Tulane HC Will Hall Reviews 'Butt Whoopin' From UTSA After Saturday's Loss

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It was a rough night for the Green Wave and its fans as they’d fall victim to a textbook butt-whoopin by UTSA, 42-19.

Head Coach Will Hall met with the media following soon after the final whistle had sounded, and here are his opening remarks.

A Good Ol' Fashioned Butt-Whoopin

“All right, that was a good butt whipping, man. They kicked our butt 2 years in a row. And, uh, you know, I really give a lot of credit to Coach Traylor. Got a lot of respect for him, think the world of him. I thought they played their butt off. I thought they played extremely well outside of the first play of the game. We obviously did not play well. All the turnovers, it was a bunch of them, and, some of them were really critical, obviously, going into the end zone, the one yard line. That one was critical, because at the time, it would have put us in position to be a tie game right there at halftime or right there at it, and then it would have been a one score game late right there.

See our Game Story here.

When you're playing a great football team that's old and really good at quarterback and really well coached, you can't afford to do those things. I thought we were really good on third down early on offense, were able to continue to move the ball. Thought we threw and caught the ball well, early on offense. And then as the game kind of strung out, we had to play the game in a way that's not really conducive for us, much like the Duke game earlier this year.

I take full responsibility for it. We did not play well offensively. We are not playing well offensively and that's got to change. That's got to be fixed and that's got to start with me. They outrushed us tonight. You know, I thought they really, really wore us down defensively. A lot of that has to do with the full effect of being on the field too much. But, man, they really got after us. They did. I mean, they kicked our butt. I give full credit to them. We didn't play great, but credit to Coach Traylor and their staff and for the way they played.

Coach, can you just talk about struggling with the ball protection tonight.

It's not been something we've done. We fumbled at Duke and haven't really done it (since then) . Tonight, man, we just did some stupid things. We had two picks. One of them was late, and then the fumbles, you know, one of them was on a punt return. Uh, Jalen’s been really solid all year long in that. One of them was on the goal line going in. It could have been a touchdown. Another one was on a trick play that was fairly poorly executed. That had a chance to be an explosive play. And so that was a lot of them. And just really killed our momentum, really killed us. We were moving the ball. We weren't running the bottle effectively. Now, they were committed to taking the run away, but Trace was competing and passing. Our guys were making plays. We were moving the ball and the turnovers really took some momentum away from credit to them for making them happen. I thought they really brought it to us. Man, we've got to address it quickly, because we play in six days on the road, and we've got to get it turned around and play much, much better. "

Coach, it’s almost more of a big picture CFB question: Week in and week out, you see a team coming off a big win, and it's almost like you have to be on high alert, you know, that let down spot people talk about. As a coach, what do you guys do to try to prevent that? And then what did you kind of see tonight?

I don't think this was a letdown. I think this was a butt whupping. You know, I think I think they out physicaled us. I think they out coached us. I think I've got to take responsibility for that. I certainly do accept responsibility for that. I just told our players that. I thought we played hard. You do see it all over college football now because there's so much parity. But these guys (UTSA) are really good, you know, they're, I guess, they're 7-1 now, 4-0 in the conference. They got an old team with an old quarterback and a great head coach who is driven to win a championship. They haven't won one in a while, and they kicked our butt two years in a row now. And we've certainly got to figure that out. We got to figure out that issue moving forward into next year and beyond in this league, but right now we got to figure out a more immediate issue, which is how do we play better in 6 days on the road in Charlotte in a very critical game for our football team.

Trace threw almost 200 yards in the first half, when it was just the turnovers that killed you. You lost Ryan Mickow late in the first half. The second half was different. The offensive line didn't protect nearly as well. How do you assess his performance and how much of a struggle was it for the offensive line after the break?

Yeah, we're down, what, 4 people by the time the middle of the 3rd quarter, we were down 4 O-linemen. So, you know, we got a lot of young guys in there playing in critical moments in a game where they had the lead and knew it was passing downs. I thought Trace played tough. I thought it wasn't an easy game to play quarterback in in the second half. I think he's a winner and a tough guy, in no way was he gonna run from that. That's not what he's about. We end up down four O-linemen. We got some young guys there. We got to play better. We got to coach better. We got to play better. We got to score early in the game to keep us from those situations and not turn the football over and give them a short field.

