Sept. 2, 2014
Opening Statement
“Excited to be in week two. Historically I think teams make the most improvement from week one to week two and certainly we are looking forward to doing that. I think the competition ratchets up a little bit. Tulane is a bowl team from a year ago. If you watch their game against Tulsa, they had every opportunity to win the game and probably should have won. So playing at their place in the first ever game in a new home stadium, I’m sure they are going to be jacked up. It ought to be a fun atmosphere. So hopefully our guys are ready to go play. “
Thoughts on Tulane QB Tanner Lee and RB Sherman Badie
“They’re both good players. The running back has a lot of speed. He accumulated over 200 yards. Of course 90 of them came on one carry. You can see that when he gets in the open field that he is very elusive. I was impressed with the freshman quarterback. I thought he was accurate for the most part. He stood in there and played with a lot of poise.”
Zero turnovers offensively against Wofford
“Our team’s been pretty good at that in camp and that game and hopefully it’ll carry over. It was the kind of game that if you turn the ball over you could find yourself on the short end because it was a game of limited possessions. If we can stay away from turning the ball over, we’re always going to be in the game. With what we do, it’s going to be hard to get away from us.”
Saturday’s performance from the front seven
“I thought the interior guys played well. It’s a different style game. You’re asking the defensive ends to do some things. Normally they’re up field guys, pass rushers. We were asking them to squeeze blocks and get two for ones. I thought they did okay. I wouldn’t say it was great. I think our linebackers would be the first to tell you that they could play better. Not because they played poorly, but we expect a lot out of Quayshawn [Nealy]. He’s played a lot and is one of the better players on the team. It’ll be good to get Tyler Marcordes back healthy. He was a little rusty. And then we get Anthony Harrell back which will help some too.”
Offensive line rotation
“We intended to play more guys in the last game but like I said we only had 59 plays. Towards the end there was no reason to put guys in to kill the clock or take a knee. We will play more guys this game and I think we’ll be committed to it at a couple of positions. We need to get a look at a couple other guys.”
DeAndre Smelter’s strong performance
“I think it’s good for him. We think he’s a really good player. He had a real good camp. He started out like a ball of fire a year ago and then he kind of hit a wall. I think he got tired and got run down. So we’ve got to keep him healthy and keep him going because he’s clearly a weapon if we can do that.”
Patrick Gamble’s performance against Wofford
“I thought Pat played one of his best games. He was pretty stout in there. Defensively the three guys who played the best were Adam Gotsis, Shawn Green and Pat Gamble. The stats may not reflect it but they were pretty good. They were probably a little better than the guys they were playing against so it was a little easier for them.”
Making adjustments for a hostile environment
“Our team knows that’s a new stadium and that they’ll be excited. They can read the paper. They know. Or I guess I should say read the internet. I don’t know if it’s a plus or a minus. You’ve got to go play. Through the years I’ve tried to worry about our team and not the other team. Just get yourself ready to go play and bring some intensity and some focus. The guys who historically are the best players are the guys who couldn’t tell you if there were 30,000 people or 100,000 people. They get themselves ready to go. They get dialed into a zone and block it out. Even from a coaching standpoint, when you’re into the game it never occurs to you. You’re just focused on what you’re trying to do. I think that’s the way you’ve got to play.”
