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.

Tulane arranged an interview with Tyler Hoffman, who was drafted in the 17th round by the Colorado Rockies based on stuff and potential rather than actual performance. He began the season as Tulane's opening-day starter and worked his way out of the rotation before the end of March, finishing with an ERA of 6.10. After spending a month in the wilderness, he pitched pretty well out of the bullpen in May but not often in high-leverage situations.

He has a similar resume to Aaron Loup (although Loup is a lefty and Hoffman is a righty), currently the most successful Tulane player in the Majors. Loup had an ERAs well above 5.00 in his sophomore and junior years before getting taken in the 9th round of the 2009 draft. He was stellar in the playoffs for Tampa Bay in 2020 and had a sub 1.00 ERA as a middle reliever for the Mets last season. He is not faring as well with the Angels this season, but Hoffman would kill for a career like that. I stupidly tweeted he had a decision to make, but he already had told Tulane's baseball staff he would leave if he were drafted. The draft used to be 40 rounds, so he would have gone in the top half in the old days. I forgot about that.

In other news, I reported here Adam Core was leaving for a smaller school a couple weeks ago, and it turns out to be Linderwood, a new D1 program in St. Charles Missouri that will compete in the Missouri Valley Conference. Core, who spend two years with the Wave and was very well liked, would have remained the volunteer coach (low pay) at Tulane. He will be the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach at Linderwood.

Here is what Hoffman said:

On his reaction when Rockies drafted him:

'It was a rollercoaster of emotions. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was expecting going into Day 2 there was a chance, and then going into day 3 and obviously as the day went on, I'm hearing nothing, I'm hearing nothing. All of a sudden I'm looking at the TV and looking at my phone and then, boom, I get taken. The emotions that went through my head, that I got to express to my father, it was something that I'll just never be able to forget."

On what the Rockies told him:

"They just told me, hey, congratulations, we selected you with our 17th overall pick. Just be ready to head down to Scottsdale, Arizona on Sunday. That's when I'll be flying out there. They said. look, you've got the stuff to do it, so just make the best of it."

On confident he would be drafted:

"I was pretty confident that I would hear my name. I'd heard from several different clubs leading towards it. I just didn't know where I would fall. At the end of the day I think I fell in the spot I deserved to be in."

On tweeting about his fastball topping out at 96 miles per hour (96.5):

"That is accurate. Me being a starter at the beginning of the season, my velo was kind of down a little bit, 91, 93, 94, and then all of a sudden they put me into the bullpen and I just saw a big increase in my velocity I was sitting 94, 96, and towards the end of the season I was topping out at 97."

On what went wrong for him during the season and what he needs to fix:

"I don't know about what went wrong. I just don't think that things were happening on my watch. I think other things were in store for me, as in being a starter and then maybe it was hey, you're going to be a reliever going into pro ball, so this is what you need to do, so things just switched over for me. Just the command towards the beginning of the season (was shaky), and then when I switched to being a bullpen arm, my command, my velo, everything changed. The only thing that I see myself working on getting into pro ball is more command, better than what I am now, and just developing that third pitch."

On signing:

"I officially sign Sunday on the 24th when they fly me out to Scottsdale. That's when I will sign the paperwork. They got me a slot for the 17th round (money-wise) and that's pretty much what I was lookjng for as well for me to take it and go. (there is no guaranteed money for picks after the 10th round, but each team has a total amount it can pay all of its drafted players, and the Rockies must be saving some money on their earlier round picks so they can pay their later round picks enough to get them to sign)"

On excitement:

"This is what I dreamed about ever since I was a little kid. Just being able to receive that phone call, and the day happened. I didn't even know what to say when it happened. They called me and said congratulations, and I couldn't even speak to them. I said we'll have to talk later. It's an awesome experience and awesome opportunity that I have been given to me that a select few can say that they are doing. For me to be able to do this is greatly appreciated."

On what it looks like when he's pitching well:

"When I'm pitching well, just knowing myself and not trying to overcompete or overthrow. It's just being who I am is what makes me better at the end of the day."

On nerve-wracking draft process:

"I was nervous. My advisor was telling me you've got a chance to go 3 through 10 (second day) and it didn't happen. I ended up getting a call around the eighth round, ninth round that it just didn't work out. And heading into day 3, he called me and said you are going to go today. And through five rounds I heard nothing, and I'm like geez, what''s about to happen. I was sweating through all my clothes, like I don't know what's about to happen here. We were getting down to the nitty gritty, and all of a sudden there it goes and I get picked and they called me and said congratulations."

