It was a brutal way to end a series that was shaping up to be the best weekend performance since 2016, and Tulane definitely has major concerns at closer, but even at 3-4, this appears to be easily Travis Jewett's best team. I laughed when I read on another message board that Tulane's at-large NCAA tournament hopes were already on life support. One, the AAC is a good baseball league, so it's not like the Wave will have no more chances for huge wins. Two, winning 1 of 3 at Mississippi State most likely will turn out to be a positive (if the Bulldogs are as good as they usually are) rather than a negative in the selection committee's eyes.

If Tulane plays exactly at this level for the rest of the year, it is a regional team even if it never figures out the back end of the bullpen. That being said, teams are not static. There's no guarantee Tulane will continue to play like this, with clutch hits, outstanding infield defense (at everywhere but second base) and terrific contributions from newcomers. But if it does continue to play like this, the Wave will go 4-0 this week, beating one of its two in-state nemeses Southeastern and sweeping Western Kentucky. Braden Otlhoff is a virtual lock to win on Friday. Jack Aldrich will be awfully tough to beat on Sunday. Donovan Benoit is capable of of pitching well on Saturday.

Winwave pointed out on twitter that all eight of Chase Engelhard's hits are for extra bases, which is amazing. His massive home run yesterday was one of the longest the Mississippi State announcers said they'd seen at Dudy Noble Field, and they've been covering the team for a long time. If Jared Hart's knee injury is not significant, he will continue to hit for a high average because his swings are pure. Trevor Minder will not stay below .200 for long because he has too much ability.

Now as for the bullpen, it will be interesting what Jewett decided. I'm assuming he will stick with Gillies for now, but one more blown opportunity will send him searching for a new closer. He's made the same mistake year after year, preferring to go with a guy who looks intimidating on the mound rather than the guy who can get outs reliably. The only good closer he's had in five years was Christian Colletti in his first season, and he went to him only after Ted Andrews was a massive failure. Since then, Will McAffer, Connor Pellerin, Brendan Cellucci, Justin Campbell (when Jewett got desperate and went away from his love of intimidators) were abysmal, unable to find the plate, and Gillies failed in his first major assignment after not really being tested in the abbreviated 2020 season. There has to be someone on this deep staff (I'm talking quantity rather than quality) who can get the job done if Gillies continues to struggle. At least Gillies is in the vicinity of the plate unlike almost all of those other guys, but his control still needs to get better or he 'll never be the answer. I thought Clifton Slagel should have closed the Saturday game, but he got tattooed yesterday, so what do I know? I'm not a believer that a closer needs to have an elite fastball, but he probably needs more elite stuff than Slagel has. Campbell is not the answer for the same reason. It has to be one of the new guys.

But again, this is a good team even if it cannot find a closer. It easily could have swept Mississippi State. It has the potential to dominate lesser opponents. We'll have a much better read by the end of this week, but I'll say this. The general expectation after the ninth-inning implosion on Saturday was Tulane would lose 15-1 on Sunday. Instead, it outplayed Mississippi State in every department, losing only because of a mind-blowing mistake by Collin Burns to leave third base early while tagging up (if he indeed did so; there was no replay to confirm), a home-run ball by Minder that was caught over the low wall (it would have been gone if it had been two inches deeper) and Gillies not being able to execute one more pitch, which he threw right over the middle of the plate after not getting the call on his previous one (which was outside but had been called a strike for other pitchers most of the time).

I like this team a lot. it showed toughness when the previously moribund Ethan Groff singled with two outs in the ninth and the clutch Luis Aviles (more from him later) hit the moon shot homer to give the Wave the lead. The only way it won't make a regional is if it underachieves, which is possible considering what happened in the ninth inning on Saturday and Sunday, but not likely.

Aviles and Jewett talked after yesterday's heartbreaker. Aviles was much more positive than Jewett. I will post their quotes shortly.

Braden Olthoff and Travis Jewett did a Zoom call after Olthoff limited the Bulldogs to six hits and two runs in another masterful eight-inning performance. His ERA since arriving at Tulane last year is 0.65, and this was by far the best hitting team he faced in his six starts. After giving a double to the wall on his first pitch, leading to the second earned run he has allowed at Tulane on a single, he retired 12 in a row while keeping the Bulldogs off balance and frustrated enough that he was checked for using an illegal substance in the fifth inning. Later, the Mississippi State coach said they thought something must be going on but nothing was, that Olthoff was just jamming it up their tails.

This is one special player, and Tulane backed him up with three runs in the third and three runs in the sixth, all on two-strike counts and the first three coming with two outs.

OLTHOFF

On rebounding from double on first pitch:

"I felt great tonight. We knew they could hit. I think early I was just trying to get all my off speed established. The first pitch of the game I went fastball and he jumped all over it, and then they got a run across, but I was never worried. The run support was great tonight. It felt really good going out there with the lead most of the game and not just one or two runs. It was three or four the whole night (actually Tulane went ahead 3-1 in the third and 6-1 in the sixth). It is definitely easy to pitch when we've got guys who are putting up runs. I could just attack the zone."

On having total command:

"I felt good. They loaded the lineup with seven lefties and two righties. The changeup was really big tonight and then the curveball to keep them off balance and then a few sliders. I was throwing a lot of curveballs and changeups, then they would get off the fastballs and I was able to sneak the fastball by. That's a big part of my game, just attacking the zone and keeping them off balance. That's what I did tonight."

On having glove checked for illegal substance:

"That's never happened to me. I've never been one to use pine tar or any other substances, so an umpire came out there and was like, we've got to check your glove for this. I loved it. That fired me up even more. It fired up our dugout. I'm a competitor, so I took that as a compliment. Obviously they thought I was cheating, so that just fired me up even more and I took that energy the rest of the way."

On watching Gillies close it out:

"It's always a great feeling when Keagan goes in there. You know he's going to be chucking it hard. They got a few guys on, but there was never a worry. We knew he was going to get the job done, and it's nice to have a great closer coming in behind you."

On all seven Tulane runs coming on two-strike pitches:

"They've got some pretty good arms. Even their worst arm is going to be a great arm. Collin Burns got the two-run home run and then from there it was just a lot of mature hitting. We stayed aggressive in the zone, got a lot of walks. It's just putting the ball in play. I know Simon (Baumgardt) just kind of blooped that one over second and got another two runs. It was really nice to see the offense rolling tonight, especially against as good a pitching as they have and a good team they have."

