Tulane 49, UConn 7 - Postgame Quotes
Oct 12, 2019 | Football
Head Coach Willie Fritz
On doing what Tulane was expected to against UConn...
"I think that is a sign of a mature team. We talked all week about it and I know some guys look past games and that's when upsets occur. We're certainly not to a point where we can do that. I was excited about our effort and thought we had pretty good energy. I thought it was good."
On being able to rest guys during the game…
"We wanted to get a bunch of guys out there. We have such good kids on this team. We want to get those guys in there and get an opportunity to play. Against Missouri State, I think we played 87 guys and we are going to be close to playing that much. Our secondary at one time had all true freshmen that were on the scout team. We kind of had to coach them up on the sideline and get them going. It was fun to get those guys in there. I like the fact that our starters were pulling for the guys that were getting in there."Â
On weakness…
"We're much deeper than we've ever been by far. The first couple years we had an injury in a couple spots. There was a big drop-off and first team got it. Second team guy, but we also wanted to play like that to keep some dudes out of harm's way. It's a big ball game next Saturday and we felt like we had the game in hand at half time, so not everybody played as much as they might normally play."
On the level of happiness about the past games…
"We're playing good pass defense. Part of that's the rush, but we work on it every single day. When you go against [Darnell] Mooney and [Jalen] McCleskey, [Jaetavian] Toles, and those guys who are quick as a cat, it helps those guys with their technique, our DD's."
On the penalties…
"We're trying to decrease it. We had eight today. Some of those were late in the ball game. Some guys don't get to play much. We had a guy that jumped late in the game who didn't play very much. We had a guy that was a second shover and hopefully he learned his lesson on that and the second guy always gets caught, not the first guy. We need to play cleaner football, particularly this Saturday."
On the defensive guys being upset about not shutting UConn out...
"We have to finish a game. One thing we talked about on Monday is we have to know how to react when we're up on somebody and getting after them. We have to still keep competing and keep playing and all those kinds of things. We did that for the most part."
Thoughts on moving forward with a tough schedule…
"Same thing we've been preaching all along. All we're worried about is, you know, letting the guys have fun, celebrating this big win. It's hard to win a college football game. Everybody's trying to win, but we'll come back in on Monday and we're turning the page and moving on to Memphis."
Graduate QB Justin McMillan
On meeting high expectations…
"It says a lot. We don't pay attention to that stuff. Like Coach Fritz said earlier, 1-0Â is our mindset. As seniors in the locker room, we preach it. We don't get into all the polls or any social media or media things. It can really get you blindsided. Games like this can catch you off-guard if you walk up on it and don't play the game that you're supposed to play. I feel like we did well as an offense, and I feel like we did great as a team. A lot of young guys played this game so, it made me excited just to see guys out there making plays. It was a fun game. Nice and early. The sun came out. We're headed in the right direction."
On coming out at halftime…
"I just made sure that Keon [Howard] and Christian [Daniels] and everyone was still in it. At times, games like that can become almost playful, where people don't take things as seriously. My job in a situation like that is to make sure that people, for the most part we still got a foot on their neck. We got to win the game and if that means by 100 then I'm ready to win by 100. I don't care who's in, on offense or defense. I want to win, and I don't care what the measures are. Third or fourth string, I'm going to talk to them as if I was talking to my starters. I don't want to let up on anybody. That's never been a mindset of mine. Win. We got to win games."
On the touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney…
"We practice that every day. Me and Darnell, we go back to last year when I first got here. That was a guy that I worked with a lot. Moving on in this season, I feel like us getting the ball to him more has helped the offense out a lot. He's a one-play guy. He can make a play and score a touchdown. It's as easy as that. Darnell is dynamic. I'm glad to have him out there at 'X'."
On Corey Dauphine...
