Quotes Following Football's 54-3 Loss To BYU
Sep 12, 2009 | Football
Sept. 12, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Head Coach Bob Toledo
Opening Remarks:
First of all, let me say this: we played a really good football team today. They deserve their ranking. They're an experienced team. They're a very mature team. They know how to win - they've been winning for a long time. They got some real good players and they did a great job of coaching. I think we made them look a little better than what they really are to be perfectly honest with you. You can't make that many mistakes against that type of team and even make it competitive. We had sacks early in the game that took us out of drives. We had numerous penalties that took us out of drives - penalties killed us today, I thought. And then of course we had the interceptions and the fumbles - so we turned the ball over. Defensively, we missed some tackles and we gave up some big, big pass plays. The only thing that I see coming out of this that is a real positive is that we played a ton of freshman and sophomores in this game. We got a lot of guys a lot of game experience. And I don't know what the exact number is but I would have to say it was over 30 players that were freshman and sophomores.
Questions:
On If he sees this BYU team going to the championship bowl game:
I think if they can beat Florida State next week I think they have a great chance to run the table in the Mountain West and then of course be in the BCS game and then depending on what they do in the BCS game will depend on where they end up playing. But for them to get into a championship game, as we've seen, it's very difficult.
On if he believes Tulane's offense can eventually be like BYU's offense:
I'd like to think we're heading in that direction. They have a senior quarterback. They've got a big offensive line that's really good. They can run the ball well. They do a lot of things similar to us. Tight end, two backs, someone back, run the ball, play-action...and again, their quarterback is really good and I just believe that football teams in this day and age if you don't have a quarterback it's hard to win. And ours is going through some growing pains to be perfectly honest.
On BYU's offense wearing down Tulane's defense and playing younger players on defense:
Well you get worn down. They wear you down. They're bigger, they're more physical. They just wear you down. They just kept executing and making first downs and scoring and they keep you on the field. We couldn't get them off of the field. And again, we're missing a couple players that will be back for McNeese hopefully. And that hurts us a little bit too - Reggie Scott, in particular, but, our defensive ends played pretty well. We actually played a couple of young guys backing them up - a sophomore and a freshman and then we played with several freshmen in the defensive tackle. We played a lot of young guys defensively as well, a lot of true freshman.
On giving younger Tulane players the opportunity to gain game-experience:
That's one of the things I wanted to do. I wanted to play a bunch of guys and play them in that second half. Those two freshmen guards, (Hunter) Howden and Zach Morgan, they played a lot. We had two holding penalties from our guards. So, I'm going to give those guys an opportunity and same thing defensively. We need to find out how they can perform and we'll give them more opportunities this week. And basically my plan this week is we're going to go four days in pads - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We'll probably emphasize Army, actually, the first couple days because of the cut-blocking and the option-scheme they run. We have to have a little experience with that. And then the next two days we'll go McNeese State and then when we come back the following Monday, it will be obviously all McNeese State.
On Tulane's quarterback situation:
Well, we figured with the score the way it was we wanted to give those guys an opportunity to play in the second half. I wish Ryan (Griffin) would've had a few more opportunities. I thought he did a good job while he was in there. Of course Kevin Moore is an experienced guy and knows what's going on. But, I just think Joe (Kemp) has got to start growing up. We can't get sacked like that in a game. It kills your momentum, it deflates you. You just can't take sacks like that. At least get rid of the football - you have to get rid of the football. He tried to get rid of it down at the end and he had an intentional grounding instead. So we had some opportunities and we find a way to mess it up. We have to get better.
On playing Steve Barnett, Payten Jason and D.J. Banks:
Well I wanted to get Steve Barnett an opportunity to return some kickoffs and play some offense as well...he's obviously special teams and I wanted to get him and Payten Jason - the two true freshman on kickoffs and I thought they did a pretty good job and you know, they didn't punt very much so you didn't see (DJ) Banks return many punts - but he'll return punts. And he played some wide receiver on offense a little bit. Again, he's a freshman and he's going to get his opportunities. You can't take out Jeremy Williams for a freshman.
On if there is a way to pick up Tulane's confidence level after two losses:
Well the way to pick it up is to win a game and we have two weeks now to prepare for another game. We need to go win a football game. We need to work on our inefficiencies and the mistakes that we're making and we have to get better. We have some young guys that are making some mistakes and we have some upperclassmen that are making some mistakes.
Tulane Quarterback Joe Kemp:
On today's game:
I felt alright. I felt like I made one key mistake today and that was right before halftime going down and I really wanted to put It on me and go down and drive, and nd I tried forcing a ball and Instead I had a two yard route I could've hit instead. Besides that, our game plan was to run the football and hit them with the short passing game. We stuck to the game plan and I really thought we were going to come in here and run the ball better after how physical we got this week, but that's just something we have to get better on. BYU is a great team and they have a great defense too. I don't think we're going to see another defense like that this year.
When I look out there - it's all nameless faces, but I did pick up that they were pretty big. It's not just me - our whole team, our whole offense. We have the confidence that we can run the ball and we should be able to. And that `s just something that we're going to have to keep working at and the last thing we want to do is waver confidence or give up - that's not what we're going to do.
On the intentional grounding:
No, I wasn't trying to just get rid of it - I'm trying to throw a touchdown pass. The first read was on the left side to Casey (Robottom) and they zoned it and dropped it in and took that away. The other two reads were also covered up. It was the same play as last week when I threw the ball to Andre (Anderson) and he caught it. No, I was trying to throw a touchdown pass
On the bye-week coming up:
I'm glad we have this bye-week coming up. It's a new season. We have to put this behind u s. That's a team that went on the road and beat Oklahoma last week. But, we have a couple games coming up that we need to win and we feel extremely confident that we will win.
On how difficult it was to play the second half:
We came out the second half and we were talking in the locker room before about coming out and finishing out our drives. In the first half we were on the field and had a chance...it was pretty tough.
On if he feels like this game was deflating:
I'm not going to say it was deflating. Today, it was, but we're going to bounce back. We're not going to just give up. We have a lot more games.
I think BYU is a good team and I think as a defense we came out and knew what they were going to do. They didn't change their games plan. With mistakes with a team like that you cant beat yourself and I think we did that this time. BYU - give credit to them, but we beat ourselves.
The no-huddle thing wasn't too big because we went against Tulsa last week and their pace was pretty fast too. Once a couple mistakes happened I guess it wore us down and we can't allow that to happen.
On if BYU is one of the best teams he has ever played against while playing for Tulane:
They are a very good team. We've played some pretty good teams since we've been here but I think BYU is definitely up there with the rest of them.
I think frustrating is the best way to describe it and with the mistakes that we did make in the game. They didn't make mistakes. They came out and executed well. When we're playing a good team like that we have to come out and play mistake-free football. That's the only way we can play up with teams like BYU.