JEWETT

On Olthoff being Olthoff:

"What do you say, right? The thing I'm most proud about him for tonight is you know what he can do, but to get in this type of environment and it's a big moment, and for them to come out punching in the first and jump on the board early, maybe a less mentally tough kid that doesn't prepare as well as he does reacts differently. He felt good that that's just one and I'm just going to maintain these guys and keep my team in it. That's what he did, and all of a sudden he got a chance to get into a rhythm. This is a very good offensive team, and for him to be able to mix his pitches and keep them off the fastball and throw those and set up his changeups and his breaking balls was unbelievable. He certainly handled some adversity in the first inning. The crowd was on him for his hair and all those things. A really big moment, too, was when they were trying to find an illegal substance on his body. He's not that type of kid obviously, but more than anything it was a ploy. When you get those ploys like that in the middle of a game, you gotta win the moment, and he was able to win that moment. That was a big thing, and (Collin) Burnsy landed on that ball (a two-run, go-ahead homer in the third down the left field line) and that kind of put us out in front and gave everybody a chance to take a deep breath and Braden just kept coming at them."

"I thought Frankie Niemann was unbelievable. It's so good to have his old age and presence in there with some of those two strikes, using the back side of the field, helped us win."

On Niemann's injury that kept him out the first weekend:

"He had a shoulder that we were nursing a little bit and like I told you earlier, we probably could have played him right out of the gate, but we were trying to have a little bit of forward vision. He convinced me and the training staff that he was fine and he could do everything from swinging the bat to diving into bases and all those kind of things. With his insertion over the last few games, I think you can see what he does for our offense."

On all seven RBIs coming on two-strike pitches:

"Two outs, we have a saying there's a lot of inning left because we are going to try to stay momentary and win the pitches. We just have to find a way to find first base, and our guys did that well. There was a span in there where with those two-out, two-strike things, we took their starter (Christian MacLeod), who's a Major League type pitcher, we were able to extend him from the 40s to the 70s (pitch count) before you knew it. That was a big deal we were able to get him out of the game. They used quite a few arms tonight (seven), so hopefully that will be helpful for us going forward."

On if he would label this a statement win:

'Yeah, I would. I don't think I'm going to shy away form that. Any time you can pack up your field at Turchin Stadium for the first time and go on the road, I do want to give coach (Chris) Lemonis and his staff and their team a lot of credit. They are scary good. I don't think it's a statement that I'm saying I'm making to the world or anything like that, but it's a statement for our kids about how they feel and what they think they are capable of. It wasn't hey, let's come in here and see if we can slay the lion or anything like that. We needed to come in here believing that we were good enough to win. The kids played with confidence, and hopefully just like we used those two losses against Lafayette, we can use two wins like this (also beating UNO on Tuesday) the same way. It's more a statement internally than externally."

On Olthoff pitching for the first time without his personal catcher, Haydan Hastings (they went with normal starter Luis Aviles):

"Luis really caught well. He was on top of it all night long, but we are in not a bind, because binds aren't good, but we have Bennett Lee with a hamstring (injury) the other night and he's down. When you have that situation and a left-handed pitcher starting, I don't want to DH Luis because if something were to happen to Haydan where we needed to make a switch on the box or on the bases or something like that, then we'd have to insert our DH into the catcher slot and then your pitcher would need to hit, and I don't really like that because they don't practice hitting. That's why we did it, and with MacLeod going, I thought it was better to have an Aviles-Niemann combination right-handed hitting than anything. We'll get Haydan in there tomorrow. I was just really proud of the way Luis caught and the way Olthoff didn't need the crutch or the cane to pitch well, so that will be good for us going forward."

On Burns reaching new level:

"100 percent. This kid's a ball player now. He has played well from the ball being pointed in play this fall until now. He's catching the ground ball well, he's making all the throws from all different kinds of angles and pound for pound he's the strongest kid on our team, so he can impact some balls and do some good things for us. So, yeah, he certainly has made that nice move in his career. I'm just real proud of the ascend that he's on."

On two-run homer being a giant blow to get team started:

"Oh, no question. To land it off of that pitcher, left on left, to be able to stay over the ball and hit it over the fence, that was the key to getting us to take a deep breath and go on from there."

Spring practice starts Tuesday, with workouts each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for five weeks. With new coordinators on both sides of the ball, what happens will be more interesting than usual. On offense, we will see how similar (and different) Chip Long's offense is from Will Hall's and how similar (and different) his coaching style is.

By my count, Tulane has 36 scholarship offensive players on the roster for the spring semester, although Tyjae Spears will be unavailable along with I presume Joey Claybrook and possibly Ygenio Booker.

The offensive players Tulane lost to the transfer portal are Stephon Huderson, Amari Jones, Keon Howard and Keshon Williams.

The Wave gained WR Cyril Sutton and RB Devin Brumfield as transfers. Another transfer WR, Shae Wyatt, will not graduate from Central Missouri until May.

Here is a breakdown by position

QUARTERBACK

Returning: Michael Pratt, Justin Ibieta

Lost: Howard.

Outlook: Pratt and Ibieta will get a ton of work and both of them need it. Pratt, who has the makings of being a great college quarterback, will get more comfortable with his receivers and apply what he learned while starting the last nine games in 2020. This is nitpicking, but his decision-making needs to get faster. He took more hits than he needed to last fall because he tended to hold the ball too long. It's a natural development for QBs to get the ball out of their hands faster as the offense becomes second nature to them, but Pratt will be adjusting to a new offensive coordinator. Even though the terminology will remain the same, there's always a difference. Ibieta is the clear No. 2 now with Howard gone, and he needs to get ready to play. He had some nice moments in practice last preseason but definitely was the third best of the three quarterbacks competing for the job at the time. Now that he's had a semester at Tulane, he should be ready to make a big jump.

All is going well if: Pratt picks up where he left off and is hitting the Watts twins and Jha'Quan Jackson for big plays every day in practice.

Sign of concern if: The adjustment curve to Long is steep and Ibieta does not look ready. The way Pratt plays, it is unlikely he will make it through all of 2021 without getting dinged up.

RUNNING BACKS

Returning: Cameron Carroll, Ygenio Booker

Out with injury: Tyjae Spears

New: Devin Brumfield

Lost: Amare Jones, Stephon Huderson

Outlook: If Booker is unavailable, there will be a big-time shortage of running backs, meaning Logan Ammons and other walk-ons (none are listed on the 2020 roster) will get some work to fill in the void. It will be interesting to see what Brumfield can do after getting limited work behind really good backs in two of his three years at Utah and posting pedestrian stats when he carried 59 times as a sophomore. This is the first time Tulane has been hit hard with significant losses at a position in the transfer portal, with only Junior Diaz's departure significant in the past. Can Carroll, who caught four passes a year ago, be more versatile under Long than he was under Hall?

