Over the past five games, all on the road, we went 3-2 against Nichols State, Texas, and USM. Our RPI, still a little early to be truly relevant, moved from #41 to #46. We lost a tough game to Nichols, won two tough ones against Texas, lost big to Texas and won relatively easily against USM. So, what’s it all mean?

Well, if all five games are considered “road games” (the USM contest might be considered “neutral,” we get credit for 1.3 points for each win and only 0.7 points for each loss (according to the RPI formula). So, for the week, we went 3.9-1.4 (.736). Prior to that, we were 8.0-4.4 (.645), so, for that purpose, it was a good week.

So why did our RPI drop? It’s simple. Until last night, our opponents didn’t have a great week. And that counts 50% of our RPI. For the week, our opponents, who had previously been 117 - 87 (.574), went 88 -88 (.500). And their opponents, who had a .553 record, played .505 ball for the five game period.
So, three-quarters of our resulting RPI was negatively affected by our opponents' performance. We can only do what we can do. And that’s win. The schedule is what it is and it’s not going to change. We can root for our opponents but that’s about it.

As for our own play, it was decidedly mixed. We only hit .233 for the five games and lost a lot of our aggressiveness at the plate that marked the earlier part of the season. We still hit .383 prior to two strikes but allowed the count to get to 2 strikes 55% of the time. That we only hit .111 with 2 strikes tells the story of why that’s important.

Rogers and Carthon both hit .400 on the week and Rowland hit .429 (3 for 7) in limited appearances. He’s 6 for 16 on the year and it would be nice to see him get more at bats. Hope got a couple of hits against USM, including a home run, but was only 3 for 20 (.150) for the five games, with ten strikeouts. Hopefully, Willsey is coming out of his slump with two hits last night to go 3 for 10 over the “away” week. Nobody else who batted (Edwards, Montalbano, Kaplan, Witherspoon, DeHart, Braud, Brown, or Pierce) hit better than .214.

On the mound, Corey Merrill and Alex Massey only pitched 4.1 innings between them due to weather in Merrill’s case and ineffectiveness for Alex. Between them, their ERA was 14.59, though poor outfield play contributed to the problem. Ross Massey and Emerson Gibbs had good outings and J.P. France had one good outing and one that was OK against a good hitting USM team on the road. Rankin had good results out of the pen but kept everything interesting while on the mound. Simms and Coletti were less effective but contributed. Montalbano came back to earth and Duester looked a little better, though he still walked three batters in 2.2 innings, while not allowing an earned run. Yandel still looks really bad. One telling statistic regarding our bull pen is that between Montalbano, Steel, Duester, Yandel, Issa, and Bjorngjeld, opponents are hitting at least .324 against all of them (.343 total) on the year. They’ve also walked or hit 29 batters in 27 innings. A couple of these guys need to “step up” soon. BTW, does anyone know when Gross is returning or if he’s returning? He didn’t pitch that well last year, but had a pretty good summer. We need help from somewhere.

Our defense really hurt us. We made six errors, all by Edwards, Braud, or Willsey in the middle-infield. Add in the pop ups that Braud misplayed at shortstop and one realizes how important Alemais is to our defense. Hopefully by this weekend, he’ll be well enough to swing the bat and do more than serve as a late inning defensive replacement. Of course, our outfield, which was not charged with any errors, put on a clown show in Texas battling the wind and misjudging line drives. That I thought they looked pretty good earlier in the year is now proving to be an embarrassment.

The next three games are all at home against an Illinois State team that is 7-13. We really need to take care of business and go into Baton Rouge next Tuesday on a roll.


Roll Wave!!!

Corey Merrill is being rested this weekend to allow him to be 100 percent for the conference opener at UConn. David Pierce said Merrill was a "little tender," adding this would give him "an opportunity to catch his breath."

Freshman Ross Massey, who has been outstanding to this point, will take over for Merrill on Friday, with older brother Alex Massey pitching Saturday and Emerson Gibbs going Sunday in their usual spots.

If Ross Massey pitches well, he will be hard to take out of the rotation.

This makes it pretty clear that J.P. France will start against LSU on Tuesday.

The front page has changed and there is no link to the forum. I can get it on mobile but not on the computer.

We’ve played 16 games to date or roughly 30% of the regular season. We’re 11-5 and while it’s still far too early to put much stock in RPI, we’re ranked #41 according to Warren Nolan. Wayne’s World has us at #38, but he has a fundamental error in computing the Tulane season so far. (On Edit: I contacted Wayne about this error which affected his computation for virtually every team, not just Tulane. He has since corrected it and he and Warren Nolan are now essentially identical.)

We could have a much better record if we hadn’t blown a 2-0 lead in the 8th against Illinois and a 7-1 lead against UNO. The 7-6 loss to San Diego could have also gone either way. At the same time, we had a miracle win against Illinois opening night and “nail biters” against Pepperdine and ULL that could have gone either way also. We’re probably about what our record says it is.

Of course, there are several positives and negatives in our performance so far. Hitting is better than most of us expected and pitching is not as good as we’d anticipated. After the first weekend, our fielding has also suffered badly.

