Photo by: Parker Waters
MEET THE PRESS: Fritz Previews Houston at Weekly News Conference
Nov 13, 2018 | Football
Listed below is the complete transcript from Green Wave head coach Willie Fritz's weekly press conference leading up to Tulane's matchup vs. Houston on Thursday.
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Opening statement:
"East Carolina, I said it after the game, I thought it was kind of an ugly victory, but that's a good thing. We've been on the other side of quite a few of those games. We need to do a good job of playing clean and staying away from foolish penalties which we had five just in the kicking game which is embarrassing for us. We should have zero in the kicking game every week. We came just a whisker away two or three times from kind of getting the game in our favor and kind of ending the game a little earlier and didn't quite finish it the way we wanted to. Defensively we played great. I thought Rod Teamer, P.J. Hall, Zach Harris played really well, and we set an NCAA record for pass breakups with 20 of 'em. I'd like to have a few more picks out of those 20, came close on a few. But really good job defensively. It's hard to hold these college offenses under 20 points with throwing the ball around and the game being a whole lot longer than it used to be. They threw the ball 67 times the other day, and then you've got a mobile quarterback who's going to be running the draw play. He's a talented young man. Offensively they did a good job of scheming our running attack and out-populating us in the box. We were able to take advantage of that somewhat throwing the football. We had a good day throwing the football. Darnell Mooney had over 200 yards receiving, so sometimes you don't know how the script is going to play out, and last Saturday we had to throw the ball a lot more.
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"Flipping the page, short week. We came in on Sunday to watch tape on Houston and put the ECU game to bed. Went out and practiced indoors at the Saints facility on Monday and we were fortunate to be able to go to the Superdome today. So, thank you, Saints. Had an interesting deal also – Austin Carr, wide receiver for the Saints talkd to our guys after practice today. He's an Athletes in Action representative for our campus, and, shoot, he knew most of our guys, it seemed like. They've been going to his meetings, so that's really neat. Appreciate Austin coming out and sharing with our guys after workouts today. Houston, they've got a Heisman Trophy candidate at the quarterback position in D'Eriq King. He's really a dynamic football player both throwing and running the football. A lot of talented athletes on both sides. They're sitting at 7-3 and have lost a few close ballgames as well. Great opportunity for us to showcase our program and show our program where we're at on national TV.
On QB Justin McMillan's growth with the team:
"He does an excellent job of doing his 1/11th and finish the play and executing the play, and that's what we talked to him about when he first got here. Don't worry about all the other things that are going on, and what this guy is doing. Just do your job. I noticed this last ballgame he's really starting to expand on what the other guys are doing and is having good interaction with our coaches on the sideline about what we're doing and what he's seeing. That's kind of Page 2 right now. We really feel like he's just going to get better and better. He's a very smart young man and he's doing a good job of leadership."
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On McMillan's playbook being expanded:
"Yeah I think he knows everything that we're doing. The thing we've just got to do is make sure we're tailoring our play calling to his strengths. He runs the ball better than people give him credit. There's four or five plays in the last ballgame where he probably wishes he would have pulled it instead of giving it, and maybe taken a tag throw or an RPO and thrown the ball. But hey, that's repetitions. He really does a nice job of managing the game."
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On Houston DE Ed Oliver:
"Big-time player. I've heard anywhere from top five pick to top 10 pick in the NFL Draft, so you've got to be pretty good to be thought of in that regard. So, he's a great, great football player. Very disruptive."
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On defending Oliver:
"Well you've just got to know where he's at. You'd like to have two guys on him as much as possible, particularly in pass plays. We'll see what's going on, whether he's playing or not. We'll find out in warmups."
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On whether there's anything to Tulane scoring big when it plays good offenses in Memphis and USF:
"You know, that's a good question. I don't think so. South Florida has a lot of similarities to Houston as far as what they run offensively, they're from that Baylor tree of offense. Both those guys coached for Coach [Art] Briles. So, there are a lot of similarities offensively with what they're doing. But the quarterback's a lot different. That's the big thing. This guy, he can run. I remember one time last year he took off for about 40. He covers ground in a hurry. You know, you're going to have to score points. There's no question about it. We've got to convert and get touchdowns and we'll be aggressive with fourth-down decisions and things like that also."
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On scoring points against offensively-minded opponents where he thought he might need to score many points to win:
"I think that's probably a little more of their defense, too. We're going to need to score some points there's no doubt about that."