All is going well if: Brumfield looks the part of a productive back.

Sign of concern if: Anyone sustains a significant injury.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Returning: Jha'Quan Jackson, Phat Watts, Duece Watts, Jaetavian Toles, Tyrek Presley, Dane Ledford, Sorrell Brown, Ryan Thompson

New: Cyril Sutton

Outlook: To put it bluntly, this has not been a D1-caliber spot for most of the time under Willie Fritz. Darnell Mooney and Jalen McCleskey and Terren Encalade were exceptions, but that was it for the first four years, and no one had proven anything at the beginning of last season before Duece Watts and Jackson emerged as playmakers. Let's see if Long can coax more out of the other guys. It will be a big spring for Phat Watts, Sutton, Toles, Presley and Ledford to show what they can do, and Brown, too, if he is healthy enough to give it a go. I had the feeling at the end of the fall he might have to call it a career because of his bad knees. Sutton is intriguing after catching 66 passes for 944 yards and nine TDs at Southeastern Louisiana in 2019.

All is going well if: Anyone besides Jackson and Duece Watts emerges as a consistent playmaker and develops chemistry with Pratt.

Sign of concern if: The drops that plagued this group in preseason practice are evident again in spring drills. The production has to be better by several degrees all the way around.

TIGHT ENDS

Returning: Tyrick James, Christian Daniels, Will Wallace, Keitha Jones, Reggie Brown

Gone: Keshon Williams

Outlook: Long loves tight ends. He has coached the position for most of his career, although he will give it up to work with the quarterbacks for Tulane, and he even brought in a walk-on from another Louisiana school (I am blanking out on the name) to fill out this group. James underachieved for much of 2020 but caught touchdown passes in three straight games (ECU, Army, Tulsa) in the second half of the year and appears ready to blossom. Wallace was playing the best of his career at the end of the season, too, and Jones was getting time as an extra blocker. Daniels has a lot of potential and should be better after spending a year playing there, avoiding mistakes like the fumble he had after his first catch. Long has some parts with which to work. Let's see what he produces.

All is going well: If the tight ends are an a significant part of the offense

Sign of concern if: Despite Long's preference, the position disappears as a receiving factor as has often been the case in the past.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Returning: Corey Dublin, Sincere Haynesworth, Josh Remetich, Trey Tuggle, Caleb Thomas, Timothy Shafter, Cameron Jackel, Michael Remondet, Stephen Lewerenz, Rashad Green, Matt Lombardi, Joseph Solomon, Jackson Fort.

New: Hutson Lillibridge, Hayden Shook

Out with injury: Joey Claybrook

Outlook: Dublin and Haynesworth are locks to start, as will Claybrook be when he returns in the fall, but the competition on the right side of the line should be intense under new offensive line coach George Barnett. Remetich (at right guard) and Tuggle (at right tackle) are the frontrunners, but Thomas, who started four times, and Green will push Remetich. Shafter, a former walk-on who started three times, will try to get in the mix as tackle as well as Jackel, who never has quite been ready to start but whom the coaches saw potential in. Lombardi and Solomon will get a chance to show how much progress they made in getting bigger and stronger.

All is going well if: The youngsters who started last year have gotten better.

Sign of concern if: The coaches do not know who their starters should be on the right side by the end of drills.

Guerry- Luke Besh, a WR from Jesuit and the son of Chef John Besh, committed to Tulane on twitter last night during the baseball game. Besh had an offer from Army and really tore it up this year in the Catholic League. I know he was getting some late interest in recruiting from other schools and was wondering whether he'll be a scholarship player or a walk on?

Spring football starts next Tuesday, and I will have a position-by-position preview (maybe separate ones for offense and defense) up tomorrow.

Assuming practices are open to reporters, I will have a report for each one.

My thoughts are I don't have too many after one series against a team that may or may not turn out to be really good. ULL was picked third in its division of the Sun Belt and has not been particularly good the past two years, but I liked what I saw over the weekend. For every team, though, there are too many unknowns at this point.

It was a weekend Tulane could have won all three games or lost all three games with only minor differences, but the 2-1 series loss reflected the run of play. For the most part, UL was the better team on Friday and Saturday (losing Friday) and Tulane was the better team Sunday (losing anyway).

THE GOOD

1) I feel comfortable in saying Tulane's infield and outfield play will be its best of the Travis Jewett era even though the turning point yesterday was a misplayed fly ball by Logan Stevens in right field. Jared Hart, though not a very good base-runner, has more range than any center fielder Jewett has used and will turn at least one hit from previous years into an out each game. There are no glaring weaknesses out there like in past years, too.

Trevor Minder is an excellent fielding third baseman. Collin Burns is solid at shortstop, and Walker Burchfield knows what he is doing at first base. I don't have a read on second base yet, but I saw no issues there over the weekend.

2) Tulane needs an influx of good, young hitters with the loss of five big-time bats from last year, and the very early returns are good. Chase Engelhard had three doubles, a home run and a triple (that should have been a single) in two games. Enough said. One weekend does not make a season, but it sure looks like he will be productive. Bennett Lee had three hits in his first four at-bats yesterday, although he will be on the shelf for a while with a hamstring injury. Hart, batting in the 9 hole and clearly a guy who was in the lineup for his defense, took a lot of good cuts yesterday and had three hard singles. I like his swing. It is too early to know if this team will hit well enough to make a regional this. year--Friday was really bad against an outstanding freshman pitcher and Saturday was not great--but it certainly seems possible. I'm pretty sure Minder will not have many more weekend where he goes 1 for his last 12, and Luis Aviles rounded into form after a horrendous first four at-bats Friday. I also liked the way Burns hit yesterday. His two doubles were clutch and looked repeatable.

THE BAD

Bad is an overstatement, but Tulane's pitchers underperformed. I am not worried about Braden Olthoff, who labored most of the way despite not giving up a run, and Jack Aldrich pitched well yesterday with the exception of the four-run blip that was caused primarily by Stevens' misplay, but Donovan Benoit was terrible and the bullpen was hit or miss. The loss of Luke Jannetta could really hurt. Only Clifton Slagel engendered confidence out of the bullpen over the weekend, although it is far too early to tell about the new guys and even most of the returners. At least the control problems that ended last year appeared to have stayed away. And there is no explaining the three errors Justin Campbell made. He almost cost Tulane the game Friday and he did cost Tulane the game Saturday. He has to clean that up pronto.