On contact with Rockies before draft:

"I did. The area scout that drafted me, I talked to him back when I was a sophomore in junior college, but it's been a while. The last time I talked to him was probably a week before the draft started. He called and said, hey, look, I put in a good word and I think we have a good shot at taking you. But even at the end of the day when it happened, I just didn't think they were going to pick me according to what other people were telling me. I was expecting a different team, but the Rockies picked me and I couldn't be more excited."

On Coors Field being a tough place to pitch because of the altitude (with the caveat that prospects often get traded long before they make the Big Leagues):

"In the moment I did not think about it at all. I had nothing to think about. The only thing I could think about was I got picked. Thinking about other things wasn't on my radar, but even it is a ballpark where (players) hit bombs, that's fine. I'll just keep the ball low."

Tulane has a commitment from punter Ethan Greenberg, who attended Palmetto Prep Academy this year. That is a post-graduate Christian school in Columbia, S.C., designed to get players offers while helping them academically.

Greenberg is from Atlanta. I will check tomorrow to see if he will be on scholarship.

Greenberg

Hey, Waves fans! My son and I are planning a trip to watch the GWaves vs Knights and do a campus tour (son has Tulane on his college list). We do a lot of RV trips, but it doesn't look like there's an official athletics accommodation for visitor RV parking. Any un-official locations or helpful tips? Thanks in advance.

Pretty good honor to be one of 85 players on an award that is for the best guy at any position.

The only other AAC players on the list are East Carolina’s Keaton Mitchell, Houston’s Clayton Tune and Nathaniel Dell and SMU’s Tanner Mordecai. LSU has one player--Kayshon Boutte. No one else from a Louisiana school made the cut.

Geimere Latiimer, a Tennessee product who committed in May, decommitted on twitter tonight.

He was a two-star prospect whom Rivals listed as a DB but whom Tulane recruited as a WR/ATH.

He's a DE from St. Aug:

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What you got Guerry?

I have no idea if Jaxon Smolik will keep his commitment to Tulane after excelling at the Elite 11 QB competition in California a week after choosing the Green Wave, but the fact he returned my text and talked to me on the phone is a good sign. If he had avoided me, it would have been a sign he already was waffling. He refused to say his recruitment was over when I asked him directly, but he also clearly likes Tulane and did not use the code words I've become familiar with when a guy no longer is interested after committing. My entire interview with him is posted on the front page.

Smolik Q&A

I have no doubt Kendall Rogers had good sourcing for his tweet that Tulane's hitting coach (the full-time position currently open) was expected to be Justin Bridgman, a volunteer assistant at Cal Poly, but I have not been able to confirm it as a done deal. I have learned Adam Core is gone, jumping from volunteer assistant at Tulane to a full-time assistant at a smaller D1 school.

Anthony Izzio is the pitching coach. The other two spots are not certain, although history says Rogers will be right about Bridgman, a graduate of Nevada just like Jay Uhlman. That's the obvious connection between the two. Bridgman does not have a big body of work, spending two years at Cal Poly after being a graduate manager at Arizona in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, a minor league announcer in 2019 and playing two years of minor league ball upon leaving Nevada in 2017.

It if turns out to be Bridgman, Uhlman still has to find a third assistant to complete his staff.

In other news, as I have posted earlier, do not look for Ethan Groff to be back next year. He hopes to be taken in the 20-round MLB draft that starts Sunday, and Tulane has left him off the roster of 22 players currently up on the official website. I would not say there is a zero-percent chance of him returning, but the odds are low. If he is not drafted, he could transfer.

Best I can tell we've got about ten football commitments for 2023. Guerry, have you had a chance to talk to any of them? Most are well "under the radar' with few offers and little aknowledgement on the rating sites. Some of their hudl highights look very good but those are sometimes hard to judge. Anyway, looking forward to some interviews when you have the time.

Roll Wave!!!

He is a RB from East Acension. 247 Sports lists him as 6-2, 200. He had 198 yards against Walker last year and is fast. His team lost 24-21 in the first round of the state playoffs to undefeated, eventual champion Zachary.

Doubt I will get to talk to him because all of the stories about him mention how quiet he is and how he prefers not to talk.

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Is returning to Tulane.

waiting on Engelhard.

