I missed my first practice of the year today other than a couple at the Saints facility that Scott Kushner covered when I was off during preseason drills. I thought the Green Wave was practicing Wednesday and Thursday, not Tuesday and Wednesday.

Todd Graffagnini was there, though. and he told me Tanner Lee practiced. Unless Lee suffers a setback, he will start on Halloween against Cincinnati.

I will be there tomorrow and hope to talk to Lee.

Guerry, what are your thoughts on Blake Paul? How will he be an impact player and how will he affect recruiting for Tulane in the Nola area?

Guerry is Webb recommitted or not? He's still not on commitment list

Any reason he is not listed on site. Is he still considered a soft commitment or have coaches not accepted his commitment? Or is the site just not up to date?

As always, the point spreads are from VegasInsider.com, home teams are listed first and the Tulane game counts double.

Slim pickings this week, particularly in the American with one good Friday game between Houston and Temple (only use Saturday games) and two awful games (South Florida-Tulsa and Cincinnati-SMU) aside from Tulane-UCF.

UCF (-19.5) Tulane
Florida State (-11.5) Notre Dame
Arkansas (+3.5) Georgia
Arizona State (+3) Stanford
Alabama (-11.5) Texas A&M
LSU (-9.5) Kentucky
Oklahoma (-8) Kansas State
Duke (-3) Virginia

Guerry,
When I go to the prospects list on the front page it defaults to the 2014. When I set it to 2015 it brings up maybe one position (usually QB) then it goes back to 2014. I would like to see the lists of the 2015 recruits. Is this just my computer? Can you look it to getting it corrected?
Thanks
E

Guerry, I noticed that several of our walk-ons have good size. Have you noticed any that have looked like a future player for us. Thanks

There's a lot to be negative about with Tulane after the first six games, but I can't understand why all the message boards have people continually ripping the offensive line as if has improved only marginally from the past two years.

Here's a stat that may alter your opinion (or maybe not, because people believe what they believe regardless of counterarguments).

UConn, an awful team overall, has a better than average defensive front. In its four games before playing Tulane, it had not allowed anyone to average even 3 yards per carry, including holding Temple to 41 yards on 24 attempts and Boise State to 52 yards on 27 attempts.

Tulane rushed for 167 yards on 31 attempts, more than five yards a carry. That's not just functional. That's a A grade for an offensive line. Obviously, the three holding penalties in the second quarter (the fourth was on a receiver) drop the grade significantly, but I haven't seen anyone, anywhere praising Tulane's offensive line for pushing UConn around like just about no one has all year. That's relevant and deserves mention.

Not that this is a surprise. CJ made no announcement after practice today, but he added that anyone who watched practice knew what the decision was.

It makes sense to hold Lee this week since the Wave has another bye before facing Cincinnati on Oct. 31. He's not 100 percent, so there's no reason to risk him re-injuring the shoulder Saturday.

This is Montana's game, and now is the time for him to show his improved arm strength. Tulane cannot hang with UCF without making plays downfield in the passing game.

Collectively we had our best week of the year with Tulane covering, everyone picking Temple (which barely covered) and six people missing two or fewer out of the eight games.

LSU Law Greenie 8
captcrown1 8

MNAlum 7
ny oscar 7
St Amant Wave 7

WaveOn 6
dew99 6
Guerry Smith 6
Golfer81 6

Ressinge 5
DrBox 5

jjstock2005 4
winwave 4
Wavetime 4
Rcnut 4

buck2481 3
GretnaGreen 3
p8kpev 3


OVERALL STANDINGS

dew99 34

GretnaGreen 29

DrBox 28

Golfer81 26 (missed 1 week)
LSU Law Greenie 26
captcrown1 26

p8kpev 25
jjstock2005 25

buck2481 24

Guerry Smith 23

St Amant Wave 22

winwave 21
Wavetime 21
WaveOn 21

MNAlum 20 (missed 1 week)

ny oscar 18 (missed 1 week)

Rcnut 15

Ressinge 14 (missed 2 weeks)

OUG 10 (missed 2 weeks)

Guerry- I hope you can get a list of recruits who visit for the game. You've been great about that so far this year and I've seen it no where else. Thanks in advance.