THE UGLY

Catching defense is Tulane's bugaboo and could end up ruining the regional hopes. It's not just that ULL was 8 for 8 on stolen base attempts, it's that none of the throws were on target from Haydan Hastings, Luis Aviles and Bennett Lee. This is a big problem because as Jewett said after the game, every team's scouting report will say run at all times against Tulane. And after just writing that Campbell cost Tulane the game Saturday, the co-conspirator was Aviles, who threw the ball 10 feet over Minder's head when the Wave was out away from winning. If he had eaten the ball or simply made a throw anywhere in the vicinity, all Tulane would have needed was for closer Keagan Gillies to get one more out. I'm not sure how the catching issues are fixable. Aviles has allowed 15 of 17 stolen bases since arriving. Hastings, who threw out two of five last year, may be the best bet, but he did not look good this weekend. His bat is much improved, though, and it may make sense for him to become the primary catcher (in addition to his role as Olthoff's personal catcher) with Aviles becoming the regular DH. I don't know enough about their arms yet to have a firm answer on that one, but someone has to step up and become at least semi-competent.

THE TAKEAWAY

Tulane really needs to beat UNO tomorrow, and not just because the Privateers mystifyingly have owned the Wave the past few years. Although it is far too early for anything to be set, the Wave does not want to be 1-3 heading into a series at Mississippi State, where a bad weekend could put the team behind the 8-ball right away.

One other thing: I love, love, love opening the season with a series against ULL. I don't care about the bad blood that appeared to develop between the teams. It was exciting, tense baseball for all three days, with in-state opponents actually getting to use their frontline pitchers instead of the back-end guys that go in the midweek. It should become a yearly tradition, with maybe Southeastern and Nicholls rotating with ULL, although the matchup between the Cajuns and the Wave is the best. Bringing in a northern team like George Washington or Columbia does little to tell a team what its strengths and weaknesses are.

Jewett from Sunday:

"Not too much to say other than I'd like to give Lafayette a lot of credit. I thought they were well coached and ready for a three-round fight, that's for sure. When you give teams some opportunities, as good as they are, they are going to take advantage of them. The one positive we can find out of this weekend, although we didn't come out on a winning ledger, is when you can sign up to open your season against a quality team against Lafayette and find yourself in three extra-inning games, we can hope to find some learning experiences from them down the road. Hopefully it will make us better. I told the kids simply this, that I love them whether we win or lose. It's a great bunch of kids. We just can't let it pop the balloon this early in the season. We can be disappointed tonight, then get up tomorrow, shake it off a little bit and then we're right back on the saddle on Tuesday against UNO. Credit to Lafayette. They are going to have a hell of a season."

On getting 20 hits and scoring seven runs:

"The 20 hits obviously would lead to traffic and activity on the base paths, which we had quite a bit and then we weren't able to find the outfield grass as much as we would have liked to. I will tell you, this is an unforgiving game. We landed on a few balls pretty good, even late, Haydan Hastings swing coming off the bench, if that was earlier in the game, it's a different result (when the wind was blowing out), and (Collin) Burns' ball late and (Trevor) Minder's ball to center. We landed on some balls and swung the bat the best today that we have over the weekend, and that's a good sign because we're getting into a little bit better rhythm. Offensively this team's talented enough to come through. It's a catch 22 when you're talking about a bunch of hits and leaving them on base. At least you got them there. A character trait we are showing early in the season even throughout losing the series is there's some fight in us. We continued to put guys on base late and get quality at-bats and force the tying and winning runs to the plate. That's good. There's no give in or give up in this group."

On getting runner thrown at plate with chance to take 3-0 lead, then misplayed fly ball that led to four runs being crucial part of the game:

"I really do (think that). That's what I'm trying to emphasize with the team right now is all the little things matter. Yesterday we were careless with the ball and it made us pay, and they're not always in the ninth inning. It can happen at any time, and today I thought Jack (Aldrich) threw the ball extremely well. We have a fly ball that hits the ground. That's not good and it ended up being a three-run swing right there. In a tight game against a good team, those are often the difference in the game, and it certainly was today. The wind was blowing and the ball was up into right field. Logan thought it was his off the bat and it just kept fading and dropped down between those two (Stevens and centerfielder Jared Hart). Those little things need to be grabbed as outs. They all matter."

On status of Bennett Lee:

"I don't know how significant. It took him to his knees. He said he felt a pretty good pop there, so yes, it's a hamstring. He could be down for a little bit I would assume. We'll get him checked out tonight and get him in the training room. A young stud like him, it's a good combination for a quick recovery. We wish the best but we have to see where it's at. He's a heck of a kid. Obviously I had no fear giving him the start tonight and you could see what he does with the bat. The kids call him Eddie Barrels and you saw why. He can hit and I really like the way he caught the ball. He's got a bright future."

On ULL being 8 for 8 on stolen bases:

"I'm glad you said 8 for 8. I thought it was 800 for 800. Yeah, that's very concerning. We're going to have to do as we always do, evaluate holistically the entire team, and we are going to have to do something about it. The catchers are going to have to step up their game for sure, and the pitchers are going to have to have a piece of that recipe, too. We have to be able to hold the ball better. We have to be able to step off with some vigor. We have to be able to pick with some aggression over the base. We have to do some things that will create some doubt versus an aggressive base running team like them just so they know we're thinking about it and we're not just going to let it be. It's kind of like a bunt where we say it all the time. It's not the bunt. It's the threat of a bunt. It's the ability for our guys to show a bunt. Even if we don't, it pulls people in and creates pockets in the field. It's the same thing with a pickoff. It's not so much that you're doing it to pick them off. It's letting them know that you're thinking about them and making them get cement in their shoes so to speak and letting them know we mean business and we were here for a baseball game, not a track meet,. We're going to have to address it because there are these things called scouting reports, and that will get out there quickly so we have to do something."

On starting with ULL:

"I like good competition. I think that's good for the kids. It's certainly not the result we were looking for, but even through defeat, the quality competition, the extra innings, there's a lot of positives out of it. Playing somebody that you're going to beat 20-0 or whatever, I don't know what that does in terms of value going forward. We had a stiff test right out of the gate, and the way it is set up now is a bear. It's not going to get any easier Tuesday. UNO has our number, and then not looking too far ahead we're off to Starkville to play Mississippi State. We are going to have to get off the ground quickly. The kids can be disappointed tonight. I certainly am, but we're not going to let this pop our bubble. We have to stay together, stay connected and get our dukes up and come out fighting."

