MEET THE PRESS: Fritz Recaps 2022 National Signing Day
Dec 15, 2021 | Football
NEW ORLEANS - Listed below is the complete transcript from Green Wave football head coach Willie Fritz's weekly press conference recapping the early portion of National Signing Day.
Opening statement
"We feel like we signed an excellent class. As I say every year, 'I don't know a football coach who doesn't say that.' You would have some problems if you didn't say your excited about the class, you're bringing in. Rankings, you never know about all those things. I think this is one of the higher ranked classes that Tulane has had before. We go out and recruit. We have to find the total student-athlete. We talk about recruiting bonified division 1 student-athletes with character and then we retain them, which is so important nowadays by providing a culture where they can thrive and grow. Last, but certainly not least, is develop these guys as people, as football players and also as students.
"We're very proud of the fact that every young man that's come through our program has graduated. We're going to continue to keep doing that. We have a whole bunch of guys that are graduating next week, whole bunch of guys that are graduating in May and a bunch of them still have eligibility left.
"That's the number one priority for us when we sell Tulane and coming here and playing ball. We talk to them about three different things. One, the opportunity to get a world-class education. We're the 39th-ranked school academically out of 4,140 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. We're proud of that. Number two, we play in an unbelievable league. We're on national TV every week. You can watch our games live. I make the joke all the time that we're never one 'ESPN the Ocho.' We're on ABC. We're on ESPN. We're on ESPN2. We're on the big stations and kids like that. That's important to them and the reason for that is the American Athletic Conference has such quality in it.
"Last, but not least, we sell the city of New Orleans. In 2018 the New York Times ranked New Orleans as the number one destination city in the world. When they come here, and they visit we really try to show off the city. Kids get here and they fall in love with the city and our guys really enjoy it. We've kind of gotten back to normal the last couple months. We had the COVID season, which everybody experienced, and then we also had the Ida season, which only our team and other local colleges and universities experienced. In the last couple months, we've gotten back to normal, and our freshmen are starting to understand what makes Tulane so great and also so unique. Early in the season I had a couple of the freshmen parents tell me, 'my son's not having a whole lot of fun' and I said 'well, I'm not having any fun either. Join the club.' We've gotten back to normal and we're very, very excited about it.
"We signed student-athletes from six different states. We're always going to recruit nationwide because of our academic requirements that we have here. They are different than the other schools in our conference. We understand that and that's why we've graduated all our guys because we have guys who can also compete in the classroom.
On Isaiah Boyd
We've really got some good guys signed up to play on the defensive line. Isaiah Boyd from out in Pennsylvania has good size, good length. He's been committed to us for a long time. Came in the summer and had an outstanding senior year.
On Gerrod Henderson
"Gerrod Henderson from Spring High School over in Houston, Texas, he had a bunch of offers and a bunch of Power 5 offers. We're very, very fortunate to get him. He's the District MVP. He's got some background in New Orleans. His family lived here. He's excited about coming back and that was another reason why we were able to get him."
On Patrick Jenkins
"Patrick (Jenkins) is from John Ehret High School. (He) started last year at TCU. He wanted to come back home. I was getting a call almost every day from guys who entered the portal and wanted to come back to New Orleans. I used it this year in recruiting with a few kids from New Orleans. I just can't take everybody. Things change every year, but we got some real quality guys who went away, thought the lights were a little brighter and everything else and they missed home, and they contacted us and came back. Patrick is really, really excited about coming back. We think he can be a dominant defensive lineman for us. He's from the mold of a Jeffery Johnson. He can play every down, pass rush. We feel like he's got an opportunity to be a dominant player in this conference. All three of those guys are excellent defensive linemen."
On Taylor Love
"Linebacker-wise we signed a great linebacker from Alabama. He just played last week in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game. Taylor Love put up some great numbers. We recruited against a bunch of people for him. Great strength. Kind of in the mold of a Nick Anderson. Really will strike you. Has a lot of suddenness to him. Has linebacker movement and can also play good pass coverage which a lot of guys in high school aren't able to do. Comes from a quality program. We're very excited about getting him."