Tammy has a good Q&A with Sumrall at Nola.com

Here's the link:

Link

I have a full transcript of CJ's post-practice interview on the front page.

It's pretty clear Nick Montana will start against this Saturday against UCF, giving Tanner Lee two more weeks to rest his injured shoulder before he presumably returns against Cincinnati on Halloween. Although CJ said Lee did more in Wednesday's practice, he took zero reps in the team portion with only one practice remaining before the Green Wave heads to Orlando. I heard Lee was making 25-yard throws in an individual session, an improvement from last week but not full strength.

Andrew DiRocco kicked pretty well again today, but amazingly, he hit another upright on a 44-yard field goal attempt. He has been uncanny in practice for his ability to hit the upright. Just before that, he hit a 41-yarder despite another low snap from Matt Marfisi.

Tight end Trey Scott dropped another pass during what CJ said was an epidemic of drops for the receivers. I got to practice later than normal but saw Xavier Rush drop one, too.

I got on the scout-team receivers a bit here yesterday, but today, the most accomplished of the group, Carlos Wilson, beat Lorenzo Doss for a long touchdown pass from Jordy Joseph. The Wave hopes Doss got that one out of his system.

Brandon LeBeau had a career-high seven tackles against UConn playing as a third safety in the nickel package. Defensive end Royce LaFrance expects that LeBeau to show up the rest of the year.

"LeBeau is just a physical specimen, man. You look at him and are just like, God. Then you saw Saturday the guy is a freak. I love him on the field. Me and him on the field just have fun."

I talked to LeBeau after practice. Here's the interview, although I got nothing out of the first question when he didn't take too kindly to my asking about the long touchdown he gave up against Tulsa. Guess he feels the statute of limitations has run out on that one.

You played really well against UConn. What was the difference?

"Just taking care of the little things. That's the thing we started stressing as players amongst each other. Mistakes will happen early on, and you learn from them. That's the major key we feel as a defense. We've actually taken care of the little things."

Having three safeties on the field worked against UConn with you, Darion Monroe and Sam Scofield. Do you feel that's an effective look for you guys?

"Yes, it's effective. We can communicate and help the younger guys understand how to play different positions to show you don't have to have all big guys on the field. As long as you communicate effectively, it can work out. It's just a learning process for the young guys."

You have half-a-season left in your career. Do you feel like the UConn game was the start of big ending for you?

"It definitely was a good game to have as a senior. It was a great confidence boost, not only for me but for the team. Everyone just feeds off the energy, and you love that as a player and as a defense."

How much can you feed off of shutting them out after the opening possession?

"Once you see that you can actually do something, then the standard is set so we know as a defense if we play as a whole, swarm to the ball, things like that, we know what we are capable of, so all we have to do is start fast and finish strong doing those things, and we can turn out to be a great defense."

How long did it take you to adjust to playing defense after you came in playing as a receiver?

"At first it was a little different but at the end of the day it's still playing football. That's what it's all about--just play your game, and when you have the opportunity to make the play, if you make it your rhythm starts to pick up."

How big an opportunity is the game at UCF for you guys?

"It's a very big opportunity. We feel if we don't beat ourselves, we'll have a good chance to keep a roll going. They have a good quarterback, but if we continue to execute to do what we do, we have all of the tools and all of the coaching to be successful and come out with the win."

Tanner Lee did nothing for the 70 minutes of practice I watched, getting mental reps instead of physical reps while Nick Montana took the heavy majority of snaps with the first team ahead of Devin Powell. Still, CJ made it crystal clear at his media luncheon that Lee would start if he were healthy against UCF.