At the plate, we’ve got 5 starters hitting .300 or better and we’re batting .301 as a team. Alemais (.462) is the leader, but Witherspoon (.356), Hope (.346), Kaplan (.333), Carthon (.304), Rogers (.302), Edwards (.300), and Montalbano (.297) are all hitting well. I really like our aggressiveness as a group. We’re hitting .426 before 2 strikes (up from .340 last year). Of course, we’re only hitting .157 with 2 strikes and fanning over half the time (50.79%) once we get to that count. Last year we hit .155 and struck out 49.15% of the time once we got to 2 strikes. Of course, virtually no one hits well with two strikes; it’s just a fact. We’re also hitting with a great deal more power. Guys look bigger and stronger and it shows in the results.

On the mound, we’ve struggled. Frankly, we don’t have any overpowering pitchers. Merrill is probably the closest and even he depends more on location and changing of speeds than “great” stuff. But our primary problem has been the bullpen. Our four starters, Merrill, Gibbs, and the Masseys have pitched 93.2 innings and allowed 29 earned runs, 30 walks, and struck out 91 That’s and ERA of 2.79 (really good) and a rate of walking 2.88 batters per 9 innings. Once past them, it gets ugly. Our other pitchers have thrown 49 innings and allowed 39 earned runs (7.16 ERA) while walking 33 (6.06/9 innings) (that’s bad!)

After a great first weekend in the field, our defense has suffered. Our fielding average has dropped from .991 to .968 and we’ve missed out on double plays that would have ended innings, thrown the ball away in crucial situations, misplayed fly balls and line drives into extra base hits, and made several judgement errors (thrown to the wrong base) that extended innings or allowed runs to score that shouldn’t have. Hopefully Sunday’s performance will become the new norm again.

And with all that, we’re still 11-5.

Two freshmen, Grant Witherspoon and Cade Edwards have stepped in admirably when Hunter Williams and Steph Alemais went down. When Williams and Alemais return, we’ll need to find a place for these kids somewhere.

Before he went out, Alemais was flat killing the ball. And Montalbano has been everything and more than we expected. After a tough beginning, Hunter Hope and Jake Rogers don’t look like the same hitters from last year. Heck, I’ve even seen Hope lay off an outside curveball and hit another one for a base hit to right. You NEVER saw that in the past. And Kaplan and Carthon are hitting well and in clutch situations. Both look much more comfortable against “lefties” than they have previously. That’s important.

On the down side, Hunter Williams wasn’t hitting before he went out. As our second best returning hitter from last year, I expected more. Before it is over, we’ll need him back and hitting well. I’m also disappointed in the performance thus far of Jarrett DeHart and Matt Rowland, both of whom I thought would start and provide some fire-power from both sides of the plate. Rowland, to be fair, is hitting .429 in only 7 at bats but his fielding is keeping him out of the lineup, and Montalbano is keeping him out of the DH role. DeHart was expected to be one of our best hitters and a long ball threat coming out of junior college. While he’s walked a bunch (8 times in 21 plate appearances), he’s only 2 for 13 hitting (.154), with 7 strikeouts. He’s also made a couple of terrible plays in the outfield. He got a nice double this weekend so maybe he’s snapping out of his slump.

Willsey is a puzzle. He was a light hitting, good fielding, second baseman his first two years and then, all of a sudden, he hit four HR’s over a short period of time. Since then, he swings so hard that when he misses he goes to one knee (several times now) and his batting average has plummeted to .244. He needs to back off a little. BTW, is he hurt? He pinch-hit this weekend and, after getting hit by a pitch was promptly replaced with a pinch runner.

But, again, it's hard to find a lot of fault with our hitting so far; it’s miles better than we’ve seen since the bats were changed a few years ago.

On the mound, Ross Massey has been a pleasant addition and seems to have moved into the mid-week starter role. After a bad weekend in San Diego, our weekend starters seem to have “settled down.” Yesterday, Gibbs looked as good if not better than he’s ever looked.

Duester and Yandel are real disappointments so far. Last year Duester threw 70 inning with a 3.21 ERA and, though he walked around 4 (4.11) per 9 innings, control wasn’t a terrible issue most of the time. So far this year he’s walked 13 in 7 innings and opponents are hitting .385 against him. It’s no surprise his ERA is 14.14.

Yandel threw 56 innings last year with a 4.31 ERA, though he was terrible for most of the season after a phenomenal start. But, this past summer he pitched great in almost every outing and I had high hopes for a return to last year’s early season form. It hasn’t happened. In four appearances (4.2 innings), his ERA is 15.43. But, if Duester and Yandel can “round into” shape, our pitching will be much better.

Trevor Simms and Dan Rankin have both pitched respectably, though certainly not “lights out.” Their ERA’s are 1.17 and 2.35 respectively in five appearances each, which is very good. Simms has only allowed 4 hits and a walk in 7.2 innings, but hit 5 guys, which has kept him in “hot water” much of the time on the mound. Rankin has allowed 9 hits and 4 walks in the same 7.2 innings, so he’s been pitching out of the stretch virtually all of the time also. Yet, both have generally been tough when it counted.

