Transcript From Football's Weekly Press Conference
Dec 2, 2014 | Football
Video Of Tulane Football's Weekly Press Conference
NEW ORLEANS - With his team coming off a bye week and two weeks removed from a 34-6 loss at East Carolina, Tulane University head football coach Curtis Johnson took the podium to address the local media during his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon in the multi-purpose room of Yulman Stadium.
Johnson briefly reviewed his team's performance against the Pirates before moving on to the upcoming season finale against Temple and the team's plans for the offseason. A complete transcript of Tuesday's presser is below.
Kickoff for the Tulane/Temple contest is slated for Saturday, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m. (CST) and will be televised live nationally on ESPN2. In addition, Saturday's game will be carried on the flagship radio station for Green Wave football - WMTI 106.1 FM "The Ticket" - and the radio call is available on the web at www.TulaneGreenWave.com via the All-Access Pass. Live game stats are also available on the official website of Tulane Athletics for free courtesy of GameTracker.
For tickets to this weekend's game, as well as future Green Wave events, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE (9283). The Tulane Ticket Office is located on the first floor of the James W. Wilson, Jr. Center and is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can also be purchased on-line at the official website of Tulane Athletics - www.TulaneGreenWave.com.
TULANE HEAD COACH Curtis Johnson
Opening statement
"I want to thank you guys this year for coming out and supporting us. You guys got tough on me sometimes, but it was good. It made me stronger. My wife, she sees everything as the glass not half full but always full. So every week when we come in here, she goes, `Oh, they were great.' Sometimes, I didn't feel so good. I wanted a little pat on the back, but we made it through the season."
On Saturday's game against Temple
"This is our last game against Temple. Temple is a very good football team. We all know they're fighting to be bowl eligible. They're 5-6 and we know what our record is. I told our kids a couple of things. One, we want to send our seniors out just the best way you can. These seniors have been awesomely outstanding. That's not a word. I kind of made that one up. They've been awesome because it's hard to get through a coaching change and a transition to do what we're doing. A lot of their teammates didn't make it through the transition. The second thing that is difficult is you're going into a difficult league that is a little different, your expectations are high and you don't realize the dreams that you have. We do have dreams, we do have goals and we do have vision. I want to send these guys out the best possible way that we can because they're outstanding. Their attitudes are great. It's been a good year during a trying time."
On the Temple Owls
"Like I said, Temple is a very, very good football team. They've got a quarterback that reminds me a lot of the guy at Houston, but he can probably throw a little bit better. They've got a big offensive line. This league is a little more physical. The defensive line, this No. 9 [Matt Ioannidis] and 72 [Hershey Walton] are great players. This corner, No. 1 [Tavon Young], he earned that No. 1 jersey because that's how good he is. They're a very, very good football team. They play outstanding defense and it's going to be a tough game for us. Like I told these guys, your last impression - all the guys in this program - this will be the last impression of the year. It's just like when I left my wife on our first date. My last impression will always be remembered (laughing). She got me to take her to this restaurant that I never heard of and she didn't like the food. She's laughing because she knows it's true."
On Temple playing for a bowl spot and Tulane playing with its backs against the wall
"Whenever you're playing, it's for something. All of the good teams I've been on, you never talk about the tangible things. Even the Super Bowl years and the national championship years, you always talk about the next thing in front of you and that's what we're trying to do with this program, too. We're playing for an awful lot too. We're planning to send these seniors out on the best possible way we can because that's what they'll remember. We're playing for our fans and the people in the stands. These guys want to get a jump on spring ball. I think we're playing for a lot and they're going to want to play well for all of their parents and everybody who wants to come to this game. This will be the game that everbody wants to shine in."
On if he feels redshirt-freshman quarterback Tanner Lee has had a good season
"Very much so. He's been very successful. If you want to look at the stats on freshman, [we've] got those stats and we get them every year. He's right up there [nationally] with all those freshman quarterbacks and he's been a lot more successful. I tip my hat off to him because all those kids are playing with older players. He's playing with a bunch of freshmen that he's got to get lined up and he's a freshman himself. My biggest fear of playing him was he can't get the snap from center. That didn't happen this year. It was a lot smoother. He was the reason the running game was a lot better because he knew the checks, he knew when we were killing plays and stuff like that. He did some really good things. It's unfortunate that there were so many interceptions. When you go back and watch that, it's because the defense did something a little different. He's got to take it to the next level, but he'll be very good."
On the offense's difficulty in putting points on the board
"It's a combination of some things. Sometimes, we're put on a long field. I talked to the defense about it and said, `You've got to give us more turnovers down on our end or get a couple of three-and-outs.' Red zone is a mentality. I used to do a red zone talk every year at the University Miami and the biggest thing was it's a mentality. It's a time that the field shrinks and it gets a little harder. You have to get a little tougher and do things exactly right. I can point to 10 or 15 different things that can happen in the red zone. All of a sudden, this guy takes a wrong step and goes the wrong way. In the field, Sherman [Badie] can make a move or the quarterback won't get hit, but it's like one of our fourth down plays [earlier in the year]. The little DB from Cincinnati said, `I saw the ball.' That's the stuff that when you're older, you don't remember all the plays but you're going to remember that `I'm going to hide the ball.' You get down to the red zone or you get in a third-down situation, there can be a little more pressure."
On what the top five things he has on his to-do list following Saturday's game
"Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, recruiting...how many is that? We have to have a very good recruiting year. This is the first year, with the exception of offensive linemen, that we're not trying to put a lot of numbers in one positon. Last year, we had to get some tight ends. Now, our classes are pretty much balanced. We can still use some more receivers, but it's pretty much balanced and we can begin to take it to the next phase. It's not the draft. You're not doing need. You're doing program guys. You need guys who are best for your program."
