) didn't participate in the spring, so André had two really good spring practices. Last spring, he rushed for nearly 140 yards in the Spring Game. He has a lot of ability and is an extremely hard worker. He had some problems catching the ball a year ago, but he worked extremely hard on his own in the offseason to develop better hands. He did not drop a ball in the spring and I know he's been working hard all summer. We're very excited about him. He's going to be our horse, as they say. He's going to play, and hopefully he'll stay healthy. If he can stay healthy, I honestly believe he can be a 1,000-yard rusher. We've got a couple of young freshmen that we're really excited about. I don't like to mention freshmen very much right now because we haven't put pads on, but one guy that we like from an athletic standpoint is Albert Williams. He's a young man we got on late because he blew out his knee midyear in his senior year. He was being recruited by Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and some other big-time programs. They kind of backed off on him and we got him. He was like lightning in a bottle yesterday. He was really exciting to watch. Very fast and extremely quick. A good football player. Another guy is Nathan Austin. He's a young man we saw at Barbe High School last year during our satellite camps. He was 6-2 and about 205 pounds then. Now he's almost 230 pounds, so he's a big, strong, physical back. We liked what he did yesterday. Once you put the pads on, you see a lot of different things with a lot of different players. We're excited about the freshmen class. It's a good group of freshmen that we recruited and we're excited about them."
On what the team needs to improve on from a year ago
"We need to improve on throwing the football. Last year, we had some guys open and we didn't either didn't find them or didn't hit them. We need to get the ball to some of our receivers. So we need to improve our pass offense. Obviously we'd love to score more points. Dan Dodd informed me last year that we had the eighth best total offense record in the history of the school. This school has been playing football for over 100 years. We just scratched the surface offensively last year and we could have been a whole lot better than that. It really gives me a lot of hope for the future. Pass defensive wise, we need to improve there. We were horrible in defending the pass. We weren't even in the Top 100. We did a great job of running the football. Defensively, we were No. 1 in the conference in rush defense. So we became more physical and did some good things as far as running the football and stopping the run. But now we've got to take the next step. We need to throw the ball better and we need to defend the pass. Another thing we need to do is get better on special teams. We were last in almost every category last year. It's not because we didn't have meeting time. It's not because we didn't practice it. We just weren't very good at it. One of the things I've done is I've changed from having a coordinator in charge of all the kicking game to have one coach in charge of each phase. One will have kickoff team. One will have the kickoff return. One will have the punt. One will have the punt return. One will have the on-side kick. One will have the on-side kick return. One will have PAT/field goal, and one will have the PAT/field goal block. We'll have a coach in charge, and by doing that, I believe it will give each coach more time to focus on that area and then be able to coach his position as well. It's hard to coach all of those teams and still coach a position, so we're going to put more guys in charge and have more responsibilities for it. Hopefully, we'll get better. Part of special teams, in my opinion, is athleticism. If you get a guy who is a good returner, you've got a good return game. If you have more athletes, you are more successful in special teams. Bad athletes in space get beat. What we need to do is put better players on the field and have them perform for us."
On what area he feels is a strength of the 2008 team
One of our biggest strengths is our offensive line. Four of the five guys are returning. I feel really good about Michael Parenton. He's played in every game the last few years and has done an outstanding job for us. He's played center and guard. We're going to start him at center right now, but he's also going to play some left guard. We need to find six, seven or eight offensive linemen and go with those guys. Troy Kropog is up to 318 pounds and had a great summer. He's right at a 400-pound bench. He's very athletic and I think he's going to have an outstanding year at left tackle. Andrew Nierman, who is a young man who wasn't even being recruited prior to us getting here, wound up being a Freshman All-American for us at right guard last year. So he's going to continue to play right guard and he'll also play some center. Those three in particular are all-league caliber players in my opinion. It kind of surprised me last year when we had a 2,000-yard rusher and we didn't even have an all-league offensive lineman. That's disturbing."
On the preseason polls
"Another thing that is kind of disturbing is that when you look at the preseason picks, and we're not picked to win a football game and not picked to have an all-league player. That's got to motivate some of our players. We weren't picked to win a football game. We won four games and we lost three by a total of nine points. We very easily could have won seven football games. So we've got to change the image of the program. We've got to change habits and attitudes of our football players, and I believe we're doing that."
More on the perceived strengths of the 2008 team
"Another strength, I believe, is our receivers. They're all back. I believe they performed well when given the opportunity. Jeremy Williams is a big-play guy. He was our leading receiver last year. He'll also return kickoffs. He's a guy that we're going to put in a position to get the ball in his hands so that he make plays. I look at our linebackers and I think they will be the strength of our defense because they all return. We've got more linebackers than any other position. They're all back and we brought in a couple of freshmen. So I feel good about that."
