As expected, Jon Sumrall did not announce his plan at quarterback today in his last talk with reporters before Thursday's opener against Southeastern Louisiana. It is clear that Darian Mensah will start, although he did not announce that either. It is less clear who will go in second. I think it will be Ty Thompson, but I don't know it for sure. It also is unclear whether all three will play. Sumrall, rightly in my mind, says it depends on the flow of the game and he can't guarantee what will happen ahead of time. One of my pet peeves over the years is reporters asking coaches how long starters will play as if coaches are even going to publicly admit they are planning for a blowout. I was pleasantly surprised that no one asked that exact question today.
I do not think Jack Tchienchou and Phat Watts will be healthy enough to play Thursday. The third player whom Sumrall listed as questionable on Saturday, Reggie Brown, has a better shot.
Here is Sumrall from yesterday, when I had him to myself.
SUMRALL (Monday)
On why they are using the 6-2, 207-pound Shi'Keem Laister at bandit:
"He's got great athleticism and speed. He's been a really productive special teamer here in a lot of different facets. He's got real athletic traits. His speed is a problem on the edge. He's played primarily nickel and a little safety. He's a big bodied guy for those positions. He's maybe not the biggest guy as an edge rusher, but he might be the fastest guy, and so he's a speed rush guy who I think can present some problems for offensive tackles. He actually strikes blocks a little bit better than I anticipated. We're just trying to figure out where can we find a home for him to give him value for himself within the defense. Does that mean he's going to play 50 snaps a game? Probably not. Does that mean he can play eight, 10 or 12 maybe depending on the flow of the game and get some production and add value to our defense? Yeah. I think just really his twitch athleticism (helps). At the bandit position we've got different guys. You look at T.A. (Terrell Allen, who is 6-0, 275) and (Michael) Lunz (who is 6-3, 244) and IMatthew) Fobbs-White (who is 6-2, 230) and Shi'Keem, they all just have a different style of play. For a tackle that looks across the line of scrimmage, he's got to figure out, if you're a 1990s baseball fan, am I facing John Smolz, Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux? The speed's different, the moves are different, the physicality's a little different, so each guy's got a little different feel."
On depth at defensive end:
"I'm really excited. Adin's back rolling. It's like I feel bad for the scout team guys that are practicing against him at times. Angelo's played a lot of football. Gerrod has really made a big jump. DeShaun Batiste. We can always flip Pat (Jenkins) to the field (end) if needed (he's done a lot less of that in preseason camp than he did in the spring). I don't see that happening a ton, but he can go there as needed. To know there are four guys you can put in the game and feel like they can execute, if you're playing a 75-snap game, one guy's going to play more than others probably, and that's Adin, but right now to know we could play four guys and each of them could play 20 (snaps) and be really fresh and play those snaps as violent and as hard as they can play, I think is exciting to see. The depth up front because of the physicality and the wear and tear in the trenches, I'm excited about seeing those guys roll through."
On Jacob Barnes, whom I mistakenly though was the guy who hit a field goal at the end of a two-minute at the end of practice, which allowed Sumrall to segue into a typically long but informative answer:
"That was Bobby (Noel, who is a practice kicker). Jacob Barnes nailed a similar kick last Wednesday that was a 58-yarder. His deal has really been consistency inside of 40, but he hit a 58-yarder last Wednesday. We have two kicking groups depending on who's up each day, so every kicker's not active each day, and today was not Jacob's day to kick field goals in the stadium. The guys that will play in the games, they kick on Tuesdays in a game week, which was yesterday (Sunday), and they'll kick on Thursdays in a game week (Tuesday in this case), but they won't kick on Wednesday (Monday) and Friday (Wednesday). Today's a Wednesday, so the guys not likely to be in the game will kick. That was more of a two-minute situational deal. We wanted to work the clock, but how we got to it was not how I anticipated. We had some funky things happen in there. They were real game deals like the defense jumped offsides and gave the offense a free play on fourth-and-11 or 12. Then the offense jumped offsides under two minutes and it would have been a 10-second runoff with a penalty, which we enforced. We went from 22 to 12. Then at 12 we got the first down (on a strike over the middle from Mensah to Shaun Nicholas), had to get to the ball and clock it. We talk all the time you don't rise to your level, you fall to the level of your training. Well if you've trained those situations you can probably execute them. If you haven't trained them, good look on executing them."
Mensah's pass was a beautiful play at the end of a shaky drive. It started with a screen that was diagnosed well and ruled to be no gain (there was no hitting, so the marking was an estimation). Next was a nice 1-handed catch by Sidney Mbanasor out of bounds on a scramble play. Then came a deep incompletion that sailed well out of bounds when Nicholas was not open. Mensah converted the fourth down with a pass to Dontae Fleming over the middle before the two penalites, and then he completed the pass to Nicholas to get the offense in range for the 47-yard field goal.
Trey Tuggle, who is out for the year with a knee injury, was walking stadium steps during the practice as part of his rehab.
Bailey Despanie, who appears poised for a big year, had two interceptions against the scout team.
I was asked on a radio show recently which coaches were really loud on the field, and I said neither coordinator was a yeller but some of the younger support staff was very vocal during practice. But yesterday, Joe Craddock was livid after a receiver (or receivers) ran a wrong route on a play. He lit into them.
Freshman Zycarl Lewis, who has shown flashes but is not on the depth chart at the moment, looked like he tweaked his knee in a collision with Jayden Lewis.
Mensah threw a rare interception in a seven-on-seven drill, with Javion White doing the honors.
The practice today was just a walk-through. They actually will do more tomorrow, but the day before games is off limits to reporters.
The only concern spots on defense in my opinion are free safety with Jalen Geiger and bandit. I'm not saying Geiger can't do the job--far from it--but I'm pretty certain the other nine starters will do the job. Bandit is wide open, and I don't have a good feel for which player, if any, will stand out. Laister, though clearly not an every-down player, has been effective at his surprising new spot.
On offense, the position of interest other than quarterback is receiver. Not one of those guys is a proven performer at Tulane, so there are plenty of question marks even though the group has a lot of potential. Having Carter Sheridan as coach will help them tremendously.
