Minor injuries to cornerbacks Jadon Canady and Lance Robinson in Tulane's closed practice at the Saints indoor facility on Thursday prompted an alteration in Saturday morning's scrimmage, which turned into a regular practice for the first hour before a total of six plays of anything close to a full scrimmage (even then, the whistle blew before the tackle sometimes) between the first-team offense and first-team offense and a simulated scrimmage (no full tackling) that lasted another 44 plays or so. Neither injury is serious. Canady did not have a helmet but was walking around comfortably, and Robinson actually participated in some of the drills after going down with what I have heard some worried might be a more significant issue at the time. Neither one will be out long, but it definitely affected the scrimmage because Willie Fritz did not want to overwork the available cornerbacks and risk more injuries.

First, I'll get to the depth charts, which were easier to compile with the starters on defense wearing their jersey numbers instead of the First Wave of Defense numberless jerseys. Darius Hodges and Carlos Hatcher, who is back after taking a week off to rest his rehabilitated knee, were the outside guys on the first unit today, with Adonis Friloux and Eric HIcks on the inside. They have been changing these guys around quite a bit in the preseason, so I would not read much into Patrick Jenkins working with the second team today. He was next to Elijah Champaigne on the inside in the limited snaps he took, with Isaiah Boyd replacing him later. Devean Deal and Armoni Dixon on the outside for the second unit. The third unit had Parker Peterson, Tylo Phillips, Michael Lunz and walk-on Matthew Remondet rotating on the outside, with Gerrod Henderson and Maxi Baudoin on the inside. Angelo Anderson was held out of the 11-on-11 but was in uniform, and I did not see Keith Cooper, Jamer or Isaiah Boyd, either. Noah Taliancich, who got dinged in practice earlier this week, participated on special teams.

Nick Anderson and Dorian Williams were the first-team linebackers of course, with Jesus Machado and Corey Platt on the second unit. The Wave does not need a ton of depth at that position because Anderson and Williams are so good, but Machado is a player, and Platt looks good, too. Taylor Love and Mandel Eugene were on the third team.

Lummie Young looks like he will be the second starting safety alongside Nick Brooks, with Macon Clark getting his reps at nickelback today. Clark, the Wave's leading tackler a year ago, certainly is capable of playing safety, but I think that's the way they will start the year. Young has looked very good in camp. DJ Douglas and Bailey Despanie are the backup safeties.

With Canady and Robinson sidelined, Jarius Monroe, who has gotten a ton of reps with the first unit already in camp, stayed there. Shi'Keem Laister was the other corner, with Cadien Robinson and Rishi Rattan running second team. Tyrek Presley and Kiland Harrison also are out with injuries, and Rayshawn Pleasant is gone for the. year, so it easy to see why Fritz backed off a full-fledged scrimmage. T.J. Huggins is the other other available scholarship corner, and he just moved from wide receiver at the end of spring drills.

Clark was the first-team nickelback, with Kentrell Webb second. The third-team nickel was walk-on Chadwick Bailey.

The offense had zero changes from the norm, although I forgot to check if Kanan Ray, who dressed out, played in the scrimmage. I was focusing more on the defensive depth chart since it was a rare opportunity to see everyone's number. The starting guards remained Prince Pines and Trey Tuggle with Josh Remetich and Caleb Thomas still sidelined. Justin Ibieta continued to work with the second unit ahead of Kai Horton, who got second-team reps at the beginning of camp but not as many since the first week.

The day started with a live field goal drill. Graham Dable, who is a left-footed kicker, banged one no good off the right upright from 36 yards on the first attempt. he then connected from 40 yards in the middle of the field. Kriston Esnard was next, and he sent one wide right from the left hash from 42 yards before hitting a 40-yarder from the right hash that was near the top of the uprights when it sailed through. If he could ever consistently kick straight, his leg strength is monstrous. By my count (with some observers' help for the days I was not there in time to see it), he is 6 for his last 7, which is far better than in any stretch of his time at Tulane. Valentino Ambrosio was next, hitting a 30-yarder from the right hash, a 36-yarder from the left hash and a 40-yarder from the middle before missing wide right from 42 yards on the right hash. Esnard went back in for a final kick and hit one from 40 yards in the middle.

Next, they worked on punts. The first one I saw was a booming 52-yarder from Casey Glover, confirming my generally high opinion of him. But then he hit a low one that bounced after 34 yards and was caught on the bounce by by the punt returner (I think it was Jha'Quan Jackson, who alternated with Shae Wyatt) for what would have been a nice return if the drill had been live. Glover also sent one out of bounds for only 35 yards, so that was two very poor punts. He ended with a better effort of about 45 yards. He is going to be the punter. The question is how much of a drop-off will it be from Ryan Wright, who had an outstanding senior year.

They did a red zone drill with quarterback Garrett Mmahat handing off on every play. While the scholarship quarterbacks and receivers worked on the other side of the field, the offensive line was the starting unit and then the second unit and then the third unit going against their counterparts on defense. But since full tackling was not allowed, I did not glean much from the drill. In the one-on-one drills on the other end of the field, Reggie Brown ran right past Rattan for a long catch. Rattan would have a rough day.

Next, they went to 7 on 7. On the first play, Horton completed a deep ball to Dea Dea McDougle, who got behind Laister. Horton then threw behind Lawrence Keys, who was open. Ibieta then completed a pass to Keys but threw it slightly behind him, forcing him to slow down, and Young intercepted his next throw. Those are the plays Ibieta has to learn to avoid. Young said he knew what was coming. Webb broke up a Pratt deep ball down the sideline, and Pratt bounced a throw to Wyatt. That was an uncharacteristic throw for him this camp. The depth chart on 7 on 7 was exactly the same for the linebackers, corners and safeties as it would be later in the 11 on 11.
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When the scrimmage started around 1O:10, Tyjae Spears bounced outside for what might have been a huge gain if full tackling were permitted. He was whistled down for a 7-yard gain, but I'm not sure he would have gone down that easily if they had to get him to the ground. Pratt completed a short pass to Phat Watts for a first down, double pumped before overthrowing Wyatt deep, handed off to Cam Carroll for nothing up the middle, pulled the ball down when he could not find anyone open and ran and finally completed a short pass to Iverson Celestine. The down and distance kept changing with no relation to what happened on the previous play.

Ibieta went in with the second-teamers and executed a pitch that might have been a lateral and completed a short pass to Bryce Bohanon. Horton threw a quick one to Celestine and made a nice pass to tight end Alex Bauman.

Pratt went back in, and the highlight of that series was a pass to Deuce Watts where he hit him in stride, allowing him to gain 20-plus yards. His last throw was a little too high for Keys on the sideline.

Ibieta's second stint produced the longest play of the day--a strike to Keys for a 58-yard score against Rattan, who could not keep up with Keys. Horton could have had an 80-yard touchdown on the next play, but his throw went through the fingertips of Chris Brazzell, who had gotten open deep and should have made the grab. The first half of the scrimmage ended one play later with a five-minute break.

At the start of the next session, Horton flirted with an interception a little later when Laister deflected his pass to Brazzell, and he ran out of luck when Love outfought Brown for a ball over the middle and an interception.

Carson Haggard finally tog his opportunity and hit Bohanon over the middle for about 20 yards. He almost connected with Jalen Rogers on the sideline, but Rogers could not hold on as he slid to the ground. On the next play, Blake Gunter made a nice catch for 17 yards, and the series ended when Horton, who had gone back in, handed off to walk-on Lucas Barisas for a 23-yard touchdown.

At this point, it was almost exclusively walk-ons and freshmen playing, and Mahki Hughes took full advantage. No one could tackle him as he ran for 33 yards with power on one run. Robinson intercepted a Horton deep ball to walk-on Trevor Evans. After a series of plays with three quarterbacks rotating (Mmahat, Horton, Haggard that did not amount to much, Haggard threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Lucas Desjardins, who was open comfortably. Hughes then ran through people on back-to-back nice runs, and they called it a day.

I did not get a whole lot out of this scrimmage. They are looking for depth in the secondary more than anywhere else, and with all the injuries, the guys who played got a chance to show what they could do. Overall, it was a crisper scrimmage than what I saw last preseason, when the final one produced almost no good moments for the offense.

I have been really impressed with Keys all preseason and have liked what I have seen from Young, too. Those were my two interview requests along with Fritz.

It appeared inevitable with his increasingly wishy-washy quotes about his commitment as he received interest from national programs, and it happened this morning.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/hNWP5PI7mz">pic.twitter.com/hNWP5PI7mz</a></p>&mdash; Jaxon Smolik (@JaxonSmolik) <a href=" Login to view embedded media ">August 11, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Just a heads up. Tulane has moved the practice to the Saints indoor facility, which is off limits against since COVID. There were a few years when I was allowed to attend those workouts.

The practice will be in the afternoon. I still will do interviews when they return to campus around 4.

Three practices away from the scrimmage that will be a defining point of preseason drills, Tulane worked out under hot and humid but hardly sweltering conditions compared to any of the past 10 years at Yulman Stadium on Tuesday morning. Practice No. 6 is in the books, with No. 7 and 8 to follow tomorrow and Thursday before the Green Wave takes a break Friday and returns for Saturday morning's scrimmage. The receivers, who dominated early one-one-one drills in camp, struggled to get the best of the defensive backs in a goal-line version of the drill. With the offense trying to score on each play, freshman cornerback Cadien Robinson intercepted a Justin Ibieata throw for Luke Besh on the first play I watched. Another freshman, Kentrell Webb, then locked up Bryce Bohanon, who did not have one of his better days, to prevent Michael Pratt from having any throwing angle. Kai Horton threw too high for 6-3 receiver Chris Brazzell, who has looked impressive, before Carson Haggard connected with Shae Wyatt for the first score of the segment.

