Tulane’s coach is excited for the opportunity to compete in Norman

First year Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall talked this week about what he expects to see from the Oklahoma Sooners and how his team can compete in a difficult environment.

It’s no surprise that Coach Venables has brought a pretty good defense to Oklahoma. What impresses you the most about what they’ve been able to do on defense?

Jon: Yeah, I mean they’re well-coached. Brent does a great job with the defense. Their defensive staff is really good and they’ve got really good players. Good scheme and good players usually make for good football. They keep you guessing and off balance. They do a lot of different things schematically. Watching their tape, they present a lot of challenges with what they do and the guys they’re doing it with make it even tougher. So we’ve got our work cut out for us. I mean, people have not put up points on them this season to this point.

Oklahoma also leads the country in turnovers with eight. What have they been able to do so far to have so many turnovers?

Jon: They attack the ball and the ball carrier. They swarm and run with great energy to the football. They’ve got guys who can make plays. They put you in binds with what they can do schematically. They put you in some pressure situations and they've gotten people into obvious pass. But they’re just really an attacking group and I think the multiplicity that they present, it makes problems for your offense.