Quotes Following Football's 38-7 Homecoming Loss To Memphis
Nov 15, 2014 | Football
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Tulane Game 10
Yulman Stadium
New Orleans, La.
TULANE QUOTES
HEAD COACH Curtis Johnson
Opening Statement
"As you all saw today, this was a very tough day for us, especially offensively. As good as we played last week, we did not do anything resembling that today. Our kids, and especially our quarterback [Tanner Lee] did not learn from their early mistakes today. Our defense did a great job of keeping us in the game all night long, but our quarterback did not play well at all today. I still love him, and I just told him that the sun is going to come up tomorrow."
On whether he thought about pulling Tanner Lee out of the game
"This was all a learning experience for him. Going back to last week, things did not always go well for him then either. I did not want to pull him out then as well. I have a lot of confidence in him, I think he is going to learn from this and I know he is going to be outstanding in the future."
On Lee struggling early on
"Tanner has always struggled, and then come back from it. I thought the second half was going to be his time, because he came into the locker room and knew what his mistakes were, and we were still in the ballgame at that point. I thought that he would definitely come back and do some great things in the second half, but those things never materialized for him. This game is going to be some great film for us to watch with him."
On the point of the game where he felt the game was getting away
"That was definitely some point in the third quarter. I felt, going into the second half, if we could score once, our defense could keep us in the game. We were playing well on defense, but sometimes you have to flip the field, and we were never really able to flip the field. We have to get this kid [Lee] on a sharp rhythm and help him get going, because once he gets into it, he's very good."
On if Lee's first interception was his fault of him or that of the wide receiver
"It was a little bit of both. Tanner anticipated something, and our receiver didn't see the corner coming off the inside. Sometimes, if the receiver sees that, he will stop and give him a spot to throw it to. He didn't do that, however, and Tanner just didn't put it in the right spot."
On the five turnovers tonight by Tulane
"Memphis is an experienced team. When they turned the ball over, they overcame it. When we turned it over, we couldn't overcome it."
On Lazedrick Thompson
"He played his best game today. This is the best I've seen him all season. For a couple of weeks now, he has started to look better. He has been working so hard at practice lately. Sherman Badie looked good as well today. He has still got a little bit of a gimp in him. Dontrell Hilliard fumbled the ball today as well though. It is just a lot of young guys playing against experienced kids, and that just cannot happen."
On use of the running backs tonight
"I thought about continuing to pound the ball with Lazedrick, but the game was getting out of hand. He also went out of the game later on with a knee injury, and when he got injured, he was out through the first half. I liked what we were doing, and he was running the ball very well, but when he went out, I didn't know how much more I wanted to do with him because I didn't want to hurt him anymore."
On reaching point in season where Lee is going to fight through mistakes
"Taking Tanner Lee out of the game would not be good for us. It would not be good for our program or the direction we are going in. I know he can do it because of what he did last week. He did a great job last week; he can do it, it is just another phase in his career where he just has to get up from one of the low points of this season."
On the defensive performance through the first three quarters tonight
"Our defense played outstanding tonight. Our coaches called a very good game tonight; I thought Jason [Rollins] prepared the secondary very, very well. I am a little bit disappointed in special teams because of the snaps from the center. I know we are better than that; at the end of the half, I thought that that was a little bit of a mishap. If we had ended the half down 10-3, I thought that would have been a lot better of a situation for us."
On if today's performance negates last week's big win
"Absolutely not. The one thing about last week that it showed is that we can do it. It has taken us awhile to show that, but we can do it. We can do it on the road; we can score points. This gives us something to look back on and say `Hey guys, that Houston team was a good team.' That Houston team beat that team in the other locker room."
On what he tells his team about goals for the rest of the season
"I think this is the best scenario for us. We want to play tough teams now, because we know now that we are playing the best of the best. We have not talked about bowl games all year; we have just talked about improving. This team knows we have the skills to hang with any team out there. Five turnovers equals 35 points for them, and if we can eliminate that, we can play with all of those teams."
On Tanzel Smart's performance tonight
"He was absolutely amazing. I think these younger defensive linemen are really beginning to play well as we get deeper and deeper into the season. Royce LaFrance, Tanzel Smart, and Sean Wilson all played great games today. I am just happy that we can say that we never quit today."
On the disappointing performance on Homecoming
"It was disappointing. In order to improve, however, you have to have some of these disappointments. I think next year you will see something different on Homecoming. Whether we win or lose, the attitude is not finger-pointing, it is all about getting better and improving as a team."
On the decision to onside kick late in the game
"I wanted to practice it. We had not had an onside kick all year, and I wanted to practice it and see the situation. I wanted to get it on film; it's just like last week with the surprise onside week. We want to practice those in game-like situations. Their coach can get mad about it if he wants, but I don't think he was running up the score on us. The reason why they scored is because one of our guys missed a tackle. I do not think he was mad, they just ran their offense. They ran the ball, they did not throw it."