On Rayshawn Pleasant
"In the backend, the secondary, Rayshawn Pleasant from West Monroe (La.). He turned down quite a few schools to come here and that's an unbelievable program over there in West Monroe. He came to our camp and did a great job. We love bringing guys into camp so that we can get actual measurements on them. A lot of times somebody will tell me a guy is six-foot and he's about three inches shorter than me. Once we get these guys over here, we get some real measurements on them, and Rayshawn knocked it out of the park with us."
On Cadien Robinson
"Cadien Robinson from Rockwall High School over there in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. They had a great season. He did a 10' 6" standing broad jump which is really explosive. He's got some length on him. He's a shade over six-foot. I think he had close to a 33-inch reach with his arms. We're very, very fortunate to get him."
On Lawrence Keys
"On the offensive side of the ball, looking at receivers, I'm going to start off with a McDonogh 35-product. Played for the late Coach Reese. One of the great coaches in the history of the city of New Orleans. I got to know him well. I had a ton of respect for him and so does Lawrence Keys. Lawrence went up to Notre Dame. Played a bunch for them. Same thing, Lawrence wanted to come back home. He's really got a couple years he could possibly play for us. Very, very excited about getting Lawrence Keys back here. He missed New Orleans. He's got his degree from Notre Dame, and he'll be getting a graduate degree from Tulane. That's a pretty good combination, an undergraduate from Notre Dame and a graduate from Tulane. I believe he'll get a pretty good job if he's not playing in the NFL. We're very proud of getting Lawrence back here with us."
On Dae Dae McDougle
"We've also got Dae Dae (DeaJuan) McDougle. He had five big time visits coming out of high school. I believe he visited Alabama on an official visit. He ended up going to Maryland. One of the big reasons we got him, he's high school teammates with Michael Pratt. They played together at Deerfield Beach and had a great run their senior year. They still maintain contact and went into the portal and Michael immediately called me and he went for five minutes just talking about Dae Dae and his character. Didn't talk anything about his playing ability. How he's going to be a positive addition to our squad, program, and Tulane University. He came on his visit, and we just fell in love with the kid. Very, very excited about having him and Lawrence. Those guys both provide some experience and also some leadership as well with some of the younger guys. We've got a bunch of receivers that are coming back with JaQuan Jackson, the Watts, Shae Wyatt so that needs to be an area of strength for us."
On Ashaad Clayton
"Running back Ashaad Clayton from Warren Easton High School played for a former Green Wave great, Jerry Phillips, over there at Warren Easton High School. Same thing with him, he went out there to Colorado and I don't know if he knew it was going to get chilly there or not. I told him he didn't need to bring a coat on his visit. He's going to actually live at home. I tell these guys all the time about Darnell Mooney. Darnell actually saved 52-thousand dollars, and this is before NIL when he played here at Tulane. He (Clayton) told me he's going to do the same thing when he comes here. We're very, very excited about having him. Bigger back, good speed, great movement. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. Coached really well at Easton Warren High School. He'll protect and get in the middle of a blitzing linebacker. We're pumped up about having him."
On Makhi Hughes
"Also, Makhi Hughes from over in Alabama. Great career over there. Again, comes from a fantastic program. They play top-flight football in his area. We were over there in Birmingham for a long time, and he actually came over and watched us play a game over there then came over here. He decommitted from another school and we're very, very fortunate to get him. Again, both of these guys have got good size. They're both probably going to end up playing in their career around 210. They can do everything. I had Matt Forte and Mewelde Moore and Jerald Sowell talk to all these guys during COVID, and it was interesting listening to those three guys, who played a long time in the NFL and played at Tulane, they talked about being a complete back. In order to be a complete back you have to have a little bit of mass and size and these guys are certainly complete running backs and that's what you've got to have."
On Blake Gunter
"We signed a great tight end out of Mississippi, Blake Gunter. He came over here and absolutely fell in love with Tulane and I don't know how many of our games he came to, probably four or five of our games. Really fortunate to get him. Won the state championship over in Mississippi and really did a great job over there."
