MEET THE PRESS: Head Coach Willie Fritz Speaks at Media Day
Aug 13, 2021 | Football
NEW ORLEANS - Listed below is the complete transcript from Green Wave head coach Willie Fritz's media day press conference on Friday.
Tulane Football Head Coach Willie Fritz
Opening statement
"Isn't it great to be in person, I'm tired of zooms and I know you all are probably getting sick of them as well if you're not already sick of them. We really appreciate everybody coming out today thank you all very much for all the fantastic coverage that you give us. We're very excited about this upcoming season. Every year is a new challenge. I've been a coaching since 1982 and you know about a month before the camp begins my wife starts saying I get a little extra bounce in my step. I love preseason camp; I love the opportunity to work with every single person in our program on a daily basis and the great part about it is we've got such super young men we recruited not only quality football players but quality young men that really represent Tulane in a first-class manner.
Probably, I think, the biggest strength that we have coming into this season it's by far the best depth that I've ever had here at Tulane. We've had some great players since I got here. I remember that first year Tanzel Smart playing in the NFL and Parry Nickerson and Donnie Lewis and Rod Teamer and John Leglue in the NFL we got 15 guys right now that are in camp. So, we had some good quality football players, but we didn't have it across the board.
Our backups were a little bit lacking to play in this league. I really feel now that if we get a guy banged up and we've got to put another guy in he's going to be another quality football player. So, we're very excited about that.
I'm also excited about our new coordinators. Not very many Division I programs in the country got a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator. I know Chip Long is going to visit with you and talk to you about our offense. He's got a wealth of experience he was a Broyles Award finalist as assistant coach of the year a few years ago. He's was calling plays at Notre Dame before that he was calling plays at Memphis. I've really enjoyed watching the transformation of our offense from what coach (Will) Hall established, you know Chip putting his fingerprints all over it. I think it's going to be an exciting offense and you can ask him about that. I'm also very pleased with the improvement that we've seen from Coach Hampton, Chris Hampton, and the defensive side of the ball. Chris was with us for four years you know and when I had the opportunity to bring him back, he was the only guy that I interviewed and talked to. Chip was the only guy I talked to for the offensive coordinator position. I was fortunate enough to get both of them. Chris already has changed our culture defensively I asked him about some of the things he's doing with the black shirts for our guys on the defensive side of the ball. Those guys want to wear that jersey every single day. He's also added some things that we're doing defensively that were quite a bit different this year than we were last season in terms of all we're doing on the defensive side of the ball.
A lot of people have asked me about our schedule, definitely a challenging schedule. Our first year I remember Troy (Dannen) and I went to a conference meeting and our commissioner told us, 'hey, we want to be a part of this power six you know we have got to play a challenging schedule." We're very fortunate that we can get teams to come in in New Orleans everybody wants to recruit New Orleans, it's a talent rich city.
It's one of the top football high school football playing communities in the United states by far. It's interesting, today a couple of our players were arguing about Texas football, Mississippi football, Louisiana football. I told the guys from Mississippi and Texas - hey we are in New Orleans now. This is the best football right here as far as high school is concerned.
This is a great schedule you know we've got not only Oklahoma coming in here I see some places where they're ranked second in the country and other places fifth or sixth. We've also got Ole Miss, we're going over to play them. They're ranked in the Top 25 and then UAB's are great opponent. They've been Conference USA champions or play for the championship I think three out of the last four years. Then we've got a really tough AAC schedule and a bunch of great games here and on the road. All I can tell the fans is you know seven home games that's a rarity. One of the great things about Yulman stadium I think is that the media can attest to is, every seat is a great seat. Sometimes you get into these stadiums and it's hard to see what's going on, on the other side of the field. Or you better bring binoculars, or you aren't going to be able to tell what's going on. This is a great stadium. I think when we get people that come in here, we pack it in against Oklahoma I think they'll come back time and time again so with that I'll go ahead and open it up for questions and once again thank you all for coming."
On how long he has been working on Oklahoma and what a win against them would mean to the program…
"Obviously, it's a very challenging game that our guys are extremely excited about. Our coaching staff is as well. When we are in the summer, we work on all of our opponents. So, we will take three days and will work on Oklahoma then Morgan State, Ole Miss and UAB and then all the conference games. We get a preliminary game plan together. This one won't change too much because they don't have any games to play before we play. Sometimes what you work on in the summer changes because you are going to get a totally different game plan because they've changed a lot of things. I've learned over the years that you got to make sure you put everything into every single ball game. These guys put 365 days a year into this. I had to kick guys off the field today because we're scrimmaging tomorrow, and I wanted them to be fresh and frisky. You only get 12 opportunities, so we want to put everything we possibly can into these 12 opportunities and Oklahoma obviously is the first one."