On not using optional rule to start runner on second base in extra innings:

"It's funny because on Friday before we got started, that was a discussion that was in play. Coach (Matt) Deggs and I both were like no shot. Here we are on opening weekend, three-game series, no, we want to play as much as we can, and we kind of got what we asked for, so a lot of free baseball this weekend. That is correct, though. The Major League baseball rule is in play this year if agreed upon. I know our league has already decided, and so when we get in those four-game weekend series within conference, that would have been the scenario, so all three of these games would have started with a runner on second base and nobody out."

Tulane opens AAC play at East Carolina, followed by its annual Thursday night game against Houston, this time at home a week off before another Thursday night game at SMU, a couple of extra day to prepare for a home game with defending champion Cincinnati, a trip to UCF, home games with Tulsa and South Florida and a regular-season ending trip to Memphis.

The non-conference schedule, which was already known, features three home games and should not be a deterrence to reaching a bowl game if the Wave can be competitive in the AAC. History says Oklahoma at home and Ole Miss on the road will be losses, but but Morgan State at home and UAB at home should be wins, meaning Tulane would have to go 4-4 to reach .500.

To be clear, I'm not making becoming bowl eligible the goal. I'm just pointing out this schedule, though tougher than the past, two, is navigable if the Wave plays well. Tulane went 1-3 in non-conference games in 2018 but recovered to go 5-3 in the AAC.

Schedule

What are your thoughts on the way the schedule sets up?

Offense is a constant problem for this team, but man, it plays hard and has become good defensively.

After losing a game it should have won at UCF on Friday, the Wave showed toughness by bouncing back to beat South Florida today in its third road game in five days. Kevin Cross, who has struggled to hit 3s all year, hit a big one to give the Wave the lead for good, and then he made an even better play late when he was bottled up inside late in the shot clock down the stretch, passing to Sion James in the corner for a 3 that gave the Wave a 5-point lead that held up in the 62-59 victory.

Here is what Ron Hunter and Kevin Cross had to say:

HUNTER

"We're just getting better. This is the thing we talk about building this program and going through some tough times and fighting your way through it. We just keep fighting and grinding wins out, and our defense is there and we made some timely baskets today, which we hadn't done."

On James and Cross big second halves:

"They are growing up. I said before at one point the light switch goes on with these kids. We've had so much stuff happen but the light switch went on with the young guys. We just keep grinding and getting better and celebrating. We've got the 24-hour rule and then we'll go back and get ready for the next one. The road trip's not over yet. We have to keep going. (Tulane plays at SMU on Wednesday)."

KEVIN CROSS

On big baskets:

"I feel like I got comfortable. I kind of found my spots in the second half more than I did in the first. I think my defense helped my offense today. The first half I had a couple of big blocks."

D1Baseball.com ranks Braden Olthoff the 11th best pitcher in college baseball, but he may actually be the No. 1 pitcher. Count his two outings in the Fall Ball World Series, and numbers for six appearances in a Tulane uniform are mind-blowing: 35 innings pitched, 16 hits allowed, four runs allowed, one earned run allowed, four walks and 61 strikeouts. He also is a rock solid individual who appears perfectly built to avoid feeling pressure to match his dominance of last season. He'll just go out and do it again anyway as a mature, driven guy who thought he would be in professional baseball by now but went undrafted in the COVID-affected three-round MLB draft.

Olthoff's last start at Palomino College in 2019 was a seven-inning, three-hit, zero-run, 12-strikeout performance, so he has given up one earned run in his last 42 innings against college hitters. His last loss was Feb. 23, 2019, when he served as Palomino's closer and gave up four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. He had five saves that year, but he moved to starting pitcher soon after that performance, and the rest is history.

Here is what Olthoff had to say at Media Day:

On building on what he did last year

"I try not to think about it too much. Whenever I get a recognition or think about last year, it does just kind of drive me even harder and makes me want it even more. I feel like I’ve always held myself to a high standard. I’ve always had a pretty good work ethic, so now that I did do what I did last year, I don’t ever want to pitch lower than that again, so that just kind of drives me even harder to pitch even better, work even harder and produce on the field for my team. I’m definitely excited to go out there and pitch again. It’s been a while since I’ve faced another opponent in that box, so I’m definitely excited."

On feelings as watched draft

"I was definitely disappointed. I definitely talked to some teams and got some interest, but it was more just with the short season last year and from talking with a lot of scouts, a lot of people didn’t get to see me in time. I was a junior college guy, so I don’t think I was very high on a lot of people’s radar. If I had pitched a few more weeks or gone the full season, I think I would have gotten drafted where I deserved, but I’m very happy to be back here. We definitely have some unfinished business. I definitely want to go to a regional and even compete in the College World Series. Coming back I’ll get my degree now and be able to compete and finish everything that we left off last year. I was disappointed about the draft no doubt, but I’m not worried about it now. Everything happens for a reason. Everything works out in time."

On repertoire and command of all of his pitches

“I actually didn’t start pitching until my senior year of high school, but when I pitched then I was topping at 85 miles per hour. I didn’t really have the cleanest mechanics, but I always did have my command for my fastball, curveball and changeup, and then once I got to junior college, I got with a really good pitching coach, Bobby Shore. I was able to develop a lot more there, and then by the end of my second year out of junior college, I was able to develop a slider that I’d never thrown until then, and once I got to Tulane I polished up my changeup and got it a lot better. When I’m out there on the mound, I’m just competing against the other team. I don’t think too much about my mechanics, which is why I’ve been so successful throwing strikes. Some guys have a lot of mechanical cues that they have to focus on, but for me, it’s really simple—just close hard, ball out in front.”

On no longer having red duffle bag he had all of last year (Travis Jewett joked about in his presser before Olthoff talked, saying he was worried that Olthoff, a creature of routine, had changed something up)

“The red bag, unfortunately I had that from Palomar in my junior college days, but I left a banana in there and it got kind of rotten and all over some of my gear, so I had to change it out. I got a black duffle bag now, but I think that one will work out just fine, but there were definitely a lot of jokes last year about the red duffle bag, so I won’t forget that one.”

On importance of routine

“It’s very important to me. I always want to be healthy. I don’t want to ever have an injury, so that’s where the routine started. Whether I’m throwing 60 feet or I’m going to go out there and throw seven innings, I do my same routine every single day. That’s the best way to have my body feeling good. It’s important for everyone to develop a routine. It doesn’t need to be as long as mine or as thorough as mine, but just having something that you can do every single day, that gets you in a routine and helps you out a lot as a player."