"Tanner threw the ball early in practice again and he's going to throw more tomorrow," CJ said. "He's going to do more individuals. He's going to get all the way up to routes on air, and if he feels good doing that, he'll do a little bit more, probably 7 on 7. But Tanner's the guy if he can play. Nick Montana did a great job managing the game well. I don't know who's the best guy for this one. These guys are going to really come after you, so we have to get Montana ready, we have to get Tanner ready and we have to get Devin Powell ready. It looks like Montana would be the guy from his performance last week, but we have to be careful because this one here is going to be a different breed of animal."

If that answer was blurry, his next response was not.

"Tanner will be the guy (when healthy)," he said. "Just overall, you look at Tanner and what he can do, without the turnovers he's been playing very well, but this is a team where you've got to get it off quick. These guys are going to really come at you. I think Nick will be fine. He'll figure out how to manage this thing and get in our favor, and then with Devin we'll take a couple of long shots and see if he can connect, so all three of those guys, we kind of have a plan for all of them, but you'd like to have our starter back."

My take: Lee remains the unequivocal No. 1 starter --he was by far the best of Tulane's three QBs in preseason practice --but he probably will not be healthy enough to play without risking re-injuring his shoulder, so Montana will get the call. I'm not making a guarantee like I did last week --correctly--but I expect Montana to start.

Finally, CJ answered a question about starters losing their job due to injury, and I don't agree with his answer. He said they can't, but of course they can if the backup proves to be better. Let's put it this way. If Montana goes out and throws for 350 yards and four touchdowns against UCF, it would be nuts to go back to Lee in the next game against Cincinnati. And I'm a huge Lee supporter. That's just common sense.

"I don't think a starter can ever lose his job," CJ said. "It's just like last year. Devin went 2-0 and then we came back and started Nick. In our meeting room and what we talk about, Tanner's our starter. He's proven he's the best. He's outplayed those other guys. Now it's a blessing to have two other guys who can win games. I don't know if there's another college football program that can do that. We are going to see if Tanner can go, and Nick proves that he can win games, and then if we need to play Devin, we'll play Devin because he did last year."

Montana will need to take more risks than he did against UConn, obviously, because 12 points won't come close to getting the job done on Saturday.

In other news, Steven Broccoli is no longer in the field goal picture after having a tough week of practice last week, with Trevor Simms replacing him as the challenger to Andrew DiRocco. He won't beat out DiRocco this week, but if the Wave needs a really long field goal at the end of the half or the end of the game, Simms is the guy. He has an unbelievable leg. In a field goal drill Tuesday, he made a 45-yarder with plenty of room to spare, and all of his kicks sailed higher and farther than DiRocco's. That's the good news for Simms. The bad news is his attempts from 20, 32 and 39 yards all went wide right and were even close. DiRocco made his kicks from 20, 27, 32 and 39 yards before hooking a 45-yarder that he tried to kick too hard. The upshot: DiRocco was 4 for 5 and Simms was 2 for 5.

The saga of Matt Marfisi's bad snaps continued. With Mike Lizanich missing another day due to a hamstring injury, Marfisi sent a punt snap right throw Peter Picerelli's legs. He also bounced at least two of his field goal snaps, messing up the timing on one DiRocco made and one Simms missed.

There was a tough moment for wide receivers coach Keith Williams that his guys enjoyed. During the special teams part of practice, he did a playful exercise with his position group on the sideline where they threw the ball to him with his back to them. He had to turn around and catch it fast. Well, Xavier Rush drilled the ball at him, and he got pegged with it as he tried to catch it, causing a celebration among the receivers. As they had agreed upon ahead, Williams had to drop down and do push-ups.

Tight end Sydie London, who played a lot in his first two years, is working with the scout-team offense after being passed by true freshmen Charles Jones and Trey Scott.

Cornerback Parry Nickerson is a natural. Standing on the sideline for a defensive rep he was not involved in, he reached down and made a shoestring grab of an overthrown pass by scout team QB Jordy Joseph. Made it look easy.

