Tulane football coach Willie Fritz took an upbeat tone Tuesday at his season-ending press conference, but the pain was still there.
"We're close right now, so we just have to do a great job of developing the guys who are here and also bringing in a great recruiting class," he said. "That last game against SMU was tough. It was one of the toughest ones that I've had in my career as a head football coach, but when you sit back and look at it, we're making a lot of progress."
The Green Wave (5-7, 3-5) came up a yard short of bowl eligibility in a 41-38 loss at SMU in the season finale, but after struggling to four wins in Fritz's first season, Year 2 showed progress.