In sequence after that, walk-on DB Gabe Liu deflected a pass for Phat Watts, Dea Dea McDougle pinned Bailey Despanie behind him for an easy touchdown grab, Jarius Monroe broke up a pass for Duece Watts, McDougle could not shake Shi'Keem Laister to make a play on a ball, Jha'Quan Jackson burned one of the starters (no numbers) for an easy score, Lawrence Keys toasted T.J. Huggins with a sweet move, Besh fell down making a cut and Bohanon slipped running in the back of the end zone. The receivers definitely were less sharp today than in most of the other practices, but the scholarship guys still are not dropping routine throws like they did constantly last season in practice.

I've noticed Michael Pratt begins almost every 7-on-7 drill with a big completion, and today was no exception. He hit McDougle for a big gain. Not much of note went on the rest of the way, although a couple of DBs avoided potential serious injury when they collided trying to intercept a Carson Haggard pass. One of them got up slowly but appeared fine when he reached the sideline.

Situational work has become the norm in football practices, a stark contrast to what I started with covering Steve Spurrier's Florida team in 1991. That group played full possessions as if it were a game most of the time even when tackling was not allowed. I remember being taken aback when Ron Zook arrived in 2002 and spent plenty of time having the offense start at its 1-yard line or work on second-and 8 or other down and distances instead of having the chains move as a result of the previous play. Willie Fritz always has been all about situational football in practice, and today they had a drill where the ball was the defense's 21-yard line with 13 seconds left and the offensive having one timeout remaining. Pratt was first up, and he immediately threw a touchdown pass to Tyrick James. Ibieta was next, and he produced a touchdown in three plays, hitting Duece Watts on the sideline for 12 yards while taking only five seconds off the clock, throwing short to Will Wallace to the 3 before calling timeout with three seconds left and then hitting Duece Watts for a too-easy touchdown when he turned around at the goal line before any defender could get close to him. I must have missed a play with Horton, because all I saw was a bullet pass to Keys on the sideline over the outstretched hands of Monroe and then a 36-yard field goal attempt by Graham Dable, which was good. Dable went back out after the next possession to attempt a 45-yarder. That, too, was good, but I still have a hard time believing the kicker will be anyone but Valentino Ambrosio.

Next, they did a drill where the offense had to try to score in one play from its own 40-yard line. McDougle dropped a pass from Pratt, ending the first attempt immediately. before an Ibieta short completion was followed by a series of laterals that led to Robinson picking one off and heading the other way before sliding to a stop around the offense's 30-yard line. That drill is an indication of how much stuff Fritz tries to get his team prepared for in a game. Curtis Johnson did some of that stuff, too, but without the organization. I remember in his first year they had a drill called "Operation Scuba" where defenders took a dive and pretended to be hurt to stop the clock ( have not seen that one under Fritz, thankfully).

Next was the first 11-on-11 segment. The starting offensive line remained unchanged, with Kanon Ray missing his third consecutive day despite being in uniform. Ibieta had a nice completion to Wyatt on a waggle. Tyrek Presley intercepted a Horton throw. Walk-on wideouts dropped back-to-back passes. McDougle had a nice run and made a nice catch on a throw by Pratt.

They worked on kickoff returning for a while. Jha'Quan Jackson was the first guy fielding them, followed by Tyjae Spears (I'm not thrilled with the idea of him returning kicks; more people get injured on kickoffs than any other play), Mahki Hughes, Ashaad Clayton, Keys and Jadon Canady (not thrilled with him possibly returning kicks, either).

The finished with another 11-on-11 segment, but I was instructing a photographer for part of it and did not see anything particularly notable. For the second time in preseason drills, though, Spears got drilled (I did not see who hit him) and reacted angrily again. This time, no fights erupted, but he was steamed. It was not a full-contact day, and it is strange that it has happened to him twice already.

Noah Taliancich, who was affected by injury for most of last year, limped off with what appeared to be a minor injury after going to the ground at one point today. Caleb Thomas still has not practiced in camp and continues to watch without having a helmet or shoulder pads. Jalen Rogers was out today, too, working on the exercise bike at one point.

FRITZ

On kicking situation:

"It's getting a little clearer. Graham Dable went today and he hit two long ones. We are going to have some officials there Saturday and put some stress on the kickers with some real situations and the defense going after it. You get out there and you let them just kick by themselves, that doesn't really mean anything. We are trying to get some game-like situations as much as we can. I'm hoping by the end of this week we're down to where we're really comparing two guys and not four (my guess is Constantino Ambrosio and Dable will be the finalists, with Kriston Esnard and Lucas Dunker out of the picture)."

More on scrimmage:

"We'll be doing some tackling. Not everybody is going to play a bunch. Some guys have logged a bunch of snaps. Joey Claybrook has played over 2,500 snaps of Division I football. He doesn't need to get up to 2,600 after Saturday, but there are some guys that will play 40 live snaps and get a chance to see what they can do, and then obviously the extra point/field goals are going to be big."

On getting Ambrosio:

"He went in the portal and was 21 of 27 at Rutgers. He made a couple of field goals in the Big House (Michigan) and that's probably a pretty tough place to kick, and it was late in the season, so he's had some big-game experience. We need someone to come in here and make the gimmes--the 36-yarder, the 41-yarder, the 29-yarder--and then it's bonus when you get the 52-yarder. We're going to give him an opportunity to win the job. There are a couple of other guys who are going to have that chance, too. We're not just going to give it to him."

On coaching differently in red zone if he has comfort level with kicker:

"Yeah, you would. There were some times last year when I just wasn't quite sure if we had the chance to make it or if we could make it. When we were in that area where it was a 38-to 44-yard field goal, we went for it. Now we're pretty aggressive. We do what the book tells us to do. If we should go for it, we go for it, and we know that, but obviously if you're having a tough time making them, you are less inclined to attempt them."

On relying on analytics for decisions:

"Big time. I'm a big analytics guy. It determines if we take penalties, go for 2 or if we go for it on fourth. There are a lot of things that matter to us, and we go by the book. I study it big time. Today we went over a bunch of different situation. You don't want things to surprise you. There are an infinite amount of scenarios in a game, and you try to go over every one as best as you can, and the analytics part is pretty easy. It's your ability to convert on fourth down, their inability to stop you. You are playing the odds. If it's 73 percent you'll get it, great, go for it, because those are four-point plays, a touchdown instead of a field goal, and those are huge in a ballgame.

On the analytics service he subscribes to:

"It's called Championship Analytics Incorporated."

On Ashaad Clayton:

"Well, you want to go with the hot hand. Early in the season, especially in the non-conference schedule, you are going to play a lot of guys. There are a lot of guys that deserve the opportunity to get out there and show what they can do, and he's certainly one of them. If you get a guy that's carrying the ball better than another guy, I tell coach Svoboda, 'feed him.' We got to get the ball to Tyjae or Cam or Iverson or Shaadie. He's done a nice job in camp. He's got good size. I think he was a 10.6 100-meter guy in high school at Warren Easton, and he's going to play a lot for us."

Tulane had a light practice this morning at Yulman Stadium in a workout that appeared unlikely while it rained from abut 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. (at least in Mid City), but the weather cleared in time for the start, and the earlier rain made conditions even more manageable than they had been for the rest of the least hot camp I've covered since returning to New Orleans in 2008. I remember a practice at Newman in the afternoon under CJ when two-a-days were still permissible when I felt like I was going to pass out in the bleachers and Elijah Brown had serious issues on the field in the unrelenting heat and humidity. With Willie Fritz having the practices from about 7: 30 to 9:30 in the morning and the temperature about 10 degrees lower than normal on average, this has been a different experience.

I expect a more strenuous practice tomorrow before the team takes a day off Friday in anticipation of Saturday's scrimmage. Today, they did not have an 11-on-11 segment at any point, sticking to individual drills, special teams work and 7-on-7 work without pads. The first thing I saw when I arrived was Jarius Monroe intercepting a deep pass intended for Lawrence Keys and shouting, "Let's go." Monroe definitely is the loudest player on the team during practice, but as Fritz pointed out during the spring, it's positive energy rather than trash talking.

The 7-on-7 began with Michael Pratt throw deep for Phat Watts in double coverage and not connecting. That was predictable since I wrote yesterday how Pratt consistently had big completions on the first rep of 7 on 7. This time, Kai Horton was the one with the good start, completing a pass to Jha'Quan Jackson over the middle for a nice gain as the quarterbacks alternated reps. Walk-on Garrett Mmahat completed a deep ball down the sideline to a wide open Keys. Justin Ibieta threw an interception over the middle that went right to Lummie Young. Picks are a concern for Ibieta, who threw two of them against Morgan State last year before tearing his labrum and can get careless with the ball at times. Jarius Monroe picked him off later in a two-minute 7-on-7 drill where the QBs got a full possession. He also needs to work on his touch. He threw a missile on a screen that Cam Carroll dropped. He probably should have held on to it, but there was no reason to throw it that hard to a receiver that close to him. Ibieta did have a nice completion to Reggie Brown down the middle, threading it through tight coverage.

The Phat Watts experience in microcosm played out on two consecutive passes by Pratt later in the 7 on 7. Running down the sideline, he made a spectacular one-handed catch for a huge gain, showing all of his athletic ability. Then he dropped an easy one on a square in that hit him in the hands. If Phat Watts can get rid of the concentration lapses, he can be impact receiver, but he has not proven he can do it yet. Pratt went right back to him on the next play and he caught a pass on an underneath route. Pratt then had a pretty completion to Tyrick James for a good gain.

Horton continued to take what was available for the most part, hitting Phat Watts over the middle and Duece Watts on the sideline before taking a shot deep for Phat Watts that was nowhere close to being complete. He then threw underneath to Iverson Celestine and was off target on a floater before Graham Dable converted a 32-yard field goal.

I did not mark down who threw it, but Bryce Bohanon made a diving catch. He had a rough day yesterday but bounced back today.