On changing their mindset during the latter part of this game
"We really took a step back and tried to remind everyone that we are building a team for the future. I talked with our coaches and everyone on the phone and told them to keep positive body language going. I thought we did a good job of that. I have seen games like this end in chaos, and that did not happen tonight. We continued to grow throughout this game, and that is what I talked to the team in the locker room about."
On what broke down on special teams today after several weeks of improvement
"I do not think the punting was bad today. I thought he was slow once, but the wind was tricky today for him. That is why Memphis kept rolling out and doing the rugby-style kicks, which our guys cannot do. I thought that the center exchange was the one thing that really got me today. We have to look at that and revisit that."
DE Royce LeFrance
On the way the defense kept the game close in the first half
"We played our hardest. We had a couple of flaws. There are things that we'll have to address Monday after we watch the film. We played good from what I saw. We just got to come back harder next week."
On the rest of the season
"We just got to go out there and play like we're trying to get to a bowl, even though we're not. We still got to go out there with the same relentless mentality, and play hard."
DT Tanzel Smart
On the defensive effort
"We played really well. We tried to pick our offense up to the best of our ability, but it didn't go through. I think we played really well though. I think our confidence is real high. The bowl game thing is out the window, but I think as we go along we rebuild for next year, and we'll be pretty good."
On his performance today
"It is grown man's football, a little tussle here and there. We still are going to continue to fight. We're going to grind and work. We just are going to keep going out there."
MEMPHIS QUOTES
HEAD COACH JUSTIN FUENTE
On winning their last four road games
"I think that we have a group that, I kind of like when we get them out of town. Quite honestly, we have an ability to focus and to dial in to the task at hand. We're here for only one reason, and we don't stay very long. We come in here to play a game and then get the heck out. We have a new challenge for us now, to win at home now. To handle all of the things that comes with that. So, I'm happy with how we've handled the road, but now we got to handle it at home."
On the performance of Robert Davis
"He's just got to keep coming along. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of how he's come along in practice. I think that he's trying to get in there and give us something. He's just got to keep developing. He certainly flashed out there today. It's important for us to get our reserves in the game. I think that's how you continue to build a program. You don't want to put guys out there for the first time ever in the first game of the season. Getting to play guys when their young is important."
On the race for the league title
"We just got to keep plugging away. We got to continue to avoid distractions, and stay focused on the task at hand. We'll have an incredible challenge ahead of us next week. I stand by my statement that there's nobody in this league that is that much better than anyone. Anyone can beat anyone any given day. That was evident by Tulane last week, and we're certainly no exception to that rule. SO if we're not on top of our game, then things won't go well for us."
QB PAXTON LYNCH
On the importance of getting a win today
"It was real important for us to come out on the road and win these big games. We knew that each week was going to be 1-0. Even though we came out slow with the offense, the defense held up on their end. And that's what caused us to get our fire on offense in the second half."
On not getting rattled
"That's a big thing we work on. We all trust each other: defense trusts in us, offense trusts in them. Whenever the defense is getting beat, the offense doesn't freak out. We just know we have to go out there and score. Today we didn't freak out even though we weren't moving the ball. Basically we were hurting ourselves out there. Whenever we started blocking who we were supposed to block, throwing who we were supposed to throw to, they really couldn't stop us on offense."
On making big plays on the run
"We practice that stuff in practice, whenever I get out of the pocket because it affects everybody: the receivers turn around and get their eyes back and I get my eyes down field. We found Mose [Frazier] for a big touchdown."
On being unbeaten on the road
"It feels good because you don't have your fans here/ You have guys heckling behind you on your bench. You just know you have to block it out. It's special when you have a team like this. You go out on the road and all you've got is each other when you go out on the field. We really take pride in that."
On continuing winning
"We're excited about it, but we're keeping our head about us. We're just taking it one week at a time like we have been."
WR MOSE FRAZIER
On being 7-3
"It feels great. The idea is to go 1-0 and that's what we did today."
On the defense
"The defense played a great game today. They constantly bailed us out even though the offense started very slow. Bobby [McClain] came out with a pick-six and then Dontrell [Nelson] came out with a pick-six Throughout the game they made stops every time we couldn't get anything going. Every time we got stopped, they went out and made a stop, too."
On the concerns about starting with struggling offense
"We weren't concerned, we just had to pick it up. I guess we just started slow. Everybody was moving kind of sluggish and body language wasn't where it's supposed to be at. At halftime, Coach came and gave us a pep talk. Then second half we came out and turned it up."
On turning it around in hard games
"We have been in these situations a lot where we've started slow. When we start slow there's not a lot of pressure on us. We just know we have to get at least one big drive with a touchdown to get us going. And after that, we're good."
On improvement in short amount of time
"That's what we've been working for since I got here. I came in right when Coach Fuente came in and he's been preaching since we got here. Everything's starting to unfold for us. We're not trying to get too over our heads. You have to handle success right. We're just trying to go 1-0 and let those games add up."
On Paxton's throw for touchdown
"I saw him rolling and I just got in his vision. I was hoping he would look up field. He did, he let it go, and I went and got it."