On having mindset to build off of perfect season

“Yeah, I definitely feel comfortable building off of last year. I continued to do that this fall. I picked up where I left off with my work ethic and mny routine, which is going to keep me pitching the same hopefully. Last year’s numbers were pretty incredible and even kind of surprised me a bit. I hope I pitch the same this year, but that’s definitely the mindset. Now that I’ve had that success, that’s how I want to pitch and go out there every time.”

On pitching staff as a whole

“Our pitching staff definitely improved. We have our whole weekend rotation back. We only lost Connor Pellerin to the draft and then Keagan coming back and a lot of other bullpen pieces. What’s going to help a lot is the coaches planned on a lot of us going to the draft, so they brought in a whole new rotation that was supposed to replace us, so we have our whole weekend rotation back plus all those guys. We’re very deep on the mound. The four-game series will actually benefit us because of how much pitching we have, so I’m really excited to see how that format works out. I think our pitching will definitely carry our team.”

On how hard he throws

“I top out at 94 but I’d say I’m more 90 to 92. At the start I sit in that range, but I feel like when I pitched last year it was in the cold. Once it gets warmer in the season, I think my velocity will jump up a bit and whenever it’s a bigger game, I can get a little more adrenaline to throw even harder. When I go out there I don’t really think about trying to throw it as hard as I can. I’m more of a command spot guy, but if I ever do need to rev it up, I have a little more in the tank.”

On last time he got roughed up

“I faced a lot of adversity specifically my freshman year at Palomar. We had a very deep staff then. We had 10 sophomores and only three freshmen, including me, and there was even a point where I didn’t pitch for a whole month because I was struggling a bit. By the end of the season I caught some more opportunities and ended up pitching really well to finish up my freshman year, but that adversity made me who I am today and I’ve learned from that a lot, so if there’s any adversity or I ever get hit this year or in the future, I’m not too worried about it. (Pitching coach Daniel) Latham does a really good job as well. You can always go in there and watch film with him and talk about pitch tendencies and whether my changeup works to lefties or righties and how many I’m throwing, the swing and miss rates and all that kind of stuff, so getting here to Tulane now and having more resources available is only going to help me out.

It was a Zoom call with Jewett, Trevor Minder and Braden Olthoff speaking separately. Jewett spoke for nearly 30 minutes, but I've already talked to him extensively this preseason and he said nothing particularly new other than to confirm AAC doubleheaders would be two nine-inning games because the conference increased the travel roster size to 30 from 27, giving teams the pitching depth to play the full-length games. When I was growing up, Tulane used to play seven-inning doubleheaders (occasionally the first game would be nine innings) starting in the early afternoon because the baseball stadium had no lights. When I attended Florida baseball games in the late 1980s and covered them for the student newspaper, the SEC still played seven-inning doubleheaders on Saturday with a single game on Sunday. I don't recall ever attending two nine-inning games on the same day during the regular season, but I like it. Baseball was meant to be innings. It will make for some long days at Turchin, particularly since I will be sitting outside because of coronavirus protocol.

Here is Minder. I will have Olthoff quotes later on:

MINDER

On frustration when season ended last year and whether or not there would be carry-over from 15-2 start:

"Last year obviously we started off pretty well. I had a pretty good idea that we were going to be good, We were about to be tested in the upcoming weeks, but really it was tough because the group that we have was so together and connected like coach Jewett talks about all the time, and unfortunately we lost a couple of those key leaders in Grant Mathews, Jonathon Artigues and Huddy (Hudson Haskin) and Ty (Johnson), obviously four people that are tough to replace, but for the guys that came back, we got to experience what it was like to play Division I baseball for most of the new guys. The three starters that we had last year were all juco transfers. Just having that experience coming back this year will play a huge part in how we go about this season."

On replacing Kody Hoese at third base:

"There weren't a bunch of expectations coming in for me last year, I wouldn't say. Obviously I was there to take his role, maybe not as significantly but just trying to fill the void and primarily defensively from what I was told when I first got here, but then the bat started coming around. I kind of proved to myself that I could play at this level. it's just kind of crazy all this happened to be honest. It's tough to come into a situation like that, but to me, there's not much pressure there. It's just playing the game I love and having fun with the guys that I do it with."

On how ended up at Parkland College (for juco ball) and then Tulane:

"It's actually kind of a crazy story. Coming out of high school, I was undersized, not very highly recruited and one of my best friends from back home, Damian Pierce, was committed to Parkland, and I really had nowhere to go. I really just heard a lot of noise about the program, and I ended up calling the coach. He said come try out, so I went there and basically they told me I had a spot after what I showed them, and it's pretty much history. We had a good run my freshman year, which I think put a lot of our guys on the map and our team as a whole the following year. Then Tulane saw me at Austin Peay in a showcase we were in in the fall of my sophomore year and I came down here on a visit and fell in love. I tell the coaches all the time I never really saw myself at a huge school, and this place just happened to be ideal."

On getting letters in baseball, basketball (four each), football (two) and golf (two) in high school and on how good a golfer he is:

"When I play a lot, I can break 80. Let's just say that, but growing up I played every sport possible just having fun. I played football a couple years and realized I didn't like to get hit, so I switched over to golf. That's a game you have to play a lot to be good. Right now I'd probably shoot 100."

On conversion from shortstop to third base:

"I played short my whole life. Nobody would let me play anywhere but there, but when I got here I knew there were other guys who were going to be able to play. I started training a little bit to play third when I was at my juco. I was watching film on other guys like big-leaguers and stuff like that and studying the different techniques, and what I found for me is really just that I play third like a shortstop, like I have my whole life. The transition was a little tough, but to be honest, field the ball, throw the ball is about all you can do."

On feelings about lineup:

"Obviously we lost a second-rounder, (Haskin), that's huge, but there's a lot of younger guys stepping up. Our inexperience is probably what's in question there, but I think there's dudes that can hit top to bottom. We have guys who were splitting time last year in Ethan Groff and Logan Stevens and people like that that are going to play every day and have an impact for us. We have a couple of transfers and a couple of freshmen that can swing the bat, too, so I'm excited. I think we'll be all right."

On striking out 20 times last, the most on the team, and whether that was a focus in offseason:

"Yes and no. Part of what makes me a good hitter in my opinion is my ability to hit different pitches and sometimes pitcher's pitches that I shouldn't be hitting. So yeah, I'm trying to control the strike zone a little better, but as a free swinger, I don't know how to explain it, but I'm kind of just dialing back what I go after and trying to do damage with pitches more than just putting the ball in play."