Earlier, Constantino Ambrosio hit a 50-yard field goal sailed through the uprights with yards to spare. He is going to be Tulane's kicker barring a surprising turn of events. Obviously kicking against air is different than doing it in a live drill and even more different than doing it in.a game, but Tulane's longest field goal under Fritz was 48 yards by Andrew DiRocco in 2016. Merek Glover never hit one from more than 44 yards in five years. I was not there for the start of practice, but I found out Ambrosio went 2 of 3 in a field goal drill, making ones from short and medium range but missing from 44 yards. Dable went 1 of 3, only converting his short one. Kriston Esnard went 2 for 2 and Lucas Dunker went 1 for 2, but I do not anticipate either of them being in the running. It is encouraging, though, that Esnard has made four in a row.

The defense practiced defending a Hail Mary near the end. Tulane also practiced kickoff coverage today. Two defensive starters are on the first unit (they were wearing numberless black jerseys) along with Phat Watts, Corey Platt, Tyrek Presley, DJ Douglas, Lummie Young, Bailey Despanie and two numbers I did not ID along with kickoff specialist Casey Glover.

I had a brain cramp the past two days and forgot to note Josh Remetich's injury when I was listing the depth chart on the offensive line. Trey Tuggle is on the first unit because Remetich hurt his leg last Friday. Remetich will not play in the scrimmage, but he should be back next week. Kanan Ray got some reps today for the first time in four practice, but he was working with the second unit at left guard. Prince Pines continued to work with the first unit at left guard.

Cornerback Kiland Harrision is out with a minor injury, joining wide receiver Jalen Rogers. And as you will see down below, freshman defensive back Rayshawn Pleasant and freshman defensive lineman Isiaiah Boyd are out for the season with knee injuries they sustained in the first week of practice. Pleasant, who the coaches hoped could contribute immediately at cornerback, went down in the first hour of the first workout.

WILLIE FRITZ

On having a special teams coach (Robby Discher) for the first time in his seven years at Tulane:

"I just wanted to get a little more involved in the offense and defense. Robby was with me for four years at Sam Houston State. He and I had probably talked once a week ever since then, and he has done a great job every place he has been at. He did a really nice job at Toledo and (UL) Lafayette and also at Georgia obviously last year (as a quality control assistant), so we were very fortunate to get him here and are fired up. The special teams are in good hands."

On what Fritz still is doing with the special teams:

"I'm doing less without question. The thing we're trying to get to, the big deal in this game is playing the right guys. It's the Jimmys and the Joes now, not necessarily the Xs and Os. That's something I feel like I can help with offensively, defensively and the kicking game, but then also how much do you play a guy. Sometimes coaches get so involved in schemes, they can't see the forest for the trees. So overall practice just making observations every day. What can we do better? Robby will do a great job with the kicking game."

On Ambrosio hitting the 50-yarder:

"That's great. We got to hit the automatics, and when we start getting out of that range, we have to do a good job of making our share."

On Pleasant and Boyd:

"They are out for the season. Knee injuries. Pleasant was on the first day about the first hour. It's unfortunate. He had a great summer, worked his tail off, but he'll come back stronger from this."

I haven’t seen a comprehensive list of who is playing summer ball and who is not, so I’ve comprised a list of what I could find. I included kids who have entered the transfer portal, even Lee, who has apparently committed/signed with Wake Forest:

Bennett Lee: Orleans of Cape Cod League
Chase Englehard: Harwich of Cape Cod League
Teo Banks: Bellingham of West Coast League
Gavin Schulz: Bellingham of West Coast League
Jake LaPrairie; Cane Cutters of the Texas Collegiate League
Ben Tate: Cane Cutters of the Texas Collegiate League
Lane Thomas: Rougerou of the Texas Collegiate League
Landry Allgood: Rougerou of the Texas Collegiate League
Brennan Lambert: Rougerou of the Texas Collegiate League
Seth Becksted: New Market of the Valley League
Brian Valigosky: New Market of the Valley League
Tracy Mitchem: Winter Garden of the Florida League
Jonah Wachter: Nashua of the FCPL
Brayden Morrow: Casper of the Independent League
Adam Ebllng : Grand Lake of the Great Lakes League

That’s 15 players I know of but there may be others. If anyone has additional info, I, for one, would be interested. I would hope that Hart, Hebert, and Marget, to name just three more, would work on their hitting this summer. All have the potential in my view of hitting much better than they did this past year. Anyway…

Roll Wave!!!

The most significant event in Tulane's football practice today took place before I got there, but I found out what happened after the fact.

No, it was not an injury or a fight or anything negative. It was a field goal drill right after warm-ups, taking place around 7:30. If I've written it once, I've written it 100 times, but Tulane will not be able to challenge for anything if it cannot make field goals consistently. The Green Wave's margin for error is too small to include missed chip shots, and Rutgers transfer Valentino Ambrosio went 3 for 3 today. I don't have the distance or hash mark for the makes, but he appears to be someone capable of converting kicks consistently. His numbers at Rutgers indicate it (21 of 29 in two years), and his performance to this point in camp verifies. Obviously he will need to prove himself in games, but it starts with making the kicks in practice. He also had another opportunity during a 7-on-7 work later in practice when a two-minute drill stalled at the defense's 27. He went in for a 44-yard attempt (with just the snapper and holder on the field) and drilled it through the uprights. That was the only kick during the regular portion of practice.

Graham Dable, a walk-on who probably would have been the frontrunner for the job without Ambrosio's arrival, went 1 for 3 this morning after missing both of his attempts in games last year. Kriston Esnard, the other scholarship kicker on the roster, hit both of his. I"m not sure I ever saw him make two in a row in the spring, but he does have a very good leg if he could over the issues that have hurt him dating to his senior year of high school in 2020. Lucas Dunker, the walk-on transfer from Washington State who handled kickoffs but not field goals for the Cougars, went 1 for 2.

Now, on to the stuff I actually saw. While everyone got equivalent reps in the first week of preseason practice, they are beginning to narrow it down a bit and will really narrow it down after Saturday's scrimmage. Freshman quarterback Carson Haggard did not get to participate in 11-on-11 work at the end of practice, with Michael Pratt, Justin Ibieta and Kai Horton rotating in that order. Pratt began the drill with a pretty pass to Duece Watts in the middle of the field for a significant gain, although the defense was in control of affairs for most of the day. That drive stalled quickly when Pratt threw behind a well-covered Shae Wyatt, threw short for Wyatt on an underneath route and was "sacked" by I believe Dorian Williams on a blitz (It happened a long way from me, and the starting defenders are not wearing numbers), who came in untouched.

Ibieta almost had a pass picked off off a ricochet on his first series, which did not go very far. Later, he hit Bryce Bohanan deep, although he held on to the ball a long time and might not have gotten that throw off in a game.

Horton was Captain Checkdown, which is not necessarily a bad thing, completing four passes in a row with three of them on underneath routes to Makhi Hughes, Alex Bauman and a player whose number I did not see. The other completion came when he scrambled to his left and found walk-on Lucas Desjardins for a decent gain with some nice improvisation. At the end of practice, during a two-minute drill that had the offense coming off its own goal line, Horton started airing it out with mixed results. Walk-on Luke Besh made a terrific adjustment on a deep ball that was deflected down the sideline, catching it on the rebound as he fell down. But when Horton threw a deep ball to the other side on the next snap, walk-on safety Jean-Jacques Hunter should have intercepted it.

Earlier, when they started situational 7-on-7 work, the wide receivers had their worst day of camp. It was not nearly like many of the days last fall and this spring, when drops were contagious, but Wyatt dropped the first pass from Pratt over the middle. The QB rotated by play with Horton throwing a bad pass to Dea Dea McDougle, Ibieta missing walk-on tight end Jonathan Kahn, Haggard almost getting picked on a poor throw at the start. Pratt then completed one to Deuce Watts on Tyrek Presley. Horton held the ball too long and drew a whistle. Besh dropped a throw by Ibieta. A little later, Chris Brazzell dropped an Ibieta pass that was behind him.

Each quarterback then got a full possession in a late-half simulation with the clock in operation and timeouts allowed. Pratt connected with tight end Tyrick James on a seam route for a nice gain on his first play, threw one off the fingertips of Jalen Rogers and completed an underneath throw to Tyjae Spears that left little time on the clock. As Pratt held the ball looking for an open receiver on the next play, Willie Fritz blew the whistle signiifying the play (and the drive) was dead.

Ibieta's series lasted two plays. He completed a short pass to Keys before walk-on nickelback Rishi Rattan undercut a sideline route and intercepted him. I have gotten no indication Rattan is in line for any playing time, but I am almost positive that since the start of spring drills in 2021 and running through preseason camp last year, the spring this year and the five practices this preseason, he has more interceptions than anyone else on the team, and most of them have come against Ibieta. He's Ibieta's Kryptonite in practice.

Horton, working short, completed four of his five throws, with the exception a near interception by cornerback Kentrell Webb. After the ball reached the defense's 27, Horton threw one away and had a short pass dropped by Desjardins before Ambrosio's field goal.

Kanan Ray was in uniform today but appeared to be under the weather. He did not get any reps in 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 in the second half of practice but did participate in individual drills. With him out for the second straight day, Trey Tuggle was the starting left guard and Prince Pines was the starting right guard. I did not see any other changes. The second-team line was Sully Burns, Hutson Lillibridge, Shadre Hurst, Jackson Fort and Matt Lombardi from left to right, and the third-team line was Keanon McNally, Joseph Solomon, Ethan Marcus, NIk Hogan and Lombardi again from left to right.

The first-team defense was mostly guys without numbers, but Jarius Monroe worked with the first-team D wearing his No. 11, and Jesus Machado and Tylo Phillips later got reps with the first unit in their jersey numbers. The second-team D had Darius Hodges (likely a continued motivational ploy), Phillips and Angelo Anderson up front at the beginning, with Machado and Corey Platt at linebacker, Rattan at nickelback, Cadien Robinson and Presley at cornerback and Bailey Despanie and DJ Douglas at safety. I did not catch the number of the fourth guy up front.

