I was informed that Jason Rollins may be leaving to take another coaching job...I've been told where, and it's not LSU. Guerry have you heard anything about this?

I talked to Owens and Johnson tonight and got some stuff from Johnson that you won't find on Nola.com.

He told me the coaches said he would start at tight end because of his weight (265) and he would not move to offensive tackle until he was 285 or 290. He also said he had tremendous loyalty to Fritz and his staff because they offered him a scholarship before he ever played high school football. He did not play until his junior year.

Both Owens and Johnson are from Atlanta and like the big-city feel of New Orleans.

Scott did not respond to a text asking him about his visit. I will keep on him and everyone else tomorrow.

Tulane will have two midweek visitors Wedneday-Thursday in Marcelino Ball, a two-star cornerback from Roswell, Ga. who has offers from minor-conference FBS schools, and Jacob Robertson, a three-star WR from College Park (Ga.) Woodward Academy who committed to Georgia Southern.

According to his twitter, yesterday we offered Darta Lee, a 6’3” 290# Offensive lineman from Missouri City, Texas. Apparently, he is also a long snapper—a position of continuing need. He’s rated a two star by Scout and Rivals and a three-star by ESPN and 247. On his highlights, http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3910040/highlights/298285383/v2, he looks slow to me (confirmed by a 5.98 time in the 40 during a combine) but is apparently well regarded. He has roughly 25 BCS offers including five from P5 schools.

This suggests to me that we’re still on the prowl for more offensive linemen after the four that came in last week. I hope we’re not “reaching” here, though the number of offers and interest suggest this kid would be a good “get.”

Roll Wave!!

Look at the size of this guy....

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With all the recruits visiting this weekend, how many will commit to Tulane who haven’t already done so? The two everyone is looking at are QB’s Lindsey Scott and Tyrell Pigrome, but I’d be surprised if either commits this weekend. I’d be thrilled if they did, but they both have other official visits the next two weeks that I’m guessing they’ll take. I’m also guessing that is why Coach Fritz talks of taking 20 commitments when, by my count, he has at least 24 openings. He probably wants to be able to add a “can’t pass up” guy or two at the end or maybe, just maybe, wants to hold off for a transfer or two. Right now, we’ve got 11 commits, so that leaves between 9 and 13 more to close out the class.

We’ve got only one WR coming in this weekend, D. J. Owens, from Dallas, Georgia, though there may be some others the following week. I’m pretty sure we’ll sign at least one more WR, even if he may be classified as an “athlete.” I suspect Owens will commit.

We’ve got four offensive linemen visiting and Coach Fritz has said he plans to sign four, so this may be the group he is counting on. One, Lawrence Edwards, is uncommitted. The other three are committed elsewhere (Alex Mollette to Marshall, Tyler Johnson to Georgia Southern, and Dante Smith to Appalachian State), so I think we have a shot at all of them. But I couldn’t begin to guess which of the four will commit, and it could be all or none of them. I’m guessing at least two will commit, but have no idea who is most likely.

Two linebackers are scheduled to visit this weekend. Lawrence Graham is a Florida Atlantic commitment from Delray Beach, Florida. At 5’10 and 225# he is short, stocky, pretty quick, and looks good on film, and would immediately compete for playing time. Eron Carter is anther, from Palatka, Florida. He's bigger, at 6'4" but probably not as good a prospect. That said, we’re apparently after at least three other linebackers who I like better. I include Giovanni LaFrance in that group since Coach Fritz has apparently reached out to him, along with T. J. Brunson, who is slated to visit next week, and is my personal favorite. The third, in my view, is Todd Bradley, a Georgia Southern commit. If Couch Fritz keeps to his 20 number, I don’t see how we go with more than two here, so I’m not sure where that leaves Graham and Carter. Yet, since they're invited and apparently will be here, I think either one would commit if given the opportunity. I’d hate to forego either LaFrance or Brunson, however. In the end, I think Coach Fritz would find room for them.