I doubt this was a factor in the secondary's struggles at times this year before the UConn game, but the scout team wide receivers aren't scaring anyone. The top four Tuesday were Carlos Wilson (a senior walk-on with game experience) and the unheralded trio of Jo Jo Dobbs, Larry Dace and David Dubriel. None of them have the speed of that Rutgers receiver who toasted Tulane's secondary. Just two years ago, Devon Breaux and Kedrick Banks made play after play for the scout team. There's no issue with the top scout team running back--Josh Rounds is a good stand-in for opposing ball-carriers--but these receivers are a different story.

The most miserable looking player at the practice was freshman linebacker Zachery Harris, who had season-ending knee surgery less than two weeks ago. He sat on the bench in a sweat suit and looked cold and unhappy in the first fall-like day of the year. It's got to be tough to have your best game against Rutgers and think you're going to be in the mix for the rest of the season, then have it all end on one play in the fourth quarter. Kudos to SID Roger Dunaway for going up to Harris and encouraging him.

Keyoard just stopped working on ottom right side. Will finish this one when get it working.

As anyone who watched on TV knows, the coverage on ESPNews started late because an NBA preseason game went to OT. UConn already was at the Tulane 30 on its opening possession when they got to the game.

Darion Monroe blew up a bad call on third-and-3 as UConn tried to run to the left side against a defense that had eight guys near the line of scrimmage. He knifed through a gap unblocked and hit the running back square on before getting help from teammates for a 4-yard loss, forcing the Huskies to settle for a field goal.

Tulane 1st series

1) Sherman Badie ran right up the gut for 16 yards to the 36, getting a good blocks from center Nathan Shienle, who pushed his guy to the left, and right guard Chris Taylor, who pushed his guy to the right.

2) 1-10-36: A checkdown to Dontrell Hilliard gained 8 yards after he juggled the short thrown, then turned upfield to get as much as possible from the play.

3) 2-2-44: This time, Taylor pummeled a linebacker in the gap while Sean Donnelly pushed a lineman to the left, and Badie read it perfectly, darting through a nice hole for 11 yards. Tulane's offensive line is vastly improved.

4) 1-10-45: With the down and distance on the screen randomly showing second and 3, Dante Butler lined up as an up back on a nifty play and ran forward as if he were going to block for Lazedrick Thompson, then ran parallel to the line of scrimmage to his right and was uncovered in the flat, gaining 17 yards. Nice call and execution. Shienle had no one to block as he ran downfield on the disguised screen.

5) 1-10-28: Nick Montana got great protection and found Justyn Shackleford running across the field to the UConn 7. This turned out to be the longest pass play of the night for Tulane.

6) 1-G-7: With a play fake to Thompson, Montana fooled a linebacker into running inside, leaving an open lane for tight end Charles Jones, who got inside another linebacker on a slant route for a TD.

The snap on the extra point was low again but handled well by Peter Picerelli.

ANALYSIS: This was a terrific drive with all six plays working perfectly. Who knew the Wave would get totally conservative the rest of the way, figuring the seven points were enough?

UCONN DRIVE NO. 2

Tulane had poor kickoff coverage, allowing the returner to cut outside and get to the UConn 48. Just when the announcer said he only had the kicker to beat, though (a common announcing mistake), Richard Allen knocked him out of bounds. Last time I checked, Allen is not a kicker.

1-10-48: Brandon LeBeau, who had the best game of his career, lined up on the line of scrimmage, backed up just before the snap, then went in untouched and stoned the UConn RB for a 3-yard loss.

2-13-45: LeBeau made an even better play because he was blocked this time, running through a wide receiver on a slip screen to tackle a receiver for a 2-yard loss. Monroe finished the guy off, but this was all LeBeau reading and reacting perfectly.

3-15-43: A safe throw over the middle had no chance. CB Parry Nickerson made a sure tackle, and Monroe was there again to make sure nothing bad happened.