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On turning around the Tulane program:
"You know, it's been a challenge, there's no doubt about it. You've got to come into work every day and roll your sleeves up and get ready to get after it. Changing cultures is difficult. I don't know what it is, five winning seasons here in the last 36 years. I knew it was going to be difficult coming in. We've just been working hard and plugging away and staying positive. We're blessed to have a lot of really good young men to work with. We've only got – I think I said it last week, I didn't even realize it until I counted it up – I think I've got 12 scholarship guys that were here before I got here. So, we've almost flipped the whole roster over the last two and a half years. It was interesting: Nico Marley came into the locker room after the game. Great player for us. He was here my first year. He talked to the guys about, toward the end of the game last week, that would have been a game Tulane might have lost. You saw some good, positive things. Sometimes as a coach, I came in walking off the field and I'm disappointed because I didn't feel we played up to our expectation level as a coaching staff. You've got to remember in this occupation everybody's trying to win. You've got other occupations where you work your tail off, you do a good job and all those things, you're going to be highly successful. But there's a 'W' or an 'L' after all these weeks when you coach. So, you've got to make sure you're on point 24/7/365 days a year of getting better and getting over that hump. I'm going to keep working until we get all the way over that hump."
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On what 'all the way over the hump' means to him:
"I've had some very successful teams. We want to be a team that is recognized nationally. That's what we want to have. And to do that, you've got to do it consistently. You can't just do it every once in a while. That's what we want to do."
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On relating his Tulane experience to any previous coaching stops:
"It's been this way every place we've been. Blinn Junior College had not won very many games before we got there. We got it turned very quick, but you're talking about a two-year program as opposed to a four-year program. It's a little bit easier. Central Missouri and Sam Houston State we were the same way. Georgia Southern we went from I-AA to Division I. We got it turned very quickly. We've been close, but close just doesn't count. You've got to win these games in the end. We've done that I guess two out of the last three games. I was really pleased with the Tulsa game that we got a score and a stop. Last week, we needed to get a stop and we got a stop. We're not at the point where we're going to roll the ball out there and win a ballgame. We've got to play well. That's my job and the coaches' jobs to ensure that we do that."
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On the development of the roster this year:
"Yeah we've got a bunch of young kids out there. I was looking, there was a play during the game the other day and I looked out and I believed it was seven true freshmen or redshirt freshmen or sophomores out there playing for us on defense. We're a young team. Usually that's not the case when you're in your third year. Usually you've got some more veteran guys. But we're a young team, and that's good. That's encouraging."
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Opening statement:
"East Carolina, I said it after the game, I thought it was kind of an ugly victory, but that's a good thing. We've been on the other side of quite a few of those games. We need to do a good job of playing clean and staying away from foolish penalties which we had five just in the kicking game which is embarrassing for us. We should have zero in the kicking game every week. We came just a whisker away two or three times from kind of getting the game in our favor and kind of ending the game a little earlier and didn't quite finish it the way we wanted to. Defensively we played great. I thought Rod Teamer, P.J. Hall, Zach Harris played really well, and we set an NCAA record for pass breakups with 20 of 'em. I'd like to have a few more picks out of those 20, came close on a few. But really good job defensively. It's hard to hold these college offenses under 20 points with throwing the ball around and the game being a whole lot longer than it used to be. They threw the ball 67 times the other day, and then you've got a mobile quarterback who's going to be running the draw play. He's a talented young man. Offensively they did a good job of scheming our running attack and out-populating us in the box. We were able to take advantage of that somewhat throwing the football. We had a good day throwing the football. Darnell Mooney had over 200 yards receiving, so sometimes you don't know how the script is going to play out, and last Saturday we had to throw the ball a lot more.
Â
"Flipping the page, short week. We came in on Sunday to watch tape on Houston and put the ECU game to bed. Went out and practiced indoors at the Saints facility on Monday and we were fortunate to be able to go to the Superdome today. So, thank you, Saints. Had an interesting deal also – Austin Carr, wide receiver for the Saints talkd to our guys after practice today. He's an Athletes in Action representative for our campus, and, shoot, he knew most of our guys, it seemed like. They've been going to his meetings, so that's really neat. Appreciate Austin coming out and sharing with our guys after workouts today. Houston, they've got a Heisman Trophy candidate at the quarterback position in D'Eriq King. He's really a dynamic football player both throwing and running the football. A lot of talented athletes on both sides. They're sitting at 7-3 and have lost a few close ballgames as well. Great opportunity for us to showcase our program and show our program where we're at on national TV.
On QB Justin McMillan's growth with the team:
"He does an excellent job of doing his 1/11th and finish the play and executing the play, and that's what we talked to him about when he first got here. Don't worry about all the other things that are going on, and what this guy is doing. Just do your job. I noticed this last ballgame he's really starting to expand on what the other guys are doing and is having good interaction with our coaches on the sideline about what we're doing and what he's seeing. That's kind of Page 2 right now. We really feel like he's just going to get better and better. He's a very smart young man and he's doing a good job of leadership."