The only defensive lineman expected this weekend is Jordan Jackson, a 6’7”, 240# defensive tackle from the Bolles School in Florida. He has a number of G5 level offers but hasn’t received much love from the recruiting services. After reviewing his highlights I don’t think he looks any better than the three defensive tackles who have de-committed (Alex Criddle, Tyarise Stephenson, and Ronald Cherry), but at his height could easily put on another 40 pounds or so and still move well. We’re probably one DT short on our roster and if Jackson has an offer, I’d guess he’ll take it.

We’ve got 11 returning defensive backs and four additional commitments, giving us 15 scholarship DB’s. How many more can we possibly take? In recent years we’ve carried 16, so normally, I’d say one. But Coach Fritz has three coming in who all look pretty good, though currently committed elsewhere. Tre Jackson is the best of the bunch (my opinion) and is currently committed to South Carolina. He’s fast, shifty, rated highly by everyone (3-4 stars) and plays both wide receiver and defensive back. Regardless of who else commits, he’s a “can’t pass up.” Not sure if he’s ready to commit this weekend, however. I’d guess not and hope I’m wrong. To me at least, Tulane is the best option for the other two coming in: Christian Holmes (currently committed to Missouri, but I’m not sure he’s still wanted), and Damar’ren Mitchell (ULL). I think Holmes looks like the better of the two but both guys look better than those who de-committed. Nonetheless, numbers are getting tough at DB. Adding to the problem are guys who may be coming in next week including Jemarius Jordan, who looks really good, but also has several P5 offers currently on the table. Jarrius Wallace, from John Ehret, was, and may still be, a UCF commit, but he is apparently trying to sell himself and Ca’Ron Baham as a package deal. He’s clearly a good player and Baham is one of the most impressive kids on our board, so I don’t know where that will all play out. They are expected to visit on the 22nd.

In the end, I’m guessing we’ll get at least five or six commitments off of this weekend between now and next Wednesday, leaving us three weeks exactly to signing day to bring in the remaining handful.

Exciting time.

Roll Wave!!!

He is an all purpose/running back. According to rivals we have offered. He is at SCOTTSDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE. Very Interesting!!

In the new open era of Tulane recruiting info, it looks like Nola.com and I will benefit tremendously.

Here are the visitors for this weekend. Six are uncommitted. Seven have commitments to other schools. Eight are committed to Tulane.

Eron Carter, LB, Palatka (Fla.)
--two stars (5.3)
major offers: Air Force, Army, Troy
6-2, 210

Lawrence Edwards, OL, Port Orange (Fla.)
--no stars
major offers: Boise State, West Virginia, Georgia Southern
6-7, 260

Lawrence Graham, ILB, Delray American Heritage (Fla.)
--two stars (5.4), FAU commitment
major offers: Georgia Southern, Army, Tulane
6-0, 226

Christian Holmes, CB, McNair (Ga.)
--two stars (5.4), Missouri commitment
major offers: Missouri, Cincinnati, Memphis, South Florida
6-1, 182

Jordan Jackson, DT, Jacksonville Bolles
--no stars
major offers: Air Force, Navy, Tulane
6-5, 253

Tre Jackson, CB, University Lab
--three stars, 5.6, South Carolina commitment
major offers: supposedly Florida and Oklahoma
5-10, 178

Tyler Johnson, OL, Stone Mountain (Ga.) Stephenson
--no stars
major offers: Georgia Southern, Georgia State, South Florida
6-5, 265

Damar'ren Mitchell, S, Magnolia West (Texas)
--two stars (5.3), ULL commitment
major offers: ULL, Colorado State
6-0, 180

Alex Mollette, OG, Suwannee (Ga.) North Gwinnett
--two stars (5.4), Marshall commitment
major offers: Marshall, Western Kentucky, Troy
6-3. 284

D.J. Owens, RB, Dallas (Ga.) North Paulding
--two stars, 5.4
major offers: California, UCF, USM
5-11, 196

Ty Pigrome, QB, Clay (Ala.)
--three stars, 5.6
major offers: Virginia Tech, Maryland, Purdue, Memphis, Cincinnati, Indiana, USM
5-11, 180