Coletti, France, and Steel have all been incredibly inconsistent with each mixing good appearances among several bad ones. And Montalbano is a fascinating case on the mound, but it’s a little too early to issue the “Fireman of the Year” award off of one inning of pitching in a blow-out game. It will be interesting to see if he gets many more opportunities. If Duester, Yandel, and the rest don’t come around, he might.

Defensively, we’re very strong at catcher and, I think, 3rd base. Alemais is flashy at shortstop and covers a lot of ground, but he rushes his throws and makes some silly errors. When he comes back, I don’t know what we’re going to do with Braud and Edwards. My guess is they’ll be thrown into the competition for playing time at second base with Willsey and Pierce.

Hunter Williams is actually a pretty good defensive first baseman while Witherspoon, to this point, is not, though he is getting better. Could they platoon when Williams is healthy? If Witherspoon continues hitting, he’s going to have to play somewhere. In the outfield, we simply don’t have a “top flight” centerfielder. Neither Brown nor Carthon are really the answer, especially if Brown continues to slump at the plate. And though I think his arm is over-rated, I consider Kaplan a solid right fielder. We’ve got good speed in the outfield, but we’ve misplayed a lot of balls that should have either been caught or held batters to singles rather than extra bases.

Overall, if we can continue to hit, shore up our pitching, and tighten our defense, we could have a really good year. There is certainly no reason I see not to make the regionals and I’m holding out hope for much more.


Roll Wave!!!

If you haven't seen it: http://sportsnola.com/video-troy-dannen-on-tulane-basketball-coaching-change/

The guy is really good. He addresses the "leak" right up front. I also liked his answer to the "stepping stone" question: What do you do to avoid coaches using Tulane as a "stepping stone?" He said, "I encourage it." Essentially, it means we're having success we haven't had in a long time. So, apparently he's not interested in hiring a guy (Scelfo, CJ) because they are likely to stay.

He thinks the basketball arena can be a "positive" if it's packed, loud, and intimidating. I agree to a point, but a bigger, nicer arena that is packed, loud, and intimidating would be more "positive."

He also said that Ben Jacobson will NOT be the new head coach and that we will NOT match the $2.5M salaries of four head coaches in the AAC. But that we would have the money for head coach and assistants to get what we need. Probably AD speak, but well delivered and with some credibility behind it based on the football hire.

He hopes to have someone in place by the "final four." Since that's in less than three weeks (Apr 2), that would be quick. We'll see. Good interview regardless.

Roll Wave!!!

Today's practice was very similar to Monday's--no pads with a ton of work on ball security and fundamentals. Tulane will put on full pads Friday for the first time before taking next week off for spring break.

I confirmed from Fritz that Keeyon Smart is not eligible to practice in the spring but is still in school. I'm surprised by that won because Tanzel Smart is so conscientious and told me at the end of the fall that Keeyon was really coming on and would be a huge factor this season.

By my count, 12 Tulane players who were on the roster in 2015 (not counting seniors) are no longer on the team, and two more (Smart and Nigel Anderson) are ineligible to practice in the spring. The full list is Devon Breaux (concentrating on track), Teddy Veal (transferred to La Tech), Tanner Lee (transferred to Nebraska), Malik Eugene (left team), Rene Fleury (left team), Edward Williams (academic washout), Brandon Godfrey (transferred to Nicholls State), Colton Hanson (decided not to play fifth year), Nathan Shienle (decided not to play fifth year), Bob Bradley (decided not to play fifth year), Anthony Taylor (quit football), and Mike Lizanich (left team). That's probably a pretty standard number when a team goes 3-9 and has a coaching change.

Here are some takeaways from today's practice:

1) Darius Bradwell has a strong arm.

It's not an accurate arm, but the coaches have plenty to work with here. He threw a bullet down the sideline that Rickey Preston could not quite catch up to, but if Preston had run full out from the start, it might have been a touchdown pass. Bradwell also threw low to Devin Glenn, which is hard to do, but he also connected on several shorter throws. In the way too early to make a serious prediction category, I would list Bradwell as the frontrunner to start on opening day ahead of Glen Cuillette because Bradwell is a dangerous runner. Cuillette is a good athlete, but Bradwell is faster.

2) Tulane will not throw much this fall

I don't see the quarterback or the receivers for an effective pass offense. I just don't. The most impressive receiver today was Larry Dace, who runs the best routes on the roster and made an outstanding one-hand catch, but he's not someone who will ever get much separation. They are using Sherman Badie in the passing game a lot, too, and coaching him hard, staying on him about going full speed all the way through the rep. But the receivers have a ton of work to do before they are proficient, as of course, do the quarterbacks. Fritz knows how to run an offense that relies little on passing, and my best guess at this point is Tulane will use a lot of plays that have the quarterback (or someone lining up at the quarterback position) running. More and more college teams are letting the quarterback run in excess of 20 times a game, and I expect that to happen here, too.