On when felt comfortable last year:

"The first game I do not remember playing at all (he started against Florida Gulf Coast and went 0 for 2 with two walks), and then once we got to Fullerton (for the second weekend series), that's when it became real for me and I realized that I can actually play here. After that series the ball just started looking huge and I got a lot of confidence and the swing just started to feel good. It took me a while for sure. Hitting off our guys in practice and throughout the fall in leading up to the season last year helped a lot. There is a transition period for hitters, and that's one thing as I get more comfortable, the strikeouts will lessen. Just learning as a hitter is the most important thing, and I still have a long way to go on that side. I've always been a good defender, but I'm still learning how to hit, so we'll see."

On Olthoff:

"It's crazy. I faced him last week in my first at-bat and it was three pitches, K, and he threw me three different pitches. Against him it's insane, so you're really just trying to guess at the end of the day. If you get a knock off of him, that's all you can ask for."

On benefit to having dominator like Olthoff:

"Like you saw last year, he's lights out. There's a trust factor, too, when he's on the mound. He can defend his position. You know he's going to be around the zone all the time. It's just very comforting to have somebody like that on a Friday night. Even if you're not swinging well offensively, he's going to keep you in range and allow you to try to win the game."

On how fast he is (Jewett praised his speed)

"Not that fast. I used to think I was fast until I got here. I would say like 60 (yard) speed, I'm not that fast, but I definitely know how to run the bases. Back in high school we were super aggressive on the bases. Just instinct wise, knowing the game, it's something I've done my whole life. You just run like crazy. I think that's what he was trying to say when he says I can run. It's not so much that I fly or anything like that. It's just that I have pretty good instincts on the bases."

On getting a good jump:

"Exactly. I need it."

JEWETT on Minder

"Trevor's one heck of a human being. He's a great teammate. His skill set is very qualified to sit into those Hoese type shoes. Not putting any pressure on him, but we felt good about what we had in that replacement. He plays a game with such an evenness to him. There's a heartbeat that I really appreciate it. He doesn't take it too high or too low in either regard. He's got the ability to do what all great players do and play with an even keel. He's a very multifaceted kid. He plays premium defense. He can handle the hot smash at third base. He can play on the run. He can throw from all different angles. Those are all characteristics of a professional style infielder. Offensively you saw the numbers that he put up in a short time last year, and he's a very invested kid. He's at the field all the time working on his swing, maybe sometimes too much, which is not a bad problem, but he's always working with his swing and making adjustments. He is going to hit for a high average because he's got control of the strike zone and knows what his strengths are as a hitter. And the older that he gets, his power will continue to develop. And what a lot of people might not know is he can run. We already have some nuanced signs between the two of them like Jew, take the parking brake off, I can run, he's got good instincts on the bases. He's just a well-rounded player. If anybody can fill the shoes of a first-rounder, we've got this guy in our program and he's handled that extremely well. I expect him to have one heck of a season."

On high strikeout total:

"Striking out is not allowed in our program. One thing you have to understand is hitting in itself is one of the hardest things to do in sport. And there's some transition from junior college. I would assume through his competitive nature, learning pitchers and our plan more, that would probably decrease as the season goes along. He's probably tired of me kicking him in the knee for striking out, so he's probably going to stop doing that. We expect that he's going to hit for a high average and with some power."

Class of 2023. From Little Rock, Arkansas.

Layden Blocker

1) Will there be a signing day surprise?

The late signing period begins Wednesday, and although the significance has dropped dramatically with the early signing period becoming dominant, I am hearing Tulane could land a big surprise. I have no name or position, but the source is very reliable. As of now, Keith Cooper, a 3-star OLB prospect whom Tulane projects as a defensive end is the only new commitment. I profiled him a couple weeks ago on the home page. In the first three years since the early signing period was put in place, the Green Wave signed six high school players during the late period with mixed results.

Last year, Trey Tuggle and Adonis Friloux signed in the late period, and both were contributors as freshmen, with Tuggle starting the first seven games and against Memphis and Friloux also starting against Memphis, finishing with 19 tackles as he got better and better as the year went along. They figure to be key components their entire careers.

Two years ago, Jacquez Norman was the only late-period signee, and he did not last long.

Three years ago, Alfred Thomas, LaDedrick Jackson and Keitha Jones signed in the late period. Jackson is gone. The jury is still out on Thomas, who has not done a whole lot through three years with seven, three and four tackles, but he has at least one more go-around to make an impact. Jones, a converted linebacker, played in 10 games this year as a tight end and has some good moments as a blocker but did not catch a pass. He had played in eight games through his first two seasons and has no stats to speak of.

A big-name signee would be a welcome addition to the latest group. We will see if it happens.

2) Was the Tulane basketball team's win against Temple the sign of a turnaround?

Coming off a humiliating blowout loss to Houston in which it trailed 44-14 at halftime in a game televised by ESPN, Tulane needed a win like this in the worst way, and it was historic for the two-year Ron Hunter tenure. His teams rarely rebound well even when they are championship level, but Tulane outrebounded Temple 43-28 for the largest margin in his 43 games. It was only the second time Tulane outrebounded an AAC opponent in 25 games under Hunter (the other time was a two-rebound advantage against SMU), and it's not a fluke. Redshirt freshman Tylan Pope is an excellent rebounder, far better than anyone else in recent years. Tulane's 17-point margin of victory was its largest in an AAC game since beating South Florida by 23 at home in 2017 and its largest AAC margin ever on the road,. The last time the Wave beat a conference opponent by more than 17 was Rice in 2013 (89-64) in Conference USA.* Tulane also placed five players in double figures for the first time in the Hunter era (Jaylen Forbes, Pope, Jordan Walker, Gabe Watson and Kevin Cross) and is on pace to be the second-best free-throw shooting team in school history behind the record-setting 1962-63 group, which shot 79.3 percent, These guys are shooting 77.7 percent and the only weak links, Pope and Nobal Days, are not lost causes. All of the ball-handlers are hitting 80 percent or better.

As Hunter said after the game, the key is making shots, Two weeks earlier, Tulane missed 19 of its first 20 shots during the second half of a loss to Temple. This time, the Wave went 16 of 24 in the second half. That's not sustainable, but if Tulane just makes a reasonable percentage, it appears to have the ability to hang with almost everyone in really down year for the AAC. Other than Final Four-caliber Houston, no one is likely to reach the NCAA tournament without winning the AAC tourney. We will learn a lot more about the potential of this group against Wichita State on Wednesday. The Shockers appear to be the second best team in the league, so winning will be a tough ask, but this team needs to play with the same confidence it exhibited against Temple. The Owls are bad, but some of the plays the Wave made will work against most opponents, and the play of Pope and Cross was particularly encouraging.

