Tulane coach Jon Sumrall happy with 52-0 season-opening win, but emphasizes a lot to fix this week

[Music] C our game um before I even address the game I'd like to thank our student section the turnout was amazing uh and them sticking around through the weather and what could be I was worried we're going to kick off on time tonight because of potential lightning and for them to show up the way they did the student section was big time tonight and um they definitely made it difference they brought a lot of energy to the stadium you could feel it on the sideline um never a bad win I'll never complain for a win um the scoreboard looked nice we have a whole lot to clean up I mean that was a really average performance to be quite honest with you and um I we'll celebrate tonight and have a good time but uh if we think that was our standard we're going to get exposed here real fast like the next few weeks are going to be at Route Awakening so we've got a lot to improve upon some of the things that really stick out to me is negatives that we got to clean up fast we used two first half timeouts that I thought were poorly used um one was because we communication subing from um punt safe to to P block return the other was on third down offensively that we didn't quite get the play in clean enough to the quarterback we ran to the kicker early that was called um a dumb call by the coach that was on me that wasn't on the kids um me and me and our special team staff that was really my call so I'll eat that one our kickoff coverage unit was really poor like that was embarrassing like that's not good enough we rush the passer very well now they they got the ball out quick they weren't really going to hang out back there and give us much time tackling I thought we gave up some leaky yardage then offensively you know uh I don't have the box right in front of me but I think men was 10 to 12 two touchdowns one of those two incompletions was a drop that should have been a touchdown um the other was a 50/50 ball down our sideline that that they were in good coverage they played that ball well uh but we had another third down we converted on a little option route to Y Keith that we we got a procedure penalty for being aligned incorrectly on offense which when you convert third downs and you have to come back and lose five yards and play third down over that's not how you win games how you lose games and so um I'm very happy with 52 to nothing very happy with a win I'm not really like just thrilled with how we play I thought we play okay you know but the the upcoming Gauntlet games we got the way we play those will get you losses so we've got to get some stuff cleaned up fast um with that I'll open it up to questions Daren played in the on the first six drives of this game and led you know five touchdown drives was that the plan going in with Daren and just what did you like from his performance that's a good question um so we we wanted Darren to get a full run like you know uh Kai has started games and played games here um we don't have the privilege in college football having like three preseason games like the NFL and I'm not treating our non-com schedule as preseason games because they all go on your record they all count but um our biggest goal is like let's compete for a conference Championship and we got to kind of figure out what gives us the best opportunity to do that personnel-wise um and probably thought we would have used the other two guys a little earlier um Tai stuff was more packaged and we wanted to see him run the normal offense when we when he had the opportunity too later in the game we just hoped it would happen a little earlier you know it's a 14 to nothing game until ran has to pick six I mean it's about to be 14 to7 and the floodgates kind of open there after that but um it was a very competitive game till late in the second quarter and then all of a sudden it kind of and I and I told our team that coming into this game South Eastern last year against uh Mississippi State it was 10 to 7 with 3 minutes left in the second quarter it was 7 to S with him versus South Al with three minutes left in the third quarter all right so like I knew it was going to be a dog fight tonight the plan was probably to get the other guys I would lik to have gotten him in a little earlier um but I wanted to give Darren a full run of it because it was his first college in game experience I thought he performed pretty well I mean 10 of 12 the Run game helps that you know he ran I think eight ball carriers for I don't know 240 yards maybe or something like that so um y'all got the box score I don't I I need to get one but uh uh thanks yeah I look at that um cheat sheet uh but um so I I thought he played well I thought he played efficiently I thought he protected the football it was good to see him he's got a little confidence I don't know if y'all feel it but I feel it man I feel like I'm a better Coach on my rounding so um but all our guys I think we can win with any one of those three I really do I think what those three guys do is different a little bit and um we got to tailor the package to whoever's in the game so sometimes you don't know how a quarterback's going to play when he hasn't played before but did that that daring me look pretty similar to the way he looked in in