3) Ball security has been the primary focus of both practices

They had a drill today where the offensive linemen and running backs had to go sideways while jumping over cushions, then pick up a ball a staffer tossed on the ground and run to the end zone. I did not see a linemen bobble the ball or fail to pick it up on the first chance. The defensive players did the same drill as Monday where they had to dive over three cushions stacked on top of each other (it was four on Monday) and hold on to the ball when they landed on a pad. It looks like their favorite drill of practice, and I saw only one miscue, when Jeremie Francis dropped the ball before he was going to jump over the cushions, then ran around them and five for it and had it squirt away again.

4) There is no depth chart at this point, but here is what the defense looked like in 11-on-11 drills, with three groups rotating in and out.

One unit had Leonard Davis and walk-on Sam Davis at safety with Zachary Harris and William Townsend at LB, Jeremie Francis and Richard Allen at CB, Quinlan Carroll and Peter Woullard at DE and Eric Bell and Brian Webb at DT. They were in a nickel, and I did not get the number of the third corner.

Another unit had Jarrod Franklin and Roderic Teamer at safety, Parry Nickerson, Donnie Lewis and Richard Allen at CB, Nico Marley and Eric Thomas at linebacker, Ade Aruna and Daren Williams at end and Tanzel Smart and Eldrick Washington at tackle. Obviously those would be the starters at this point.

A third unit had Will Harper and Leonard Davis at safety, Taris Shenall, freshman walk-on John Helow and Taris Shenall at CB along with I believe Dedrick Shy (the player was in red with no number and I forgot to check after the unit came off the field), Rae Juan Marbley and Townsend at LB, Robertt Kennedy and Luke Jackson at end and Sean Wilson and Braynon Edwards at tackle. Again, they do not have an official depth chart, so I wouldn't read too much into Wilson practicing with that group at this point. It was strange, though.

Davis has been sharp. I've been critical of him in the past, and two days with no pads don't prove anything, but like he knows what he's doing. He made an outstanding interception of a 25-yard pass down the hash that Bradwell intended for Glenn in 11-on-11-work. Most of the plays in the 11-on-11 were check downs or QB runs.

Troy Dannen stopped by to watch a large chunk of the practice. So did Arturo Uzdavinis, a graduating senior.

Here are some comments from Fritz:

On his thoughts about Bradwell:

"I got to know him well at my last place, and when I got this job he contacted me wanting to come in this direction. He's a good student, he's got great work habits. We think he's a winner, and he's going to compete for the opportunity to play right away as a freshman. My first year at Sam Houston I played a true freshman, and he left the all-time passing leader at Sam Houston. He was a good player for us. The advantage he has is he's going to be here in the spring. The reason so many more true freshmen are playing now than 20 years ago is the summer. We'll have all of our freshmen here beginning in late May. Now the NCAA allows you do to do some things with them football-wise in the summer."

On Bradwell having a jump on Johnathan Brantley:

"I hope so. If not, we haven't done a very good job coaching him. But Johnathan will be here in the summer as soon as we can get him here. It's always a learning curve. I talked to both of our (early enrollees) guys. They should be ready to go to the high school prom by now, and they said after the first practice, 'coach, this is really different.' You have to absorb so much information in a short period of time. The big difference between high school and college is the meeting time and not playing both sides of the ball."

On Bradwell's passing:

He's got a good arm. He really does. He needs to be consistent with his throwing mechanics because sometimes he's extremely accurate. It's something we're gong to work on. We just had two practices. He's going to compete for that job just like all the other quarterbacks will."

On any players standing out:

"You don't want to start making too many decisions when you haven't put pads on. We will do that on Friday. There are a lot of guys who played a lot on the defensive side of the ball. Chris Taylor on the offensive line had a good first practice, and then I'll go in and watch all that here in just a moment."

On tone trying to set

"We're just trying to do everything up tempo and have a sense of urgency in everything we're doing. We're getting our guys to play two seconds after the whistle. We can't contact them obviously, but we are getting then in the habit of doing that and playing through the whistle."

I have a feeling he might have transferred whether or not Conroy was fired. It doesn't come from any inside information, but his rebounding dropped precipitously in the last several games and he appeared unhappy when I talked to him before the AAC tournament.

To his everlasting credit, he played hard and well in Orlando. His game has limitations against athletic big men because he can't elevate quickly, but he will be a heck of a player wherever he lands. I thought he was ticketed for All-AAC recognition next year if he had stayed.

Today was the highly anticipated first day of spring practice under Willie Fritz, and there were three TV cameras present (more than any I recall from last season). Only two notable players were absent--running back Nigel Anderson and offensive lineman Keeyon Smart. Fritz said Anderson is still on campus but is not eligible to practice in the spring. I asked Tanzel Smart about his younger brother and did not get a straight answer, so I'm not sure what his situation is.

Fritz already has made one big change--the defense wears green and the offense wears white in practice. Since at least Bob Toledo, the offense has always been in green and the defense has been in white. So there's that.