Lindsey Scott, QB, Zachary
--three stars, 5.5, Syracuse commitment
major offers: Syracuse, Navy, Rutgers, Wake Forest
6-0, 205

D'Ante Smith, OT, Grovetown (Ga.)
--two stars, 5.4, Appalachian State commitment
major offers: Syracuse and Illinois
6-5, 277

And the Tulane commitments visiting

Saf P.J. Hall
WR Chris Johnson
Saf Eric Lewis
K/P Coby Neenan
WR Jacq'co Price
DE Deion Rainey
DE DeAndre Williams
DE Jonathan Wilson

I learned that from Fritz today.

Practices will be in the morning, and they will take off one week for spring break (something CJ hated doing, one of the reasons he moved spring ball up so early). The spring game will be held in conjunction with a home baseball game later in the day, and the date has not been established yet.

Fritz gave me April 16 as a possibility, and if that were the case, they would be practicing five times a week to get it done within three weeks. The other possibility is April 23, which would mean the more traditional four practices a week. Just to be clear, he did not talk about the number of practice per week to me. I'm just figuring it out based on the two end dates he gave me.

New athletic director Troy Dannen spent his first week on the job hiring a football coach after setting up base in New York City, barely getting a chance to see the Tulane campus. A little more than a month after accepting the job, he sat down for an extensive interview last Friday.

Here is the third of a three-part Q&A with him. He talks about pursuing a series with LSU, his quick love for New Orleans, where he is going to live and on various other topics wrapping up an hourlong interview with me and Advocate columnist Ted Lewis.

Do you have any interest in pursuing a series with LSU, either annually or semi-annually, in football and basketball?

“I would love it, absolutely love, absolutely love it. At Northern Iowa we played Iowa and Iowa State a home and home (in basketball) every year (playing one team at home and the other on the road). Beat them more often than we didn’t, and that’s part of the reason that series went away (replaced by a game in Des Moines with Iowa and Iowa State alternating each year). But it was great. We beat them in football, too. Iowa State I think we’re .500 against in football the last 10 years, but it’s good for the state, it’s good for the enthusiasm for sport.

“Does LSU have more to lose in that than Tulane does? Absolutely. I get it. They’ll find a very willing partner. What I would really like to do, and I’m getting the cart way out in front of the horse here. I really would like to have an event on an annual or biannual basis where the game is in the dome, where there’s some type of a weighted revenue share. It’s not a home game for anybody, but it’s the City of New Orleans’ game, it’s the sports commissions game and the two FBS institutions in the state play football on a very regular basis and it’s a celebration of football. It’s a great football city.

“You know what conference realignment did. It killed rivalries. Now conference realignment didn’t kill this rivalry, but this is a rivalry that should exist.”

BYU’s athletic director recently tweeted, in all caps, that Utah discontinuing their basketball series was RIDICULOUS. What are your thoughts as it relates to Tulane-LSU?

“I’ll probably show a little more discretion on that, but as soon as I get a chance to talk with the sports commission and talk to the folks here, and I obviously have never talked to (LSU athletic director) Joe (Alleva) about this, so I don’t even know if it would be on their radar, but I tell you, I’ll pursue it every day that I’m here.

“And I understand I don’t know sometimes what tree I’m barking up, but I’d like to do it. I want to play my home basketball games here (at Devlin Fieldhouse), but I would love to be able to use the Smoothie King Center for a multi-team event. Those MTEs (multi-team events) are great events. New Orleans is a great destination. Personally and institutionally I want us to be the greatest partner in the world with the Bensons and the sports commission, and whether it’s those one-off games or an MTE or something else down there. I don’t want to play my home basketball games down there on a regular basis.

“My baseline is today. I know and appreciate the history and I kind of understand the history, but my baseline is today.”

What is the legacy of Rick Dickson?

“Rick did an amazing job here, and whether it goes noticed or unnoticed, in some respects he saved athletics twice, and then to have the capital build-out, to be able to raise money for the capital build-out, anybody should have that legacy when they’re done with their career at an institution and would be lucky to have that legacy when they’re done. He’ll be in our Hall of Fame as quickly as he can be in our Hall of Fame, and he should.”