Analysis: After its traditionally slow start, the Tulane D started taking over thanks to LeBeau, the third safety in the nickel package who played instead of Taurean Nixon.

TULANE DRIVE NO. 2

1-10-16: Taylor did not hold his block and Thompson was stuffed for a 3-yard loss.

2-13-13: Shienle let the nose takle go right through as he looked to engage a linebacker instead. Don't know if that was the design of the play or not, but the result was a 4-yard loss.

3-17-9: A short pass to Teddy Veal had no shot to get the first down.

4-11-15: Picerelli had to leap to catch a high snap from Marfisi. Thankfully for Tulane, UConn was not rushing.

Analysis: After an excellent opening possession, the line showed it still has to be more consistent. Marfisi is consistently off target on snaps.

UCONN DRIVE NO. 3

1-10-47: Nico Marley got too far inside and let RB Arkeel Newsome cut outside of him, but Lorenzo Doss was there to prevent a big gain as Newsome picked up 6 yards. It was a quiet night for Marley, who finished with two tackles.

2-4-41: DE Royce LaFrance got past a matador block and forced a throwaway.

3-4-41: A miscommunication between QB Chan Whitmer and his receiver resulted in a harmless deep pass to no one.

Analysis: UConn is really bad offensively. The attempt to block LaFrance was laughable, and the deep pass was nowhere close when all the Huskies needed was 4 yards. Bad call, worse execution.

TULANE DRIVE NO. 3

1-10-1: Both teams had to start a possession at the1 after perfect punts were downed there. Tulane got good blocks from Donnelly and Taylor to get off the goal line on a 5-yard gain for Thompson. That was important, as we found out on UConn's run in the exact same circumstance in the third quarter.

2-5-6: Thompson powered his way for 4 yards.
3-1-10: Thompson powered for the first down.

1-10-14: Badie made a nice cut for 5 yards outside with no hole in the middle, getting some help from tight end Charles Jones,who occupied his man.


2-5-19: Taylor committed an awful holding penalty with a takedown, negating a 1st down run by Butler. This was the first in a series of holds by the line.

2-14-10: Badie gets a nice gain to the right behind excellent blocks by Taylor and Shienle. The hole gave him 5 yards, and he got 3 more on second effort.

3-6-18: Montana scrambles for 1st down, but this time a hold on Sean Donnelly wipes it out. It was the right call again. His man probably would have sacked Montana.

3-15-9: Badie got 6 meaningless yards on draw.

Analysis: The holding penalties killed the drive when the OL was playing well otherwise.

UCONN DRIVE NO. 4

1-10-49: Good penetration by Edward Williams. Although he did not make the play, he was active.

2-8-49: INC deep. Doss had good coverage.

3-8-49: Doss makes great read for INT on out route, then gets huge, long, emotional hug from DL coach Kwahn Drake.

Analysis: Yes, the competition was weak,but the entire secondary played well, and Doss rebounded from a terrible performance at Rutgers. Great catch of hard pass.

TULANE DRIVE NO. 5

1-10-39: C to Badie for 4

2-6-44: Terrific individual effort by Badie, who got a good block from Shienle but did rest on his own to pick up 1st down, but takedown by Arturo Uzdavinis (not clear whether it was hold on TV, with no replay) nullifies play.

2-16-34: C to Tre Scott for 6 yards. Notable only because he finally held on to a pass after dropping at least 3 in first five games. Color commentator praised him for his "really good hands" after the catch.

3-10-40: Montana deep pass for Veal not close. Veal tried to draw interference call, ref wisely kept flag in his pocket because it was acting job more than illegal contact.

Analysis: Another holding call kills drive, but I don't agree with posters who say OL had terrible game. To this point, consistently opening up holes against pretty good defense and protecting Montana well.

UCONN DRIVE NO. 6

1-10-18: Good penetration by Smart and LaFrance busts up play that ends in 3-yard loss. Eric Thomas makes the tackle.

2-13-15: UConn goes to version of a play that worked best all night, a quick pass to RB with WRs taking care of CBs for 13 yards.