Here are some other takeaways:

1) Ball security was the number one theme of the day. Fritz had the the student assistants and support personnel in referree uniforms and told the players to hand the ball to them at the end of every rep. If a player flipped the ball to the "ref", he immediately had to do five up and downs as punishment. Only handing off was allowed because they are focusing on valuing the ball.

In other drill, the offensive players had to take the ball, avoid an assistant coach and jump over a stack of four cushions while holding on to the ball. Even the offensive linemen participated, and it was interesting watching Kenneth Santa Marina leap over the cushions.

After practice, Fritz said he had never lost a game when his team was plus-two or better in turnover margin and had won 91 percent of the games when his team was plus-one or better. They have signs in the Wilson Center and the locker room emphasizing ball security. It's his top priority as a coach.

2) Good passes were scarce.

Darius Bradwell, who is a thick 6-0, 220, airmailed one short out pass about 10 yards over his intended receiver's head. Glen Cuillette was inaccurate, too, and was Devin Powell. The percentage of incomplete passes was very high, but this was day 1 under a new coach. We already knew Tulane had a major concern at quarterback entering spring drills, so I'm not going to read too much into one practice.

Cuillette did throw a perfect strike on a deep ball to Terren Encalade for a touchdown in one-on-one drills. Kendall Ardoin took the ball away from Richard Allen as the both leaped to catch another deep pass. Defensive back Stephon Lofton had an interception of a pass that deflected off a receiver's handL when Powell threw behind him. Leonard Davis picked off Cuillette.

In an 11-on 11 drill with each play starting from the offense's 42-yard line, Parry Nickerson intercepted a pass for Andrew Hicks from Cuillette, Bradwell hit Trey Scott for a nice gain on a drag route and Powell overthrew an open Scott deep as the defense won the battle on most plays.

3) A few position changes: Jarrod Franklin is practicing at safety after working at the hybrid safety/linebacker role of nickelback last year. Sergio Medina and Marshall Wadleigh are practicing with the tight ends (Fritz has a slot position that is combination of tight end and running back). Devin Glenn practiced at slot receiver, not running back, leaving the Wave with Dontrell Hilliard, Sherman Badie, Josh Rounds and Lazedrick Thompson at tailback. Jason Stewart is practicing with the offensive linemen and Braynon Edwards is practicing with the defensive linemen, and neither one of them is in shape to contribute. Leeward Brown looks too heavy, too.

4) Tulane did not special teams work, and I heard an assistant telling the team in the huddle at the end of practice that they would not do any special teams drills until after they return from spring break (the team is off next week) with the exception of an extra point and field goal drills on Wednesday because they want to evaluate the team in other areas first.

HERE ARE FRITZ' QUOTES AFTER PRACTICE

What are your impressions of the first day?

"There's a lot of things we have to clean up obviously, but the guys are really doing a good job of taking instruction and being positive about it and being coachable. I have a little tape recorder I bring out here to practice, and I probably have about 12 notes. I'll coach the coaches up during our staff meeting today. I've got a great group of coaches, and I'll tell them we need to get this changed and that changed, and they do a good job of adapting to change as well."

You told Badie to run faster at the end of one rep. How much of that is trying to change the culture?

"Well, you are either creating bad habits or good habits. That's why we're trying to monitor how many plays guys are going. We're not trying to go 20 plays in a row because we're not in shape to do that, so right now we're going three plays in a row. I want great effort after three plays, and we're trying to over-exaggerate effort. We'll get there. I have a two-whistle system I've done for a long time. That first whistle tells them no contact, and we wait for two seconds and blow the second whistle. We are over-exaggerating playing with great effort because if you don't play with great effort, you don't have a chance."

What is your impression of the quarterbacks after the first play?

"I just kind of orchestrate the whole practice, so it's really hard for me to evaluate a specific group. I saw some good things where we had balls completed and thrown accurately, and I saw the ball on the ground too many times. All the positions are going to improve. We are going to monitor them (the QBs) just like we do everybody."

How many games can you win by taking care of the little things?

"I've got what we call the plan to win, and I've done it for 23 years as a head football coach. We've been plus-one in turnover/takeaway, we've won 91 percent of our games. We've never lost a game as a head coach plus-two in turnovers. The first thing we emphasize is taking care of the ball and having great ball awareness defensively, kicking game, coverage units so we can try to promote turnovers. That's the number one thing in the program. I put the numbers up there in front of those guys and showed them if we do a great job in this area, if we're plus one, the Wave is going to win. If we're plus-2, the Wave is going to kick butt. That's what we're really exaggerating as well."

How about telling them to hand the ball to the equipment people in the striped shirts?

"Well, that's being cognizant of ball security the whole time, all the way through the play. We over-exaggerate that, handing the ball to the official as well. We're trying to make those guys realize the most important thing is the ball. We are really going to have great habits with ball security throughout the play."

You also had the defensive linemen trying to scoop and score a lot when the ball hit the ground.

"We tell our guys on an incomplete pass we're going to use that as a scoop and score rep, so the defense is going to scoop and score with the ball and transition from defense to offense."

