Tulane had a spirited practice this morning, particularly on defense. Most teams hate facing the option, the but these coaches and players seem to love the challenge. The atmopshere was far more upbeat than it was last week against Memphis, which qualifies as hindsight analysis but is accurate in this case. The defense celebrated every time it "stuffed" scout-team quarterbacks Dagan Bruno and Kellen Tasby on the option, although Tasby broke through for a big gain once (even scout-team QBs are not allowed to be tackled to the ground). Jon Sumrall and defensive coordinator Greg Gasparato have posted shutouts against Army (at Troy last year) and Navy (at Tulane last month) in their last two meetings against option teams. That guaranteeThs absolutely nothing on what will be a frigid Friday night at West Point, but there's no disputing Tulane matches up well with this type of offense.
The Wave is very healthy entering the game and will be the fresher team, having played Thursday night while Army played Saturday afternoon. The only rotational player who missed practice was third-string defensive end Michael Lunz. Guys who have been out all year will not be back obviously, with Trey Tuggle, Jah'rie Garner and Guiseann Mirtil doing exercise drills in the stands while practice went on, but I can't remember Tulane ever being this healthy at the end of the regular season.
The weather was pretty chilly today but nothing like the team will experience on Friday night. I always feel like coaches and players undersell the significance of cold weather when they are not used to it, and Tulane certainly is minimizing the significance when they talk about it. They are changing one thing, though. Instead of practicing Thursday morning before flying to Newark, they are going to practice in New York after they get to their team hotel. It won't be at Michie Stadium, but somewhere in the area. They are staying about 40 minutes away from West Point.
I made sure Darian Mensah was practicing and looked good after he ducked out of interviews last Thursday night while Sumrall was talking because a medical staff member told him not to talk when he admitted to having a headache. He looked no different today than any other, taking almost all of the first-team reps.
The All-AAC team came out today and Tulane had a league-high 18 players on it, including four first-team picks--Derrick Graham, Shadre Hurst, Makhi Hughes and Patrick Jenkins. I was not sure any defensive players would make the first team because the tackle numbers are so balanced. Eight players made the second team--Mario Williams, Josh Remetich, Vincent Murphy, Tyler Grubbs, Sam Howard, Bailey Despanie, Micah Robinson and Rayshawn Pleasant as a return specialist.
Five players made the third team--Rashad Green, Alex Bauman, Kam Hamilton, Adin Huntington and Caleb Ransaw.
One player was honorable mention--Yulkeith Brown.
People will get upset that Darian Mensah did not make the list, but Tulane did not throw a whole lot in conference play. Bryson Daily was a no-brainer for first team, North Texas QB Chandler Morris had huge stats and Memphis QB Seth Henigan is the all-time AAC passing leader. Honorable mention would have been the appropriate spot for Mensah.
I will post quotes shortly.
