New Orleans — A 7-6 finish and a Cure Bowl victory to close-out the 2018 season have Tulane’s football team as amped-up as ever to pick-up where they left-off.
“The vibe and the energy is totally different from what we had last year,” said Tulane junior defensive end Patrick Johnson. “We’re really excited about what we can do this coming year.”
“Yes, I can literally say that you know I’ve been here since Coach Fritz has been here,” said Tulane senior running back Darius Bradwell. “I was an early enrollee. This is my last season too so it’s the excitement of that but also the opportunities that we have in front of us to win a conference championship. So that’s probably what I’m most excited about.”
“We’re still growing,” said Tulane quarterback Justin McMillian. “I feel like this is one of the biggest seasons that we’re going to have for Green Wave and the culture of New Orleans. This is going to be a big season for us. I feel like everybody on this team is excited to play this year.”
“We feel like we have a reason to be optimistic,” said Tulane Head Coach Willie Fritz. “We’ve got a lot of guys coming back on both sides of the ball and a lot of guys that have experience playing in the kicking game for us. I have not had this kind of depth for quite some time and a lot of different schools I’ve been at.”
With that optimism and excitement comes higher goals and expectations– looking to win the American Athletic Conference championship and win a bowl game in back-to-back seasons for the first time ever.
“We’ve just scratched the surface of the goals we want to accomplish,” Fritz said. “We’ve got a long way to go. Going 7 and 6 and winning a bowl game, that was not what we’re looking for. We want to continue to keep building this program. I just believe you can do it here at Tulane.”
“We have goals this year,” McMillan said. “Last year was just see how stuff goes and it took off. This year we have a floor. We don’t have a ceiling. I feel like this team has a lot of success coming in the future.”