He is a wide receiver/athlete from Columbus, Miss. with offers from La Tech, ULM and South Alabama

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Returning to New Orleans from an eight-day vacation in Destin on Friday, I went out to Yulman Stadium to watch the Great Surge, the contest new strength and conditioning coach Kurt Hester brought with him from Louisiana Tech. It was worth the attendance. Near the conclusion, I had a short interview with Hester, which is not the full interview I promised but did not deliver on in the spring. I still hope to get a lengthier interview down the road, but what he said last night was interesting. I will have the full transcript at the end of this report.

Tulane was divided into eight teams of about 12 players each, with eight captains drafting everyone from first to last. Each team wore a different outfit, with one in diapers. There were eight events, with the first four pitting a player from one group against a player from another group one at a time and the team winning the most individual battles getting the win as the teams rotated through the four contests. The next four events were relay, with the top two teams at the end of the night advancing to the championship square-off that was won by Nick Anderson's team over Michael Pratt's team in a competition that had players pulling an apparatus that had 140 pounds of weights on it backwards five yards while sitting down, then passing it off a teammate. Anderson's team beat Pratt's team to the goal line by 4 yards, with the competition ending at 10:30 nearly two-and-a-half hours after the first events started.

Each event involved agility, running and strength, with players maneuvering around cones or jumping over little objects before having to lift something heavy or carry something heavy. In one of the relay races, each player on two teams had to run 30 yards with a big ball and drop it, turn around and run to the starting point, then run five yards and do curls with a heavy object eight times, run five more yards and do curls with the object four times and run five more yards and do three curls before running around three obstacles on their way to the big ball, which they had to put between their legs above the ground and carry it to the starting point. Each time they dropped it, they had to pick it up and secure it between their legs before moving again. The best technique for most of them proved to be hopping.

The other relays were simpler and quicker. One involved carrying a big chain with weights on it around some cones and back to the starting line. Another had them carry a bag in one hand and a huge ball in the other while running around four big cushions. The fourth had two teammates drag a third teammate who was facing backwards 40 yards back to the starting point, with each player taking turns being dragged and pulling.

The whole night was spirited, with players clearly enjoying the competition even though it also was clearly exhausting. Pratt in particular deserves mention because he participated in the Manning Passing Academy in the blazing hot sun earlier in the day in Thibodaux, drove back to campus to participate in the the Great Surge and then had to drive back to Thibodaux for Saturday's session at the passing academy.. He looks like he is in the best shape of his career.

Here are my interviews with Hester, Pratt and Anderson. Anderson's winning team consisted of himself, Lummie Young, Iverson Celestine, Ethan Hudak, Kai Horton, walk-ons Austin Sybrant, Jack Collins,Lucas Barisas and Michael Lavergne and freshmen Keanon McNally, Cadien Robinson and Kentrell Webb.

HESTER

on having done this for seven years at La Tech before bringing it to Tulane:

"I created it at Tech. It's a competition to kind of see in the middle of summer where you are, and where your team is from a competition standpoint and from a leadership standpoint. Will they finish. Will they give up under duress. You have to understand the drill and do it right, so there are a lot of things going on at one time that you can assess the team by. We filmed everything so we can go back and watch the film. If they gave up on a drill, you can show them where they quit and you show them where they finished strong even if they were so far behind, they had no chance to win it. It shows the character of the athlete and where we are from a leadership standpoint of each leader making sure his team is on point. It's a myriad of things that we need to assess the team going on to the second half of the summer."

On how the teams were formed:

"We had a draft. We picked eight captains and they go in the team room and they are drafted in front of everybody, so they know if you're in the last 10, it kind of tells you what your teammates think about you as an athlete or if you're a guy who gives up all the time and doesn't want to compete. It's a wakeup call."

On enthusiasm of players:

"It's archaic events. They take a lot out of you, but you can hear them. They are competing. Guys are leading. So far it's been a really good night (he talked as the last couple of events were still going on before the championship)."

On what brought him to Tulane:

"I graduated from Tulane 30 years ago. I was an undergrad strength coach here. I ran the physiology lab in the Reily Center back in the day and it was an opportunity to come back home. I'm from below Houma, and it was just an opportunity to come back to south Louisiana where there's real food."

On condition of players when he got here:

"I think what every strength coach does. They come in and down the previous strength coach and say they are not strong, they are not this or not that. I didn't come in with that mentality. I knew Kyle (Speer). I'm just different. I'm not Kyle. I'm just different. I'm going to do things a little differently. I've got to assess where we are as a program because I don't know any of you guys personally. What I want to do more than anything is learn from a standpoint of where each person was as a person. I didn't care about where we were athletically. I had to get them to trust me as soon as I could."