What do you want to do to try to make Tulane relevant in the athletic community here?

“Let’s go back to my biggest surprise since my press conference, and maybe I learned it at the press conference, so since I accepted the job. The biggest surprise—I thought this was a small private school in the middle of a big city and neither one cared about the other. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I didn’t get it. I get it now. This is not a big city. This is a small town with a whole lot of people, and that’s great, and how much this city cares about this institution and how much this institution cares about its involvement in the city is blowing me away.

“That means to me the opportunities are even greater because you talk about what I’m going to do to engage (the community). Everybody loves a winner, and I have to get everything I can do behind these programs to give them success. Now, I’m going to be personally very active in everything I can be, and people will see my face, and I’m going to be there to tout Tulane and tout the city every step I go.”

What exactly did you find out about this relationship that you didn’t know?

“When it came to housing, and I didn’t know anything about the city. I didn’t know where to live, I didn’t know anything. The board said we’re going to structure your contract—we’re going to give you some money up front—so you can live in the city. The housing here is expensive. It’s important that our athletic director be a part of the city. Now that was a strong message to me about how, they didn’t have to do that. I could have gone and lived 35 minutes away, but they put money up. It’s like when I talk about skinning the game, they put money up to make sure I was going to be a part of the community from the day I got here and my family was going to be a part of the community. That’s an example from the outside.

“The other example is who came to my press conference, who came to Willie (Fritz)’s press conference. If you look at the people in there, the fact that Gayle Benson was sitting there, and I know she’s on the board, but she wasn’t there because she’s on the board. There were a lot of board members who weren’t there. She was there because of the Saints and the relationship between the two organizations. And a city councilman was there. That told me something as well, and to reach out to my wife, the people that have reached out to my wife have probably surprised me the most. I remember taking the job at Northern Iowa and nobody said a word to my wife. People here are really trying to engage her and engage us in the city.

“Somebody talked to me about riding on a float in a parade. Just those things, and I said no and probably should have said yes, but I want to see it. I’ve never been here before and I want to see it. It’s just things like that. In a lot of ways it feels like Iowa. People have been so civil and so good and so welcoming. Willie and I were just talking about this last night. We were both living in apartments Tulane has down on St. Charles, and we were sitting there talking about how everybody every step of the way is going out of their way.

“This city loves winners. In a lot of respects we want to bring a winner to this city, and we want to bring it to the institution. And I think the ownership, I have a sense there’s a great deal of ownership.”

“When I say (New Orleans) it’s like Iowa, though, it’s the people. The reputation of Iowa and the reputation in the Midwest is everybody is hospitable and civil. I would tell you, we think we’re hospitable in Iowa, and then you come to this city and find out what hospitable is. It’s at a different level. Sometimes when you’re inside it you get blinded, when you’re inside it, you don’t see it. It’s like telling me about the arena (Devlin Fieldhouse). Is it a hindrance? Coming from where I’m coming from, that’s an asset. How do we make it an asset? It’s just a fresh look at it."

One of them is big--Edward Williams.

I'm told he is academically ineligible and not enrolled in school, so this was not a Fritz decision. Williams could not have played if Fritz really wanted him.

The other is Rene Fleury.

Everyone else, other than the ones we already knew about, is enrolled and on the team.

Leondre James has no chance to come back. Zero.

Rivals is debuting its new front page look across the system tomorrow, and I'm having issues getting access to the new admin page.

If there is a break in coverage for a day or if the front page looks wrong, it will only be a temporary issue. The new front pages should be much better than the old ones once I start publishing on the new admin page.

With the dead period ending it's about time and signing day a month away it's about time for recruiting visits to begin again. Some prospects have already taken official visits, but with the coaching staff dismissed and a new staff we will probably see plenty of visitors...I will post what I can find...anyone else feel free to contribute...