What was it like to finally have your first practice here?

"It was fun to get out here and go. I know the kids have been really champing at the bit. They've been in the weight room and maxed out last week. I thought they did a really nice job maxing out. Everything's different for them. When we get done with 15 practices, our guys will feel comfortable with us and we're going to feel comfortable with them. I'm just so excited they're being very coachable."

What did you think of the enthusiasm and the energy?

"It was good today, but it could be better. We're going to work on that as well. I like our guys being positive. I like our guys being enthusiastic. I think we accomplish great things when we do those two things."

The up-downs, you did a lot of those and it didn't look like the guys liked them.

"You know, I only did five of them. If I was really trying to wear them out I would have done 30 of them, 40 of them. I just want to know, goshdarnit, I goofed up on that, I didn't hand the ball to the official, I threw the ball to the official, I had bad ball security, whatever it is. Five is just a quick reminder."

The low numbers on the roster for spring, how is that going to affect what you can do? (by my count, Tulane had 24 scholarship players on offense and 33 on defense today)

"Well, we're going to have to be aware of that throughout spring. The longer you go, the more bumps and bruises that you have and the less players you have. One of our goals we want to accomplish at the end of spring football is to have everyone healthy. We are going to do a good job of monitoring these guys and giving them enough rest. We'll go three hard practices here at the beginning, take a week off for spring break, then we'll always have a day in between practice except for the Friday-Saturday practice."

How do you get the offensive line to play better? That was a big issue here.

"Pad level. We have to do a great job of pad level. I think coach (Alex) Atkins did about half an hour in the chutes over-exaggerating that. It was about sinking your hips, not bending at the waste but sinking your hips, using your power angles. He does a super job, and those guys will play great. It's a work in progress, though."

"

I'm not writing anything you already didn't know, but that's what it will take for Ed Conroy in Orlando to save his job. It's obvious.

The last time Tulane won two games in any conference tournament was 1983 in the Metro.

Here's the official release about Conroy:

http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/031416aaa.html

I'm in the extreme minority here, but I actually think Conroy is a decent bench coach and better than fans think at developing talent--Josh Davis and Ricky Tarrant were better at Tulane than anywhere else, and Jay Hook and Dylan Osetkowski improved significantly under Conroy. But all of that is irrelevant because he did not recruit well or retain talent well enough to win in either CUSA or the AAC.

With the dismal record Tulane compiled under Conroy, it's unfathomable that he did not realize he was going to get axed at the end of the year, but it looks like he really thought he would be back. He said Tulane would be next year's Houston, but his record indicated otherwise.

That said, his staff's recruiting has been much better the last two years. If most of the underclassmen stick around and the incoming freshmen stay, too, the next coach will have a chance to do something next year.

Any report on today's practice Guerry? Thanks.

Here's the official release about Conroy:

http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/031416aaa.html

I'm in the extreme minority here, but I actually think Conroy is a decent bench coach and better than fans think at developing talent--Josh Davis were Ricky Tarrant were better at Tulane than anywhere else, and Jay Hook and Dylan Osetkowski improved significantly under Conroy. But all of that is irrelevant because he did not recruit well or retain talent well enough to win in either CUSA or the AAC.

With the dismal record Tulane compiled under Conroy, it's unfathomable that he did not realize he was going to get axed at the end of the year, but it looks like he really thought he would be back. He said Tulane would be next year's Houston, but his record indicated otherwise.

That said, his staff's recruiting has been much better the last two years. If most of the underclassmen stick around and the incoming freshmen stay, too, the next coach will have a chance to do something next year.

This interview gets better and better.

The Speer line I liked best in this one was:

"I’m not into the buy-in thing. There is no buy-in. I’ve always said this. I don’t give you a choice. The choice is do you want to be on the team. If you want to be on the team, this is how we’re doing it, and if you don’t, you won’t be on the team."

I can't even imagine CJ or any of his coaches saying that.

I am getting really excited.

Roll Wave!!!

Guerry - Read your Advocate Article and I think you were very nice about this blown ball game. Pierce blew this game. He left Duester in for 1.1 innings, allowing 4 runs to score. Duester threw nothing but ball after ball into the ground, hit a batter, walked batters, etc. A pitiful performance at best. Why did Pierce leave him in so long?
Why didn't Pierce use Simms to close the last 3 outs. He does not look pretty doing it, but he gets the job done.
After Rankin walked the lead off batter in the 9th, he should have been relieved. Pierce put in a lot of the 2nd team near the end of the game and it showed on defense, as well as at bat. In a close ball game, why not have your best players on the field? Not a well coached game, by any means. P.S. Our bull pen stinks! ULL and UNO have better bull pens than TU does. It may be a long season ahead, filled with excuses and what might have beens.

When I talked to Speer about Braynon Edwards and Jason Stewart (though I didn't name them, he knew who I was asking about), he talked for a minute in the part I put in the third part of Q&A, but then he asked me turn the recorder off.