On the new COVID restriction will effect players the games…
"We talked about it last night in our team meeting and we're going to send something out to all the parents and families to make sure they will be getting an opportunity to get vaccinated if they can. We're going to adhere to all the rules that are set forth here in the city of New Orleans. I also think that President (Michael) Fitts and everybody here at Tulane has done an incredible job of getting us back to where we can have situations like this. We're in person. We're going to have in person classes this year. I think our student body is 95 percent vaccinated our faculty and staff 92 percent. We are 100 percent vaccinated in the football department with coaches. I think our team were right about 94 percent. We are still plugging away trying to get it up to 100. We want this to be as normal as it possibly can be for our team and our fans. We just need to do a great job of following the rules that are set forth by the mayor and also by our president and university."
On what it is going to be like having a full house for the first time since 2019…
"Well, I think the guys are going to be really excited. You know it's a little different last year than that last game we went up and played on the blue turf in Boise, Idaho against a team from Nevada. It was a little chilly that day and I remember walking out and normally you have ushers at least ushers or maybe a security guard or two in the stands. I looked all the way around the stadium and there's not one single person in the stands it was zero capacity. I think they limited us how many people could have on the sidelines. So, there's maybe 300 people total between the two teams you know on the sidelines, so it was very different. You had to provide your own energy and enthusiasm. I think football is meant to be played in front of a crowd. I know I'm looking forward to playing in front of a crowd and so is our team. I've got a lot of people coming to week one. I told all my guys, my buddies that if you want a ticket for week one you got to be coming week two, so that's how I'm limiting how many of my friends are coming to the ball game week one. We're very excited about the stadium being open and having fans. I think it's going to be super and help us get back to normal."
On the positions that guys are fighting for spots…
"Right guard, right tackle position offensively. A lot of competition involved there Rashad Green, Tim Shafter, Caleb Thomas you know Josh Remetich to name a few guys. Jackson Fort has even done some good things, so he's playing over at left guard. He could also play over there, so we've got about five guys competing for those two spots. Wide receiver seems like a different guy taking a step forward every day. We'll have a rotation. You really learn about your team through the first two, three ball games and that's when you kind of get in the rotation. I tell them all the time you've got to be a "practice player" to be a "gamer." Nobody just gets out there and plays on Saturday. You've got to show us in practice to have the opportunity to show us on Saturday. There's great competition there. We've got great competition at our linebacker position. I really feel like we've got four bona fide Division I football players there with Kevin Henry, Nick Anderson, Dorian Williams and Marvin Moody, playing those two spots. There's a lot of competition there. We got some competition in the back end and in the secondary at safety. On the defensive ends, we've probably got four guys that are competing for those two spots. So, I see this rolling. You got to do this early in the year to get into game shape. When we play at 11 a.m. in that first ball game, it usually gets a little hot around here 11 a.m. So, you know we're going to roll some guys. We will probably play 18, 19 guys on defense and probably the same amount of guys on offense. Then you'll start paring it down as season progresses.
On the improvements he has seen between years one and two of Michael Pratt…
"Well, I think you know Michael, just like everybody on the offensive side of the ball, had to learn a new system. Coach Long came in because there are a lot of differences between what Chip does and what Will does. It's the same thing from year one to year two you know. It's just his leadership is tremendous not only with the offense but with the defense with the kicker and punters on the coaching staff. He's a servant leader and you want that with everybody in your ballclub. Michael certainly embraces that and just has a maturity level of confidence that he's played Division I football at the highest level. You ought to have confidence when you to play well at the highest level."
On how Tyjae Spears has bounced back…
"There are some highs and lows, but he's a tough, hard-nosed young man and very determined to get back. Like I said before, he had to trust the trainers and the doctors the rehab people. We're very fortunate that obviously we've got a couple hospitals here in town, so we had some experts looking at his knee and helping him out. We do that every step along the way. When it all boils down to it, the young man has to put in the work and he certainly has done that. I know he's excited about being back and we certainly are as well."
