Quotes Following Tulane's 10-7 Loss to UTSA

Harry · November 10, 2013

TULANE HEAD COACH Curtis Johnson

Opening statement...
"My hat goes off to (UTSA) coach (Larry) Coker and his team. They played a very good football game. They played physical. It got a little chippy at times, but that is something that happens. I thought we did a good job for the most part, but we just couldn't overcome all of our penalties and mistakes. Those things are self-inflicting. We just had guys who were eager and anxious. You just can't do that."

On the false starts and whether they were caused by crowd noise...
"It could have been (loud), but I don't think so. Those things are self-inflicting. We just had guys who were eager and anxious. You just can't do that."

On how you fix the penalties...
"We just have to sit at practice and work with a snap count. A majority of our penalties were false starts. We had five false starts. That's elementary football."

On a late drive where the team posted back-to-back false starts on a third down...
"That's where it catches up with you. We will work on different snap counts (in practice). But we just jumped (today)."

On QB Nick Montana's play...
"He's healthier. Last week, we may have played him one week too soon. He is much, much healthier. He looked decent. I liked what he did (today). He took some hits, but he was good."

On UTSA's 62-yard pass play towards the end that set up the game winning field goal...
"We were in Cover-2. (Jordan) Sullen should have just kept going back, back, back. (Sam) Scofield should have been over the top. I think our guys were looking for a big play, and (UTSA) got a big play on us."

On playing QB Devin Powell...
"We planned on doing that. We didn't know how much Montana could go. (Montana) is coming off a devastating injury. We just wanted to guard (Montana)."

On injuries...
"We came out ok. Nothing big."

On C Zach Morgan's injury...
"It wasn't his hip, it was his ankle. But he went back into the game. He is fine."

On what this game means for the remainder of the season...
"We have two games to play. We have a two-game season now. We will play two good opponents, one at home and one on the road. We have to prepare. We will work hard this week, and get ready to hold senior day against UTEP."

On holding UTSA's offense to minimal yardage in the first half...
"Our defense has been playing almost every game all season. We didn't play well for a bit against South Alabama and at Syracuse, but the defense is doing well. We are struggling a little on offense. When (Nick) Montana doesn't start for a few weeks, you lose a little rhythm. All of a sudden, he is back. He's moving in the right direction. He'll get it back. We will work with him in practice and get his arm stronger. His arm isn't as strong as it was before because of the injury."

On the receiving corps...
"I don't think our receivers played well. Some of those plays they should have made. (UTSA) had a good game plan for us."

TULANE QUARTERBACK Nick Montana

On how he feels...
"I was more comfortable. My shoulder is feeling better. We got into a groove as an offense, but we just didn't finish."

On the offensive penalties...
"There is no excuse. We practice for stuff like (crowd noise). We have to take it upon ourselves as players. When our coaches and our defense put us in the position they do, (the offense) has to make stuff happen."

On seeing the team's hopes for the Conference USA Championship fade...
"We can't be thinking (about the C-USA Championship). We have to focus about UTEP."

On the deep passes today...
"We had a lot of good looks. We didn't always capitalize on them. We left a lot of good plays out there."

TULANE LINEBACKER Dominique Robertson

On his fumble recovery in the first quarter...
"I don't know who knocked it out, but it was first-and-goal and somebody knocked it out. I wanted to scoop it and score, but my instinct was to just fall on it and give the offense a chance."

On goal line defense...
"We are just looking to stop them (from scoring a touchdown). If we hold them to a field goal or if we get a turnover, it's a plus."

On the team allowing the 62-yard pass play to set up the game-winning field goal...
"We've been doing a pretty good job all year. When it's time to make that play, we just have to make it. It was probably a miscommunication on the backend. Our secondary and line have been playing well all season. Today, it was just that one play that killed us."

On if holding UTSA to just 10 points is a mental win...
"Absolutely not. We have to get the win. If they score 50 and we score 51, we'll take that."

On the bye week... "We have time to prepare for UTEP. We have an extra week, and we just have to capitalize and make sure we do what we have to do to get the win."

Read more: http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/110913aad.html

MeanGreenRoadrunner · November 10, 2013

And that's with UTSA having key injuries going onto that game.

greenminer · November 10, 2013

UTSA will come into Denton with their hair on fire. I expect a good battle, with UTSA finding out what any quality team found out this year: we are veryvery tough to beat in Apogee.

We can lose this game if we don't respect them but I don't see our boys letting up. Should win by 21-ish.