On his philosophy:

"I want the fastest team in the country. We train speed in everything we do--in the weight room and on the field. If you're the fastest guy out there, you are always going to play, and if you're the slowest guy out there, you can be really strong, but you're never going to play."

On Pratt's commitment to attending the night:

"He goes back tomorrow. That tells me about him as a person and as a leader. He's one of the best leaders out here right now."

PRATT

On making sure he was a big part of The Great Surge:

"It was super important. Coach said you gotta do what you gotta do, if you have to stay at the Manning Passing Academy, figure that out. But they gave me the opportunity to come back. I worked hard all day and it was hot over there today, but I'm super happy that came back and got to do this. Now I have to drive back right now. We've got a meeting in the morning (at the passing academy) at 8,"

On drafting process:

"It's awesome. The biggest thing with. my team especially is I had a lot of guys come up to me and tell me we were going to be the worst team in the thing, but the biggest thing I looked for was guys I see working hard every single day, guys that have no quit in them, that are going to give me 110 percent effort every single step of the way. Those are the guys that I go to battle with. I go to battle with all these guys, but those select few really just push each other, push me and got after it today."

On Kurt Hester:

"He's awesome. Just the whole camaraderie and the morale around the team, this was an absolute blast, everyone out here in their costumes with the groups. Win, lose or draw, wherever you came, everyone had a blast today, and that's what's going to build the team up and push us into the season and help us win a lot of games."

NICK ANDERSON

On everyone having fun:

"It was phenomenal. Coach Hester, it's just a testament to what kind of guy he is and what he brings to our program. There's genuine enthusiasm. Everybody was out here competing and fighting and grinding. I just love how we competed today, not even because my team won, but everybody competed. Everybody showed effort and toughness, and that's what we need. Since I've been at Tulane, I want to say 75 percent of the games we lost come down to the fourth quarter and come down to a mentality of toughness. That's one thing coach Hester is going to build in this program, and I love it."

More on Hester:

"We love him and he loves us. He's definitely a players' coach. He has genuine enthusiasm. He loves what he does. He comes in here every day to help us be great and we just have bought into to everything he tells us."

On his drafting philosophy:

"I wasn't looking for the strongest guys. I wasn't looking for the fastest guys. I was looking for guys that come in every day and work. I settled on my scouting report before we drafted and I put nothing but guys who come in and get the job done every day. They are not the loudest guys. My team wasn't trash talking. We were focused on details and execution, and I got guys that were dependable and could come out here and work. I'm not the biggest guy on the field, but I have a mentality and I picked guys with like-minded mentality and we came out here and we won."

Sorry guys, I'm a little late on this one...happend 3 days ago...

Mr. Manning is from Newark NJ with offers from Umass, Delaware, ODU, JMU, Maine, Rhode Island, LIU, Stony Brook, Akron, TEMPLE, Army, NAVY, SYRACUSE, Monmoth, Kent st., BOSTON COLLEGE, ETC. Apparently a lot of folks in the NE part of the country wanted Mr. Manning on their team. Hopefully we can hold on to him.

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So as we all know Tulane does not release AAC payout numbers, or at least I've never seen them. So I went over to the good old Orlando Sentinel to find an article which gives us the numbers of the entire conference...

The conference distributed $88.36 million of revenue to 12 members, with Cincinnati leading the way with $9.44 million, followed by Houston ($8.52 million), Tulsa ($7.98 million), Memphis ($7.97 million), UCF ($7.96 million), Tulane ($7.88 million), SMU ($7.65 million), Temple ($7.63 million), East Carolina ($7.58 million), USF ($7.56 million) and Navy ($5.33 million).

Wichita State, which joined the conference in 2017 as a full member in all sports except football, received a small annual payout of $2.84 million.

The amount of revenue the AAC distributed is up 44% from the $61.31 million it gave out in the 2019-20 fiscal year. That’s because of the new media rights deal and this having been the first year without UConn as a member. The Huskies jumped to the Big East in July 2020, paying the league a $17 million exit fee.

UCF, which saw its revenue share increase by 42% from the $5.35 million distributed last fiscal year, is among three schools exiting the AAC for the Big 12. The Knights join Cincinnati and Houston as schools to have accepted bids last September to move to the Power Five conference possibly as soon as 2023.

This is huge for Tulane.