It wasn't going well in the second half anyway, but there was a play you declined a holding penalty that would have made it 1st in 25 and then they completed a 1st down. Was that an easy decision?

No, but it was 2nd and 15. If it been 1st and 10, I definitely would have taken the call. But we've already got them 2nd and 15. I know our defense is tired, so we're already way ahead of the chains right there. We talked about it. We discussed it. You know, it's probably 50-50 on taking 1st and 25 or 2nd and 15. Coach Polk wanted 2nd 15. I wanted second and 15. Some others might want either. Both of them are really good situations to be in, with the time ticking down, and also the number of snaps we had. I thought second and 15 was the best way to go. You could certainly make an argument for both.

You had mentioned before the game, you still had some injury issues. Obviously, you had some more today. How do you move forward with that situation?

Yeah, you know, it's a tough deal. You know, we didn't have a lot (of injuries) last year. We're having a year where we're having a lot (of injuries). We’re obviously protecting them with the way we're practicing and making sure, because there is some attrition there, we got to make sure that there's not any more, but it's just been one of those years where the injury bugs hit us. That's no excuse for how we played tonight. But, uh, it has been a tough year managing all that, especially how it's kind of snowballed at the same positions at times.

So, I know Trace, obviously, didn't have a bad game, but when the rushing game was kind of struggling like that, how do you how do you make up for that with Trace?

Well, number one, you know, we got to not turn the ball over. You know what I mean? Like we lost 6 possessions, 6 drives were stopped with turnovers tonight. And so that was 6 opportunities where we were moving the ball and had a chance to keep progressing and keep our D off the field and score. We've been really good at not turning it over all year long until tonight, and that's disappointing.

And I know you're obviously not in the place you want to be in terms of conference standing, but the season's not over in terms of that. How do you go and tell your players that this isn't going to matter completely in the end? You still have a chance to do great things.

Well, certainly, I've got experience. In 2018, I was in Memphis. We started off the season, I think, one and two, ended up playing for the conference title. That's certainly still out there and available for us, but to be honest with him, like, we've got a play better this week. Like, we can't even worry about any of that. Like, we've got to play better at Charlotte on Friday. And then we'll assess whatever's next after that. What we can control right now is how we attack Monday and how we attack Tuesday and so on and so forth to play better on at Charlotte on Friday. We can't even get involved in all that other stuff. We've got we've got areas we've got to improve at, to play better for us. We know we can play better. We've won some big games this year. We've lost some games, and but look, UTSA played really well tonight. We did not play well, but they played really well, and I want Coach Traylor and those guys to get credit for that.

The run game's been a bit inconsistent all year, and before the massive Johnny Daniels 80 yard run, I believe y'all were in the negatives. Can you speak to that and how improving that area can really help a young quarterback like Trace Johnson?

We've always been able to run the football. They kicked our butt tonight. They kicked our butt in the trenches, they kicked our butt on the edges. And we've certainly got to own that as a coaching staff. We got to own that as a as a total offense in and of itself, and we've got to find answers, and that's going to start as soon as I get out of this room.

Coach, whenever you guys turn on the tape, one of the things you might be happy about was that goal line stand. You guys took the ball away, turned around, break a huge play off, and then scored when the game maybe felt like it was on the verge of being over. When you see game changing turnovers and plays like that are those the kinds of things you guys hit home about how this could be an identity for Tulane defensively?

We played extremely hard. Our guys play hard, they play for each other. We've got an unbelievable culture where a player led a team. Jack Tchienchou made that play. Everybody knows what he's about. Our kids didn't quit tonight. We just didn't play well early, and they played really well, and they got a lead on us and it kind of snowballed there, and we had to try to come back. And you saw we didn't quit. I mean, we got it back to the 2 score game. We just didn't play well. We played a really good football team that's really well coached and played exceptional tonight, that's kicked our butt 2 years in a row. And we've got to have a great week, and we've got to play better on Friday versus Charlotte."

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