Quotes Following Tulane's 35-20 Win Over Southeastern Louisiana
Sep 14, 2014 | Football
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Tulane Game 3
Yulman Stadium
New Orleans, La.
TULANE QUOTES
HEAD COACH Curtis Johnson
Opening Statement
"I thought [offensive coordinator Eric Price] did a great job managing the game. We had timeouts and we used them all effectively. Tanner found Sherman, it was just what we talked about in practice. It was great clock management, great job by the defense, and a great job putting it in the end zone."
On finally getting a win
"It's been a while. I usually win in cards, but I can't win enough on the football field. It was great through, a great feeling. The students were outstanding, they did a great job. The guys in the locker room they partying. It's a great feeling, great sight."
On getting ahead early
"Yeah because this team is very explosive. We've played from ahead every game this year and we need to continue to do that. It was a good feeling."
On Southeastern Louisiana's penalties
"Yeah, I mean we helped them out, too. They had 13, we had 11. That's something we need to improve on: penalties and turnovers."
On defensive line improvement
"Huge improvement. We played well. We rotate a lot of guys in there, a lot of guys played, a lot of guys were fresh. It was a great effort."
On moving Taurean Nixon around and getting Parry Nickerson in the game
"A little bit of both. We try to play with our best personnel. Nixon is one of the good players, but Nickerson is outstanding. You really can't take away the interceptions he's had over the last couple weeks so we want him on the field. He's a playmaker. You need a nickel who is fast and aggressive like Nickerson. He played a great game."
On shutting down the Lions' offense
"We just wanted to keep it in the pocket. I thought our defensive ends, Daren Williams, Tyler Gilbert, Ade and Quinlan, played outstanding. Just keeping them in the pocket, we never let them get out, we never let them get flush. Every time we did Monroe and Scofield were right there. I thought we had a perfect game plan."
On the touchdown pass to Justyn Shackleford
"Tanner can do that, he makes those plays all of the time. Sometimes we get a little bit greedy, we just got to wait and be a little more patient. It was a great play for us."
On Trevor Simms' injury
"He'll be alright, he just had a little ankle twinge. I told him if you kick it and they make it out, you got to make the tackle. So that's what happened."
On the overall health of the team
"Yeah for the most part I think everybody is good."
On the importance of getting a win
"Yeah, you know our guys have to be confident as we go on the road and play a team like Duke and then to a big physical team like Rutgers we gotta go in there with a lot of confidence. We gotta work on penalties and we can't turn the ball over to give them a chance."
LB Nico Marley
On getting the first win of the year
"Well, it's about time. That's really all I can say. There's nothing better than getting a win."
On how the defense played as a whole
"The last two games we weren't able to come out and finish the games, but tonight we finished. We started fast and finished strong, which is our motto this season."
On the defense's ability to create turnovers
"Turnovers win games. We've been able to create turnovers and get ourselves in a position to win. We just have to keep working hard."
On getting the first win of the year and the first win in Yulman Stadium
"It feels great. We came out strong, we executed our plays, and we did what we had to do to get the win. Now, we just have to get back to work and focus on getting better for next week."
On the offense's struggle to score to start the game
"We need to work on a lot of little things. Southeastern came out ready and our offense started slow. But, as the season goes on and we progress, we will get better at putting points on the board."
On the offense's plan for next week's game at Duke
"We have to come out ready. We will study up and learn about Duke, then this week during practice we have to be serious. We have to come out ready to execute our plays and be ready to play."
SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA QUOTES
HEAD COACH RON ROBERTS
Opening Statement
"We didn't start well. I mean we were our biggest own enemy. There were a lot of self-inflicted wounds in the first 30 minutes of that ball game. I don't why. I'll put it on myself that's me. I screwed up obviously in preparing. I can't believe that we were big eyed, or surprised about playing these guys, but we did not play well. I though coming in, `Tulane was a good football team'. They should not have been 0-2 coming into this football game. They have a lot of talent. I thought we matched up well. I expected us to play better than that. I expected us to play how we did in the second half for four quarters. And, I'm proud of our guys for how they handled the second half. They played great in the second half. We just couldn't get anything going offensively. Anytime we got something going, we had a penalty and shot ourselves in the foot again. It's ugly all the way around, and we got to go back to the drawing board and correct it"
On the penalties
"I can't blame it on officials. You could see them (the penalties). They happened. I don't know. It goes back to the whole thing. I don't know if we got out of ourselves. If we tried too hard, played too hard. We did not approach this in it being a big game. We approached it just like anyone else. We did not want to have guys pressed. We didn't address it enough, because obviously we acted like a team that was trying to press because it was a big game for us. And, it wasn't. To me, it was just preparation to come in and play well"
On the play of Tulane's defensive line
"I thought in the first half their defensively line got off quick. We knew we were going to have trouble with #77. And, I though the pressure they got us in the first half on Bryan, they got people on his face, and got him flustered. He was off. Never really got back in rhythm, on target the whole game."
On the last penalty that called back a touchdown
"That kind of summed up the rest of the game. Yeah, we go score with an opportunity to really... I'm thinking we're scoring, we're coming out and going to do an onside kick. And, we're going to have a chance to take a couple of shots for this thing. And, again, you know, the thing's going to put it at 27 is, we get an illegal block down field. I'm going to be honest, we shot ourselves in the foot. As a positive thing, we got to realize we played a FBS opponent, and we shot ourselves in the foot, or we'd have gotten out of here with a W. If we didn't do that, I just got done telling the players that. We're our own biggest enemy right now. The way we handled things, We're not going to win big games doing that. If we can learn from that lesson, hopefully this can be a Launch pad, and we can learn it now. It can be a blessing for us to learn from mistakes and what we did out there."
On Tulane converting third downs
"Tanner Lee threw some dag-gone balls in there. He was shooting BBs early. And, we hit him a bunch. I thought we got pressure. We got to him, and credit to him he didn't get rattled. He's a stud. I think he is. He threw some BBs in there, and a couple of receivers made some great catches. We had great coverage, sometimes double, and they made catches. That's credit to them. I wish them well. Hopefully, I wish they win the rest of them"
On the second half
"At 27-3, we could've hung our head and cashed it in. `Oh woe is me, this game is over with'. And, at 35-10, or whatever it was at one point. They get that big play. I think we could've cashed it in, and didn't. That's the nature of the message we're trying to get across to our kids, and I think our guys buy into that. We're not going to give up. We're going to keep fighting. There's ways to get into this thing. I really thought the turning point was mid-fourth quarter. I really thought when we cut it to two possessions, we had time enough. We said we were going to get four, and we got to score on two of them. We were going to get four possessions, and we got to score on two of these things, and we're going to have a chance to win this game. Then, they got take one 70 to the house, and kind of screwed that plan up. We had our chances. I like our fight. I like our grit. I like our kids. I think we got big play ability. If we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, we don't some of those mistakes early, and you can't put yourself down 27 points in the hole either. Spot someone 27 points, and expect to win. There aren't a whole lot of games that you can win like that. But, I mean, I like the way our kids responded in the second half. I really do. I think we can build on that"
LB ISIAH CORBETT
On his two sacks
"I did what my coach said and executed. They had us in zone coverage. I read the quarterback's eyes, and I just kind of jumped it."
On how this game felt
"It was frustrating, but we kept fighting until the end. Like Coach said, it's a 60 minute ball game. You can't play 30 minutes, you have to play the whole 60 minutes. We'll get it corrected tomorrow."
On preparing for Tulane
"We were excited, but we were supposed to treat it like it was any other game."
On penalties
"Guys were just trying to make plays and maybe getting a little too antsy."
On playing a better second half
"Really we just shot ourselves in the foot. We weren't doing what the coaches were telling us to do. In the 2nd half we made a few adjustments and fixed everything."
DB JORDAN BATISTE
On how it felt play back at Tulane
"I just felt like it was another game. I didn't feel any different. It was different seeing my former teammates in pregame, but other than that it was just another game."
On if the penalties were frustrating tonight
"They were."
On if there was a reason for the penalties
"I don't know what it was, but we're going to correct it."
On if he was surprised by how well Tulane's offense played
"No."
