Nov. 17, 2009

Tulane head coach Bob Toledo:
Let me start by saying, you know it is really disheartening playing so well one week and beat UTEP and then basically fall apart next week and lose to Rice in the next game. We are a very inconsistent football team and as a football coach that bothersome. The games don't reflect how hard we work, we as coaches and we as players, and it also doesn't reflect the progress we are making because I honestly believe that we are making progress, though I know it is hard for some people to believe that. Now, we constantly beat ourselves, we consistently do things in games that we don't do in practice and we make mistakes on things we've been doing for months. I'm not talking about new things, I'm talking about things we've been doing for a long time; that's bothersome, things that are simple things to do.

We got beat several times, by mistakes and coverage's that shouldn't be happening, not new coverage's, they weren't new routes and they didn't fool us. We just flat out blew the coverage's, and that's bothersome. We had another block punt. It's exactly the same situation that happened with LSU, the same exact thing. We did the same exact thing we thought we've coached them not to do. We time our kicker, we tell them which correction to kick, we tell our players which way to turn and we had another punt block and it shouldn't happen.

Our holder, we get a perfect snap, its 21-20 and we need a PAT. He had a perfect snap, we drop the hold, he picks it up, starts running and we don't get anything out of it and now it's 21-20. That changed the whole complexion of the game at the end. A lot of people called me up wanting to know why I was so stupid to go for two, but I wasn't OK. I know people think I'm stupid, I'm not stupid, so we just flat out blew it. They were 4-for-4 on fourth down, and one of them came late in the game, it was 4th and 10. We got a deep third coverage; the guy runs right by the corner towards the touchdown and makes it 28-20 in the deep zone coverage.

Defensively we didn't get any turnovers. We had very little opportunities to get the ball on the plus side of the 50 this year. I'd like to add it up and see how many times we've actually done that. But the reason we're not getting turnovers is we're not getting on the plus side. We have to drive the ball a long way. We only had one sack and got very little pressure on the quarterback.

Offensively, we threw an interception, we had a lot of pressure on our quarterback, and we had two drops. One was a big one at the end - it's a 4th and 10 and we need a 1st down and may have moved down the field and scored, but a freshman dropped the ball and that hurts. The last half of the game, basically Jeremy Williams had a hamstring cramp and didn't play much. Casey Robottom, same thing, had a hamstring cramp and didn't play but about eight or 10 plays the whole second half. So, we had two freshmen playing for those receivers, and obviously we were missing on our better players. Andre Anderson got a hit pointer so he wasn't very efficient going down the second half as well.

As far as UCF goes, they are 6-4 and beat a really good Houston team last week. They are big, physical, athletic team and they are probably the second-best team defensively we've faced since LSU. In Conference USA, they are No. 1 in total defense, they are No. 1 in sacks with 31. They are No. 1 in rush defense, giving up 81 yards in rushing and there's only three teams that have rushed over 100yeards and not much over100. They are No. 1 in kickoff coverage, they've given up over 22 point in games and they are the least penalized team in the Conference which means they are pretty disciplined too. So honestly we have our work cut out for us.

Jeremy Williams has 992 yards receiving; Andre Anderson has 913 yards rushing. Tulane has never had a 1,000-yard rusher and receiver in the same season. As far as freshman quarterbacks, there have been two freshmen that have been passing leaders at Tulane: Roch Hontas and Shaun King. Ryan Griffin right now has more passing yards than any freshmen ever to play at Tulane.

Our captains this week are Pete Hendrickson, he's from Florida, and Travis Burks will be the other captain.

As far as injuries are concerned, the guys that are out for the season are Casey Blum with a knee, Cody Ledford with a knee, Payten Jason with a knee, Sule Osagiede with a neck injury, Adam Krueger with shoulder surgery, Adam Podet got hurt again last week and he's out with neck and Brooks Cunningham has a concussion and is doesn't appear he's going to make it back. It's a pretty bad one.

