The Harrell Huddle: Night at the Boneyard, Tulane Lessons, and Tulsa on Deck

Another Thursday under the lights. Harrell opened with the vibe around campus, then walked through the Tulane finish, what he wants to clean up, and how Tulsa plays under Tre Lamb. Watch the full interview down below.

Opening Statement

"A big week, Night at the Boneyard, excited about it. Back in Dowdy-Ficklen, Thursday night football again, and seems like that's the new norm for us right now. But 7:30, ESPN and all those activities on campus this week, SportsCenter and just, I know our players are excited to be back in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, in front of our fans and in front of our student section. Our students are on fall break right now, resting up to pack the Boneyard on Thursday night, but kind of going back to the previous game. It's kind of weird, these Thursday night games, you go back and recap the game that took place four days ago, when you're actually closer to the next game that's in three days, but just going back and recapping last Thursday night down in New Orleans.

"I thought really like it's a little bit of two different halves. You know, the first half is 12-0. And I thought defensely, we played some good red zone defense, holding them to the field goals. I always tell the defense, if you just hold them to field goals throughout the game, you got a chance to win the ball game. Thought we did that in the first half, and we didn't let it get away from us, which we certainly could have in the first half. And offensively just couldn't get the run game going. We took some negative plays in there, took a few sacks in there, and just hard to dig out of that, a good team, a good defense, in Tulane. And, I think the field position really was key in the first half. And they obviously won that. Had a fake punt called there. I think the score was 9-0. It was a fourth of one. And just didn't think we had the exact look we had practiced, or they left their defense out there. And my mindset is kind of, if we didn't get that fake there, you go down 16-0. I was like, Hey, we just don't need to do anything silly here. We need to keep this within reach at halftime and regroup at halftime and come out. And I thought the second half, we certainly did. And until the last drive there, I think we outscored them 19-7.

"Offensively, got the ball moving, got connected there, down the field to Anthony (Smith), was able to push it, got some protection there, so able to push the ball down the field to him. Katin (Houser) certainly, playing his tail off right now, not necessarily through the air the other night, but just kind of when things were covered up, took the ball and scrambled around and got in the end zone one time, and then Brock (Spalding) on another play out wide. Thought Yannick Smith did an exceptional job on both those plays, just blocking down the field to get to help those guys get free. Saw Marleo got his first start the other night at right tackle. Bryce Weaver had surgery last week, so he's going to miss several weeks here. So we had Marleo in there, and I thought he did a pretty decent job for his first start and still growing, going to grow every single game and we'll move forward there. But you know, defensively, though, we had a big, big turnover down on the goal line down there, Teagan (Wilk) recovered that and made some plays there, and until the last drive, I think they were 0-for-seven on third down, so they hadn't converted one all night. And then I think they converted three on the last drive of the game. And wish we could go back and take one of those back, but you can't ever go back and re-do it.

"And then the end of the game situation, you always know the kick line, I think the time's running down there, you got the two minute warning. You got three timeouts. You've been able to save your timeouts there. Your offense is moving the ball, so you feel pretty good about that. The kick line, we don't get them stopped. They have a sprint out, throw the ball in the flat. Don't get the stop on third and four there, which I thought was key. And then, you know, hit them for a loss. It's getting ready to bring up second 12, and still got some time outs there. We get the face mask penalty. And thought that was, that was a crucial penalty. So now they are inside of the 15 yard line. I thought when they're at the 30-yard line, we're gonna try to play some defense there and make him kick the long field goal. Their field goal kicker was exceptionally good. He's four for four on the night. Had really good range. You see him kick the ball in the kickoff. Really good leg.

"When you get the ball inside the 15, you got one or two choices, and that's let them bleed you out, die the slow death. Let them kick the field goal at the end of the game, and they beat you that way, or something I've never done I don't know ever, however many years coaching college football or high school football,, let the other team score, get the ball back to your offense, which is what we tried to do there. We tried to do it the previous play, and just had a mishap there, and do it the next snap and get the ball back to our offense. And they worked the ball down the field and get in a position to throw the Hail Mary there at the end of the game with seven seconds on the clock. And the thing's actually a lot closer than I realized on the field, watching again last night, just I think Yannick's - their guy actually missed times his jump - Yannick's got it timed up pretty good back there. And JC comes in there trying to make a play as well, and just gets enough piece of the ball to deflect it out of Yannick's hands.