In what has become a familiar scene over the years, defensive tackle Alfred Thomas did not practice. I am not sure what his injury is, but he was watching practice in uniform but no helmet or shoulder pads. Carlos Hatcher, whom Fritz said Saturday would be out for about a week as he continues to recover from a torn ACL, and Caleb Thomas, who has yet to practice this preseason, joined Alfred Thomas as observers.

I talked to Chris Hampton and Jadon Canady, who continues to look terrific after practice. I will post their interviews shortly along with Fritz.

So a thing happened today...

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We have received our commitment of a QB for the 2023 class.

Offers from Missouri, Purdue, AF, Army, USL, La. Tech, USM, Howard, Dartmouth, UIC, NW. St.


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Guerry, it would be interesting reading if you could get an interview/background on this latest MBB recruit. Thanks in advance

First, to answer a question from two days ago, the shirt Willie Fritz has been wearing in practice that reads P.T.T.W. in white letters on a black background stands for Play Through The Whistle. My investigative research revealed the answer when I looked at the back of the shirt, which had the words spelled out. I'm clever that way. I did not even realize he was wearing the shirt until the message board post, but here is what he had to say about it.

"Just play through the whistle, just play as hard as you can," he said. "Be like the Terminator, just keep going and going and when the whistle blows, you throttle down. It's just a reminder to play hard every single snap. That's a skill just like running fast or changing directions, whatever the case may be. Every guy out here, if I had a million dollars for them, they'd play hard every single snap, but it's got to become a habit. That's the one thing I've emphasized every place I've ever been. We're going to play harder longer than the other team, so you want to play through the whistle. When the whistle blows, we throttle down, but not until then."

Asked at what point in his career that had become a point of emphasis (he already had answered that question in his first answer), he followed up.

"Oh, I've always done it since I was a high school coach in 1983. I started doing it. My college coach was big on it, so it carried over to me. I showed some tape one time of a 1988 Coffeyville Community College versus Hutch Juco game. I graded it you had to be on top of the pile irregardless of whether the whistle blew or not. The guys were shocked by how big the shoulder pads were, but after a while they were like, wow, these guys play incredibly hard. They didn't know who the dudes were, but four or five of those guys played in the NFL. They were really good players and they played with incredible effort. That's something when I'm watching a team play, I want to see how hard do they play."

There were zero scuffles in today's practice, so Fritz's message yesterday got through. I know some people think fighting and screaming in practices are signs of positive energy, with Saints rookie Trevor Penning used as Exhibit A (I predict he will cost the Saints a game if he plays a lot this year by getting a bad personal foul penalty at a crucial time, and then he will adjust his behavior), but Fritz is not in that club.

"We had a long talk last night about it," he said. "It just doesn't do you any good. Somebody's going to get hurt or you are going to have bad feelings. I told these guys if somebody sucker punched me, it would take a long time for me to get over it. Positive gets positive. Negative gets negative. Pump your buddies' tires. Don't try to deflate the tires of the guy on the other side of the ball. That's what we're looking for."

A couple of defensive ends are returning from major knee injuries this preseason--Devean Deal and Carlos Hatcher. Deal, whom Fritz loved last year before he got hurt, worked with the third-team defensive line today but has a good chance to move up into the playing rotation.

"He's ready," Fritz said. "He's good. He's really done a sensational job of rehab and he's doing a good job. We're excited to see where he can go this season."

Hatcher did not practice today after going yesterday in the first day in pads. I'm not sure where he is in the pecking order at this point, but he has two five-tackle games on his ledger--one in 2018 as a true freshman and one in 2020.

"He's banged up a little bit right now," Fritz said. "He went yesterday and that was probably my fault. I had him go a day too early. He'll be good to go here in another week or so."

Josh Remetich provided a scare yesterday when he went down with a knee injury in the rain during an 11-on-11 drill. The good news is there was no structural damage, and although he is on crutches, he should return fairly soon and was moving OK today as he watched practice despite the crutches.

"He'll probably be out a week, but he'll be fine," Fritz said. "It was another deal with guys on the ground (something Fritz preaches against often and loudly during practices). Guys on the ground fell into him and he hurt his knee a little bit. He'll be fine here in another week. Just thank goodness it wasn't anything serious."

When Remetich went out yesterday, Prince Pines replaced him at left guard. Pines stayed there on the first unit today, but left guard Kanan Ray did not practice and Trey Tuggle replaced him on the first unit. Ray looked fine and may have been given a break just like Sincere Haynesworth was yesterday. Haynesworth returned today.

The second-team line was Sully Burns, Hutson Lillibridge, Shadre Hurst, Jackson Fort and Matt Lombardi from left to right. The third-team line was Keanon McNally, Nik Hogan, Ethan Marcus, Joseph Solomon and Lombardi again because they had only 14 available bodies.

The starting defensive line was Darius Hodges and Angelo Anderson on the outside and Eric Hicks and Patrick Jenkins on the inside. The second-team unit had Keith Cooper and Armoni Dixon on the outside and Adonis Friloux and Elijah Champaigne on the inside. Kameron Hamilton and Alfred Thomas were on the third team inside, with Gerrod Henderson and Max Baudoin rotating in. Parker Peterson and Michael Lunz were the third-teamers on the outside. I did not see Noah Taliancich, but he has been out there the other days and I might have missed him.

Earlier in the day, Phat Watts was the only receiver to drop a pass in individual drills, with receivers coach John McMenamin standing at the goal line with his arms above his head and trying to deflect the throws to receivers running behind him in the end zone. In 1-on-1 work, also down near the goal line, the offense started off hot but cooled off. Even walk-on tight end Andrew Wilks made a nice catch early on a fade in the back corner of the end zone, but the session ended with six consecutive incomplete passes before freshman cornerback Kentrell was called for interference on the final one. Jarius Monroe deflected a pass intended for Dea Dea McDougle. Jha'Quan Jackson could not shake Jadon Canady. Bryce Bohanon could not get to another pass. Cadien Robinson blanketed Lawrence Keys. Bohanon could not make a one-handed catch in the back of the end zone he probably should have tried to get with two hands. Despite that stretch, it looks to me like all nine of the scholarship wideouts are playing at higher level than anyone but Shae Wyatt had last fall. They absolutely still have to prove their worth in games, but the potential is exponentially higher than a year ago, when the receivers were an anchor on the offense. There are at least five times as few drops on a daily basis as there were then.

The 7-on-7 portion on practice had a second unit on defense Mandel Eugene and Taylor Love at linebacker, Monroe and Shi'Keem Laister at cornerback, DJ Douglas and Bailey Despanie at safety and walk-on Rishi Rattan at nickelback. I could guess who the first team guys were--Canady and Lance Robinson at cornerback, Macon Clark and Larry Brooks at safety and Nick Anderson and Dorian Williams at linebacker, but the first-teamers are wearing numberless uniforms and I can't figure out who the nickel was. Maybe Kiland Harrison was at the other corner and Robinson was at nickel. I will get this figured out on Monday.

Michael Pratt threw a pretty pass to tight end Will Wallace in the middle. Phat Watts beat some walk-on DBs for a long touchdown pass from Kai Horton. Justin Ibieta threw deep down the sideline to walk-on Reed Rutkowski, who made a nice catch. Freshman Jalen Rogers, who has lethal speed, made a one-handed grab with Laister covering him tightly. On the other hand, Horton was picked by converted wideout T.J. Huggins on an ill-advised deep ball for Shae Wyatt. Monroe came off the sideline to congratulate Huggins for that one. Pratt overthrew an open Keys on the sideline. And freshman Carson Haggard, who wowed me with his accuracy in the first week of spring drills, continued a slump that started soon after he faced a live defense in a spring scrimmage. He missed Rogers, threw low for Rogers and was off target badly on a oass to Chris Brazzell. All three of those throws were ones he made all the time in the first half of the spring.

I did not catch a whole lot of the 11 on 11, but the offense had consecutive false starts that drew the coaches' ire. Wallace was responsible for the first one. I did see Jackson make a sliding catch at the 1 of a deep ball from Ibieta, who also hit Duece Watts in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Pratt went for it all on a deep pass to Deuce Watts, but he was double covered and could not make the play.

Tulane will take Sunday off before going Monday through Thursday and taking Friday off before the first scrimmage of the fall next Saturday. The coaches will not be off, though, conducting a youth clinic tomorrow evening at 6 p.m for second grader through eighth grade. Before then, they will talk personnel and begin to form the depth chart. Fritz said it would really be a true depth after next Saturday.

He's a LB from Texas:

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USC and UCLA are apparently joining the Big 10! Stay tuned for more news...this will reach EVERY conference.

I posted this on the front page as well as free content and tweeted it to see if I could attract subscriptions. I added the Jha'Quan Jackson quotes here.

Shoulder pads were on for the first time on day three of Tulane’s preseason camp, and the intensity increased as a result. In fact, the intensity ratcheted up too much, with normally mild-mannered safety Larry Brooks going ballistic on the sideline after watching a dropped pass in a 7-on-7 drill. Actually, I’m not totally sure exactly what he was upset about, but he went on an extended verbal tirade that prompted Willie Fritz to give him a stern, face-to-face lecture. Fritz is no fan of players getting out of control.

A little later, Tyjae Spears reacted angrily when he was thrown to the ground on a run in 11-on-11 (they were in shoulder pads and shorts with no tackling allowed). He got up and threw the ball at the facemask of the player who shoved him (I’m not sure who it was because he was wearing the numberless jerseys defensive coordinator Chris Hampton gives to the first-team guys and the play was on the other side of the field), precipitating a couple of skirmishes among different players that had to be broken up.

Fritz called everyone to the middle of the field and told them they had to learn how to handle practice, and there were no more incidents. It is not something Fritz tolerates and he wanted to make sure everyone knew it.