Source 24/7:
Jan. 15th:
OT Lawrence Edwards Spring Creek, FL.
Jan. 22nd:
LB T.J. Brunsun, Richland Northeast, Columbia S.C.

Nola.com:
Jan. 15th
Ath Caron Baham, John Ehret
CB Jarrius Wallace John Ehret * May be a package deal with Baham*
https://colorado.n.rivals.com/news/wallace-leaning-toward-the-buffs

I guess I will add to this as we get closer to next weekend.

Scratch five more CJ recruits off the list.

I learned from sources today that Ronald Cherry, Kenny Hebert, Quen Monday, Obinna Nwankwo and Jonard Robinson no longer are in the fold. That leaves Chris Johnson, Eric Lewis, Jacq'co Price, Deion Rainey and Jonathan Wilson as the only ones left who did not commit after Fritz arrived.

I'm hearing they plan to sign 20 players but will take more if they really believe those guys can help them rather than just trying to fill out the class.

New athletic director Troy Dannen spent his first week on the job hiring a football coach after setting up base in New York City, barely getting a chance to see the Tulane campus. A little more than a month after accepting the job, he sat down for an extensive interview last Friday.

Here is the second part of a three-part Q&A with him. He talked about his hopes for Barbara Burke's role, a new position he would create, his thoughts on Tulane pursuing membership in a Power 5 conference and disputed the idea that Tulane's academic standards put it at a disadvantage athletically.

How do the facilities at Tulane compare to what you had at Northern Iowa?

“Oh, we are so far ahead of the game here than what we had at Northern Iowa. So far ahead. At Northern Iowa we got by with a lot of smoke and mirrors, but there’s only so long that can happen. Eventually we had an indoor dome (football stadium) and it was beautiful, and if you could get kids to our place, normally you could keep them. But we just spent $ million and a half on a weight room, and that weight room would blow the doors off of this one, but for the most part, the other facilities and the office structure for the coaches, this blows away anything we had (at Northern Iowa).

“The basketball arena was (on campus) and it was finished two years before I got there. It seats 6,200 people and is fairly new, but all we’ve done is upgrade and add amenities to it, usually behind-the-house amenities like a locker room and stuff for the players. Some of that work is going down at (Devlin Fieldhouse), but from a recruiting standpoint, when football players come on campus there should be a really nice auditorium where the full football team’s going to meet. There should be a team lounge. There needs to be things that people might scoff at, but the fact of the matter is that’s the market for recruiting. And the kids make those comparisons when they’re in on their visit. If you’re not staying up to speed here, where else aren’t you staying up to speed with everybody else?”

Is Barbara Burke’s role going to change at all? Has her status been determined?

“I think everybody’s role here is going to change a little bit because I’ll be involved in a different way. Barbara I will tell you is a perfect complement for me in what she’s doing here. My focus is going to be external, my focus is going to be business office and my focus is going to be people. Her day-to-day operational abilities are phenomenal. She brought this place so far in two years. She was invaluable in the search for Willie (Fritz) because she was able to show him the lay of the land on campus—the good and what needed to be improved in order for him to come in and be successful. I don’t think Willie’s here without Barbara in the interviews. Now, how is the role going to change. I plan to use her in much the way she’s been used, but I don’t expect her to run in front as much as she’s run in front the last couple of years. I’ve offered her a contract. I hope that this is where she wants to be, but I also know that when I took the job at Northern Iowa, there were two internal candidates. One of them left become an AD at another school and has had a great run, and one of them became one of my top lieutenants. It will be up to her what she wants to do, but I’m doing everything I can to make sure this is where she wants to be.”

Are you bringing anybody else in for positions or creating jobs for them, or is it too early to tell?

“It’s too early to tell. These first couple of weeks, one, I meet with every coaching staff just to kind of explain my vision and get to know them and learn a little bit about their families and how they’re here and why they’re here, and then I’m meeting with every senior staff member. From my standpoint of what I’m trying to do is I want to make sure everybody is in the right place. I’m not looking at moving people in and moving people out. I’m looking at moving things around with the people to make sure they are in the best possible places to succeed.