On Kameron Hamilton
"Another guy on the defensive line, Kameron Hamilton. Kameron was a state champion at Zachary High School. District MVP, defensively. Another big guy, 6'3." A legit 6'3" 280 pounds. We've got to continue getting bigger, longer, more mass on the inside and Kam is a great addition. Slade Nagle, one of our coaches, his father is an assistant coach over at Zachary, so you get some inside knowledge on a student-athlete when you've got somebody that close to the program. Both Slade's dad and Coach Brew, the head coach at Zachary, couldn't say enough great things about him and we're very, very fortunate to get him."
On Brazzell II
"Chris Brazzell II – I'm not going to say I'm getting old. I'm getting experienced. Chris' dad played for me and was a great player for me at Blinn Junior College back in 1994-95. Won a couple of national championships with him and he ended up going to Angelo State and was a Division II All-American, sixth-round draft pick of the New York Jets and is actually best friends with Jerald Sowell, so he knows all about Tulane and everything about our program. Jerald was pushing Chris toward Tulane. It's great when you get your alums helping you out in the recruiting process. Chris was a sixth-round draft pick of the Jets, played for the Cowboys and played eight years in the CFL as well. His wife, Chris Jr.'s mom, is one of the top scorers in the history of Angelo State so he's got great pedigree. Chris is a bigger receiver, 6'3" 187 pounds. I watched him play basketball last Tuesday night. I think he had four dunks in the game, underneath the bucket and on breakaways. Sensational athlete. I think he's just scratching the level of ability he's going to have. I really feel like in a couple years he's going to be 200 pounds, running like a deer, jumping out of the gym. Jumping out of the field, I guess I shouldn't say gym. Not going to be playing basketball here too. Coach (Ron) Hunter might get some ideas. Very excited about having him as well."
On Jalen Rogers
"Jalen Rogers, his nickname is 'Speedy.' You don't get the nickname 'Speedy' if you're not fast. He came to our camp. I've only time a few guys who've run in the 4.3's. Everybody always says they run a 4.3. Just like the height, I time them they run a 4.5. I don't know what happens, but he ran a 4.3 for us. He's one of the fastest guys I've timed. He put on a show out here when he was at camp. Unfortunately, he went from one high school to another high school, and he wasn't able to play his senior year. Probably was good for us. We're very, very excited about Speedy."
On Carson Haggard
"One of his best buddies is our quarterback signee, Carson Haggard. A bunch of my coaches thought they were doing a fabulous job of recruiting Carson and then he came in on his visit and I met his sister, Maddie, who's a student here at Tulane. She was really the ace recruiter with us getting Carson here. He played at Gulliver Prep High School one of the top high schools in the state of Florida. Put up impressive numbers as a quarterback. He's a servant leader just like the other quarterbacks that we have in our football program, and we're pumped up to have Carson here. He knows all about Tulane. I think he came to four games last year and he's going to be an early enrollee as well."
On Sully Burns
"On the offensive line we've gotten bigger. We signed Sully Burns out of Plano High School. One of the bigger high schools in the state of Texas. I think they've got over five thousand students and they've got tremendous size. He's a man-mountain. He was injured his junior year, had a broken arm and wasn't able to participate with the program and that probably helped us as well. He's an excellent student. He and his dad came on the visit, and they were just so excited about the educational opportunities here at Tulane. He's an aggressive guy. He knows the difference between 'come here' and 'sic 'em.' Sometimes you get those bigger guys, and they don't know that difference. He competes and gets after it."
Q: After recruiting through Zoom last year, how much more comfortable did you feel with the recruiting process this year?
"Last year I didn't meet any of our players until they walked in here to come to school here at Tulane. That's not good. You can't tell much about a guy over Zoom. You don't get to ask questions to the counselors, the custodians, the coaches, the assistant coaches. Most schools across the area we recruit we probably know somebody at the school. Throughout the state of Louisiana, we know somebody at these schools. Somebody knows them and you get a real evaluation. It's so much better when you're really having true eval on character. That's the big one. I have no desire to be around a guy that's a pain in the butt for four years. If a guys had a bad 18 years, it's hard for us to change them. We run a very disciplined, structured program and we expect our guys to do a great job in the classroom. We expect them not to ever embarrass us off the field and we expect them to go out and practice their tails off out there on the field. When you do that, you better have character."