Guys who are doubtful for this game are Chinonso Echebelem has a high ankle sprain who suffered in the Rice game. Zach Morgan, our offensive guard, had to come out of the game with a high ankle sprain. James McMurchy didn't even make the trip. He has a high ankle sprain. Oscar Ponce de Leon still has an ankle injury and Antoine Duplessis has an ankle injury so we have five guys with ankle sprains that are doubtful.

As far as guys that are questionable, David Kirksey still has a groin injury. He did not play in the Rice game and Shakiel Smith got a concussion in the game so he will not practice today.

Last Thursday, J.T. McDonald got a call that his dad had passed away. He had a long bout with cancer I believe, so he flew home Friday and missed the game and he will miss this game as well. The service for his father is this Thursday.

Questions:
On the matchup with UCF on both sides of the ball:
We've got to try to pick and choose what runs we can run on offense and stay out of long yardage situations, so you have to try and establish some kind of a run or otherwise they will tee off on you and sack you. We've got o be efficient running the football and complete high percentage passes and take come shots down field to see if we can get some big plays.

On keeping the team focused with two games remaining in the season:
I don't think there is quit in these guys. I really believe that. The mantra is we're playing for pride and self respect. We need to see if we can win a couple of more games down the road. We have to play for pride. You don't want to walk onto the field and just let people beat on you. We've got to try and win these football games. We want to go out and perform well.

On replacing Jeremy Williams and Andre Anderson next season:
Payten Jason looked to be a great replacement before he got hurt. That was a big blow. We hope he'll be able to come back and we have some other young freshmen and we're recruiting some freshmen that will hopefully fill that void.

Jeremy Williams is really a talented, big play guy. Just like anyone else you lose that's good like a Matt Forte, they are hard to replace but we feel like we have some good, young receivers in the program. They just need time to develop and to play. But we think they are talented. They have a lot of speed. We've redshirted one of them and we've played several others. They are getting playing time, they are getting experience and they are talented. I think we'll be okay, but how do you replace a Matt Forte, how do you replace a Jeremy Williams and how do you replace and Andre Anderson? You develop the guys you have and you continue to recruit.

On how significant would it be for Andre and Jeremy to each surpass 1,000 yards:
I think it would be neat and great for them. I'm all about breaking records, not bad records, but good records. If I had a kid that's close to something, I'm going to try and get it for him. I'll help a young man try and establish his place in the record books. I think they will get it and I think it will be a nice little bonus for them and for our program.

On Ryan Griffin's future:
I think right now Ryan Griffin has proven he can win for us offensively. He threw for three touchdowns, he managed the game well, he hyper-extended his knee, but continued to play, so you never know. But you have to have other guys ready to play. Right now, he is the quarterback in our program and I'm very pleased with him. He has thrown more touchdowns in the last four weeks than we've had all season. I think he's what the doctor ordered, offensively.

On the progression of Ryan Griffin:
He did some good things. He gets better every week and every day. He has some mechanical flaws we'll have to work through in the offseason, but he's not going to beat you running with the football. He's very smart and he understands the offense. He understands defenses for the most part and he's only going to get better. For a freshman, he is doing very well and I think he has a bright future.

On the Rice game and losing the 14-point lead:
I think for one, Jeremy Williams goes down. He had to get an IV and oxygen at halftime and he couldn't go. We tried him and he simply couldn't go. And then Casey Robottom and our right guard, Zach Morgan go down. Then Andre Anderson has a hip pointer and has to get a shot. I hate to say injuries creep up on us, but that hurt us by not having those guys. The big thing we blew a coverage and the guy goes right by us for a 70-yard touchdown. Then, we get a punt blocked and they score a couple plays later and now it's 14-14. I think a combination of those two things hurt. They scored again and we came right back and scored. It could have been 21-21 and we could have gone to overtime if we're playing that poorly. But we self destructed by dropping the extra point and of course on fourth and 10 they throw a touchdown and it's over. We self destructed. We lost some players down the stretch and we made some big mistakes that beat us.