"He's from Texas. That should speak enough. You know us Texas boys play hard. Corey is what he is. You give him a lane, he'll take it. You give him an inch; he'll take a mile. They gave him a crease and he took it to the house. It's nothing but what I expect from him. That's not his last. I can say that for sure, comfortably. He's going to be big for us in these upcoming games. So is the whole running back room, we're going to need everybody to win these games. I like winning. This team likes winning. This is new to Tulane and I don't want it to become old anytime soon."Â
On confidence as a team…
"I'm confident. I'll say this every week with a straight face, this is not the old Tulane. This isn't what people thought it was. We're not scheduled for anybody's homecomings. We're not that kind of team that gets blown over or pushed by. We're a team that needs to be recognized and respected. That's our job on the field. That's what we're playing for. We're serious. What we're doing this season started from the summer. Everybody is doing their part to make this team better: staff, coaches, players. I wasn't here in the past. I'm here now. The players are here now. I'm ready to keep winning."
Junior DEÂ Cameron Sample
On the comfortable win…
"That shows how far we've come as a team, being more mature. In past years we've had games we're we've been favored to win by a lot and we drop the ball but just to see us compete and doing all three phases of football is a good thing to see."
On coming just short of a shutout…
"You know it's disappointing but for them, I would say it's also a learning experience. They probably didn't have as many reps going into this game as some of the older guys but it's some good experience for them."
On not letting UConn in the red zone…
"Just playing our solid defense. Stopping the running and getting into those obvious passing situations, just not letting them convert on third downs, just playing our solid football."
On how complete Tulane's football team is…
"I feel top to bottom, we're as complete as anyone in this conference, possibly the country. Just making sure we limit those penalties, not beating ourselves off of that, we can beat anyone we play."
On Corey Dauphine…
"He's one of our many weapons and he's so electric. Every time he touches the ball he has that chance to pop it for sixty and he's also, what people don't give him credit for, he's a real hard runner. You see him breaking a lot of tackles, so he's a real complete running back."
On the possibility of beating Memphis and having a shot at winning the division…
"Honestly just being 1-0 every week and letting everything handle itself. Come in Monday, like P.J. said, we're going to watch the film, throw it away and just get ready for our best game when we play them."
Senior SÂ P.J. Hall
On coming just short of a shutout…
"It was really disappointing, even though the freshmen, the young guys were out there, we expect them to go out there and play the same way that we play. So we were expecting them to shut them out but they played hard."
On Macon Clark's interception…
"He adds a lot to the defense. Macon's a big hitter and I think a big for Macon is, he ends up in the right spot but, him being kind of young, he's only a sophomore, he doesn't really play the ball yet. He's starting to play the ball more and you see that on that play, instead of going for the hit he went for the ball and it ended up working out for him."
On the team playing strong despite a big game next week…
"We weren't even worried about the game next week. Everything this week was UConn, UConn, UConn. It didn't matter their record, didn't matter who we were playing, we were focused on them this week. When Monday comes around, we'll focus on Memphis then."
On the rest of the season…
"It's exciting. It's exciting just to know that we have a chance, but like I said, we're not really looking into who we play at the end of the year. After we watch the film on Monday, everything is going to Memphis."
Redshirt Senior RB Corey Dauphine
On his rushing touchdown…
"I saw it coming. The first two carries I was so mad because I really wanted to take those two to the house but I knew the third run I was going to do something special."
On Tulane's offensive game…
"I wouldn't say complete. We still feel like, as a team, we have more to improve on. We definitely aren't complete right now."
On Tulane's weapons in the backfield…
"As a group, as a running back group and everybody else, we just want to win. And that's our objective, to win."
On the opportunity to do big things in the second half of the season…
"I'm looking forward to it. All the hard work that we put in in the summer and spring. Now it's just showing and that's a great part of it."
Redshirt Junior PKÂ Merek Glover
On what happened in the locker room…
"I was just going through my normal routine after the game and Coach [Fritz] had broken down already and I was going to my locker, getting unchanged. Then he calls everyone back in, I wasn't really confused I just thought he forgot to tell us something about the schedule. And then, he started to talk about this speech and I got a feeling, I think this might be about me. And then, he told me I was put on full scholarship."
On his thoughts going into the season about the possibility of a scholarship…
"The possibility has always been talked about by all these coaches. Everyone on the team always says you deserve it, keep working and it's going to come. So finally the moment happened and it was almost surreal, I didn't really believe it."
On the team's reaction…
"I was just picked up, thrown around. Everyone was screaming."