Q: How much can the guys from New Orleans help you immediately (Jenkins, Keys and Clayton)?
"I think big time. I think Lawrence is chomping at the bit to get out there and play bunch. We're going to have great competition at the receiver position this spring. I remember watching him in high school. I stood on the sideline and watched him play against Easton and I was like, 'wow, that guy's a good football player.' For whatever reason he didn't play as much as he wanted to at Notre Dame, but he had a very good career there. I know he's excited about having the opportunity to come here. Mr. Clayton, same thing with him. I watched him play a game in high school. I believe he had over 1,000 yards his senior year in just five games. He got hurt as a junior and came back and played the final five games and had over 1,000 yards and a bunch of those were in playoff games. He's got that size and competitiveness that you're looking for. Patrick Jenkins had an outstanding season last year at TCU. I talked to a couple of those guys that were on the staff last year and all they said was fantastic things. We recruited the dog out of him in high school and thought we had a chance to get him and lost him there at the last minute. The common denominator between all three of those guys is they wanted to come back home. Sometime guys don't realize until they go away what a hardship it is for your families to come watch you play. We're expecting big things out of all three of those guys."
Q: What does this class say about your program and your coaching staff after the past year?
"I think that we sell the same thing - world-class education. It's big time here. I'm not one of those coaches who does a disservice to student-athletes and just talks about playing pro ball. We've got 15 guys playing right now. I've got a few other guys that are playing in the NFL that played for me at some other places I was at. We talk about a parallel plan. If that's a goal of yours, work your tail off to play in the NFL. We have a bunch of guys doing it now and we've had a bunch of guys who've done it in the past at a high level. Matt Forte is going to be in the Ring of Honor with the Chicago Bears at some point in time. That guy had sensational career. Mewelde Moore sensational career. A bunch of guys. We've had a bunch and we've got a bunch of them right now. That's a good goal to have, but what are you going to do the next four years of your life? All of these guys are doing something that had these great careers in the NFL. They didn't just shut it down and not do anything. That's what we sell, getting that degree, using it your advantage, and then finding something you've got a passion for. I've got a passion for coaching. I love it. I knew that at an early age. One of the things we try to do with our career services department is find out early what these guys want to do. We're lucky we're in a bigger city. We've got internship opportunities for these guys. We've got some really great alums in the greater New Orleans area. It's a different setup than other places I've been in."
Q: How would you rate how the team and staff performed through adversity this season?
"We were one of only nine schools that played all their games during the COVID season. We didn't have to press pause, so I'm proud of that. To me that means our guys could follow rules. Our coaches did a great job. We bed-checked every night. We were wearing masks. I was the mask czar in the building. It was a pain in the rump, but our guys fought through it. It shows character. Then we went over to Birmingham for 25 nights. We had 31 dogs over there, cats. We had the whole athletic department in there. All the teams I thought behaved in a mature manner. Volleyball, baseball, basketball, track and field. Everybody. It wasn't just football. Then we came back, and a bunch of the guys had to stay in hotels for a long time because their house was destroyed, or they stayed in a hotel for another five or six nights when we got back in town. It was a different year. I hate going over it too many times because it feels like a whole bunch of excuses. I'd much rather brag about it and we were 8-4, but I had very few problems this year. I always repeat this, my old man used to tell me all the time, 'hang around smart people because they don't do as many dumb things as dumb people do.' We've got smart kids here and they've had a good 18 years in their upbringing. They know the difference between right and wrong. That's why it's so important to recruit character.
"Keanon (McNally) is from Kearney, Missouri, High School a suburb of Kansas City. That's where I'm from. He's the tallest kid I've ever had play for me. He's a pro-measure 6'08.7". That's barefoot, heels together, toes up in the air. There might not be anybody in the NFL that's that tall. Three hundred plus pounds. He was a basketball player and started getting into football here late. He came here and worked out for us and did an awesome job working out. I don't know if he went to any other camps, so we were able to see him. I'm from Kansas City so I knew a few people up there and we were fortunate enough to get him down here. Like I said, we want to get taller and longer and 6'9" and 6'6" with Sully Burns that's getting us taller and that's getting us longer. We're very pumped up about having Keanon join our program as well."