"So, but you've got to take care of business way before that, and we talked to our players about how we're going to take care of business and really sit down with them Saturday about, a couple things, where are we at right now? Where are we at this point in the season, six games in, two games in the conference. Where do we want to go and how are we going to get there? You know, we're 1-1 in conference. The goal is to be 1-1 this week. Goal is to go beat a good Tulsa team this week. They're coming into our place. And then how are we going to get there? And how we're going to get there is just a process. We talk about that all the time, like, you don't change how you do things. You got to be sharper about how you do things. You got to clean up the things you do. You've got to fix the things you do. Well, that's always the case whether you win or lose. You always got to go back to work and press harder. But that's the process we focus on, and how we do anything, is how we do everything, and the big focus is just even playing harder, harder than we play, and keep going at it and see if we can't turn the page and come on the right side of this thing."

Tulsa Scouting: Personnel, Style, and Aggression

Context: Harrell detailed Tre Lamb’s background, Tulsa’s run game with Dominic Richardson, QB Baylor Hayes, and WR Zion Booker. Then he went deep on the defense’s front, ballhawk corner, and Lamb’s willingness to dial up fakes.

"Josh Reardon is his defensive coordinator, who also was his defense coordinator at Gardner Webb and at East Tennessee State. They're playing more four-man front this year than he has in the past. I think the D line is probably the strength of his defense. They play physical. They play hard. Run the football. Number 11, Burnett, I think he's got six sacks. I think he's top of the conference. It's kind of a guy to watch out for. They rotate several guys in there. Linebacker number zero. Ray Coney, is a guy from East Tennessee State he brought with him as well. He is their leading tackler. And then the corner Elijah Green, I think he's got five picks. That probably leads the country. So, very aggressive defense. It flies around. Coach Lamb, he'll play aggressive, whether it's onside kicks, fake punts, fake field goals, whatever it may be. I think he tried one here in '23 so we always got to be alert and be ready to get our toes there and be ready to go. So excited about the night, excited about being back home and get another opportunity to bounce back and get back to what we know as Pirate Football and make everybody in our program and our fan base proud and our players are ready to get this bad taste out of their mouth, for sure."

Offense: Consistency and Finishing Drives

"Yeah, you mention consistency. That's the key word. We talked about that this morning in our team meeting and talked about it outside just a few minutes ago. It's really just going back to what your culture is and what your foundation is, and going back to those, those points. And the big thing, if you look up, we took a negative play here. The first drive, we get the third and one and Marleo sticks his hand down late, and we have a false start there. And then we get to a third and four. Desirrio jumps offsides, backs them up, and just putting yourself in situations that are hard to execute. But at same time you flip it over, I say, hey, like, if you just play a little harder, strain a little harder, instead of it being first and goal from the 11 yard line, we're going to make that final block that gets TJ Engelman into the end zone. So those have really been our focus points of, hey, helping us move the ball, and really both sides of the football, not just offense, but both sides of football. I thought TJ had an exceptional night the other night, showed you that he's making some really good cuts in there. Looks like a true running back, him and Marlon and continue to do their thing in there. And I think they'll help us grow down down the road. I thought Cooper Trnavsky probably played his best game up front of the season. But we got to get more guys to be consistent, and that's on both sides of football, including the offense, that will help us move the ball consistently and play well."