“Sometimes our guys watch a lot of TV and they see all that going on,” Fritz said. “They (the officials) call that stuff. You get kicked out of the game in college football. If we had choreographed celebrations and they allowed it, I’d let our guys do it. I’d be fine with it, but they don’t allow us to do it. It’s a penalty and you’re hurting the team. Now you’re being selfish, so we had to waste some time today. Guys have to understand what a competitor is. We’ll get that cleaned up.”

My biggest takeaway from the first three days is the significant improvement of the wide receivers. I’ve seen good things from all nine scholarship receivers—Jha’Quan Jackson, the Watts twins, Dea Dea McDougle, Lawrence Keys, Shae Wyatt, Bryce Bohanon and freshmen Chris Brazzell and Jalen Rogers. Jackson looks close to where he was before he suffered a knee injury in preseason camp a year ago, which was a major factor in his disappointing season.

Duece and Phat Watts are not dropping passes, a huge issue for both of them and particular Phat in the past. McDougle is an all-around playmaker who has made an impression each day. Keys, who looked sluggish in the spring, is making plays, too. Wyatt, the Wave’s most productive receiver in 2021, is his same reliable self and clearly has the confidence of Michael Pratt, who loves to throw to him. Bohanon is building on a pretty good spring. Brazzell is a big target who can grab the ball in traffic. Rogers, though still raw, is the fastest player on the team and has gotten open deep several times.

These guys have to prove it in games, but a year after being one of the worst collective receiving groups in the FBS, they look good under new receivers coach John McMenamin, who was the offensive coordinator at Central Missouri for new Tulane OC Jim Svoboda before becoming a D2 head coach at Wayne State the past two years. They definitely are catching more deep balls than any Tulane crew since Fritz’s arrival.

In 1 on 1 drills today, Bohanon made a sweet move to get open downfield and dove to catch a pass. That single play was as good as anything I saw from anyone in the 12 games last year, and he is not even guaranteed a spot in the rotation. Duece Watts then beat cornerback T.J. Huggins for a long touchdown, Jackson had a nice catch and Keys caught one over the middle.

In 7 on 7 drills, Wyatt caught a bullet from Michael Pratt in traffic, juggling it briefly before corralling it. McDougle caught a deep ball from Kai Horton and another one over the middle from Horton. Phat Watts made a nice adjustment on a slightly underthrown deep ball from Justin Ibieta, turning around and facing Ibieta as he brought it in. The only drops in either 1 on 1 or 7 on 7—these came in bushels last year and this spring—were by Brazzell and tight end Reggie Brown. Horton underthrew Keys on a deep ball, and Pratt underthrew Wyatt on another deep throw when he had him open.

For the most part, though, the quarterbacks were on the money, which will be huge if Tulane is to have a breakthrough season. In Fritz’s six years, his primary quarterback never has completed 60 percent of his passes, with Justin McMillan’s 58.3 percent in 2019 the high water mark. Last year, 78 of the 110 qualifying FBS quarterbacks completed at least 60 percent and 90 of them beat McMillan’s rate from 2019.

Fritz knows those numbers need to change.

“For us to throw the ball better, we have to do a better job of catching the ball consistently and we have to be accurate throwing. We’re not keeping track of completions. We’re keeping track of something else. We call it a 1, where you kept the guy in movement where he’s wanting to go. That’s the most accurate. 2 is a zero if he catches a ball but it was off target slightly. And 3 is a minus-1 which means it’s just a horrible throw and there was no way the guy could have caught it. We’re looking at that more. Michael’s doing a better job and Justin’s doing a better job of keeping the guy a runner. If he’s going that way, he hits him and he keeps going that way. But the other part of it is pass protection. I was really proud of Cam Carroll when he stepped up and got right in the middle of a blitzing linebacker today. It’s the offensive line, it’s the running backs, it’s the tight ends and every once in a while a receiver blocks a pass pro, not very often. If we do that, we are going to be a lot better throwing team.”

In the 11 on 11 work, Ashaad Clayton and freshman Makhi Hughes had nice runs. Freshman tight end Blake Gunter, who has been impressive as a receiver early, caught a pass from Pratt for a sizable gain, and Jackson scored on a misdirection play.

Sincere Haynesworth did not practice today but appears not to be hurt. He watched the workout with no shirt on and was constantly motivating his teammates. I interviewed him after practice yesterday, and he was fine. Caleb Thomas missed his third consecutive day, but Fritz said yesterday he expects him back next week after getting banged up near the end of summer workouts.

Levi Williams, who struggled to get on the field at cornerback in his first three years, has moved to running back. With the departure of Ygenio Booker in the offseason, Williams gives the Wave a sixth scholarship player at the position behind Spears, Carroll, Clayton, Iverson Celestine and Hughes.

The auxiliary, outdoor press box that was supposed to be used for the Oklahoma game last year finally was being taken down during practice today. Since that game was moved to Norman because of Ida, it never got used.

I was there for all but the first 30 minutes of practice today and will provide a full update later. Here are the quotes first:

FRITZ

On practice:

"I think it went well, but (I won't know) until I look at the film. Sometimes you watch practice and two or three plays were poor and you're upset and you watch the video and it was a real good practice. Other times you think, man our guys are doing well and you're in a good mood and you think it was a hell of a practice, and it stunk. We'll watch and see, but I thought we did better understanding how to practice. Most teams make their biggest improvement between game 1 and 2. It's the same thing with practices. We went over the things we were doing incorrectly in terms of just structure of practice, how we compete on plays and stuff like that and the guys did a much better job of it."

On receivers, who combined for six consecutive touchdowns in a seven-on-seven red zone drill:

"I feel real good. We haven't played a game yet, but we have some good depth, the guys are catching the ball well. That's been really good. We've got some additions that have contributed big time for us. I think we're doing a nice job. In seven-on-seven we should complete them. The pass rushers on the other end of the field, so they ought to be pretty good. We've got incredible protection during seven on seven." He's

On Dea Dea McDougle:

"Good. He's done a nice job. He did a nice job during summer football school. Lawrence Keys had a great day today. The big thing with all of them is consistency day after day after day. They probably don't use it when I use this guy as an example, but (Darnell) Mooney never had a bad day. Attitude wise, performance wise, if he made a bad play he moved on to the next one and if he made a great play he moved on to the next one. We want to see guys stockpile great practices day after day after day."

On freshman Jalen Rogers speed:

"His nickname is speedy, number one, so he's fast. He came to our camp two summers ago and he ran a legit 4.3. I don't time very many guys at 4.3. He's got tremendous speed. There are some things he can do. The big deal for him is just the complexity of college ball compared to high school, but he's learning."

On Caleb Thomas not practicing:

"He got a little banged up toward the end of football school, so we're just kind of making sure he's ready to go. We're only allowed to have 110 guys that dress. We feel like he'll be practicing next week."

EMAN NAGHAVI

On depth of offensive line:

"Oh, it's big time. When you can roll out there and have three serviceable groups anywhere. Doesn't matter where you are. The depth is probably one of the most attractive things right now because we can roll guys and we have a lot of guys that are trying to find their spots. We have a few guys that are bonafide starters, but we are trying to build depth and find as many guys we can that we feel good about playing in the games."

On Kanan Ray:

"He's doing really well. He was a go-getter from the get go. He learned the offense before he got here. His work ethic is above a lot of people's. I wouldn't worry about who's starting and who's not because right now I tell them basically there is no first, second, third group. We're just trying to get reps. We're trying to see who can be the most consistent, who can stack the best days and then when we get pads on, that will separate the big boys from the little boys."

On what he likes best about Sincere Haynesworth:

"His leadership. He's probably one of the best leaders I've ever been around. Along with him and Joey Claybrook, they manage the room. His strength is his leadership role, and then he's a heck of a player on top of that and even a better human. He's the total package when it comes to being a Tulane man."

On Joey Claybrook:

"I've seen a lot of film from last year, and he looks like a totally different player. He has spent a lot of time in the offseason changing his body with nutrition, flexibility and it shows. You put on the film and he's like a whole different player. He's so dedicated, he is going to make sure he has a better year than he did last year. From what we've been going so far, knock on wood, he's been doing it."

On Prince Pines weighing 350-plus pounds:

"Prince is a big human. Obviously for him it's more so getting in shape. We didn't give him a number per say, but the more and more he gets reps, the better he feels and the longer he can go. We're trying to build up as much stamina as we can, but when he is in there, he is a big body and he can move people."

On competition across the board:

"The competition's great everywhere. There is no 1s and 2s and 3s. Even the older guys have to be on notice, and it's good for the older guys because we want them to play their best ball their senior year. When you get talented young guys in there and talented guys from the outside, it really starts pushing them a little bit and does really good things. It's going to make us far better competitively and as an O-line."

SINCERE HAYNESWORTH

On his confidence about the O-line:

"I feel really good, especially after today's practice. Each and every day we show up and all 17 guys, we show we're rally prepared mentally to attack every day and know we have to beat yesterday. We have to beat ourselves from yesterday. It's always going to be us versus us. If we practice like we have to beat ourselves and that's it, there's no one that can beat us."

On his leadership:

"I try to lead by example, but also with my voice. I like the mindset of if anything goes wrong, just point it to me because it puts things in my control. If we don't look good on the field, we can blame it on leadership, and that lets me know I need to pick it up. That means I'm not doing my best to assure everybody along to set myself in front of everybody and be a leader for everybody to follow behind. It's very important to have multiple leaders and not just one, so each position group we've got a leader, so that's something really great that we've done this past offseason."

On key to season up front:

"Mentality. It's just mentality. Last year we were the worst red zone team in the nation. There were a lot of things last year that just wasn't us. Now more than ever, we've got that mentality of knowing. There's not a single person you can put in front of us that we won't handle. That's the biggest part of this new culture that we've built, especially as an offensive line. There's no one you can put in front of us that we can't block."