Q: Who are the early enrollees you could see this spring?
"We think Sully Burns is going to be able to come in early. Clayton, Jenkins, Keys and McDougle are all going to be in early. They'll all be here at semester. Kameron Hamilton from Zachary I think will be in here early as well."
Q: Is Ashaad Clayton totally healthy coming in?
"He's good to go. I think he had 20 carries for 100-some-odd yards last year. He's going to be a freshman. He had the COVID year, and he played four games or less this season so he's going to be a freshman."
Q: What are you going to do with your staff? Were you surprised by your class after the season you had? Were you surprised no one came after your quarterback (Michael Pratt)?
"I think Michael's all-in. I think our kids are all-in. Michael's a servant leader and he's got a lot of loyalty to his teammates. That's probably why we got Dae Dae because of him. He sold him on coming here and playing with him. We're proud of the fact we lost one guy during the season and then we haven't lost anyone season the season got over. That's a testimony to our culture. The kids who we've got here. Plus, they value this education. If all we do is sit around and talk about football all day, they think I'm going go play football some place else and believe football is very important to us. We want to win as much or more than anybody in the nation, but we also want to see these guys get a fantastic job and get set up for the rest of their life because you're not playing football forever.
"When we lost our offensive coordinator, it was at a time right now where I've got a little time to make that decision and find a replacement. We're working on it right now, but we don't comeback to school until January 18. This is a critical hire for me. I'm not going to say I'm going to take my time so much that I'm going to lose some candidates going other places, but I'm also not going to rush it where I make an incorrect decision. Right now, I'm doing a whole lot of phone interviews with different people. We're having a lot of interest in this job from all over the country from some high quality current offensive coordinators, past offensive coordinators. We're actively looking at guys. I hope to have a strength coach hired by Friday or Saturday of this week and have that finished and completed. We're working at it hard to replace those two spots.
"I think the relationships that we've built, and I think some of the kids understood the hardships we endured during the season. This is a great university and I think I have a little different approach than some other people do in recruiting in regards to emphasizing other things besides just playing football. If a guy understands its not just a four-year decision it's a 40-year decision, we have a chance to get him. We also want those guys that want to be great football players. We feel like we've got all of it here at Tulane. We've been real close, played in three bowl games in a row. We had a couple years in there where we maybe could have won eight, nine, 10 games and we want to get back to that and we want to push through that wall we've been hitting. We've been awful close, but we want to get it done and I'm more determined than ever to get it done."
Q: How difficult has it been to recruit from New Orleans and Louisiana during this cycle?
"One thing about New Orleans is it's recruited big time. I've made the joke before, I don't know if coaches fly in here, recruit, run down to Bourbon Street. I don't know, but they all seem to come here so you have a lot of competition here in New Orleans. We're not going to settle for seconds or thirds. We want guys that can come out here and start and play for us. Like a Macon Clark from Destrehan (La.). Like an Adonis Friloux from Hahnville (La.). Like an Angelo Anderson from John Curtis High School. We've got a lot of kids locally, but then we've got to have the grade component. Can't just have a pulse to get in to school here. They've got to have some good grades. Then you have to find guys that want to do all these things, have that type of character. Louisiana is a state of 4.7 million people. It's either one, two or three every year in the NFL players per capita so there is unbelievable talent in this state, but it's recruited big time. If we just try to go in Louisiana, if we get them all it'd be great, but we're not going to get them all. We've got to cast our net a little bit broader than just Louisiana. I'd love to just get all the kids from here locally. That'd be fantastic, but they've got to be bonified Division I student-athletes with character and there's got to be an emphasis on the student part."
Q: Are you going to have more room in February at the second signing deadline?
"Yes, we will, but not a whole bunch. We've also got standards that these guys have to meet as grad students and transfer students. We'll do a good job of continuing to recruit, but I always try to leave a little bit of room for a quality student-athlete that can help us win now."
