MEET THE PRESS: Fritz Previews Auburn at Weekly News Conference

NEW ORLEANS - Listed below is the complete transcript from Green Wave head coach Willie Fritz's weekly press conference leading up to Tulane's matchup vs. natonally-ranked Auburn on Saturday.

Tulane Head Coach Willie Fritz
Opening Statement…
"Thanks for everybody coming out today.  A good first game for us.  We played a really good opponent, Florida International who have been in a bunch of bowl games.  Coach (Butch) Davis and his staff do a super job.  I thought we had an advantage over them, they did not quite know what we were going to do offensively.  I thought we came out of the box fast on offense.  We probably could have scored the first eight times we had the ball, but we shot ourselves in the foot either with foolish penalties or snap over the head one time.  Anyway, it is good.  We have to work through that stuff.  Defense played really well through the first three quarters.  And it was good to get out there and do some things in the kicking game because it is hard to replicate that in practice.  You always worry about that first ball game because you do not know about the blocking and the tackling.  I do not do a whole lot of it in preseason camp, the blocking part we do, but the tackling part we don't.  Just to keep us healthy and fresh and have all hands on deck.  Our guys did a pretty good job of tackling.  I think we had eleven missed tackles in the game, a lot of those were leverage mistakes.  Overall, a very good first ball game to come out and compete in. We've got a real big one this week against Auburn.  They've got all four and five star players that they've recruited over the years. Coach (Gus) Malzahn and his staff do a super job coaching those guys.  I've been a big fan of his.  He has kind of come up the same way as me as a high school coach and made his way up from coordinator.  He has done a super, super job there at Auburn.  This will be a tremendous challenge for us on Saturday evening."

On having time to watch Saturday football with game on Thursday...
"I actually did.  We came in on Friday morning early and graded the film. We had our guys come in Friday and we worked the kinks out a little bit and then we watched the FIU game to put that to bed.  I gave the guys Saturday and Sunday off and we came back Labor Day, Monday and had a good workout.  So we really got one more workout than we would normal get for a Saturday game.  I usually do not do much on Monday other than lift and review the opponent."

On his initial thoughts for Auburn…
"Well they played a great opponent, Oregon.  They have a really quality football program.  I think the quarterback was there in the spring, so he is a freshman quarterback, but he has had the benefit of going through spring and summer football so he has some experience.  I thought he did a really nice job and got better throughout the ball game.  They have great speed all over the field.  The secondary linebackers and their defensive line can really run.  One of the guys scooped up a fumble and took off running. You do not see that very much: a big guy like that.  And then on offense they have all sorts of weapons.  They are a really, really talented football team."

On freshman quarterback Bo Nix bouncing back in the game…
"That's part of it, he played on a high level high school football.  That is going to help you.  That is going to make a big difference going from a high level of high school football or coming from a lower level high school football.  Some guys, it is difficult for them to make that jump.  It takes them a year.  But he has great football blood in his system.  His dad is a coach so he has been around it all his life.  I thought he did a very nice job for his first game out there.  You have to put the first game perspective in there as well."

On the Auburn defensive line…
"It is going to help a bunch. You cannot sit back there and pat the ball or you're going to have problems.  They have a bunch of big guys with single digit numbers and when that happens they are usually pretty good."

On whether jitters had anything to do with the amount of penalties in the last game…
"I think that is part of it. The big ones that we try to eliminate are the pre-snap and post-play penalties.  Those are the ones that anyone in the crowd can call and most teams are about 50-50.  When you do that you are a pretty disciplined team.  When you have fifty percent of them, that is showing you have a lack of discipline.  So we have to eliminate those.  Once the ball has been snapped, they called a hold out there on the perimeter on our first drive. Once the ball has been snapped that is going to be his opinion. There were some other times I thought there was an interference that they did not call, but that was their opinion. The pre-snap and the post-play, those are the ones we can manage and stay away from."

On players wanting single digit numbers…
"I try to stay out of that uniform stuff.  It is irrelevant to me.  Guys like that, I guess it is good for recruiting too.  We have all sorts of helmet combinations and jerseys and all that stuff.  I let Devin Charles-Hubbard pick all that stuff every week.  I tell the players that if you play really well everyone will want to have your number.  It can be 61 and players will say that 'I want to have that number', so play really good."

On whether or not Tulane would be intimidated for the Auburn game…
"God I hope not.  I told our guys we are going to go over there on Friday to walk around the field.  It will kind of be like Hoosiers.  It will be a 120 yards long and 53 and 1/3 yards in width.  They are going to have a 10-yard end zone and all that kind of stuff. We are going to walk around out there, take all our pictures, get the selfies going and then Saturday we are going in there for business. We want to play the very best we can. To have the opportunity to win this game, we are going to have to play great."

On this weekend's football games with Power-Five teams getting beat…
"I think it is a lot closer than people think and they also have week one.  That plays into it, you do not see a lot of those things happening in the opening week."

On what causes upsets…
"There are a lot of good players out there.  There's Patrick Johnson, we were his first Division I offer with a week and a half left in recruiting and then he picked up a couple others with a week and a half left in recruiting.  And then he picked up a couple others.  He is pretty good, and he did not have much going on and then you have some other guys that everyone is recruiting and they cannot play. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder and you just have to keep doing a good job in the evaluation process to get the right guys to your school.  Not everybody is going to be a fit here at Tulane and in New Orleans. We have to find those guys and Division I football players.  We have got a lot more of them."

On the effectiveness of running backs…
"I think Will [Hall] has done a super job of getting those guys all involved.  Coach (Jamaal) Fobbs and the best thing about them is that they are an unselfish room.  In this day in age that does not really happen very often were guys are rooting for other guys when good things happen.  These guys do.  I think it is led by Darius Bradwell.  He is having to do some things he did not have to do his first few years such as blocking.  He had a nice block on one of the pass plays.  We slid the wrong way and he had to pick up a defensive end and he allowed Justin to have an extra count to throw the ball to Mooney over there in the corner.  There are a lot of good players."

On getting Corey Dauphine off the bench…
"You watch him in practice and I told Will (Hall) this, he has to get in the game now and he is going to have a different gear.  He is fast. 20.2 in 200 meters is fast.  Not many guys can run that fast and he is one of them."

On Amare Jones…
"He can do a lot of things. He can catch the ball and he runs great routes.  You get him out there and he can start for you as a receiver and he can start for you as a back or as a super back.  He is one of those Swiss Army knives, he does everything well.  He can catch punts, kickoffs.  He can run a kick off team and he would be good.  He loves practice.  He is maybe one of the hardest practicing guys we have, certainly the top five, I know that."

On former Green Wave safety Roderic Teamer Jr. making an NFL roster…
"We are really proud of him. He has worked extremely hard.  I am proud of him.  We talked to him yesterday.  John Leglue was out here at practice yesterday too and he just got picked up on the practice squad for the Saints.  Really proud of those guys."

MEET THE PRESS: Fritz Previews Auburn at Weekly News Conference

Players Mentioned

Darius Bradwell

Corey Dauphine

Patrick Johnson

Amare Jones

John Leglue

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