He will not run anyone out of the program because of a weight issue because he is worried about the rest of their lives. Wllie Fritz will not recruit anyone who weighed as much as those guys did when they signed with Tulane because you cannot be an effective player at that weight. But Speer will work with them to get them in as good condition as they possibly can even if it never results in them getting on the field. As he pointed out, people who weigh nearly 400 pounds (as Stewart does) have a short life expectancy, so he will do everything in his power to help them alter their life choices and nutrition. He is concerned about both of them. Edwards is 4 inches shorter than Stewart and is listed at 365 pound. Speer added that both of them have good athletic ability, but unlike the previous staff, he recognized the seriousness of the weight problem.

I've interviewed about five strength and conditioning coaches in my career, and I like Speer the best of them. He didn't come in ripping (publicly, or even privately to me, although there's no telling what he told them directly) the players and saying they were in the worst shape of any team he has inherited, which is a common practice of S and C guys. He laid down the law and will enforce it, but just like Fritz, he is not into negativity and bad-mouthing his predecessors regardless of what the truth is.

There is one part of the interview left. I don't even remember what he talked about in the last 8 minutes, but we'll find out together tomorrow morning.

I am trying to set up an interview with Kyle Speer in the next few days.

If you have any specific questions you want me to ask, fire away here.

Since spring practice begin next monday ,will there be a pre spring press conference from Coach Fritz this week?

I talked to Pierce today, and he said Alemais will miss the entire week with his left shoulder injury.

His quote:

"He'll be out this week and I'm not sure after that."

Cade Ewards had two hits on Saturday when he replaced Alemais on short notice, but he went 0 for 4 on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how he holds up. He has not made an error in the 13 chances.

Alemais is hitting .462 and appeared headed for an All-America year before getting hurt diving into first base, a move that drew the ire of Graff.

Heartfelt condolences to Ed Conroy and his family over the death today of his cousin, Pat Conroy, a successful author and screenwriter famous for "The Great Santini," "Prince of Tides," and "Lords of Discipline" among others.

Pepperdine is struggling so far this year, but Tulane's sweep this weekend is its best in a long time.

Consider the other options:

2015: San Francisco, Xavier, Cincinnati

Comment: San Francisco has zero baseball tradition and went 23-31. Xavier has zero baseball tradition and went 15-38. Cincinnati has zero baseball tradition and went 15-41.

2014: Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Comment: that team went 19-27.

2013: none.

2012: Siena, Indiana, Brown, Southern Miss

Comment: Siena went 18-37. Brown went 9-35. USM went 32-24 and Indiana went 32-28, so those might have been better sweeps, but neither team made a regional. It remains to be seen whether Pepperdine will rebound to meet fairly high preseason expectations.

2011: George Washington, UNO

Comment: GW went 19-36 and UNO went 4-50.

2010: Lipscomb, Towson. Saint Mary's

Comment: Saint Mary's went 19-32, Lipscomb went 19-36 and Towson went 19-36.

2009: Northern Colorado

Comment: Northern Colorado went 14-35.

2008: Illinois-Chicago, Oakland, Sacred Heart, East Carolina

Comment: Sacred Heart went 12-40, Oakland went 13-30 and Illinois-Chicago went 29-21. ECU went 42-21 and qualified for a regional, so that almost certainly was a better sweep. I had to go back eight years to Rick Jones' last regional team to find one that was definitively better than the Pepperdine sweep, which the Wave needed in the worst way after losing three in a row.

One other note: Tulane outscored Pepperdine 30-3. That's the biggest run differential since Tulane outscored Brown 42-15, and Brown won only nine games all year. It was the fewest runs Tulane allowed in a sweep since shutting out Oakland 38-0 in 2008.

I was checking the results of a Track meet at Tulane yesterday to see if any of our football players were competing. In recent years, several of them have been the mainstays of our sprint relay teams and competed in the 100m dash. None of them were listed though I noticed on the Tulane official site yesterday that “Devin Breaux” won the long jump in the meet. See website:

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/tul/sports/c-track/auto_pdf/2015-16/misc_non_event/TulaneTwilightResults.pdf

But, this “Devin Breaux” was competing for Xavier of New Orleans. On further checking, “Devon Breaux” is still listed on the Tulane track roster and neither “Devon” nor “Devin” is listed on the Xavier Track roster. Strange!

Beyond the possible confusion over the spelling of the names, does anyone have an idea what happened to “our” Breaux. I know he quit football to compete full time in track, but is he still in school?

Thanks

This was released earlier this week, but here are the official times for each practice.

http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/022916aaa.html

I found this article on coachingsearch.com, which is a very good site for all things college football by the way...it lists the top 20 most efficient scoring offenses last season. Going by how many plays were ran per point scored. georgia southern was 9th. Well guess where our new coaching staff came from!? Discuss...

Outside expectations will be very low for Tulane in Willie Fritz' first year considering the ugly performances the last two years and the lack of a legit QB with any experience.

It comes with the territory for him, though. His teams exceeded low expectations at his previous two stops.