Â
On McMillan's playbook being expanded:
"Yeah I think he knows everything that we're doing. The thing we've just got to do is make sure we're tailoring our play calling to his strengths. He runs the ball better than people give him credit. There's four or five plays in the last ballgame where he probably wishes he would have pulled it instead of giving it, and maybe taken a tag throw or an RPO and thrown the ball. But hey, that's repetitions. He really does a nice job of managing the game."
Â
On Houston DE Ed Oliver:
"Big-time player. I've heard anywhere from top five pick to top 10 pick in the NFL Draft, so you've got to be pretty good to be thought of in that regard. So, he's a great, great football player. Very disruptive."
Â
On defending Oliver:
"Well you've just got to know where he's at. You'd like to have two guys on him as much as possible, particularly in pass plays. We'll see what's going on, whether he's playing or not. We'll find out in warmups."
Â
On whether there's anything to Tulane scoring big when it plays good offenses in Memphis and USF:
"You know, that's a good question. I don't think so. South Florida has a lot of similarities to Houston as far as what they run offensively, they're from that Baylor tree of offense. Both those guys coached for Coach [Art] Briles. So, there are a lot of similarities offensively with what they're doing. But the quarterback's a lot different. That's the big thing. This guy, he can run. I remember one time last year he took off for about 40. He covers ground in a hurry. You know, you're going to have to score points. There's no question about it. We've got to convert and get touchdowns and we'll be aggressive with fourth-down decisions and things like that also."
Â
On scoring points against offensively-minded opponents where he thought he might need to score many points to win:
"I think that's probably a little more of their defense, too. We're going to need to score some points there's no doubt about that."
Â
On turning around the Tulane program:
"You know, it's been a challenge, there's no doubt about it. You've got to come into work every day and roll your sleeves up and get ready to get after it. Changing cultures is difficult. I don't know what it is, five winning seasons here in the last 36 years. I knew it was going to be difficult coming in. We've just been working hard and plugging away and staying positive. We're blessed to have a lot of really good young men to work with. We've only got – I think I said it last week, I didn't even realize it until I counted it up – I think I've got 12 scholarship guys that were here before I got here. So, we've almost flipped the whole roster over the last two and a half years. It was interesting: Nico Marley came into the locker room after the game. Great player for us. He was here my first year. He talked to the guys about, toward the end of the game last week, that would have been a game Tulane might have lost. You saw some good, positive things. Sometimes as a coach, I came in walking off the field and I'm disappointed because I didn't feel we played up to our expectation level as a coaching staff. You've got to remember in this occupation everybody's trying to win. You've got other occupations where you work your tail off, you do a good job and all those things, you're going to be highly successful. But there's a 'W' or an 'L' after all these weeks when you coach. So, you've got to make sure you're on point 24/7/365 days a year of getting better and getting over that hump. I'm going to keep working until we get all the way over that hump."
Â
On what 'all the way over the hump' means to him:
"I've had some very successful teams. We want to be a team that is recognized nationally. That's what we want to have. And to do that, you've got to do it consistently. You can't just do it every once in a while. That's what we want to do."
Â
On relating his Tulane experience to any previous coaching stops:
"It's been this way every place we've been. Blinn Junior College had not won very many games before we got there. We got it turned very quick, but you're talking about a two-year program as opposed to a four-year program. It's a little bit easier. Central Missouri and Sam Houston State we were the same way. Georgia Southern we went from I-AA to Division I. We got it turned very quickly. We've been close, but close just doesn't count. You've got to win these games in the end. We've done that I guess two out of the last three games. I was really pleased with the Tulsa game that we got a score and a stop. Last week, we needed to get a stop and we got a stop. We're not at the point where we're going to roll the ball out there and win a ballgame. We've got to play well. That's my job and the coaches' jobs to ensure that we do that."
Â
On the development of the roster this year:
"Yeah we've got a bunch of young kids out there. I was looking, there was a play during the game the other day and I looked out and I believed it was seven true freshmen or redshirt freshmen or sophomores out there playing for us on defense. We're a young team. Usually that's not the case when you're in your third year. Usually you've got some more veteran guys. But we're a young team, and that's good. That's encouraging."
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Players Mentioned
Tulane Tuesday: S Jack Tchienchou - 9/9/25
Tuesday, September 09
Tulane Tuesday: QB Jake Retzlaff - 9/9/25
Tuesday, September 09
Tulane Tuesday: HC Jon Sumrall - 9/9/25
Tuesday, September 09
South Alabama Postgame: HC Jon Sumrall, SPEAR Javion White, RB Zuberi Mobley
Sunday, September 07
