So I asked Jon Sumrall about Will Hall's presence at practice Tuesday and Wednesday (he was not there today) after the Thursday walkthrough, and this is what he said:
"I've known Will several years. Good friends. Obviously was the offensive coordinator here for two years. Coached against him the last two years when he was at Southern Miss and we were at Troy, but have known him way before that, going back several years. When everything went down, we texted. We text throughout the year, all the time anyways. We're friends. And when everything happened Sunday, he texted me Sunday morning and just said, hey, loved watching y'all play this year, let's connect, and then it all came out and we connected that night, talked again the next day. He's not an employee at Tulane, but he might be a remote conversation for our offensive staff or myself. I've got a lot of respect for Will. Love him. Great friend to me and somebody I pulled for other than when we played him. The '22 year that they came here and won the game, the Cotton Bowl year, we played them the next week and beat them and I always was trying to lobby that hey, Tulane and Troy ahd the same common opponent and Troy won the game, so I was trying to get us in the Cotton Bowl, but nobody listened to me. A lot of respect for Will. Our profession's very tight knit, and even though you compete guys, you're friends with him. It was fun to have him here for a couple of days. It wouldn't surprise me if you show up at practice at some point in the next few weeks, if he's not here on a practice day. He's not moving here. His kids are still in school. He's got a seventh grader and an 11th grader."
I also asked about Shazz Preston. I'm still skeptical that he can help the team yet, but he definitely received more work in practice this week than last.
"He's legitimately practiced. There's a chance he'll play. It's not going to be a huge number. He's in a backup role, but flow of the game, he could play. Last year he was available, but he wasn't available unless we had a big lead."
I then asked him if they were considering redshirting Preston, but he misunderstand the question as one about redshirting the freshman and gave an informative answer--just not about Preston.
"It's relevant (redshirting guys), but Shaun Nicholas is playing because he's having a big enough impact on special teams. He's the first or second guy down on kickoff coverage. We talked about it as a staff--coach McMahon and I talked about how big is his role. We talked about Jarvis Landry (at LSU), who got drafted because of his special teams stuff as a freshman. After thinking through it, he's the only one (true freshman) that will play the rest of the year. He doesn't have a crazy number of catches. He's not big catching the ball, but he's probably our best blocking wide receiver, so there's a role even though it's maybe not flashy that I think will benefit him as his development goes the next year or two, that he played this year and went out there and competed. Shaun's the one that will play. Jamauri (McClure), we'd like to reserve and hold the redshirt, and that's the plan. The problem for Jamauri is the number of carries doesn't merit (burning the redshirt), and he doesn't have the same special teams value that Shaun does. Reese Baker we would like to hold the redshirt and that's the plan. He's probably our third best tackle, and he's going to be a really good player, but is he ready for prime time? No. So he doesn't have enough value right now. He'd only go in if there's injuries. He knows what the situation is. If there's major injuries, all those guys know you have to lose the redshirt if something catastrophic happens. The team's bigger than the individual, and they all understand that. We've had conversations and they all know where they're at."
I'm not crazy about them deciding to redshirt McClure, but he is eligible to play two more games and keep his redshirt. The running back room is deep, and clearly they believe Duda Barnes and Shaadie Clayton-Johnson and Trey Cornist are good enough that McClure cannot help them win games this year. I'm not so sure about that, but I see where they are coming from.