When he took over Sam Houston State in 2010. the Southland coaches predicted a seventh place finish out of eight teams, putting the Bearkats ahead of only Nicholls State.

"We're starting from scratch, but I think that's exciting," Fritz said at the time. "We had all the positions open during the spring and some guys rose to the challenge and were impressive. The veterans from spring ball will be joined by a talented group of freshmen and transfers when preseason camp begins next week."

Sam Houston State went 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the Southland, finishing in a three-way tie for third. Its three losses were by a combined 11 points, including a 31-28 defeat to conference champion Stephen F. Austin. SLU, which was picked third in the preseason, lost to Sam Houston State 57-7.

When Fritz took over at Georgia Southern in 2014, the Eagles were entering their first year of FBS competition. The league coaches tabbed them eighth out 11 teams, ahead of only Idaho, Georgia State and New Mexico State.

Georgia Southern went 8-0 in the conference, outscoring opponents 306-154. After losing by 1 point to NC State and by 4 points to eventual ACC divisional champion Georgia Tech in a game they would have won if they had not lost a late fumble, they won five of their first six league games by 20 points or more. Their only close calls were against New Mexico State (36-28), Texas State (28-25) and ULM (22-16).

I will be shocked if Tulane is not picked last in the AAC West. Houston, Memphis, Navy and Tulsa are coming off bowl bids, and SMU has a well-thought of second-year coach.

We'll see if Fritz can work his magic again, which really isn't magic but excellent coaching. Memphis and Navy are rebuilding after losing once-in-a-generation QBs (for those schools). Tulsa and SMU had two of the worst defenses in the nation this year, with the Mustangs abysmal against the run (except when they played Tulane).

I had to chuckle, by the way, at one of Fritz' quotes in the article about Sam Houston State being picked seventh in 2010. He was asked about his offensive philosophy.

"We're going to have a lot of balance," Fritz said. "We're not a Texas Tech-type offense. We're not going to throw the ball 50, 60 or 70 times a game. I'd like to be as balanced as possible."

Sam Houston passed about 24 times a game.

I was asked that question in another thread last week, and the easy answer is I have no idea.

But that's not totally true. We know Fritz trusted a true freshman quarterback to start all season in his first year at Sam Houston State, which was a big step up from Division II Central Missouri. I'm guessing plenty of coaches with less self-belief would have gone a safer route and lost more games with a more experienced quarterback even if the true freshman had proven he was the best option. The move worked out pretty well--Sam Houston State went 6-5 with Brian Bell at QB, and he was the QB the following two years as the Bearkats reached the FCS title game.

Fritz may repeat that move at Tulane. If Darius Bradwell shows he is the best option in spring drills, he probably will start the opener next fall. Fritz won't sacrifice the season to give his recruit some experience --he's been adamant about doing everything possible to send the seniors out with a good year--but he certainly won't be afraid to pull the trigger with a freshman at QB.

To get an idea of how many more freshmen might play, today I looked into Fritz' history in his two years at Georgia Southern. This is what I found:

2014

Fritz was hired on Jan. 10 and had little time to put together a recruiting class, which probably limited the chance for playing time for his 22-man class. All but four players were redshirted (four more didn't make it to their second season), and none of them played a significant role. Linebacker Chris DeLaRosa played in 10 games and made 15 tackles as a reserver. Defensive lineman Darrius Sapp, whose older brother played LB at Tennessee and signed with the Dallas Cowboys, made 10 tackles while playing 11 games. Offensive lineman Tommy Boynton participated in seven games, and defensive end Ross Alexander had three tackles in six games.

ANALYSIS: Fritz' first class at Georgia Southern was not as good as his first class at Tulane, and he inherited a team that had beaten Florida in Gainesville, so it was not a similar situation to taking over a team that won two games outside Louisiana in the last four years and was non-competitive in the AAC the last two.

2015

After winning the Sun Belt Conference in Georgia Southern's first year in the FBS, Fritz had a much better class in his second year, signing 27 players. This time, all but six were redshirted, but three of the true freshmen played big roles. Running back Wesley Fields played in all 13 games, rushing 101 times for 682 yards and seven touchdowns. Jeremiah Culbreth started the last 11 games at left offensive tackle for a team that led the nation in rushing. Defensive end Logan Hunt had 30 tackles as a key reserve, playing in every game.

The other three had smaller roles. Wide receiver Malik Henry had two catches for 46 yards in nine games, but since Georgia Southern almost never threw, the low catch total is no surprise. Offensive lineman Curtis Rainey played in eight gams for a total of 48 downs. Safety Joshua Moon played in five games with two tackles.

ANALYSIS: Fritz does not hesitate to play someone if he is ready, but he does not force things and throw freshmen in there simply to get them experience. He wants to win now, so he refuses to throw away the present for the future. I expect more than six freshmen to get on the field next fall, but I don't expect a huge number.

Then again, the part about having no idea is partially true. Good coaches don't always follow their history to a T. Instead, they do what's best for each situation. Tulane has needs just about everywhere but running back and starting defensive tackle. If the newcomers are good enough, they'll get on the field.