“There are a couple of openings here that I inherited, and with transitions things will probably happen later in the spring as well, but the only thing I can tell you is absolutely going to happen is we’ll have a position that’s more dedicated to, I would say it’s half media relations and half marketing and it would be a director of new media if you will. We need to be a lot more active with videos, social media and communicating the way that everybody’s communicating today. Something new from a recruiting standpoint that goes on that football website or goes on the volleyball website, the videos and stuff we do in a way that captures and engage the students and the coaches, we will have that position here hopefully by the start of July.

“That’s a critical need from a departmental standpoint, and then I will tell you I will focus a lot on development. The development staff here is really good, but it probably needs more people, so I’ll see what we can do there. Everybody is a development officer, and frankly if you look at the institution supports athletics in a way that cannot be questions, so from a how to grow our budget, how do we generate more revenue to put us in a better position to get those salaries things taken care of that we talked about, to make sure we are able to keep coaches when we are successful. It’s selling tickets, it’s marketing and it’s development, so we’re going to spend a lot of time on those three areas and make sure we take care of growth. We can’t go to the university and say, you need to take care of all of our growth for us. We need to take care of it ourselves.”

lsu offered Tanner a scholarship, he visits BR this weekend. no further info yet

Some player who have fell under the radar will move to the front of depth charts with the new staff. Are there players you can see making moves this spring. However there are some that may not fit with staff any guesses?

Nice story by Ed Daniels on SportsNola.com. I am talking to Fritz this afternoon.

http://sportsnola.com/tulanes-fritz...n-processes-target-key-areas-for-improvement/

As I tweeted last night, Tulane is now 3-0 v. USF since last Jan. 11 and 2-13 v. the rest of the AAC, so the victory means nothing if the Green Wave can't pull an upset in one of its next three games at home against SMU and on the road against Cincinnati and UConn, where it will be a heavy underdog each time.

But winning is always better than losing. Here are some quotes from Conroy and Dabney, who played significantly better despite making only 5 of 15 shots (his misses were closer and he trusted his teammates more).

Other than the offensive rebounding, the key for me was the way Tulane stopped launching indiscriminately from 3-point range in the second half. The Wave trailed by 1 at the half after taking 16 3s (and making seven) and attempted only seven in the second half. The makes in the first half could have been fool's gold because this is not a good perimeter shooting team, but Tulane started making the extra pass and finding better shots after the break, attempting only seven 3s. Let's see if that continues or if they go back to taking quick bad 3s or late bad 3s, the pattern for most of the year.

One other note: Jarreau has brought a lot of his issues on himself with his on-court attitude, but man, that guy is an elite passer for a big man. If he can just play with energy and focus and control, his ability to find guys under the basket for layups is unparalleled by any Tulane post player this century.

CONROY

"I give credit to USF, I don't know that we ever found an answer to stop them tonight. That's a credit to what they do and how those guys are growing as a team. We really got it done on the backboards and on the offensive end, but we didn't have any answers for them defensively. I was proud of our guys. We kept fighting and battling. I thought we started moving the basketball really well in the second half. Dylan Osetkowski, Melvin Frazier came up really big for us and made some big rebounds that allowed us to keep scoring."

On the rebounding

"I kind of challenged our guys. We work hard on our board coverage and our conversion defense every day. I think we have some guys, we have one unsung guy on our roster in Ryan Smith and I thought he was really physical in there, it took a lot of guys to box him out. Dylan got free, Melvin got free, that's part of why I put Melvin in the starting lineup, to give us another athlete on the boards. We got annihilated [on the boards] in one game this year, and that was against Houston, and these guys beat up Houston pretty good on the backboards, so I told our guys that this is a test for us. We were the better rebounding team and it was the first thing I mentioned to them after the game. I was proud of our effort there."

On unselfisness

"I was happy with our ball movement and our extra passes. We haven't been a great team this year at taking care of the basketball and making the extra pass, but tonight we have 15 assists and six turnovers. That led us to rotations would led us to rebounds."

