QUOTES FOLLOWING TULANE'S 45-31 VICTORY OVER UCF.
Oct 3, 2015 | Football
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TULANE vs UCF QUOTES
Curtis Johnson Tulane Head Coach Postgame Quotes vs. UCF 10/3/15
Opening Statement
"That team is very talented. They have a lot of good players. I would say George [O'Leary] has done a great job throughout this conference. I don't know how many times a team can go in and play younger kids in the third quarter against a Central Florida team that is very talented. You saw what they did at the end of the game; they kept fighting and kept coming. Our younger players couldn't hold on, but we got the victory today. I thought Tanner Lee was very good, with his four TDs and no interceptions. I can't say enough about him maturing. He looks like he is growing into his own. Devon Breaux is a deep threat. [Teddy] Veal played well. I thought a lot of our young receivers played well. Our offensive line got great push. Our running backs were outstanding, and all of them made a major contribution. Lazedrick [Thompson] was a little bit down today, so we rested him a bit, but I think we showed our speed and our athleticism. It really looked good today. We also showed our youthfulness with the number of mistakes. Our defensive front just dominated the game. I thought they were dominant all day. Royce LaFrance had three sacks and a forced fumble. Tanzel [Smart] was disruptive all day long. The secondary played outstanding, getting a couple picks. Nico [Marley] was everywhere, Eric Thomas was everywhere on the field, [Darion] Monroe always plays excellent, and some young kids also played well.
On Aaron Golub …
Aaron Golub is the first legally blind snapper to play in an NCAA game. The reason why I played him is because he works so hard. Every morning when I'm up, and as you know, I get up early, he's in the weight room, and he's working. I would like to play him as much as I can, because that's what you do; you reward kids when they work. This kid works, and he is just like everybody else. I'm going to play him as much as I can."
On defensive performance today stacking up against 2013 New Orleans Bowl season…
"This performance is comparable. This is how we want to play right now, with our team. I don't know if we are good enough to just spread people out and dominate them. I don't know if we are good enough to just run down the field like some people do. We've got to mix up what we do with our personnel and looks. You see a lot of running backs in and out of the game for us because that's our strength. They run the ball, and they catch the ball and run with it. Defensively, the one thing we can do is we can stop guys. We recruited a lot of good corners and linebackers who can run. Our team is built on speed. The one thing we've got to do is that we have got to keep the pressure on. That's what reminds me of that year [2013] because that shows how we should play football and how we are built to play football."
On the decision to pull the fake punt play in the 1st quarter…
"I know you've been at practice, and you've been keeping it a secret, but we've been doing that for weeks and weeks. I just felt that it was the right time to do it. Doug Lichtenberger did a great job of drawing that up. He was outstanding today, and he did a phenomenal job of just making sure the ball got into the right hands and got to who we needed to get it to. Picking up that first down was critical. After we did that, it was just a breath of fresh air. Our kids have to learn that they need to be there more. In the moment, it's almost like it's the happiest time in the world after we do a fake punt, but we've got to settle back down and play football."
On Parry Nickerson's strip forced fumble play…
"That was the one thing we talk about and do all the time in practice. That play was outstanding. Jason [Rollins] and Lionel [Washington] always coach our guys to strip the ball. Parry [Nickerson] is one of our fastest guys. He ran the guy down, stripped it, Richard Allen came up with it, and that's what we do every day in practice. That's why we are able to generate so many turnovers. I think, since I've been here, we've had almost over 100 turnovers now."
On his game-changing forced fumble …
"Coaches preach to us a lot at practice to run to the ball and that play presented the best opportunity, so I took it and came out with good results. We run to the ball a lot at practice so that mindset is pretty critical come gametime."
On the momentum turning after that play …
"That was a great feeling. Like I said, it was a great opportunity to get the crowd pumped and the team going."
On the fake punt …
"I actually didn't know it was going to be a fake punt until I was on the field. I was down with the defense and then they called it and I went out and checked with Rob Kelley and he confirmed it. We talked about doing it the series before but they gave us a safe look so we went ahead and killed it. This one though, they gave us the right look for it and we went ahead. I really had no time to think. It was like, hey it's a fake punt, snap."
On how big of a play it was at the time …
"Oh absolutely. The offense was starting to get going but got hung up a little bit, so we needed a little spark, and I think that play provided that."
More on special teams …
"Being on special teams, I've really been trying to find a way to contribute and I felt like the special teams unit as a whole did that today. It wasn't just me on that fake punt, our guys blocked really well."
On how big of a win it was…
"It was just a great way to start out the conference schedule, getting the win. We got back to .500 and put us right where we want to be."
UCF Head Coach George O'Leary
On the game…
"I put some subs in the second half and they went out and got some things done and stuff like that, but overall we're very sloppy in tackling, and very sloppy in missed assignments. And you can't win games like that."
On end of the first half…
"Look at what we've done in the last three games. There's no reason for that. They made a good play, we made a bad play, but we should have stopped it right after that. We got the ball down there, and we got to make plays, but I think that there were some penalties earlier that we shouldn't have had. I saw some kids come in during various parts of the games and make some great plays and I think that's what's important, but obviously it' a disappointing loss. Again, if you look at penalties and turnovers, that's usually a good indicator of what's going on."
On Tyler Harris and D'erren Wilson…
"I thought they both went out and did a really nice job. They really did. And those guys are the freshmen that we've been trying to replace some of these other guys with, him and Stewart. I thought they came up with some catches today. Tyler went in and did some nice things, and showed more poise than he did the last time he played, which I think that's great for him."
UCF Player Quotes
WR Jordan Franks
On today's loss…
"We came out ready, we just have to come out stronger than we did and focus a little better. We had a couple of injuries and we have to come back from that."
On looking forward…
"We just have to treat our injuries and go out and practice hard like we usually do and look towards a new season for next week."
On positives of today's game…
"We can go over what we did in the fourth quarter and show that on film. We can show what we did positively and go over it in the film room."
On being new to his position…
"I'm getting the hang of it. I've been working with Coach Barrett going over stuff and watching film to see what I can do to help the team. I'm doing anything I can do to help the team right now."
On the mood in the locker room…
"We're all down right now but we're going to bounce back. We're going to come back next week, go over film and see what we did wrong. We're going to play our best game for UConn, our next opponent."
On the dialogue on the sidelines…
"We were just trying to keep each other up, especially in the fourth quarter when we came back. We're never too down - we're always keeping it going. We're just trying to keep each other up on the sidelines."
"We're all down right now but we're going to bounce back. We're going to come back next week, go over film and see what we did wrong. We're going to play our best game for UConn, our next opponent."
On the dialogue on the sidelines…
"We were just trying to keep each other up, especially in the fourth quarter when we came back. We're never too down - we're always keeping it going. We're just trying to keep each other up on the sidelines."
