Tulane Green Wave College Football Pregame Quote, 12/27/2022

DUANE LEWIS, MODERATOR: Welcome to the 87th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. We welcome the Tulane Green Wave, making its first appearance in the Classic. Joining us today will be Tulane head coach Willie Fritz and Offensive Lineman Joey Claybrook. Welcome to North Texas.

Coach, if you would, give us an opening statement here to the 87th Cotton Bowl Classic.

TULANE HEAD COACH WILLIE FRITZ: Well, we are fired up. We had a nice send-off when we left New Orleans. Great flight. Super drive over. Just excited about the whole week and all the events that are planned. We want to make sure we have fun, but we want to play great when we play the ballgame here against USC.

Everybody at the university and our football program’s very thankful for everything the Cotton Bowl has done already and is going to do this week. And we’re very, very excited about the opportunity.

You know the great history of Tulane football throughout the years and the significance of this game. Can you put into words what it means for the school and the city to be in a game of this magnitude?

COACH FRITZ: Really means a lot to us. This is something we had a goal of being able to play in these types of games, big games like the Cotton Bowl. And Joey’s [Claybrook] been with me for six years, so he knows all about that. And we’ve had some good seasons.

Last year, we dipped back a little bit. We had a tough year with COVID and also with Hurricane Ida and all those things. The guys have bounced back and had a sensational year. And just proud and thankful to be here.

Joey, Coach [Willie Fritz] just talked about six years. You’ve seen a lot in those six years, the ups and the downs. Can you just talk about what it means to have the season that this team had, being a part of the team that did everything to get to this point and now being here at this point?

OL JOEY CLAYBROOK: It’s a blessing to be here. To have the opportunity to play for a sixth year is definitely a blessing. And to see all the hard work over the years pay off.

I still remember just wanting to go to a bowl game when Coach [Willie] Fritz just got here. And a lot of hard work has gone in to get where we are today. So it’s been really cool to see.

Coach, you’ve been in a lot of championship games and a lot of different levels. And obviously, the magnitude of this game is not lost on either of you. How do you keep the focus of this week without the game becoming too big and trying to keep everything about the 60 minutes?

COACH FRITZ: We want to enjoy ourselves. There’s no question about that. We want to experience everything the Cotton Bowl has to offer, which is a lot. But we also want to make sure when it’s time to practice, meet, you know, the guys are locked in, focused in. Because we want to play our best ballgame. And when we take on USC, we’re going to have a great challenge ahead of us. And we’re looking forward to it.

Joey, what’s the conversation amongst your teammates, to get an opportunity to play this game? I know the coaches have been talking to you a lot, but when it’s just the guys and you guys have been talking about the season and this experience, what’s that conversation been like?

OL JOEY CLAYBROOK: Like Coach [Willie] Fritz said, we all want to enjoy ourselves. We worked really hard to get here. But at the end of the conversations, we know that we’re here for one reason, to win the game. Go 1-0. Something we’ve talked about all year long and done every single day. So we’re ready to be here to enjoy ourselves, but we’re here to win.

Coach [Willie Fritz] referenced you being here six years. Tough season last year, obviously. When did you know this year? At what point, was it camp, early in the season, that you felt it could be this type of season, really special?

OL JOEY CLAYBROOK: You see that in the offseason and camp. Guys don’t complain. And when you see that and go through adversity, like here and there, and guys aren’t complaining, sticking to the plan and sticking to what our coaches tell us every single day, that’s special in itself. When you see that, you know it’s going to be a special year.

Coach, last question, the adversity your team has gone through, you talked about having to be out of town and having to deal with all the things that happened in a city like New Orleans. You’re always dealing with things that are beyond football a lot of times. Talk about the resilience of your team and your program, having to deal with all that and then taking it on to the field and being successful, despite all of that.

COACH FRITZ: I’ve got a great coaching staff. When you have a team that is player-led, you really can accomplish a lot of great things. And we have a lot of upperclassmen like Joey [Claybrook] who have played thousands of snaps at Division I football. They know exactly what I’m looking for.

They’ve been very, very easy to work with. Very few issues over the last ‚Äì really the whole time I’ve been at Tulane. But really over the last few years, they’ve all done a tremendous job of just embracing what we want to do on a daily basis. We have ‚Äì I don’t know how many degrees Joey’s got. I think he’s got six degrees. He’s got two degrees from Tulane. I’ve got a lot of guys that are really good students. It’s a fun group to work with. I’m proud of their work ethic every single day.