Tulane Green Wave College Football Pregame Quote, 12/29/2022

Now that you guys are here, how important is it to finish it off, to make this a good season, to make it even a better season?

WR SHAE WYATT: It’s obviously very important. We started this season with our motto “Do you want to know?” and just attacked each week. Heading into the game, not much is going to change. We just want to go 1-0 and finish off what we started.

You guys got a pretty solid offense. Talk about what Michael [Pratt] has done for you and how you have seen him drop and Tyjae Spears.

WR SHAE WYATT: Both are outstanding. You have seen them on the field; but behind the scenes, they’re better people. Just having their success on the field, I’m happy for those guys. When it’s game time that’s when the lights are on. Even when it’s dark, they’re still working. They’re great leaders. They just take it and they run with it and everybody follows. Like I said, they’re great leaders.

You work in the Superdome, right? What’s the difference you’re seeing in these two buildings?

WR SHAE WYATT: It’s different, obviously, because it’s a new stadium. But I’d say the turf is a little different than the Superdome. Other than that, it’s just great to have this experience, and it’s a blessing just to be here.

How has the wait been? How has that time in between been since you found out you were playing until you get here, three or four weeks?

WR SHAE WYATT: It’s tough because we obviously don’t play until Monday. We haven’t played in three weeks, I believe. So just waiting and getting ready to play, it’s getting us a little bit antsy, ready to play. You know, we’re taking it day by day.

What has Kurt Hester meant for this program?

WR SHAE WYATT: I think earlier this season we talked about the brotherhood he established. In the spring we did these challenges that he brought to us. It was the surge, and, you know, that really brought us together. So just him believing in us, him giving us pointers when we needed it. That obviously helped us cohesively and just being able to play together as a team.

Enthusiasm is just off the charts. Hard to hear yourself think you’re making so much noise.

WR SHAE WYATT: We were competing and going into the rooms. It wasn’t like we were just going into the weight room and lifting; we were actually doing fun activities while also working out. It was a nice time.

How did that play out on the field?

WR SHAE WYATT: He focuses on speed and mobility. And I’d say just personally on my game, it helped. And I think collectively as a team it definitely helped as well. You know, I had mentioned it’s very rarely that we’ll max out. Typically, we’re doing elastic stuff where you’re using most of your body weight and you’re doing most of your force, you know, just with your body weight. You’re not putting a lot of weight on the bar. So I’d say it helped tremendously with us.

What did the Kansas State win do for you earlier in the year?

WR SHAE WYATT: It just showed that we could compete with the big dogs. That was a big game. It was Week 3. We were on the road and in a hostile environment and just kind of felt like the world was against us. You know, for us to pull that off and head back to NOLA (New Orleans), and then I believe we played Houston that next week or two weeks after. But it was nice.

It is kind of interesting because when you beat Kansas State, people didn’t know what Kansas State was at that point and, heck, they won the Big 12 championship in this building a couple weeks ago.

WR SHAE WYATT: It’s crazy how it played out. And I’m just blessed we’ve been able to stay healthy this year and been able to compete.

After what you went through last year, how good does it feel to pretty much go from 10 losses to 10 wins?

WR SHAE WYATT: It feels like a fairytale sometimes because we went 2-10. It was brutal. We kept our composure. In the spring we just worked and focused on what we can do better. And, you know, this season, it was just a ‚Äì we just formulated everything that we had built up from last season and we’re just happy to show it to you guys.

How much is it to try to ‚Äì do you feel like you’re trying to hold up the standard to play the Power 5 teams, to be that Power 5 team, playing Power 5?

WR SHAE WYATT: Oh, yeah. Like I said, just the ability for us to compete with the big schools like Kansas State. We played at Oklahoma last year; we’re playing USC on Monday. And we might be the underdogs, but you still have to get on the gridiron and play. And that’s our advantage. We just go out there and play our hearts out. We’ve got brothers all around us. We’re always having fun out there.

Is there anything you can take from the Oklahoma game since it was Lincoln Riley and most of that staff, or when you watch film, have you seen similarities?

WR SHAE WYATT: Like the Xs and Os? I think the biggest takeaway, regardless of what school is in front of us, we can compete. That’s the biggest thing. Just going out and playing hard, believing

in the person next to you, and keeping your faith.

USC forced a ton of turnovers. You have been good at protecting the ball. Is that an even extra emphasis this week?

WR SHAE WYATT: Definitely. Coach [Willie] Fritz emphasizes ball security every day. He always says call the ball. You should never have it away from your chest. We’re very aware they’re very good at turnovers, and I think they lead the nation. And so we have that in our minds.