Video: Willie Fritz weekly news conference on SMU week

Willie Fritz Weekly News Conference – SMU
Listed below is the complete transcript from Green Wave head coach Willie Fritz’s weekly press conference leading up to Tulane’s matchup against SMU on Saturday.

Opening statement:
“We had a bye week and I thought it was good for our guys. Got a little refreshed; there were a few guys who might not have been able to play if we had a game last Saturday. So that was good to get them healed up. We practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then our fall break coincided with the bye week. We didn’t have school on Thursday or Friday. After we got done with practice and classes on Wednesday, we let the kids head on home and most of them did. The coaches hit the road recruiting, all over the place recruiting throughout the Southeast and Southwest. I got a chance to go out and watch some high school games which is always fun. I enjoy doing that. Came back Monday morning ready to get after SMU and have a great game plan and execute it on Saturday at 2:30.”

On the quarterback situation:
“We’re still competing and looking at that this week. So that’s good we have some competition, that’s great.”

On playing both:
“I’m not opposed to doing it. I think at times you do it, you want to make sure the guys get into a rhythm and maybe go a couple series or whatever. But we haven’t determined whether we’re going to play one or two or a combination of the two, whatever the case may be. And there’s a lot of positions like that.”

On the quarterback position being more unique:
“It is. I’ve had some seasons where I’ve played two and been very successful. It’s good. I’ve had some years where I couldn’t figure out who to play because [both quarterbacks were bad.] So, it’s good when we’ve got some good ones.”

On last year’s SMU game playing a factor this week:
“I haven’t even talked about it with our guys. This is 2018 SMU, 2018 Tulane.”

On guarding against emotions from last year’s game:
“I don’t think so. I think they’re going to be jacked up and ready because we’re playing at home and been off a couple weeks. We need a win. That’s the big thing. We need a win.”

On correcting a large number of penalties this season:
“Well, No. 1, you try to practice as clean as you can. Disappointed in how many penalties we’ve had, particularly last week. That was not good. It could have given us an edge if we would have stayed away from some of the foolish penalties. I always talk about ‘Wave not beating the Wave,’ particularly on pre-snap or post-play penalties. Those are the ones that you control. Some of the other ones are very subjective with interference or holding or whatever the case may be. But on delay of game or illegal formation or lining up in the neutral zone, those things are all things we can control, and we’ve got to make sure we eliminate those kinds of penalties.”