1-10-28: Smart and Redwine taken out easily and end Ade Aruna, a poor run defender, goes too far upfield as Huskies get large hole for 22 yards.

1-10-50: Good play from Edward Williams, who stops run for 1 yard while getting blocked.

2-9-49: Nico Marley forced a scramble by covering RB, but Darion Monroe commits personal foul penalty with left forearm to QB after he slid to ground. Not much contact, and certainly no bad intent, but that one will be called every time even though Monroe was not happy about it.

1-10-33: Miscommunication on deep pass by anemic UConn passing attack.

2-10-33: Monroe more than makes up for penalty with terrific rip and strip, although I see I made fact error for Advocate in game story and rewind writing the ball never touched ground. Did not see it bounce off turf right into his hands. Still an amazing play, the type that wins games.

Analysis: Monroe has gotten better each year and has turned into the playmaker Tulane recruited when it flipped the 4-star commitment to Texas A&M. He ended one of the Huskies' most promising possessions single-handedly.

TULANE SERIES NO. 6

1-10-30: The fourth holding penalty in eight snaps negates short pass. This time it is against WR Leondre James.

1-15-25: A rare run to the left with another good effort from pulling guard Taylor for 5 yards.

2-10-30: Good seal from Donnelly opens up hole and huge hit from Scott allows 10-yard run from Sherman.

1-10-40: Hanson misses 1st guy, then goes on to engage 2nd guy while play goes nowhere as result.

2-8-42: Hilliard drops pass. He has potential, not getting it done yet.

3-8-42: Throwaway when Taylor gets whipped and Sherman goes out on late pattern instead of staying in to stop rusher.

Analysis: The left side of the line is weaker than the right side. On right side, Taylor is feast or famine.

HALF ANALYSIS: Tulane ran pretty well; holding penalties killed any opportunity to sustain momentum of opening series. Defense dominated after opening possession with good play from Williams and No.5 (some keys still not working) for 1st time this season.























This post was edited on 10/14 12:09 AM by Guerry Smith

The conservative game plan worked tonight because UConn is inept offensively, but it won't work against anyone else on the schedule. Tulane will have to open up the offense against UCF no matter who starts at QB. I still prefer a healthy Tanner Lee to Nick Montana, but obviously he would need to play better than he did for stretches of the first four games.

Montana made one great play tonight, getting out of a sack to keep a play alive and finding Justyn Shackleford for a third-down conversion to keep a drive alive that ended in Andrew DiRocco's clinching field goal. Montana also made a couple of nice passes on the opening touchdown drive, but the offense was painful to watch in between. The four holding penalties in a three-possession stretch in the second quarter would have been killers against a better team.

The key for Tulane rebounding from its 2-4 start is the defensive front. Those guys dominated UConn and SLU, and they need to continue to play well against better competition. UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, East Carolina and Temple are a lot more dynamic than UConn, but Tulane's secondary is good enough to hold its own against anyone if the Wave controls the line of scrimmage. The Wave almost certainly will be underdogs in every one of those games and needs a run like it had against North Texas, East Carolina and Tulsa as an underdog last season.

UCF is beatable. Again, there's no way I'm predicting a Tulane win on the road against a decent team until after it actually happens, but the Knights have an inconsistent QB and offense in general. If the Wave plays well next Saturday, it can hang with UCF, which easily could have lost to Houston and BYU the last two weeks and could be emotionally flat after getting by BYU in overtime on Thursday.

The most encouraging thing tonight was the special teams. A team can't be functional if it can't make field goals, and DiRocco hitting that 38-yarder was a boost for the entire team. CJ said everyone was jumping up and down like they'd won the World Series when that kick went through the uprights. And Peter Picerelli has an outstanding game, leaping to catch three bad snaps from Matt Marfisi (who ever would have thought we'd say Lizanich can't come back soon enough) and pinning UConn inside its 10 twice. The punt that went to the 1 was one of the five most important plays of the game, leading to the safety that made the score 9-3. But I still can't understand why Dontrell Hilliard is returning kickoffs. He doesn't make anyone miss, ever.