On what area(s) he feels the team needs to improve on in 2008
"A concern right now, or weakness if you want to call it that, is experience. We need guys with more experience. We've still got a very young football team. We only have 14 seniors out of 100 players. We need to develop experience and we need to develop depth, particularly in the defensive line. As I've said, I think we've got two excellent defensive ends. We've got to set some young guys backing them up. Our tackle position, we lost three seniors who played the defensive tackle position. So we have some inexperience. New guys are going to play there and we're going to have to have a freshman or two are going to have to step in and help us in that position. The good news is that not many of those are seniors, so they'll be back.
"Defensive back wise, we have some good DBs. We just don't have enough of them at this point and we've got several of them who are hurt. So we need to develop that position and we need to develop a nickel back. We need to play with five and sometimes a dime back - six - since this league is so pass oriented. Those are the things that we need to improve on and there are some things that we are stronger at."
On what the depth chart looks like right now
"It is my policy that I don't release a depth chart until the end of fall camp. At the end of fall can't (we'll) put together a depth chart and give that to you. Right now, we're looking at some guys in different positions. Not as much as we did a year ago at this time because we've got a much better feeling for what they can and cannot do."
On the 2008 team captains
"We elected two captains the night before last and the team voted on these guys. The offensive captain will be Michael Parenton and the defensive captain will be Reggie Scott. I will also name two more captains for each game. I'll have a special teams captain and a game captain for each game."
On where he derives that the team is `better' now than it was at this time last year
"I think you equate that to the testing. Gavin Ozaki is our strength and conditioning coach, and he had them all summer. One of the things we did this summer that we didn't do in the past is that we had the majority of our football players here for summer school, including our entire freshmen class for the second term which was the month of July. So the majority of the team was here during the summer, taking two classes and working out. They were lifting weights, running, throwing and that sort of thing. There was more of an emphasis on that this summer. Therefore, we are in better shape. We are a little stronger. We're ahead in running plays and defending plays. That, in and of itself, was probably the greatest contributing factor. There's no question our guys have a better understanding, a better knowledge of offense and defense. In the offseason, they were able to come up here on their own and watch film. If you talk to Michael Parenton and some of our other leaders, they'll tell you. They took those groups - even the freshmen - during the summer when the coaches were on vacation and watched film with them and coached up the young guys. They are better because of them. They made a great effort to improve our football team."
On the reason for moving David Skehan back to safety after playing him at linebacker during the spring
"First of all, we're still going to play him at a nickel or dime back. We're going to put him in position at times to play in a linebacker situation, but it's really a nickel or a dime back. He's lost 20 pounds. He was 229 pounds and now he's at 205 or so. So I think losing the weight and having the injury, it's in his best injury and our best interest - especially position wise since we have more linebackers than we have safeties - so this is the best position for him and us."
On if the team is already looking forward to the season opener at Alabama on Sept. 6
"Again, one of the things that I talked to the team about is we're going to focus on us right now. I know that's a cliché, but we're going to focus on us. We're going to try and get better with every meeting that we attend and every practice that we attend. Each and every day, we're going to try and improve so that we are prepared for Alabama. We as a staff already have a game plan put together. We worked all summer on putting a game plan together. We have a general idea of who their players are and what they do. Our defensive coaches got film from Fresno because they're new coordinator is from Fresno State. So we've put a lot of preparation into it. We're going to be ready from an Xs and Os standpoint to play that game. It's going to be a very difficult football game. They obviously open with Clemson and it'll be our first game. It'll be on the road with 90-something thousand people, but it'll be exciting, fun and difficult for us. Another one is the East Carolina game. Again, that is one that you have to try and win because it's a league game. Not that we don't want to beat Alabama, but when you come home, open at home, that's a game you have to win if you want to win a conference championship. Our goal is to win a conference championship and go to a bowl game. You can't do that if you get behind the eight ball. So we've got to try and win that football game. I think East Carolina is going to be an outstanding team and we also have a game plan ready for that. Both coordinators sat down and we've got the first two games ready to go. Then we'll adjust according to what they do in those first game or first two games to improve our game plan. East Carolina has a lot of guys returning - nine on defense and the same on offense. It's going to be a very good football game and a difficult game as well, but it's a conference game and one that we've got to win."