Tune in to hear from Coach Fritz about the upcoming season#RollWave https://t.co/EGEvZ5ydL6
— Tulane University Football (@GreenWaveFB) August 13, 2021
Tulane Football Head Coach Willie Fritz
Opening statement
"Isn't it great to be in person, I'm tired of zooms and I know you all are probably getting sick of them as well if you're not already sick of them. We really appreciate everybody coming out today thank you all very much for all the fantastic coverage that you give us. We're very excited about this upcoming season. Every year is a new challenge. I've been a coaching since 1982 and you know about a month before the camp begins my wife starts saying I get a little extra bounce in my step. I love preseason camp; I love the opportunity to work with every single person in our program on a daily basis and the great part about it is we've got such super young men we recruited not only quality football players but quality young men that really represent Tulane in a first-class manner.
Probably, I think, the biggest strength that we have coming into this season it's by far the best depth that I've ever had here at Tulane. We've had some great players since I got here. I remember that first year Tanzel Smart playing in the NFL and Parry Nickerson and Donnie Lewis and Rod Teamer and John Leglue in the NFL we got 15 guys right now that are in camp. So, we had some good quality football players, but we didn't have it across the board.
Our backups were a little bit lacking to play in this league. I really feel now that if we get a guy banged up and we've got to put another guy in he's going to be another quality football player. So, we're very excited about that.
I'm also excited about our new coordinators. Not very many Division I programs in the country got a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator. I know Chip Long is going to visit with you and talk to you about our offense. He's got a wealth of experience he was a Broyles Award finalist as assistant coach of the year a few years ago. He's was calling plays at Notre Dame before that he was calling plays at Memphis. I've really enjoyed watching the transformation of our offense from what coach (Will) Hall established, you know Chip putting his fingerprints all over it. I think it's going to be an exciting offense and you can ask him about that. I'm also very pleased with the improvement that we've seen from Coach Hampton, Chris Hampton, and the defensive side of the ball. Chris was with us for four years you know and when I had the opportunity to bring him back, he was the only guy that I interviewed and talked to. Chip was the only guy I talked to for the offensive coordinator position. I was fortunate enough to get both of them. Chris already has changed our culture defensively I asked him about some of the things he's doing with the black shirts for our guys on the defensive side of the ball. Those guys want to wear that jersey every single day. He's also added some things that we're doing defensively that were quite a bit different this year than we were last season in terms of all we're doing on the defensive side of the ball.
A lot of people have asked me about our schedule, definitely a challenging schedule. Our first year I remember Troy (Dannen) and I went to a conference meeting and our commissioner told us, 'hey, we want to be a part of this power six you know we have got to play a challenging schedule." We're very fortunate that we can get teams to come in in New Orleans everybody wants to recruit New Orleans, it's a talent rich city.
It's one of the top football high school football playing communities in the United states by far. It's interesting, today a couple of our players were arguing about Texas football, Mississippi football, Louisiana football. I told the guys from Mississippi and Texas - hey we are in New Orleans now. This is the best football right here as far as high school is concerned.
This is a great schedule you know we've got not only Oklahoma coming in here I see some places where they're ranked second in the country and other places fifth or sixth. We've also got Ole Miss, we're going over to play them. They're ranked in the Top 25 and then UAB's are great opponent. They've been Conference USA champions or play for the championship I think three out of the last four years. Then we've got a really tough AAC schedule and a bunch of great games here and on the road. All I can tell the fans is you know seven home games that's a rarity. One of the great things about Yulman stadium I think is that the media can attest to is, every seat is a great seat. Sometimes you get into these stadiums and it's hard to see what's going on, on the other side of the field. Or you better bring binoculars, or you aren't going to be able to tell what's going on. This is a great stadium. I think when we get people that come in here, we pack it in against Oklahoma I think they'll come back time and time again so with that I'll go ahead and open it up for questions and once again thank you all for coming."
On how long he has been working on Oklahoma and what a win against them would mean to the program…
"Obviously, it's a very challenging game that our guys are extremely excited about. Our coaching staff is as well. When we are in the summer, we work on all of our opponents. So, we will take three days and will work on Oklahoma then Morgan State, Ole Miss and UAB and then all the conference games. We get a preliminary game plan together. This one won't change too much because they don't have any games to play before we play. Sometimes what you work on in the summer changes because you are going to get a totally different game plan because they've changed a lot of things. I've learned over the years that you got to make sure you put everything into every single ball game. These guys put 365 days a year into this. I had to kick guys off the field today because we're scrimmaging tomorrow, and I wanted them to be fresh and frisky. You only get 12 opportunities, so we want to put everything we possibly can into these 12 opportunities and Oklahoma obviously is the first one."