UCF swept the awards despite a shaky overtime win at home against a BYU team that had lost its star QB for the year a week earlier--hey, the league likes to promote its rare non-conference wins against big-name opponents--but Monroe made the honorable mention list on defense for his six tackles, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble in Tulane's dominant defensive effort against UConn.

With Monroe, Scofield, Doss and Nickerson, Tulane's secondary figures to play very well the rest of the year.

ESPN's cameras followed the Tulane football team last Tuesday.

The 30-minute All-Access show on ESPNU will air at 5 p.m. and again at 10.30 tomorrow.

Great job, Guerry. Some interesting names he dropped. He sounds excited and "in charge." I like it.

Thanks.

This post was edited on 10/10 1:56 PM by WaveON

Getting it up earlier this week because I'm going to be swamped the next two days. As always, the point spreads are from VegasInsider.com, home teams are listed first and the Tulane game counts double.

Tulane (-3.5) Connecticut
Temple (-10) Tulsa
Memphis (-9) Houston
Georgia Tech (-4) Duke
Florida (+1.5) LSU
Mississippi State (+3) Auburn
Texas A&M (-2) Ole Miss
Baylor (-10) TCU

...keep in mind that it's our Fall Break this weekend, so the student section is going to look much like it did at the Dome, I would think. Only about 10-12% of our undergrads are from Louisiana.

I guess we couldn't push the conference to give us an away game or bye week during Fall Break (or Voodoo weekend, for that matter) when we were so determined to get a conference road game in week 1 after we had to move SELA from 8/31 to 9/13 because of the Yulman construction schedule. So, don't jump to the conclusion that the students have given up on the program/stadium so soon, they have not.

This post was edited on 10/9 12:42 PM by jjstock2005

Really nice job Guerry. Thanks

Guerry- You've been doing a great job following the football team this year. With the "bye week" and fewer practices, is there any chance you could slip over to Turchin and see what's going on? With the publication of an upgraded baseball schedule, our team needs to be much better than last year.

Thanks

Although Tanner Lee did not practice again today in the hour that I was there, CJ did not close the door on him playing, at lead publicly.

The reality is Lee won't play except in an emergency, but clearly CJ does not want UConn to know for sure. Montana will get the call --he's had an extra bounce in his step all week long--and Powell will be ready if needed.

CJ's telling quote came about a minute after he refused to rule Lee out:

"Tanner has to show me that he can throw it enough to run this offense, and I've seen a couple of plays and nothing to indicate he can run this thing like we want him to."

Offensive coordinator Eric Price toed the party line and professed a little more optimism about Lee, who did not get a single rep in any of the three practices I watched this week. Again, I've never seen a college team that played a quarterback who got zero reps in practice during the week.

"I think Tanner's feeling a lot better," Price said. "He'll be back soon."

Price praised Montana and Powell's performance in practice and said the offense would not change with either of them at the helm.

"We'll tweak the offense a little bit each week based on who we're playing anyway," he said. "The run game and some of the screen game stuff has really helped us this year. It took some pressure off Tanner originally, but it will not necessarily change for any specific quarterback."

Montana and Powell certainly should be ready for UConn. They've gotten all the reps any No. 1 or No. 2 QB get before a game, with the reps divided a little more evenly between them than they were between Lee and Powell in weeks past.

"It's pretty common throughout the country--if the starting quarterback gets hurt, next man up," Price said. "We have a plan. We had a plan before that happened. They've had a good two weeks of practice, so it's kind of business as usual right now."

Powell threw a pretty deep touchdown pass to Xavier Rush against the scout team defense, and Montana threw a nice fade to Devon Breaux for a score a little later on. Montana was good on the fade passes early last year before hurting his throwing shoulder. He was effective at times in the red zone, throwing 14 touchdown passes.