On what he likes about Kanan Ray:

"Effort and passion. He's great and gives so much effort all the time. He came in here willing to work and knowing that he was joining a close group, he didn't let it scare him off and he's taking care of business."

JOEY CLAYBROOK

On body changing:

"I focused on getting bigger, faster and stronger like we always do every offseason. Really coach Hester came in and instilled a culture and a mindset in us. We took it personally each of us to make sure that last year never happens again. Changing our body was easy."

On how good O-line can be:

"As good as we want to be. This is the closest group I've ever been around, and that means a lot in the O-line room. Five guys have to be on the same page every single play. We hang out together outside of the room. We are holding each other accountable every day. That's the first step. We've got talent. Everybody knows we've got talent, so it's really up to us to be as good as we want to be."

On what they can accomplish:

"We are going to win the conference and be the best O-line in the American Conference."

On depth:

"People talk about depth giving guys breathers and this and that and making it easier for other guys, but really for this time of year it's competition. People don't talk about that enough. You've got to play your best every single down or somebody's going to take your spot. That means a lot. That makes you better."

On Kanan Ray:

"He works his tail off. Like Sincere said, he knew he was coming into a tight group of guys and he fit in perfectly. He's a great dude and he works hard every single day. Just that gives you a shot to play. He really bought in this summer and as you can see it's really paid off for him."

On Rashad Green being better after starting at right tackle for a year:

"So much better. Getting any playing time under your belt, that's something you can't coach or watch film on. It's a mind thing, so it's helped him out a lot and he's going to do great this year."

I made a rookie mistake in my 12th year of running this site and did not read the practice time for today, assuming it would start at the usual 8:20 and finish around 10:30. Instead, it was moved up to 7:25, and by the time I arrived at 9 a.m, it was it its last half hour. Tomorrow I will be there when I am supposed to be and walk the dog when I get back.

First, by my count Tulane has 84 players on scholarship. The only notable departure is Ygenio Booker, a running back who showed promise over the years but never could stay healthy. He is gone. He always was intriguing to me because he barely touched the ball in high school, but he did enough in his senior year to warrant a scholarship considering his athletic ability and skills as a receiver out of the backfield. He just was not durable enough. Hayden Shook, a JC transfer who made zero impact last year, predictably is no longer around, too. A quick check of my spring numbers chart reveals he was gone before the end of spring, but I don't recall reporting it. I did report that CB Kevaris Hall, another promising player, entered the transfer portal after spring drills.

The breakdown by position:

QB (4)

Pratt
Ibieta
Horton
Haggard

RB (5)

Spears
Carroll
Clayton
Celestine
Hughes

TE (5)

James
Wallace
Brown
Bauman
Gunter

WR (9)

Duece Watts
Phat Watts
Jackson
Wyatt
Keys
McDougle
Bohanon
Brazzell
Rogers

OL (15)

Haynesworth
Claybrook
Remetich
Green
Ray
Pines
Thomas
Tuggle
Lombardi
Solomon
Fort
Burns
Lillibridge
Hurst'
McNally

DT (9)

Jenkins
Friloux
Hicks
Taliancich
Thomas
Champaigne
Hogan
Hamilton
Baudoin

DE/J (11)

Hodges
A. Anderson
Hatcher
Cooper
Deal
Peterson
Lunz
Dixon
Boyd
Phillips
Henderson

LB (6)

N. Anderson
D. Williams
Machado
Eugene
Pratt
Love

CB (10)

Canady
L. Robinson
Monroe
Harrison
Douglas
Presley
Huggins
L. Williams
Pleasant
C. Robinson

S (6)

Clark
Brooks
Young'
Laister
Despanie
Webb

ST (4)

Hudak
Glover
Ambrosio
Esnard

The lightest guy on the roster is freshman wideout Jalen Rogers, who is listed at 5-9, 148 pounds. He was mistakenly omitted from the online roster that went up on the Tulane website last week but is wearing No. 85. The heaviest guy is Prince Pines, who may need to shed a few pounds from his listed 6-5, 352.

Tulane will go with a four days on, one day off schedule for most of preseason camp, meaning Wednesday through Saturday this week with Sunday off, Monday through Thursday next week with Friday off and then Saturday through Tuesday with Wednesday off. It changes slightly from there, with three straight practices from the Thursday, Aug. 18 to Saturday, Aug. 20 before they take Sunday off. They have scrimmages planned for Aug. 13 and Aug. 20 and workouts at the Saints facility scheduled Aug. 14, Aug. 16 and Aug. 19. Those three will be closed to reporters.

Some observations from today's brief glimpse of practice:

Justin Ibieta is back to full strength for the first time since he tore his labrum against Morgan State last September. He threw a beautiful pass to Jha'Quan Jackson in the corner of the end zone, leading him perfectly, but followed up by overthrowing open walk-on Luke Besh in the back of the end zone as the ball sailed about five yards past the backline.

Walk-on Rishi Rattan, who never has been a serious threat for playing time but makes more practice interceptions than anyone, almost had another when Pratt and Jackson miscommunicated on an inside route. Jackson stopped and Pratt threw to where he thought he was going to keep running, and the ball glanced off Rattan's hands.

Tyjae Spears scored from 15 yards out in a red zone drill, planting hard, cutting to the outside and outracing everyone to the pylon. He is a joy to watch when he is a full flight.

Kanan Ray, the Colorado transfer, lined up at first-team right guard. although Willie Fritz said the depth chart would not be significant until after the 10th practice. The other starters were Joey Claybrook at left tackle, Josh Remetich at left guard, Sincere Haynesworth at center and Rashad Green at right tackle. The second-team line appeared to be Trey Tuggle at left tackle, Jackson Fort at left guard, Shadre Hurst at center, Pines at right guard and Sully Burns at right tackle. Caleb Thomas was in uniform but did not get any reps while I was there.

Wide receiver Chris Brazzell and a defenisve players whose number I could not see got involved in a fight and had to be pulled apart and held by teammates to keep from going at each other longer. Fritz responded by having everyone go on to the field and do push-ups. "We aren't going to waste our time doing all that crap," he yelled through the microphone he uses to communicate loud and clear throughout practice.

Walk-on quarterback Garrett Mmahat, the son of former Tulane pitcher and Major Leaguer Kevin Mmahat, had the old Aaron Brooks fumble with the ball slipping out of his hand as he tried to throw one pass.

The starting defense when I was there had Kiland Harrison and Jadon Canady at cornerback, Larry Brook and Macon Clark at safety, three linebackers with Jesus Machado joining Nick Anderson and Dorian Williams while Anderson played in space and covered, Darius Hodges and Angelo Anderson on the outside of the line and Adonis Friloux and Patrick Jenkins inside. I should get a much better look tomorrow. The backup safeties were Bailey Despanie and DJ Douglas. I did not catch the rest of that group.

It was unseasonably cool, or rather, not stiflingly hot. Last year numerous players succumbed to cramps in the first practice. This year I saw only one instance of cramps when freshman defensive line Gerrod Henderson went down at the very end as he ran off the field. New strength and conditioning coordinator Kurt Hester is earning rave reviews for his work, but I think the weather may have been the biggest factor in the lack of cramps. We will see when the temperature inevitably warms up later in camp.

I will have full quotes up shortly.

Ron Hunter talked to me this morning about his team's trip to Costa Rica from Aug. 5-12, giving updates on a variety of topics. With a few injuries hitting this summer, he played down the importance of the two and possibly three games the Green Wave may play, but the 10 practices the NCAA grants before trips like that and the cultural experience will be beneficial.

RON HUNTER

On how much this trip will help the team in a year with big expectations:

"Everyone is coming back, but we've hit a serious injury bug, so that's kind of slowed us down a little bit. I'd rather get that out of the way now than during the season. But it's good. We're bringing in three new guys that could easily be in our rotation, so this gives us that extra time to be able to do that. The practices mean a lot more to me than really the games do. We've had a great season. No question it's the best summer we've had since I've been here, but a lot of that has to do because we bring so many guys back."

On who is hurt

T.Y. (Tylan Pope) broke his foot, so he had foot surgery. Jadan Coleman has turf toe. We sat out Kevin Cross for most of the summer (because of) the knee last year and the wear and tear on his body, so he's just more keeping his reps down. Those three guys there are the main ones. We haven't had many practices where we've had everyone, but we've had the key guys coming in."

On prognosis for Pope:

"We hope T..Y,, right now the goal is to have him back October 1 as we start getting ready for practice. His deal is how he plays and landing on that foot, but we have to have him back by October 1."

On how he got hurt:

"He did it playing summer pick-up basketball on the weekend. When that happened, I got real cautious about a lot of things. That's the one thing that can derail what we do, is injuries, so we're trying to avoid that right now."

On Costa Rica schedule:

"We could play three. Two for sure and I'm waiting on the third one. That will be based on how I feel about it injury wise. For me, I do my Samaritan's Feet deal over there (a foundation that works to provide hope and love to impoverished children around the world by washing their feet and giving them a new pair of shoes), and so that's what I'm really excited about. I do not coach the teams. Every time I've gone overseas I've never coached the guys. I let the assistants coach, and it's great because I don't even sit on the bench. I get a different feel and I look at some different things. When you coach all the time in that regards, I don't want them not listening to me right now. You avoid that voice getting old at times. Those 10 days of practice are more important to me than the games. I know the kids are excited about playing this weekend and have different people to go against (Tulane will play this Sunday and next Tuesday for sure)."

On (Georgetown transfer) Collin Holloway (a 6-6 forward who played in 10 games as a freshman for the Hoyas):

"He's really good. Right now if we started a group Sunday, he's in that starting lineup. He's very versatile. A local kid (from Baton Rouge), a tough kid. All the things we've felt we needed, he brings that to us. He can play three or four different positions. He's what I call the perfect Ron Hunter complement. I love his personality on the floor. I don't know if I could have designed a perfect guy for that fifth spot. We rotated guys in that fifth spot, and so we're confident we got a guy who can step in and play a role for us."