The AAC Gauntlet

"Yeah, I think the American Conference is really up from what it has been the last several years, to be honest, and that's from top to bottom. You're looking at two teams that are ranked in Memphis and USF. Tulane, I'm not sure why they're not ranked. Think the only team they've lost to is the number four team in the country, which is Ole Miss. USF, the only team they have lost to is the number two team the country, which is Miami. Tulane beat a Northwestern team, who just beat Penn State and beat a Duke who's obviously got only one or two losses as well. So they should be up there. North Texas, you know, you could make arguments for them. Navy, you can make arguments for them. So I think overall, top to bottom, a really good conference, really good competition, and I think that's good for football. I think it's good for the American Conference, but our focus has got to be on us and what we're doing and going about our business and making sure we're ready to ride week-in and week-out, because that's what you want. You want to go out there and play good football teams and and certainly we got to perform our best and be one of those good football teams."

RB Room: TJ Engleman’s Emergence

"Yeah, those guys are starting to separate themselves. I think we talked about it earlier in the week, just, how can we help our guys, play with the best effort they can play with, and strain, the extra strain. And one of the ways to do that is like, you know, obviously, keep your scheme simple, so they can go, play fast and play hard. But the other is to make sure everybody's fresh. And I think in the running back room, TJ coming along allows us the ability to do that. But I think he's certainly starting to separate himself a little bit in there. He's just making some cuts, some natural cuts, and falling forward and and doing some things there that may be the other guys haven't quite done yet. And I think they all have it, the ability to do it. They just got to go do it on game day. So just overall, proud of TJ, not only what he was doing in the run game, but also catching the ball out of the backfield as well, doing a great job on special teams. So he continues to bust his tail every single day."

Tempo and Red Zone Decisions

"I think tempo, you've got to know how to use the tempo. We actually won the time possession the other night. Some people think just because you go tempo, you're gonna go be out there offensively about 20 minutes, and be out there defensively about 40 minutes. But I think we won the time possession by 30 seconds or a minute or so. But there's a key situation. You got the defense tired. They have some really good D linemen that you're trying to keep those guys in there when they're tired, and it's a chance and good opportunity, go tempo in there and just keep them on the field. And, especially if you're hitting some positive plays. I mean, you got them on their heels, so to speak. So you can want to continue to attack, no different than a boxer would, or no different than you would in certain scenarios in life. But I thought we will do that and continue to do that, and use some different scenarios, different tempos as well, whether it be, shifts, motions, movements, or huddle speed break or tempo. And we got down there at the one yard line, we're trying to tempo them as well, and they zeroed out, and just didn't think it was the right time to run inside zone. So we tried to change up personnel. And had guys going every which way, and Darius thinks he hears a clap, and snaps the ball between his legs. And we had a penalty there. So again, that's an opportunity where we missed. We only got three out of it instead of seven. And obviously, would love to have that back. So we got to do a better job of executing and being more consistent about how we do things down there, one that's probably the most important part of the field."

Red Zone Defense vs Tulane

"I joke around with them, said they couldn't run by you anymore, but, they made five stops down there in the first half. And the only touchdown of the game, really, besides the one you kind of let them slide in, is the long ball over the middle on P and 10 there, that you need to get down and get tackled. But just, I thought they just bowed their back, just did a good job of keeping the ball in front of us all night, being consistent about that, we talked about taking the run attack away, which I thought we did. I think they had 101 yards rushing. The quarterback didn't have much - he had one scramble. I think he got outside the pocket about seven yards. But other than that, thought we did a pretty good job keeping the run game in front of us, which was their strength, and making them go to throwing the ball. Now Retzlaff did have had a pretty good night throwing the ball. We got to do a better job with our hook players, getting up and playing those guys and doing some things there, and I think some of that, maybe we need to be more aggressive and make sure we take take the ball the quarterback's hands a little quicker, but in the red zone, thought we did well. We buckled down, locked in, and did a pretty good job holding the field goals down there."

Learning to Win Ugly

"Yeah, yeah. You gotta learn to win. Okay? And we talk about, hey, when it's not easy, regardless of who it's against, you better celebrate it and enjoy it and all those things. And you got to find a way to make a play. And that comes with experience, that comes with confidence, all those things kind of add up together. And we got to continue to push the envelope on that, and push forward and see if we can find ways to make a play, find ways win a ball game. And then once you do one, it kind of becomes consistent. And if we can build that consistency, then that's when you see a good football team down the road, and they win close games. And we need to, we need to continue to build that so we win those close ones."

