MEET THE PRESS: Fritz Previews UAB 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. UAB on Saturday.

Opening Statement
"Done with our first practice of the week. We didn't practice yesterday, we didn't get back from Oxford until close to five in the morning. We got up early and drove back here to NOLA and got here close to 5 p.m. on Sunday. We had a little bit of a different day, yesterday than we normally did. I wanted the guys to get a little bit of rest and get off their feet a little bit. We're going to be going on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and practicing and obviously playing the game on Saturday. A little bit different a week for us, but we're glad to be back home."

What was it like just to be back in Yulman Stadium?
"It was good. Last week was a long week and there are probably a couple mistakes I made with the game. I brought everybody and I wanted to bring everybody but unfortunately, we had a real small locker room. Then we had an extra two hours that were over there and no place to really go because it was really coming down hard during that time period. We didn't play very well on Saturday. I think the guys were looking forward to the game and I probably didn't time that out as well as I needed to. You never know when you have a situation like that what's the best thing to do. One thing I'm going to do a better job of is checking locker room size before we go and understand you can't bring 115 guys to an away game. The guys are very excited about being back in town I know I am. It's good to be back in New Orleans. It looks like city's done a great job picking everything up and getting back to normal."

Does it feel normal yet?
"No. It was a kind of a strange first practice, it really was. The guys were very excited about lifting yesterday because we were going to a health club. They didn't really have barbells and, and racks and things like that. So that's where we had to go for the last week. So it's a little bit different lifting and they're kind of excited about getting in the weight room where we can get back to our regular routine."

Will you have both your quarterbacks be available this week?
"Yes."

Did Justin Ibieta sustain any injuries in the Ole Miss game?
"Justin got banged up week before. Ibieta could have played, and we got him in there a little bit there towards the end of the game. So we did play him, both of them will be available. We pulled Michael (Pratt) out because we were a little concerned about the score of game at that point time. We didn't want him to take any more hits."

Dorian Williams became the latest player in college football to be ejected because of the targeting call that was sort of close what is I know you don't have control over the rule. But what are your thoughts on that rule and do you feel like there should maybe be some delineation between hits that get you ejected and hits the just get a penalty?
"I think it's a good rule. We got to have something, and I agree with the powers that be that they have some guidelines for what a proper hit is. I've been very fortunate that I've been with guys who stayed safe over 29 years head coach and 13 years as an assistant coach. So, we really teach those guys, but the thing that's tough in my opinion is that these are split second decisions. Sometimes we don't take that into consideration. I'll be honest with you, I looked at it over there on that sideline and I thought they were ruling on whether the guy got out of bounds or not, not if it was a targeting. I have not watched a TV copy, I'm not going to subject myself to that quite yet, but I don't know if that was (targeting). I guess it wasn't."

How tough is it to lose a guy like Dorian Williams?
"He's a great, great player for us, it's unfortunate and we would have loved to have had him in there. We had a little bit of momentum going at that point in time, but obviously, anytime you lose a real good player that hurts you."

Macon Clark made some plays in that game, you've talked about how good he's looked in practice early in the year, do you think he's headed for a pretty big year?
"He was practicing much, much harder. He's more consistent on a daily basis with his practice habits. He played really well in the first half - an excellent first half. Sometimes you look at it and our defense didn't play very well and give credit to Ole Miss. I think they were top five in the country last year in total offense and I believe we're number one now. There are a lot of good players who do a great job getting the ball to their studs in space and make you miss. We really tackled poorly, and some of that was us and some of that was them. They got a great quarterback - an excellent quarterback – and a good offensive line. It was definitely a tough night for the defense, we didn't play real well, but also Ole Miss has a tremendous offense."

On moving on after the game…
"We talked about it after the ballgame, we talked about it on Monday, when we get finished here after this game, Saturday night, we're going to be a third of the way through the season. Some of these guys don't realize that. It happens fast, it happens quick, we need in season heroes. You know, some guys are really good January through August, they light it up on social media, they lift the weights, they get personal trainers, they do all sorts of stuff. This is when we need the tough guy stuff. It's going be done before you know it. We will be four games in the book after Saturday night, so it's a win we need.

Based on what this team is going through with the evacuations and the opponents that you all have played, what can you learn from all that and from that experience in the past month?
"Well, I'm really proud of our players, I'm proud of our coaches, I'm proud of our support staff, who have done a tremendous job. We have very few issues over here, I would put our 18 to 22 year olds up against anybody. There's some teams, I think, over the course of 22 days, you would probably send 22 of them home. There's a lot of things that can occur, right now we're still doing it, our freshmen are down at a hotel here on Canal Street until they can get into the residence halls on Friday. So it's still not back to normal, but we're creeping in that direction. I'm just very proud to support staff and coaches, they had a good go above and beyond the call of duty. If you'd seen our setup over there it was it was a little bit different. We had a whole area that was kind of a locker room. We had different meeting rooms, people were walking through all the time. The other part too was it wasn't just us over there, we had every sports team over there all the coaches and administration and all the other student athletes. We had bed check every night, we were up really early because we were having to take classes, even though we're someplace different so it was a unique experience. I can go ahead and put this in as a chapter in the book when I retire here in about 15 years."

Do you think that at the end of three weeks the travel takes its toll on you at all?
"I don't know, I just disappointed. Not much we can do about it. We got to the game and all of a sudden, we are delayed for two hours. I was like God Almighty, one more thing and again, I don't want to act like that's the reason why we lost, Ole Miss played really, really well. It was one more thing that we had to deal with. Hopefully after this week, we'll return to normality and get it going. I know we're all excited to be back in New Orleans."

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MEET THE PRESS: Fritz Previews UAB at Weekly News Conference

Players Mentioned

Macon Clark

Justin Ibieta

Dorian Williams

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