On how much time the staff has spent game-planning the first few ballgames
"We spent at least a couple of weeks or more on Alabama. We didn't have to spend as much time on East Carolina because they run the same stuff and we feel we know them pretty well. Again, if they change a lot of things, then we'll have to change our game plan. Their first two games are some pretty difficult games for them, but if they do what they've been doing, then we'll be ready to go. I'm not a big believer of practicing game plans too early. It'll probably be that Wednesday or Thursday the week before the Alabama game that we'll start introducing some game plan. Otherwise, I think it can get a little stale. Without the players really know it, there are some things that we're going to be running that are actually going to be in the game plan, but we're not saying this is for Alabama or East Carolina. These are just plays we're going to run against different fronts and there are defenses we run against different plays. Every day in practice, we take a 10-minute period and we call self team. The offense runs plays against defenses they'll see during the course of the year. Defensively, we'll run defenses against plays that we don't run on offense that they're going to see during the course of the year. So we'll develop cards that we will use during fall camp and we'll have at least a10 minute period every day on teams that we'll see during the course of the year. It may be Houston. It might be Tulsa. The players really don't know. But it's plays that we'll see during the course of the year."
On if he still planned on running some trick plays in 2008
"I will always have some fun things in there. If you know me well enough over my years of coaching, I'm always going to have a trick play or two. They don't always work, but they are effective. When they do work, they're big momentum plays. I've been talking to people who have left conferences and all and I talked about some of the things that we did that just drove them crazy. You might think we run a lot of the same plays, but we run a lot of different formations. We've got unbalanced lines. We've got shifting into things that we do, and we always have a trick play or two. Those plays have to be taught and you've got to be taught how to defend those trick plays. When those coaches are spending time working on those trick plays, they're not working on our base offense. So it's two-fold. No. 1, it gives us an opportunity to make a big play. No. 2, opponents down the stretch have to practice those plays. I also think they're fun, it's fun and it's entertaining for the fans. Our players realize that when I practice a play, we're going to run them in a game. Some players have these trick plays, and they're never run them in a game. If I practice a trick play, it's going to be run in a football game. I'm not going to waste their time."
On what he and his staff have done to correct or improve on what is perceived to be a team weakness
"When I say `our weaknesses are...' that was one of our recruiting needs. So what I did, No. 1, we recruited to those positions. No. 2, I had a defensive coordinator who will answer all of those questions. O'Neill Gilbert is going to handle all of those problems on defense. All kidding aside, that's why we recruited some of these players. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as true freshmen, they've got to contribute. We're not one of those teams that are going to bring in a bunch of JC transfers. We're not going to bring in any to be honest with you. So we need to develop it with freshmen. So these freshmen have to come in and they have to be ready to play. Hopefully, we did a good job of evaluating and recruiting the right players."
SENIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN Michael Parenton
His take on the 2008 Tulane offense
"I think Coach really hit on a lot of the most important parts for us on offense. This will be a really telling year for us offensively. It's our second year in the system, so we should be a lot more comfortable with the schemes and the plays. Guys will be getting a lot more reps in because of how comfortable we are with them. Throughout the spring and throughout the summer, I feel that we made a lot of progress and I think things have gone really well. I couldn't be more excited about it, especially after yesterday's practice."
On the overall attitude of the Green Wave offense
"I feel that we're a veteran group in some areas - wide receiver in particular and along the offensive line. We've got two really talented quarterbacks who I think can really contribute for us. I'd like to take some pressure off of them with a good running game. As Coach talked about, I think André (Anderson). I think he's going to do really well. I think we're going to have a good run game and I think we've got some wide receivers that can really make some big plays.
On his excitement about the 2008 season
"With that, I've got nothing but confidence going into the season. I think we've made some great progress during the offseason. Spring weights went well. Summer weights went well. We're a much improved ballclub and I can't wait to get started."
SENIOR DEFENSIVE END Reggie Scott
His take on the 2008 Green Wave defense
"As Coach Toledo said, along the defensive line, myself and Adam Kwentua are pretty much penciled in and we're going to try and be dominant this year. More important for us is going to be at defensive tackle where Julian Shives-Sams and Tony Bryant trained well during the summer, had good springs and are ready to step in. Logan Kelley has moved from defensive end to linebacker. Evan Lee and David Kirksey are also playing pretty good right now. They've been training extremely hard running and staying after to get extra weight work in. We also have a more experienced secondary. Last year, we had a freshman or two. This year, we have a very experienced secondary and anchoring that down are David Skehan and Josh Lumar."
On working with a new defensive coordinator
"I know this year we have a new coordinator in O'Neill Gilbert, and I am very confident in his abilities as a coordinator. I worked with him last year with the defensive line and he helped us become one of the best pass rushing units and the best against the run. I have total confidence in his ability to coach us to be the best defense overall."
On the biggest difference between the defense in 2007 and 2008
"This year compared to last year, we have a whole lot more speed on the field. I know yesterday as compared to last year, not one coach had to tell anybody to run to the ball. That was a big change from last year."