On how the rebounding helped with the opportunities from three

"It did early on. I was afraid, because we came out shooting quite a few early, that we were going to settle. I thought as the game went on we started getting the paint touches, the inside out. A lot of that credit, I would say goes to Jernard Jarreau and Dylan Osetkowski. A lot of people who may not have seen them play don't know that they are really talented passers for big guys."

DABNEY

"Tonight I was just focused on playing aggressively, I wanted to score but also be looking for my teammates."

On what this performance does for him moving forward

"It does a lot because I've been struggling a little bit lately with different schemes that that team has, but after this game, after seeing the ball go through the net a lot, it just gives me a lot of confidence going into the next game."

Looks like ULL just got creamed for violations. Part of the penalties are vacating wins where the ineligible players participated. If this includes the New Orleans Bowl, does that change Tulane's loss to a win?

A ULM writer just tweeted out that Slade Nagle, a former McNeese State assistant who joined ULM's staff recently along with McNeese State's former head coach, is at Tulane now.

Nagle was running backs and special teams coordinator, but Willie Fritz runs his own special teams, so Nagle will be just the running backs coach. That leaves Fritz with two more positions to fill, and I was told last week he likely will have one more by tomorrow when the recruiting dead period ends and will wait a while to pick the final one.

Here's Nagle's bio from McNeese State. He is from Louisiana, played in Louisiana and coached in Louisiana, but not in the New Orleans area.

http://mcneesesports.com/coaches.aspx?rc=449

This will be on the front page when Rivals debuts its new look later today (or soon), but I don't want you to wait any longer for the first part of the Q&A I conducted with Tulane AD Troy Dannen.

New athletic director Troy Dannen spent his first week on the job hiring a football coach after setting up base in New York City, barely getting a chance to see the Tulane campus. A little more than a month after accepting the job, he sat down for an extensive interview last Friday.

Here is the first part of a three-part Q&A with him. He talked about why football coach Willie Fritz will make that program successful, the impediments in place that have hindered men’s basketball and discussed his priority order for new facilities.

You didn’t exactly ease into the job when you took over as athletic director. What has the first month been like?

“The first two weeks were a mad rush. To hire a football coach six days into the job really without having been on campus was a challenge. I didn’t know the culture of the institution. I couldn’t communicate a lot about the team. It was more about a vision of what I thought we needed and more about understanding the vision of the coach. I had thought I had a pretty good handle on what we needed here and what was lacking.

“When I met with Willie (Fritz), I knew he had the vision and the experience. I’ve said it before, but I knew I had to have somebody that wasn’t going to learn on the fly because I’m going to learn on the fly. I didn’t need to be mentoring somebody in how to coach football. If I had been here a while and I had thought that was the right type of person, I would have been more open to it, but given my situation I want somebody that knew how to coach the game and that I could work with in getting all those resources, not just financial, but all those other resources put together behind him.

“Then I went right into volleyball. When I came back down for Willie’s press conference, I interviewed Jim Barnes and offered him the job, so the first two weeks I hired two coaches that in eight years I didn’t hire at Northern Iowa. So it was a totally different start that I’d experienced there because the people were in place there, and most of our focus here in the first month has been on people.”

Fritz appears to fit perfectly the description of the coach you mentioned you wanted to hire in your introductory press conference. There’s a reason for that, right?

“Yeah, you know from the time that I knew I was going to be a finalist, I had a pretty good idea that there was going to be an opening and that I wasn’t going to be creating the opening --it was going to be an opening that I would inherit—I started talking to some folks and looking around the country, and when I found that Willie may be movable, he became my quick focus. So when I was here for my introductory press conference, when I talked a lot about characteristics and profiles (of his ideal candidate), I was talking a lot about Willie. But again, you don’t know if he will take the job, so I had some backup plans.”

You’ve mentioned a few times that you tried to identify why Tulane wasn’t winning and take steps to change the culture. What specifically have you identified?