On Tre' Williams (who played significant minutes in two years at Minnesota and one year at Oregon State but shot terribly):

"You know what he is. He's athletic. We're trying to get him more consistent, but he gives us great depth coming off the bench. When we went to our bench at times when (Jalen) Cook got hurt, we kind of dropped off. He gives us the depth of a guy that's played major college basketball. He's had some really good days, but he's definitely going to be a rotational guy. There's no question about that, but he has to learn our system. Just like Collin. What's great about those guys is they're older, but they have to know our system. That's what's great actually about these games, that when it's going up and down, can they really stay up with the older guys who know our system really well."

On freshman Percy Daniels, a touted prospect from Baton Rouge (Hunter is notoriously hard on freshmen):

"I've never coached the guy. He's probably the most physical guy I've ever coached. He brings a whole different dynamic to what we do. We are going to give all three of those guys a ton of minutes just so they can see how to play in the matchup and our offensive system and those things. The newcomers are going to play a lot. Cook and (Jaylen) Forbes and Cross are not going to play much. They'll start games, but I told them you guys can already get mad right now because you're not going to play a lot of minutes. But it's interesting. With Percy, how much will he pick up with our system. He is the only kid in our program that can do what he does with physicality. He gives us Power 5 (strength). Something we've never had is a big-time rebounder. We're going to try to find a place for him, but he's got to learn the system and for most freshman it's just hard to do that. So this really helps him. It's a great advantage for him. He can go make a mistake without me getting on him. He better enjoy it right now."

Will Wallace is still listed on the transfer portal, but Tulane's most recent roster includes him. Moreover, Coach Fritz, in this week's press conference, mentioned that we had two experienced tight ends. Anyone know Wallace's actual status. Thanks in advance.
Roll Wave!!!

Owens is the first OL commitment in the class. He does not have any stars from Rivals or 247 Sports but is in the database of both.

His high school, Fossil Ridge, went 4-6 last year because of a terrible defense but averaged 31.3 points per game. They played in Class 6A Division I.

Tulane appears to be his first offer.

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Tulane's 30-minute session at AAC virtual Media Day yesterday began with studio analyst Rene Ingoglia saying "I would expect Tulane to be the biggest turnaround of all the American teams this year. I think there's going to be a huge difference in their play." He pointed out Nick Anderson played with a high ankle sprain last year and that Tyjae Spears was dynamic and fully healthy. Just like last year, Willie Fritz, Michael Pratt and Nick Anderson represented the Green Wave, taking questions from the studio duo and media members, including me.

FRITZ

Where have you focused over the offseason?

"We've got a lot of guys coming back. I think we've got 15 guys who started at least one game on the offensive side of the ball their college career and the same number on the defensive side. We had a tough season. It was kind of an unusual year. Everybody had COVID two years ago and then we had Ida and we were in Birmingham, Alabama for a month and came back and some guys never did get into their houses that whole semester. We just worked on turning the page. I'm excited about the offseason program we had and our strength coach, Kurt Hester, has done a phenomenal job. Our team has gotten faster and stronger and quicker and we stayed away from injuries during the spring. Sometimes you worry about that as well. I don't think there's a team that's more fired up about getting the season started than the Green Wave."

You have 10 players from the transfer portal--six who participated in the spring and four who committed since then--and Jeffery Johnson is the first significant guy you've ever lost (Oklahoma) and he played four years for you before leaving. How much has the portal helped you and how much will it help you this year?

"I think it's going to help us a lot. That's typical of our culture. We've lost very few guys to the portal and brought a lot of kids in. Most of the kids have been New Orleans guys. Sometimes people think the grass is a little greener some place else and they go there and they find out it's only green and want to come back home, so we're excited about the additions that we've gotten through the transfer portal. A couple of big offensive linemen in Kanan Raye from Colorado and Prince Pines from Sam Houston State. He started originally at Baylor and was an All-American FCS player at Sam Houston. Ashaad Clayton from here in New Orleans, a running back who played quite a bit for Colorado. We picked up a couple of receivers--Lawrence Keys from Notre Dame from New Orleans and also Dea Dea McDougle from Maryland who coincidentally was a high school teammate of Michael Pratt. Michael might have done all the recruiting on that deal, but we picked up some really good guys in the portal. That's the way you want to try to do it--don't lose your guys and then also gain some guys who maybe have a tie to your university or to your city."

How do you view conference realignment an the three schools leaving the American and the six that will be coming in from a coaching perspective?

"We've got a really top-notch league. We talk about being part of the Power 6, but I really believe that's true. The teams we're adding to the conference can bring big-time value to the conference as well. A lot of them are strong academic institutions like Tulane. Also a lot of them are within our footprint, not too far away where fans will be able to travel and their fans will be able to travel. I think we've done a really good job with the additions to our conference."

Should the NCAA allow teams that do not go to a bowl game an extra seven days of practice either in the spring or in the fall to make it fair because the bowl teams get those extra practices (this is the top 10 of dumbest questions I've ever heard)?

"I hadn't put a lot of thought into that, but with what the NCAA added this summer with being able to use a football for two hours a week, that was a nice step forward. We were able to do a lot of things. We had 10 what we call football school workouts, practices. For an hour of each one of those practices you are able to throw the football around. I feel like we were able to get maybe 80 or 90 percent of our offense in and 80 or 90 percent of our defense in and then also a little bit of our special teams. The only limitation they had is we weren't able to go against each other in a competitive type environment. You could also argue that during that time we weren't able to practice, we were able to get on the road recruiting and cover a little bit more ground than we normally do. We feel like we maybe had our best season of recruiting this last year, too, which is difficult to do coming off the season we had."

What type of development would you see from Michael Pratt?

"Michael had a tough season last year with some injuries and he fought through it. He is a highly competitive guy. We talk to him all the time about first down, touchdown, get down, and we are going to work on that a little bit more. He's just a great leader and a great runner. You don't want to take that away from your offense. It's a big difference between the college game and the pro game is the ability of the quarterbacks to run the football. I think he's excited about the addition of the new offensive coaches that we've brought in. We have excellent depth on offense. We are excited about or O-line. We have seven, eight, nine guys who are going to compete for those five spots. We've got two really experienced tight ends that can play for a lot of people across the country, four or five really good running backs and the wid receiver position is really solid as well and that's an area we needed to get better at. The people around him need to do a great job, and that will allow Michael to have a fantastic season as well."

Where is Tulane in your opinion as far as the plan you implemented years ago, knowing that you've been to a bowl game in three of the last four years?

"We want to get back to that level at the bare minimum. We really feel like we can compete for conference championships. That's our goal. That's what the guys are working towards day in and day out. As I said before, we've got a great culture. We lost very few guys. I really like the environment these guys have created with the coaches and the team. We like our schedule. We got in a little of a tailspin and had a hard time coming out of it last year. The one thing I was proud of is the way our guys competed from the beginning of the season until the end of the season. I really had next to zero problems. Sometimes when the wheels fall off, they go in all different directions and we start having problems and we didn't have that. Our guys kept the high character standards that we want to have here at all times. But certainly we were disappointed in our record. We want to compete for the conference championship and really believe that we can do that."

You brought in Valentino Ambrosio, the kicker from Rutgers, in the offseason. How important an addition can he be?

"Very important. We need to have consistent field goal kicking. That was a weakness of ours this past season, and we need to have a guy that can hit those gimme field goals that are within range and also be able if you get into a fourth-and-7 or 8 situation and it's a 51-yarder, you have a great chance of making that as well. It's going to be a lot of competition to see who our field goal kicker is during preseason camp."

How is Tyjae Spears doing, and will be there be any wrinkles in the offense under coach (Jim) Svoboda?

"Tyjae's doing great. His last game against Memphis he had 264 yards rushing. He's had a great offseason and a great summer. We are going to be able to change up our tempos, which is something that I like and coach Svoboda has brought in. Not many teams can go fast and slow. We want to be able to do both. We want to be able to run a four-minute offense where we're taking time off the block running the ball when everybody in the stadium knows you're running it and you're still able to get first downs, but we also want to go fast and change those tempos. As an old defensive coordinator, that's really putting a lot of pressure on the defense. Jim has done a great job of coming in here and implementing his offense, and the other assistant coaches that have come in with him have brought some solid ideas as well."

Where has Michael Pratt improved most?

"Well really this is going to be the third different system that Michael's been under. He had coach (Will) Hall, now the coach at Southern MIss, and our offense was different last year (with Chip Long), and now with coach Svoboda. But with the benefit of spring football and then also all the things that you are allowed to do in the summer, it feels like we've had two spring balls. We've gotten a lot of good work on. He (Pratt) is a gym rat. He's up here all the time just trying to eke out every bit of knowledge that he can from coach Svoboda, and then also getting the other players together. In this day of age you are limited how many hours you can do workouts. Eight hours a week is what you are allowed, but these guys come up here a whole lot more than that to study video on their own and go out on the field and do routes on air. We go with the defense and do 7 on 7. Michael has been a leader of all that, so he's going to have a huge season for us. We're excited to see his development from year 2 to year 3."

Actually I did have the opportunity to vote, but I forgot while on vacation and missed the submission deadline.

Here is how I would have voted:

1) Cincinnati
2) Houston
3) ECU
4) UCF
5) SMU
6) Tulane
7) Memphis
8) Navy
9) Tulsa
10) USF
11) Temple

Here is how the actual vote came out:

1) Houston (7) 243
2) Cincinnati (10) 242
3) UCF (7) 225
4) SMU 187
5) Memphis 162
6) ECU 157
7) Tulane 115
8) Tulsa 93
9) USF 71
10) Nay 61
11) Temple 28

I asked him this question at the AAC men's hoops tournament when he talked to reporters, but I never transcribed it because there really is no answer to how the AAC can survive the loss of Houston, Cincinnati and UCF without taking a huge hit.