The Delay of Game / Snap Issue

"Yeah, the sam linebacker is actually coming across the line of scrimmage to sub that way. So we haven't got the, answer. We'll get the explanation back today. In all that, looks like the D tackle is barking something. I didn't see any hand clap on various things. Darius thought he heard a hand clap. I studied the film to make sure we see a hand clap, because that's what I was yelling about. You're right there next to the student section. So who knows what was going on down there, but, haven't got the explanation back yet, but it's - that's a frustrating one, because you're so close and have an opportunity there to kind of stick one in, and you missed it."

Will Tulsa Change With Different QBs?

"No, not really. Trey is going to be a outside zone guy, play action shots down the field. He's going to formation you a lot of fib, which means, three receivers into the boundary, gives you a lot of shifts, maybe some unbalance, those type of things, little bit of trickery. Some if you got bad eyes, if you don't do a great job with that, and you're not disciplined, he's going to take advantage of that. That's kind of consistent with his offense. They're going to run some tempo at certain times in the game. They're going to huddle at certain times of the game and change those things up. So I think, you see it early in the Tulane game. You see a little bit early in the Memphis game, he does a good job with opening scripts, opening drives, and catching guys on their heels. And, in the Navy game, I thought he had a chance to go up 21-14, and they fumble the football, and then Navy goes down and scores. And Navy kind of pulled away from it from there. But I thought early in the game they've attacked people and did a good job of that. And just a little bit of what we just talked about, it's like they got to find ways to be more consistent and finish games as well, just like we do. So, you know, should be a good football game and we're up for the challenge."

Why the Onside — and Not the Fake Punt

"So I called the onside. I should have left the fake punt on to be honest. Nah, it was really just like, we score. It's 12-7, we score again. It's 13-12, you got two choices there. You can kick the Extra Point. Go up 14-12, here, up by two. Or, you knew, hey, it's a tight ball game. It wasn't a high scoring game, you know, it's kind of a low scoring game. So you kind of take the point, or you take the two. So you go up by three there, and we missed out on the two point opportunity. But I thought, like the momentum was in our way, and thought it was a good opportunity for us to try to squeeze our ownside kick in there. If you don't recover it, you give them the ball at the 35 anyways. Defensively, been doing a pretty good job all night. Kelan Robinson did a really good job. I thought Everett Scott did a good job on the kick and Kelan, good job hustling his butt down the field and covering that thing. And actually had that thing at second and one, and toss the ball at London, and he picks it up and got a hold out there. You'd like to see that thing go convert to seven. That's the only disappointing piece, you do get three points out of it. Puts you up 16-12 there in the third, but you would like to see that thing go and that's two early third quarter touchdowns. You'd like to see that one go up to put you at 21, you'd like to see the one on the goal line put you up to 28, and then you feel like you score 28 points in the ball game the way we're playing, you know, pretty consistent defense right now. You feel like you had a chance to win a ball game."

Embracing the Thursday Night Stage (Again)

"I think Thursday night games - your days get thrown off a little bit. We're sitting here on a Monday four days ago, talking about it happened. Again, that was four days ago, and you got a game three days away. So it's kind of a little bit different in, that aspect of it, but the fact you get to be, at home, especially. I think playing on the road on Thursday nights, it's challenging. It's not the funnest. But playing at home, I think, is pretty special. And then the opportunity for your university, your program, to be on national TV again, and people tune in for that. I think the American Conference talks about it all the time. The majority of their viewership comes on Thursday nights. And this will be the third Thursday night in a row we've been on ESPN, the fourth this year and the last this year. And then you got a bye week coming up after this. And then you got five straight games, conference games, in November, but the most important one is the next one. And got to get back to what to know and just trust the process and what we do and how we do things this week. And thank you to our fans that keep sticking there with us. Look forward to seeing you on Thursday and and Dowdy for Night of the Boneyard."