practice where You' said yeah you've been in a bunch of the practice and I mean you've been there a ton he looked very similar tonight I mean he's he's U very calm he's very confident he's got really good Poise um you know I I I think the biggest things there there's going to be some things that come these next couple weeks opponent's going to maybe make you speed up and so we got to prepare for that um but uh but I thought he really handled the the first game um really well for you know a guy that's never played in a college game first start I mean not just talking about a first start we're talking about a guy never played a college game all right like that's a big deal and I and I think he handled it really [Music] well coach you talked about you PL to play all three of them but when did you make the decision to have be the first one out there and how much he sell himself to being one to keep being qb1 going forward yeah you know I I think probably about a week and a half ago he probably knew but like just like anything you have to keep showing up to earn it right and so like we told him 10 days ago hey you're going to go the majority with the ones here we're not naming you the starter like you're you're probably going to get the start but that means you still have to like practice really well and prepare really well and if he didn't show up to practice and work hard I wasn't going to start him so like if he doesn't show up tomorrow morning on time to meetings he won't start next week um so I means everything's earned you got to keep showing up you got to do the right things week in week out um but I think after the Thursday scrimmage we had two weeks ago from today uh that that first drive with the ones I was like all right I feel I feel like we need to give the guy a little bit of run here and um he's been really consistent through training camp and so probably about last Sunday a week ago Sunday though about 10 days ago 12 days ago now it's kind of when I felt like all this is what we're probably going to do but like I said I didn't make the we our staff and I did not make the final decision till a couple days ago because if you come out to practice and practice awful then I wouldn't going to start it coach um you know you came here build a lot of things up going into the game and everything else and you talked about culture environment and everything and coming from Troy what you built was amazing and in and coming into this first game and after what you've seen tonight what do you think is the difference in the environment so far you're talking about just here here comparing to when you was at Troy yeah um I think the environments are very similar you know Troy is a great place with great people uh and a football environment they expect you to win I think this place is the same so they're very similar you know um they're really similar expectations uh you know I think when I got to Troy it was very different than when I've gotten here when I got to Troy they five and seven the year before so maybe um having to get guys understand how to win here it's been more about um there's been some winning happening not very many of the guys that did the winning the last couple years are here right now you know we started 10 guys tonight in this game that were not on the team when I got here in December like 10 out of the 22 and then we started the kickoff guy who wasn't here a field goal kicker who wasn't here I mean so there is so many guys and then and then a lot of the guys that are playing and there's a few that like Pat Jenkins maai Hughes those guys played a lot of football last couple years here but the there's there's a lot of guys that are playing that were here Dixon ago an inside linebacker who uh you know he wasn't Ray Sean rayan I thought he was up here he'll be here yeah I figured I mean I brought Mario I thought he' bring rayan too Mario ran 18 mph on his GPS machine tonight just giving him a hard time for getting caught on the one on the one run um this mom's going to call him tonight but the differences are not that big the biggest difference is the winning had already kind of been going on here but so many of the people we're counting on the win have not really been a part of that so you you you don't roll the helmet out and win because the team won the year before and John you you said you came out of spring you weren't sure what you had on defense coming in after you came out of the spring you get a shut out tonight I mean what was your assessment of the defense yeah in the spring I thought we Jeff I thought we sucked on defense I didn't like I didn't just not know what we had I knew what we had I knew it sucked it wasn't good enough like we had a goal line period during the Spring well I don't know if anybody on defense really hit anybody and I I mean I was like livid after practice um you know six six of the 11 that started on defense tonight were transfers so um like Ray made the big play by both Corners started uh tonight were Micah and Jonathan then you talk then you got um Jaylen guy at free safety Caleb ransaw at nickel um Aiden Huntington at fieldin and uh trell Allen at Bandit that's six right six guys that starts over 50% yeah Sam Howard yeah I don't know if I said him or not but Sam Howard so we got six guys that started tonight that