On how he labels this team
"We had the scenario in the first five games were we could be 0-5 or we could be 5-0. We had that scenario and the one thing we talked about was coaching the same. We wanted to coach the same. If we won every game, and I think those guys in the SEC - and I don't want to call names - but they do a good job of focusing on the task at hand. You watch those coaches and listen to them speak, that's what they do. That's what we need to do. We can look back four or five years ago and say this, that or the other, but the bottom line for this year is this is the year - this is the legitimate year - that can propel us to hold a championship trophy up. With these kids here, this will be the year that we do it."
On junior cornerback Lorenzo Doss' future and whether he'll go through the NFL process
"We had a lot of guys at the University of Miami and almost every one of them asked me my opinion. I don't know why. I guess I was because I was the loudest guy in the room. But they all asked me my opinion. I had this conversation with Reggie [Wayne] and Santana [Moss] and those guys stayed in. With the exception of maybe [Kellen] Winslow - and I probably should have told him to stay - and Sean Taylor - I probably should have told him to stay - and I don't tell them anything. What I'm going to do with Lorenzo, if he asks me, is these are the positives and these are the negatives. I call it the Ed Reed syndrome. I told Ed that if you do come back, I think for certain you're going to be a first-round pick. And it came true. I would just list the positives and the negatives. The biggest negative is that you can get hurt. There are just a lot of positives and lot of negatives. The bottom line is it's up to the family and the kid, but we definitely want him back, though."
On senior defensive tackle Kenny Welcome singing the national anthem on Senior Night
"He can sing. It's funny. I listen to Luther Vandross a lot and I try to serenade my wife and it only works about half the time. But I listen to him and, golly, he sounds like Luther. He can really, really sing. I'm impressed and it's hard to impress me."
On if he feels the program is in better shape at the conclusion of the 2014 season than last year
"A year ago was a little bit different. Last year, we had maybe 10-12 seniors and five of those seniors are still playing in the NFL. Some of them are on the practice squad. [Orleans] Darkwa is playing. Julius [Warmsley] is playing. Ryan Grant is playing. Cairo [Santos], I just saw him make a kick. One of the steps when you're building something is you want to build your capable leadership that understands the message. Those guys did that. They handed it off, but when they handed it off a lot of the guys who are playing weren't here. The leadership will get better. The players are getting more physical. They will get bigger, faster and stronger. Look at those guys who left out of here last year. We've got some strong character guys here now, but when they left there was a little bit of a void. We'll get that again."
On how he's not recruiting to depth chart but instead needs for the program
"It's result-oriented anyway. I don't want to use the excuse that we're young, we're young, we're young. But the problem we are young. I tell everyone that it reminds me of the year when I was at the University of Miami. Four years prior to that, they won a national championship. We come in there, one year we were bowl eligible and the next year I played Reggie [Wayne], Santana [Moss], Daryl Jones and Andre King. We were 5-6 at Miami. They had a dog-gone U-Haul parked in front of my house and were saying, `Look coach, what are you doing playing these freshmen receivers?' Four years from then, we won the Sugar Bowl and the next year we were young. It took a while. It happens, but it just doesn't all happen at once. All those kids won't get it. Look at what Doss is doing now. Lorenzo was young his freshman year. He played well. He played good his sophomore year. This year, in spite of a couple of plays, he's done some things that older kids do. He's tackling better. He's covering guys better. He's been coached a little bit harder. I think that'll come. I don't know when it's going to come but it definitely will come."
On Marc Edwards and Nate Skold walking with the seniors on Saturday
"They're going to walk as seniors. These guys, the one thing I'll tell you is these guys get jobs. My starting safety [Sam Scofield] is in New York or Houston or somewhere interviewing for a job. Scofield was out today. That's where he was. These guys have an incredible education and will have opportunities in their careers. They're graduating. They're moving on. Sometimes, that's the best thing."
On what he felt the toughest point of the season was to get through
"Just the disappointment of losing. Sometimes, I have to remind myself who I'm playing with. We're lining up the receivers and I look out there and they're all freshmen. Most of those kids didn't even have spring ball. The biggest disappointment is going out there and not seeing the proper execution that you want to see and you know they have in them. It's not so much the results, but it's like `Guys, please execute.' What's going to happen is and this has always worked is you take them off the field, let them get their breath, put the cut-ups on and let them see themselves. That makes all the difference in the world. That's what's been the biggest disappointment, just not seeing the execution go the way it's supposed to. And in this league, it's a lot tougher."
On if he has changed his recruiting base and what he hopes to accomplish in the offseason
"We'll go out and evaluate everyone on the staff. I hope everybody wants to come back because I love the guys that we have. The other thing we have to do here more than anything is finish strong academically. We'll be on them. You'll see me on a golf cart going to class and things like that. On to the next phase is we have to give them a little time off and then we have to get in the weight room. One thing I know about this league is our offensive and defensive line better get stronger and they better do it quickly. These guys are strong. They're explosive. These teams can play. From there, you begin to plan your spring ball and how you're going to do it. What's best for these kids to take them to the next level? When you think about it, most of these kids never had spring ball. Those are some things, and also you want to get healthy."
On maintaining the energized fan base
"Early on in the season, they kind of looked at us and we're beginning to get some educated fans who look at us and say, `Man, you guys are young.' Kerry Joseph, who played in the Canadian League for a while, came to practice and he was like, `I can't believe how young you are.' I go places and everybody says, `You guys are young and you're going to be good.' It's encouraging to know that people are looking at us and they're starting to dig into what we're doing. Most of the reports are getting better. Next year, what we've got to do is come out and put a good product on the field - much better than we did this year. These young kids need to play and perform for us. If they do that, I don't know how many games we're going to win - I wish we could win 14 next year - but we'll win more games."