But since he is talking tomorrow morning to start the AAC football virtual media day, I went back to see what he said. Here's his long, rambling answer.

""I hearken back to 10 years ago when everybody sort of gave us up for dead. They really did. There were some people who clearly thought we had an opportunity there, a chance, but there weren’t as many, and look what we did. We’ll do it again.

"I don’t sugarcoat it. Losing those three schools is definitely an initial blow. They are really terrific schools. We hate to see them go. They did a lot for our conference, but our conference did a lot for them, an enormous amount for them. If it weren’t four our conference, would they potentially be going to the Big 12. I don’t know that they would be because our conference gave them an incredible opportunity for exposure with ESPN and the way we scheduled. We targeted schools, and we decided to go a little bigger, because these are schools—some had already done a lot, you look at UAB with what they’ve done in football and what they represent and UTSA and the pedigree in basketball with North Texas right now and UAB historically as well as Charlotte. FAU has done a great job. They’ve hired good coaches. They had Lane Kiffin there building that program. In our league you have to look at potential. You have to look at what you think schools can do because we relentlessly promote the conference. When we do something good, we make sure people know about it. The question for us becomes how quickly can we rebuild and can we get to the point where we’re fighting hard again for that so-called P6 spot if that whole P5 nonsense continues. When you look at these schools, Rice is willing to invest and they’ve got the old Southwest Conference pedigree. You wake up the echoes there if they can get back to where they were. Several years ago they were going to bowl games pretty regularly. If you look at UAB, you look at UTSA, you look at the commitment they are making. We didn’t take anyone who didn’t make it clear they were going to make that commitment. Financially they are going to have to come up to our level, and they will. We took a Charlotte. Mike Hill is a tremendous AD. We also looked at the people who were running them. Having worked for Jeremy Foley, Mike Hill knows what has to be done. They have inspired leadership, and it’s really important that we continue. Brian White at FAU has had a real vision for his team. We’re trying to make sure that the schools that come in can contribute really quickly. There’s a dynamic in this league. There’s a certain DNA in this league where we’re challengers. We want to compete at the highest level.

"I’m not arguing that we’re not an unusual league. We are in the sense that we didn’t have a geographic base, but if you look at us now we’re kind of horizontally geographically very cohesive. We’ve got some eastern members, but horizontally across from Texas over to the East coast. Temple’s probably our outlier, but we’ve got more cohesion than we’ve had. But ultimately, don’t sell us short. They sold us short 10 years ago and realistically we’ve outperformed what people’s expectations were, and I think we’ll do the same thing."

The Tulane men are doing an exhibition tour of Costa Rica next week. How had I not heard about this until yesterday? Or how had I forgotten about it if I had read of it earlier.

This is the perfect year for a trip like that because Tulane can contend at the top of the AAC and challenge for an NCAA bid if everything comes together. Yes, I know it's a big leap considering the overall record last season, but with almost every player returning and a few additions (particularly the Georgetown transfer), this team has a lot of potential. The extra practice time a team gets before these trips and the game experience it gets can be really beneficial.

I hope to talk to Ron Hunter tomorrow.

This may not be the complete list because it is easy to miss guys, but I have compiled a list of Tulane's incoming transfers (JC guys and portal guys) starting with 2018, the year the portal was created. Here's an analysis of their effect:

2018

QB Justin McMillan (grad transfer, LSU)
OT Noah Fisher (grad transfer, South Alabama)
RB Corey Dauphine (transfer, Texas Tech)

Analysis: Tulane would not have gone to its first bowl game in five years without the addition of McMillan and Dauphine. McMillan took over for the erratic Jonathan Banks as the starter for the last five games of the regular season and guided Tulane to a 4-1 record before an impressive bowl win against ULL, which was one of the two or three best all-around performances of the Willie Fritz era. Dauphine was a home run threat every time he touched the ball, rushing for 802 yards and seven touchdowns. Fisher was so-so, losing his starting job at left tackle at midseason for three games but regaining it. He had been a full-time starter for multiple years at South Alabama.

2019

WR Jalen McCleskey (grad transfer, Oklahoma State)
OL Christian Montano (grad transfer, Brown)
OL Ben Knutson (grad transfer, Virginia)
DE Malik Lawal (grad transfer, Arizona State)
DE Mike Hinton (grad transfer, Columbia)
LB Nick Anderson (JC transfer)
QB Keon Howard (transfer, USM)

Analysis: Again, Tulane probably would have not reached a bowl game without this group, but their impact was varied. McCleskey was solid and had the huge game against Houston with the dramatic tie-breaking touchdown in the final seconds, but it felt like he should have been even better. McMillan's passing issues, which were exposed in 2019 more than in 2018, were a factor. McCleskey finished with 37 catches for 581 yards and four touchdowns. Anderson (26 tackles), a backup, was not consistent yet, but he saved his best for the bowl game and gave an indication of what he would become. Knutson started six games at guard but appeared slow. He had a better season in 2020. Montano was a great guy who started all 13 games at center, but he was not a difference-maker. Lawal had 37 tackles and a sack while starting three times and playing in all 13 games, but he was not the pass rusher he was supposed to be. Hinton was largely a non-factor (11) tackles as a reserve. Howard, eligible to play after sitting out his transfer year in 2018, entered four games as a reserve but did not get any meaningful downs. He was terrible as a starter in 2020 before getting replaced by Michael Pratt in the third game.

2020

LB Kevin Henry (grad transfer, Oklahoma State)
OL Jaylen Miller (grad transfer, Duke)
WR Mykel Jones (grad transfer, Oklahoma)
WR Duece Watts (JC transfer)
WR Phat Watts (JC transfer)

Analysis: Their impact was significantly lighter than in the previous two years, although Henry (31 tackles) started at linebacker and was a solid member of a talented group that went four deep before he sustained a season-ending injury on a questionable low block from a Navy lineman. Duece Watts led the team with 31 catches for 512 yards and six TDs but was raw. Phat Watts had 17 catches for 217 yards and was even rawer. Jones (11 catches, one TD) could not stay healthy and was not much of a factor before he got hurt. Miller was a disappointment, playing in eight games but not effectively after coming in expecting to be a full-time starter.

2021:

WR Shae Wyatt (grad transfer, Central Missouri)
S Derrion Rakestraw (grad transfer, Colorado)
DE JoJo Dorceus (grad transfer, Memphis)
CB Lance Robinson (transfer, Kansas State)
WR Cyron Sutton (transfer, Southeastern)
CB DJ Douglas (transfer from Alabama, where he was a walk-on)
OL Hayden Shook (JC transfer)

Analysis: A mixed bag. Wyatt, the guy fans were probably the least excited about because he had played for a Division II program, had the best year of the bunch. He was no game-breaker, but he ran solid routes and had good hands, putting him ahead of the other receivers in a discombobulated year. He led the team with 33 catches (for 376 yards). Dorceus (37 tackles, 3.5 sacks) started a bit slowly but really came on in the second half of the year, making a difference on the outside. Rakestraw, quite frankly, was less impressive than I thought he would be after he put up good numbers in a COVID-shortened season for Colorado in 2020. He was serviceable with 32 tackles and one interception but nothing more than serviceable. Sutton had no impact whatsoever before getting hurt. I requested him for an interview near the end of preseason drills and later found out Chip Long had asked the SID who informed him of the interview request why I wanted to talk to a fourth-string receiver. Douglas showed why he was a walk-on rather than a scholarship player at Alabama, playing sparingly and finishing with five tackles, but he looked better this spring. Shook was a miss, working with the third-team offensive line. The coaches recruit JC guys to be impact players right away, and he was invisible.

2022

RB Ashaad Clayton (transfer, Colorado)
DT Patrick Jenkins (transfer, TCU)
S Lummie Young (grad transfer, Duke)
CB Jarius Monroe (transfer, Nicholls)
WR Dea Dea McDougle (transfer, Maryland)
WR Lawrence Keys (transfer, Notre Dame)
OL Kanan Ray (transfer, Colorado)
OL Prince Pines (transfer, Sam Houston and Baylor)
DL Tylo Phillips (transfer, Lamar)
K Valentino Ambrosio (transfer, Rutgers

Analysis: These 10 transfers should be the biggest impact group of the Fritz era. These guys are going to determine whether or not Tulane can rebound from its 2-10 season and contend for the AAC title. Jenkins appeared to be the real deal in the middle during the spring and will be counted on tremendously with the departure of Jeffery Johnson to Oklahoma. Ashaad Clayton is in the mix for No. 2 back to Tyjae Spears and showed good potential in the spring. Jarius Monroe might turn out to be the top guy in the group and is a potential starter at cornerback, a spot Tulane has really struggled at in the past two years. He plays with tremendous confidence and enthusiasm. Young is in the mix to start at safety. McDougle and Keys were disappointments in the spring at a position that needs an influx of talent. McDougle had a good spring game but drew the coaches' ire for most of the practices that preceded it. Keys wasn't healthy, so he needs to make an impact in preseason drills. Ray was a former 4-star recruit who had significant playing time for Colorado, although he lost his starting job last year. Pines has good credentials as a former starter (briefly) at Baylor and full-time starter at Sam Houston State for an offensive line that needs to play better. I don't know anything about Phillips, who transferred after spring drills along with Pines, but depth on the defensive line is always important and he can play inside or outside. Ambrosio absolutely, positively needs to be good. Merek Glover struggled mightily last year, and now that he's gone, his replacements in the spring were significantly worse than he was. There will be no breakthrough no matter what else happens if Tulane cannot reliably make kicks from 40 yards and in.

Insiders did not expect him to return to Tulane even if he were not drafted, but this is still a big blow. After blowing up with a .404 year that was every bit as impressive in person as it is on paper, Groff tweeted this afternoon he was transferring to Ole Miss.

Tulane will miss his bat and his range.