He's raring to go.

"I didn't get any reps before the last two weeks," he said. "I just come out and play and try to do my best and let the cards fall where they are going to fall. I'm trying to make up for lost time as quickly as I can."

In other news, CJ said long snapper Mike Lizanich likely will not play Saturday. That was one significant hamstring pull he had in warm-ups against Duke, and although CJ said replacement snapper Matt Marfisi was getting better every day, I saw at least five terrible field goal snaps on Tuesday and Wednesday, all of which bounced to holder Peter Picerelli.

Nick Montana continue to get most of the reps with the first-team offense Wednesday while Tanner remained an observer, making it even more likely that Montana will start against Connecticut on Saturday. CJ was non-committal after practice, but there's no reason for him tip his plans to the Huskies with Tulane desperately needing a victory against a fellow 1-4 team.

Montana did not have as good a day as he did Tuesday, and Devin Powell looked better than he did Tuesday, but it would be a major shock if Powell got the call over Montana presuming Lee can't go. The coaches appeared very frustrated with Powell at the end of his final possession in relief of Lee during Tulane's 31-6 loss to Rutgers, and they liked the way Montana got rid of the ball on his lone series.

The kicking battle appears clear, too, although, again, CJ was non-committal after practice. Andrew DiRocco had his best day that I have observed, nailing field goals from 35 and 40 yards at the end of a drill while Steven Broccoli was wide right from 35 yards and hit the right upright from 40 yards. After DiRocco's 40-yard kick, defensive backs and special teams coach Jason Rollins shouted words of encouragement, telling him the kick would have been good from 50.

DiRocco said he benefitted from the presence of former Tulane kicker Cairo Santos Tuesday and Wednesday and was in a better place mentally after going home to Florida over the weekend during the Wave's bye week.

"Having Cairo here was a great benefit to our performance in the future," he said. "He was really outstanding with (telling us) the same situations he has been through, most kickers have been through. It's a rough time but he's really just helping keep positive. Letting you know that I am here for a reason.Over the bye week I went home, talked to some old coaches, really got back in touch with being myself the same way I did. It really just helped.

Whatever the reason, his kicks looked a lot better Wednesday after getting

"I showed myself and obviously I can do it because that's how I got here --which I never doubted but it's just nice to hear that from somebody else so I just have to play like I deserve it and I do," he said.

Neither kicker made 42-yard attempts during a 2-minute drill a little later, but both snaps were terrible. DiRocco sent his attempt wide right after Matt Marfisi's snap bounced to holder Peter Picerelli, and Broccoli missed left after an even worse snap bounced to Picerelli. Until Tulane cleans up its snapping operation, the kickers have no shot, and regular snapper Michael Lizanich was unavailable again Wednesday. He hurt his leg in warmups against Duke and has not played since then.

Sam Scofield and Taurean Nixon had interceptions against the scout-team offense for a secondary that wants to atone for a dismal performance against Rutgers. An anemic pass rush did not help, but Scofield, Darion Monroe and Lorenzo Doss (more than once in his case) were flat out beaten for long gains. UConn, though, does not have a quarterback like Gary Nova, who is making up for a previously mediocre career by torching secondaries this year for Rutgers. He threw for 402 yards in a win over Michigan the week after beating Tulane.

"We're excited," Scofield said. "We've been watching a lot of film and running hard at practice. We're definitely ready to get back on the field and show people who we are."

LB Robert Kennedy of the scout team defense wore a red jersey to simulate UConn LB Marquise Vann, who has 16 more tackles than any of his teammates (52). The coaches want to make sure the offense is aware of Vann at all times.

Freshman tight end Tre Scott, who can get open but has yet to catch a pass this year because of shaky hands, dropped a touchdown in 11-on-11 drills that turned into an interception off his deflection. Either he has started letting his drops in games affect his confidence or he just doesn't have good hands.

For all of CJ's quotes after practice, check the Q&A on the front page.