“I think some of those reasons are gone now. The infrastructure was a hang-up. We wouldn’t have gotten Willie if we were playing in the Superdome, but to have a stadium and the ownership of the stadium (helped land him). I don’t know enough about the history, but what I was able to tell Willie is the commitment from the institution is absolutely there in every way that it could be there. The commitment from the board and from all the names that are on or inside that stadium are on my search committee. I used the term institutional ego in my press conference, but I saw all of that here. I don’t know if that’s always been here or not, but that has to be here in order for us to be successful.

“What I’m really trying to do right now, as I told Willie, I can hire a championship football coach, but if I don’t have championship level marketing, championship level development, championship level sports information, championship levels in every way that we support the program—academic services—the team won’t win championships.

“Part of it is making sure every unit in the department is behind the effort and we’re all pushing in the same direction, so whether that was there or whether it wasn’t there, we’re moving in that direction pretty quickly. And Willie’s very engaging, very personable and is quickly building just phenomenal relationships with the staff. He’s been very good at communicating what the football program needs to have in all of those other areas.”

Fritz’ offenses have been run-heavy since his days at Sam Houston State and rarely threw at all at Georgia Southern. They also have been very successful, but was that run-dominance any concern at all for you?

“No. I want a system that wins. In 16 of his 17 years he’s had winning records. The other thing that I like about him, and a lot of coaches say they can do this, but he’s proven it—he builds his team and builds his offense around the players that he has. You know, he has a preference. In a lot of ways he’s one of the creators of the pistol, he and Chris Ault, and that’s an offense that in the last five years has become very prevalent nationally, so yeah, it works.

“You may want to run five-wide, you may want to do a lot of things, but frankly the talent that you have and the talent that you’re going to have and the type of offense that can be a consistent winner and not have highs and lows where you never know what to expect (is Fritz’ offense). It doesn’t matter what the weather is. It doesn’t matter what the location is. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It doesn’t matter if they are bigger or smaller on the other side of the ball. It doesn’t matter if they’re faster or slower. That offense can win. It wasn’t the fact that he ran or passed. He has an offense that wins.”

You mentioned your feeling that Yulman Stadium helped land Fritz. Can Devlin Fieldhouse can be seen as a detriment, and is there anything you can do about it?

“I would tell you the arena should be the greatest asset the basketball program has. Let me back up. The city is the greatest asset that any of these programs have. The arena should be the greatest specific asset the basketball program has, and the reason for it is, and you lived it in the Perry Clark days, when it’s good, it’s packed and it’s loud and it’s the greatest home-court advantage in the league. I don’t care if you have a beautiful 20,000-seat stadium that’s one-third full every night and looks gorgeous. The fact is when allowing the building to help you win games, our building can help us win games more than any other building in this league. Duke doesn’t have the nicest arena in the ACC. It hasn’t held them back. It’s ours, we own it and I actually think it’s a great asset.

“And even the stadium (Yulman), people want to talk about the stadium size. There is something to be said about demand. It’s perfect. If you look at what’s happened with attendance nationally, there are five people that need 100,000-seat stadiums, but this fits us. I would rather have 25,000 people in a 25,000-seat stadium than I would 25,000 in a 40,000-seat stadium. The cost-benefit, you’ll never get that back, but the home-field advantage in either building that we can create is phenomenal.”

The “new” 2016 roster is now posted on the official site. All the graduated seniors have been deleted though the rest of the players are listed with their class not changing from last year. Veal and Lee are gone but Godfrey is still listed even though it is widely reported that he is transferring to Nichols State. Is that still true? We’ll only have one center left (Dias) if so. Has he changed his mind?

Also, of interest, Sydie London is still listed. He was a senior last year but did not play and did not take part in the graduation ceremony on senior day. Did he redshirt? Is he coming back?

There may be some more anomalies on the roster but those are a couple that jumped out at me.

Roll Wave!!

I searched for this link because I actually think Dannen came off well in the interview at the time when making a very tough decision.

http://espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=3928837

Is leaving USM....wonder if Fritz has been in touch....

http://www.sunherald.com/sports/college/article54146930.html

Belle Chasse Kawzi Antoine de-commits.