Hall Commends Yulman, Pays Respects to Tulane Legend

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After an incredible win and a dominant defensive performance against Memphis last week, Tulane and Head Coach Will Hall look forward to their next opponent, and the next favorite to win the conference, UTSA.

Tulane will have the benefit of an extra day this week, as they played last Friday, and Coach Hall began his opening statement with some praise for the Roadrunners.

Opening Statement Praise

"Huge game this weekend," Hall began, and he's not wrong.

"It's a head coach I have tremendous respect for... (Jeff Traylor) builds programs, he builds leaders of men, he builds a culture, (and) they play for the name on the front of their chest."

Hall finished: "We've got to play with tremendous passion (on) Saturday night."

Remembering Last Year

Of course, you can't speak about UTSA without bringing up Tulane's brutal road loss under Coach Jon Sumrall last year.

When asked about what Hall remembered, he replied, "Number one they played really well... (and) we did not play well. And that compounded into a big old but whoopin."

Hall continued, "Our players owned that when it happened and improved from it for the rest of the season."

"We've talked about (last year's game). (UTSA) is a new team, (and) we're a new team," Hall concluded.

Immediately following that question was the question on everybody's minds after last week's win: Will Trace Johnson start again?

"Yeah, we'll start Trace (Johnson)," Hall replied quickly. "He played good enough for us to win, made some really good plays in really tough conditions with the wind."

When Hall was asked what impressed him further after Friday's outing for Johnson, "It's not hard to see with (Johnson). He's extremely accurate, he's extremely tough both mentally and physically, and then he has the ability to make off-schedule plays."

"With (Johnson), like I said, it's just a matter of the program being ready to have a platform that he can build himself off of."

"He's gotten better every week," Hall replied.

Preparation

"UTSA is more traditional, more like we are... It's more traditional, complimentary football than maybe last week where it's more spread out," Hall replied to a question about preparing for UTSA following Memphis.

Hall continued his praise, this time for UTSA QB, Owen McCown, who Hall described as "one of the toughest dudes I know."

Building on that, this time in respect to the Wave defense, Hall said, "We've played good on defense all year... so we expected to play good defense last week. I thought our young men really bought in to an awesome, total plan by Coach Polk and the rest of our defensive staff on how to keep these guys from scoring."

Next, Hall would answer a question from On SI Tulane about the lineage of quarterbacks when it pertains to UTSA and Tulane's quarterbacks, and how that lineage could make them a better quarterback.

"I think, Doug, I think we're all products of our environment to a certain extent. And I think anytime you follow in the footsteps of someone in your immediate family that's done it before, it allows you to start learning that trade quicker." Hall responded.

"(The quarterbacks) are probably a little more mature than their age."

Running the Ball

Coach was asked a follow-up question from us about how important it will be for the Wave to establish the run.

"For us it's about being able to do whatever they give us. To me, balance is about being able to do what you need to do, when you need to do it."

"We've run the ball, at times, really good this year," Hall continued. "We didn't run it as well last week. We had a few mis-hits at running back, (and) those guys take it very seriously. They'll correct those issues. Our O-line is growing... (but) offensively we've got to be able to do what we need to do." Hall finished.

Yulman's Importance

"Playing at Yulman is awesome," Hall said in response to Guerry Smith's question about the importance of Yulman Stadium to the Green Wave.

"Like I said after that game last week Guerry: The building of that stadium and the turnaround of this program, it's not coincidental that they are very intertwined. We needed that stadium on this campus (and) this community needed this staidum."

"Man, it's a hard place for people to come in to and play, our crowd is awesome, our students have become electric, our band is great, and we love playing at home." Hall finished.

Paying Respects

As you may have heard this past week, Charlie Hall, a former Tulane player and one of the first players to break the color barrier in 1971, passed away on Sunday.

Before ending the press conference, Coach Hall made sure to pay his respects to the Tulane legend, and one of the most important figures in college football.

Here is his full statement:

"I want to pay my respects to Charlie Hall. Former great Tulane. I was blessed last year to come back here for so many reasons, but one of them was actually (because I) got to meet Charlie (Hall). They came back last year, and was introduced to the team, and we're certainly thinking about his family and praying for his family. We love him, and love all those guys. We're just thinking about their family during this time."