OPENING STATEMENT: “Tulane is a very good football team and we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to win the game with the mistakes that we made. We didn’t tackle or execute well enough in all three phases. Now we move on to Houston, another quality team with very good athletes. They had a really tough game against Cincinnati where they gave them everything that they wanted and made some big plays. We’re going to continue to keep working and getting better each and every week. We’ll get back against at practice tomorrow morning and continue to work and put together a plan that gives us the best opportunity to win.”

DEFENSE HAS BEEN A STRUGGLE THIS SEASON, ARE YOU SEEING ANY IMPROVEMENTS & ANYTHING YOU ARE TRYING TO CHANGE UP IN PRACTICE?: “That’s the ironic thing. When you take a look at things, it’s not like we are busting coverages. We just aren’t fitting things up. We had 22-missed tackles for 220-extra yards last week. So we have guys in position, we just need to make plays. That’s one thing we aren’t doing, those guys are in position, but we’re just not able to make plays. There were a couple plays, the one touchdown pass, they put the ball in the right spot, had a great throw and catch, we weren’t going to be able to defend that, that happens. We had a saying in the pros in the NFL, the other team gets paid too, so there are always going to be some plays you can’t make. We just aren’t making plays and we’re hurting ourselves because we aren’t good with our eye discipline or we’re not tuned in to certain situations. Once we get that cleaned up, then we’ll be a lot better. I looked out there on Saturday and watching the film, we just had freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores out there playing, so it’s part of the process. No, we aren’t changing anything in terms of what we do in practice. I think we know what it takes to win and how to do things. We aren’t all of a sudden going to go-live in practice, we thud in practice, we don’t take people to the ground. The last thing I want to do is get guys injured during the week in practice. We try to practice as physical as we can and do the things we need to do to get better. We just need to keep working at it and keep working the fundamentals and techniques and getting guys to understand that when you tackle, you need to run through people and wrap them up.”

OFFENSIVELY, WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT QB MIKE BEAUDRY TO THIS POINT?: “He’s done some good things, but we’ve had some inconsistencies at that position, just like other positions. It’s not just the quarterback. It takes eleven guys to play the game, but that’s the guy that always gets scrutinized a little more. He’s just got to continue to develop, just take what the defense gives you and do the things that are required out of that position given the plays that we are calling.”

AS YOU PREPARE FOR HOUSTON, THINGS HAVE CHANGED AT QB FOR THEM & THE WAY THEY USED THEIR QB’S AGAINST CINCINNATI, HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THAT AS A COACH, GOING FROM EXPECTING KING TO NOW SEEING AS MANY AS THREE DIFFERENT QUARTERBACKS?: “Really you see four [QB’s]. You also saw the running back going back there and playing wildcat. Basically, they gave you four different looks last week where guys lined up at the QB position and did different things when they were in there. You study the film, I’m sure they will add some wrinkles and do some different things than they’ve been doing, most people do that every week and I’d expect Dana [Holgersen] to do the same thing. You just study the film and have the basic plan that you’re going in with. You just try to study everything they can do, put together the plan, educate the kids with what they try to do when each of those guys are in there.”