weren't here you know and um so there's still we're trying to come together like I it's really frustrating because at times because like yeah we shut him out but we didn't really play great like we played average I mean the we we didn't rush the passer at all the night like we didn't affect the quarterback hardly at all it's kind of like disgusting watching it um and I'm happy with a shut out I'm not like I don't want to come off like I'm not happy we won but we're just not we're not where we need to be yet like we are if we have any expectations of winning our conference or anything remotely close to that we've got to get better really fast you spoke about it a little bit earlier but that interception the pick six by ran just how big was that play especially going into half time and Swinging the momentum game changing you know like I said it's 14- nothing if they score a touchdown there it's 14-7 they converted on one right before that play on a coverage mistake on our side but um if they scor it's 14-7 well that the game feels a whole lot different at 14-7 at half get to pick six is 21 nothing and you know we're getting the ball coming out of the half all a sudden you're like all right we got a chance to really get this thing going so that game I really felt like was the pivotal play that play was the pivotal play of the game for sure without without question your voice is a little forse yeah I've been coaching not just tonight is that iCal of you or yeah it's it's probably pretty typical yeah I I yell a lot and at practice it's been gone for like two or three weeks I don't have much time to rest it tried to drink some tea but it didn't really help yeah no I maybe not not yet I probably need something uh going back to Jerry and talk about 10 of 12 I believe his first conversion his first completion was on a third and long conversion how do you think that really set the tone for his passing performance yeah I think it helps when you have some success right like it's like it's like shooting a basketball you see you go through the hoop you feel better about it going through the hoop the next time I think you kind of get in a rhythm um and uh and so I think seeing you know ball get caught helps a guy especially on third down conversion like you said that even build your confidence a little bit more but um you know I would I would have liked to have thrown a little bit more tonight in full disclosure like I wish we could have thrown a little bit more but at the end of the game there when we're up four or five scores I don't really want to throw it a ton I want to you know show some respect to the opponent in the game but um I wish we could have thrown it a few more times I would have liked to for him to have gotten about 18 throws not not 12 like a lot of his throws were really helping to keep the offense going how much is that give you confidence that he can continue to be a Fields General when behind the stick that he can still keep out going yeah I think Darion is very instinctive in seeing Windows come open and he did that tonight I I think you saw some throws before they were actually there and his anticipation was really good and so I think just kind of build an up on that's going to be critical for his success and team success moving forward you mentioned Mario get stopped at the one but it wasn't quite the one though was short of [Music] that but him having 24 yards in this debut performance was too L can you just talk about that yeah you know Mario is has been a fantastic addition of our football team and um he's got uh a great attitude uh he works really hard he's ultra competitive me and him probably talk more smack to each other than anybody on the team like I talk smack to him every day like at the end of the game tonight I went over to him I said hey did you score a touchdown like I just like messing when they meet but like I'll tell you Mario in a nutshell like two things that will tell you about Mario we do a deal in February called The Gauntlet where you get matched up with another guy on the team you do early morning 5:50 a.m. workout and Mario every time he showed up to the gaunet was ready to beat somebody's tail and let him know about it and then in Spring practice it was one of the early practices we ran a run play that went to the right he was lined up on the other side of the formation and he was Sprint about 40 yards to go make a block on a safety way down the field on a run play and when you got receivers that like block when the balls that far down field that bodess well for your opportunity to have success individually as a team and I'm I'm really grateful for his energy and his demeanor and um I'm just proud of him you know I think some sometimes and I'll say this like sometimes you get a guy that's been at Oklahoma or USC and you're like all right what's this dude going to be all about it's going to be all about him or is it going to be up and down if he doesn't get his uh touches or scores or whatever and tonight when I was messing about you know not scoring he was like he's like coach Team game we won we're winning like I'm happy I was like all right so he's he's been awesome been a tremendous addition and he's fit the culture really well he's added a lot of value to what we're doing all right thanks coach thank appreciate [Music]