Head Coach D.Geezy
TULANE GREEN WAVE HEAD COACH D.GEEZY'S INTRODUCTORY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
Following the resignation of head coach Bob Toledo, Tulane athletic director Rick Dickson moved swiftly in hiring his replacement, D.Geezy. On Monday morning, Geezy held his first press conference since his hiring. Below is the official transcript of the press conference, courtesy of TulaneGreenWave.com.
-------------------------------------------------
Geezy: Before we get this thing started I just want to first say that I thank Mr. (Tulane athletic director Rick) Dickson for giving me this opportunity. I welcome this challenge and this unique opportunity to help turn around a program that hasn’t had a lot of luck throughout its history. I want to let everyone out there know that we're going to be working extremely hard to turn this program around and establish a tradition and culture here that has not existed in recent history. This will not be the same ol' Green Wave.
Q: What are your thoughts about the timing of the move and how the players and coaches may react to your hiring?
A: Even though I am coming into this head coaching role late in the off-season, I think the players and coaches are already on-board with what I am looking to accomplish. The transition from my perspective has been seamless; I could not have asked for more professionalism from our players and our coaching staff members.
Q: What is your ultimate vision for the style of team you want?
A: I think that it is extremely important to be versatile as a head coach, in particular at this level. By and large, our level sees as much turnover from a personnel standpoint more than any other sports league due to graduation. I think what you’re going to see from us is more of a pro-style, balanced attack. Some games, depending on the opponent, we’re going to be run heavy, and in others we’ll sling it around in the passing game…This is all dependent upon the match-ups each week presents. It is very difficult to be a consistent winner when you are too one-dimensional this day and age. You'll see a lot of principles of the West Coast offense with a little bit of vertical stuff and power-rushing stuff sprinkled in.
Now with all of that being said, myself and our staff does recognize that playing indoors presents us with situations we can and will take advantage of in regards to the passing game, but we will not commit to being a team that can only beat you one way.
Defensively you'll probably see us utilize a multitude of packages however you'll see a lot of Tampa-2 principles applied. We’ll pick our spots where we want to blitz but first and foremost, we want to make this defense one that is technically sound and always in the right place. There’s a phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none”….well I want us to master an approach rather than jumping right in and being an aggressive blitzing team that gives up a multitude of big plays.
Q: How can this team be fixed as far as on-the-field, game-plan wise?
A: Looking at last year’s film, I felt we have been a little careless in regards to turning the ball over and giving up too many big plays. This is going to be a big part of our weekly points of emphasis. Let’s face it, we’re not Texas and we’re not Florida so we cannot afford to beat ourselves. We have to do the little things correctly and soundly to win.
Another thing we need to do is improve our kicking game. Something I will pride myself in is working with our special teams units to make this hopefully one of the nation’s best units and in fact, the entire staff will be involved with this.
Q: How “hands-on” will you be with the offense, defense, special teams?
A: I will have input in all areas. In my opinion, a head coach of a football team should not be solely focused on one area or another. He should be more of a CEO type and have a role with everything with his team. I will be the play-caller on offense but will have a strong say in what we do on defense and will also play a very big part with special teams. Our entire staff will have a big role in special teams because it deserves that attention.
Q: You being a native New Orleanian and being able to watch and observe Tulane’s football program over the years, what are the areas you feel need improving from a non-football perspective?
A: One thing I have always felt from a personal standpoint is that there seems to be sort of a disconnect between the school and the city of New Orleans, including our home venue, the Superdome. We have some of the most passionate football fans down here in New Orleans and we need to make Green Wave football matter to them. Playing in the Dome, we have the opportunity here to have one of the best and most unique homefield advantages in all of college football. We have to figure out ways to get butts in seats and give people something to be excited about. That comes with winning and with winning comes good recruiting classes and with that you establish tradition. It will take time, but that is our goal here.
Q: How do you plan to fix that disconnect between the city and the team?
A: First and foremost we need to get out into the city and show our faces more publicly. There is still a lot of work to be done down here in New Orleans after Katrina and now with the oil spill & one of the things this program is going to do is dedicate time towards that. On another note, you’ve probably already seen it but we’re going to incorporate the Fleur De Lis symbol with this school because that is the symbol of this city and we’re here to represent it.
We're also going to do a better job of marketing ourselves as New Orleans' team and will emphasize this when entertaining recruits and when advertising ourselves publicly.
Q: Many say that the Superdome is an extremely sterile and sometimes “boring” environment for college football. Can that be changed?
A: I kind of alluded to this earlier but that is something that comes with winning. Granted there are things we can do as a program to make the mood and atmosphere at our games better. This helps us succeed and win on the football field so I will be involved in that. One thing we’re doing is making sure all of our fans wear green or blue to our games. If you’re not dressed in green and blue, we’ll make sure you get a t-shirt at the gate. The Tulane signage at the Dome needs to increase as well during our games. The small things such as that will build unity with the fans and players and help us identify more with the Superdome rather than just be a team playing in the home of the Saints.
We will also do a better job of reaching out to our alumni and getting them out to games as well as increasing our efforts to get our student body to the games possibly through incentives; But eventually, we want them to come on their own.
We're going to make our ticket prices more family-friendly and we're going to improve our attendance to make our football team better and give people of this city and this school something to be proud of.
Q: How do you feel about this team’s prospects going into the 2010 season?
A: I’m not big on predictions but I’ll give you this…We have a solid nucleus to build around on both sides of the ball.
I think we have a heck of a young quarterback in Ryan Griffin and we can succeed with him leading the way along with the great coaching this staff will provide.
We’re going to compete every single week and our goal from day 1 here is to win championships. The immediate goal is to win a conference championship, and that starts right now, not two or three years from now.
Q: Last question...Could you tell me briefly in just a few sentences how you are going to sell Tulane to a recruit?
A: I would tell that recruit that we are building a foundation here that we would like them to be a part of. We will only go after high-character guys that are smart & intelligent both on the field and off the field.
I would sell the city of New Orleans and the opportunity to be a part of not just the team's rebirth but the city's rebirth.
I would sell the fact that on the field we're going to come as close as any team in the nation to the pro game in terms of scheme both offensively and defensively. We're here to win games but we're also here to train players to hopefully extend their career to the next level. So if you want to learn the pro game and be around a head coach and staff members that have been in and around the National Football League, coming here is a great option. We've had some success in the past here in terms of getting guys to the next level. Shaun King, Mewelde Moore, Matt Forté, Patrick Ramsey, and J.P. Losman are just a few of our success stories and we'll look to continue and grow in that regard.
Lastly and most importantly, here at Tulane you're going to get one of the best educations this country has to offer & myself and our coaching staff will see to it that this remains the #1 priority above and beyond anything.
USC| Trojans football program wins appeal
41 -- 1-0
34 -- 0-1 F/OT 
#115 Tulane
Southeastern
at 
(0-1)
Ole Miss
3-0 (1-0)
#19 Houston
(2-1)
Rutgers
at 
Committments
DT Joe Hogan
MLB Shelton Babcock 
Army
2-4 (0-3)
Comment