On the new COVID restriction will effect players the games…
"We talked about it last night in our team meeting and we're going to send something out to all the parents and families to make sure they will be getting an opportunity to get vaccinated if they can. We're going to adhere to all the rules that are set forth here in the city of New Orleans. I also think that President (Michael) Fitts and everybody here at Tulane has done an incredible job of getting us back to where we can have situations like this. We're in person. We're going to have in person classes this year. I think our student body is 95 percent vaccinated our faculty and staff 92 percent. We are 100 percent vaccinated in the football department with coaches. I think our team were right about 94 percent. We are still plugging away trying to get it up to 100. We want this to be as normal as it possibly can be for our team and our fans. We just need to do a great job of following the rules that are set forth by the mayor and also by our president and university."
On what it is going to be like having a full house for the first time since 2019…
"Well, I think the guys are going to be really excited. You know it's a little different last year than that last game we went up and played on the blue turf in Boise, Idaho against a team from Nevada. It was a little chilly that day and I remember walking out and normally you have ushers at least ushers or maybe a security guard or two in the stands. I looked all the way around the stadium and there's not one single person in the stands it was zero capacity. I think they limited us how many people could have on the sidelines. So, there's maybe 300 people total between the two teams you know on the sidelines, so it was very different. You had to provide your own energy and enthusiasm. I think football is meant to be played in front of a crowd. I know I'm looking forward to playing in front of a crowd and so is our team. I've got a lot of people coming to week one. I told all my guys, my buddies that if you want a ticket for week one you got to be coming week two, so that's how I'm limiting how many of my friends are coming to the ball game week one. We're very excited about the stadium being open and having fans. I think it's going to be super and help us get back to normal."
On the positions that guys are fighting for spots…
"Right guard, right tackle position offensively. A lot of competition involved there Rashad Green, Tim Shafter, Caleb Thomas you know Josh Remetich to name a few guys. Jackson Fort has even done some good things, so he's playing over at left guard. He could also play over there, so we've got about five guys competing for those two spots. Wide receiver seems like a different guy taking a step forward every day. We'll have a rotation. You really learn about your team through the first two, three ball games and that's when you kind of get in the rotation. I tell them all the time you've got to be a "practice player" to be a "gamer." Nobody just gets out there and plays on Saturday. You've got to show us in practice to have the opportunity to show us on Saturday. There's great competition there. We've got great competition at our linebacker position. I really feel like we've got four bona fide Division I football players there with Kevin Henry, Nick Anderson, Dorian Williams and Marvin Moody, playing those two spots. There's a lot of competition there. We got some competition in the back end and in the secondary at safety. On the defensive ends, we've probably got four guys that are competing for those two spots. So, I see this rolling. You got to do this early in the year to get into game shape. When we play at 11 a.m. in that first ball game, it usually gets a little hot around here 11 a.m. So, you know we're going to roll some guys. We will probably play 18, 19 guys on defense and probably the same amount of guys on offense. Then you'll start paring it down as season progresses.
On the improvements he has seen between years one and two of Michael Pratt…
"Well, I think you know Michael, just like everybody on the offensive side of the ball, had to learn a new system. Coach Long came in because there are a lot of differences between what Chip does and what Will does. It's the same thing from year one to year two you know. It's just his leadership is tremendous not only with the offense but with the defense with the kicker and punters on the coaching staff. He's a servant leader and you want that with everybody in your ballclub. Michael certainly embraces that and just has a maturity level of confidence that he's played Division I football at the highest level. You ought to have confidence when you to play well at the highest level."
On how Tyjae Spears has bounced back…
"There are some highs and lows, but he's a tough, hard-nosed young man and very determined to get back. Like I said before, he had to trust the trainers and the doctors the rehab people. We're very fortunate that obviously we've got a couple hospitals here in town, so we had some experts looking at his knee and helping him out. We do that every step along the way. When it all boils down to it, the young man has to put in the work and he certainly has done that. I know he's excited about being back and we certainly are as well."
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