3) Did Cam Sample play his way into the second day of the NFL draft at the Senior Bowl?

He might have after dominating the competition in practices, getting voted the best defensive lineman on his team by the offensive linemen, and then having a team-high seven tackles with half a sack in the actual game and getting named defensive MVP. Sample has an NFL body and and NFL mind, and he put it all together in his senior year for Tulane. He would have to move into the top 96 picks to go by the end of the third round and the second day of the draft. I'd love to see it happen.

That said, I have to wonder about the accuracy of Pro Football Focus, which is held in high esteem by a lot of people. I really like Sample, but Pro Football Focus naming him the most valuable defensive lineman in college football was absurd. No one here even picked him as Tulane's defensive MVP. And then, after he looked terrific at the Senior Bowl, Pro Football Focus left him off its list of the five most impactful defensive players in the game. It feels like PFF enjoys being contrarian, but more likely it has a grading system that rewards players for handling their assignment on every down (which is very hard to judge) and grades every down as equally important rather than actually making big plays. Sample had a very good senior year but he did not dominate. It looked like he dominated quite a bit in the Senior Bowl, but PFF was more impressed with his performance for Tulane.

I am having a hard time getting interviews with baseball players in the zoom era with Tulane having no baseball SID at the moment, but Jewett always is willing to talk. I interviewed him over the phone Wednesday afternoon and asked him what player he wanted to talk about the most. He said Collin Burns.

Burns, a redshirt shortstop from De La Salle, started all but one game a year ago at shortstop and was decent, hitting .263 in the nine hole and making four errors in 17 games. He was an upgrade on Sal Gozzo at the plate and a wash defensively, but he had little power, with three doubles, no triple and no home runs in 57 bats. This fall, though, he had two doubles in the five-game intersquad World Series. Jewett likes his bat and loves his glove.

"The one guy that I've been really impressed with is Collin Burns. The maturity is present. His play is clean. I asked him the other day if he had velcro in his glove. It's just like if the ball is hit to Collin, you're out, and he makes all the routine plays. He plays to his right well, he plays to his left well, he plays forward well. He's not only catching everything, he's landing all of his throws. He knows when he has to use his arm strength, which he has some. He can throw from down under. He plays on the run well, so he's just been awesome that way. Pound for pound, I want to say he's the strongest kid on our team. He's running really fast. He's wanting to run. He's yelling at me to let him run, so he's showing a little bit of confidence in himself and that makes me feel good. He's impacting the ball very well. He's bunting for some hits. He's hitting line drives the other way. He's pulling the ball out of the park. He hit a home run just this last weekend in a scrimmage that got out of here in a hurry about three quarters of the way up the right centerfield net."

So you are expecting a lot more power from him this year?

"Yeah, I just think he's learning how to get his eyes down at the end of the bat a little more consistently, which keeps him connected over the plate longer, which adds to his explosion. He's sequencing his swing more regularly and really punching the ball all over the field. It's very rare when you don't see him at a batting practice being impactful. It's consistent, which this game requires a lot of."

How much does it help when you have a shortstop you can count on?

"Oh geez, you just go like, thank you. So that makes me feel good. I think we can lead him off. He can be a hell of a two-hole hitter, but he's going to be a front end of the batting order in my mind. Right now if I had a coin, heads its lead-off, tails it's two-hole. Things change, but I feel really good with him and (Trevor) Minder on the left side there. It's going to be hard to hit a ball by those guys."

Is this the natural progression from year 1 to 2 as a starter?

"I think so. When you saw him as a green rookie, you would think about this time he would have some things figured out. He's a smart kid, too. He does well academically and has a pretty good grasp of all the nuances we do offensively and defensively, so that helps him slow down. When you've done it a bunch of times, you're knowing, and it has allowed his performance to really shine through. I'm excited about what I think his season is going to look like, and he's earned it. He trains well. He's in the cage a lot. He's getting what he's putting in. It's good."

The right side of the infield is maybe Tulane's biggest concern, with replacements needed for Jonathon Artigues and Grant Mathews. Jewett said Ethan Groff likely will begin the year in left field after being double trained at second base. Redshirt freshman Simon Baumgardt, who had three at-bats last year, is the probable starter at second.

"He's made some nice moves," Jewett said. "He's changed his swing really completely. He's got some strength. He could add some needed pop for us."

Frankie Niemann, primarily a DH a year ago, is the likely first baseman. He is coming off an injury but is back now.

Look for Groff to begin some games in the outfield and move to second base when a replacement in the outfield is made.

"I just like the idea that if we make a move that doesn't mean that one guy has to be out," Jewett said. "He could move to another position."

Jewett said no one was expected to miss the beginning of the season with an injury.

I asked Jewett to name a pitcher not on the team last year who would play a significant role. When I asked the same question one game into the Fall Ball World Series, he named five, but after repeating the name of freshman Blake Mahmoud, who struck out six in 3.1 innings of his first fall World Series appearance, he came up with a name he did not mention then: Zach Devito, a freshman right-hander from Lithia, Florida near Tampa.

"He's really pitched the ball well," Jewett said. "He's small in stature, but he looks kind of like a young Tim Lincecum almost even in the face, the body. I'm not saying it's the same delivery, but that kind of frame. When he stands on the rubber, the word believability comes to my mind. He has the look, the heartbeat, he's aggressive, he pounds strikes in the bottom of the strike zone. He doesn't throw 100, but he doesn't throw 80, either. He can locate his fastball to both quadrants into the upper quadrant. He can spin it. He can pull it. He can field his position. His strikes are premium. He's has a nice fall and followed it up in the early spring, too. I would say that would be one of those new guys out there who has pitched well."

I also asked Jewett about David Bates, who had a sore arm at the start of 2020 and earned a two-inning save in his first appearance against Lamar in what turned out to be the final game of the year. Bates, whom Jewett recruited to Vanderbilt before he ended up transferring to Howard College, is ticketed for the back end probably as the set-up man for Keagan Gillies.

"He's going to be a big piece," Jewett said. "If I had my way, I would like to build my pitching staff backward because of the importance of those innings, and with his skill set, he just gives us, almost like if Keagan's not available, this guy could be type of thing, and even if they're both available, you could pass it from one guy to the next and we could get real creative by throwing Justin Campbell in between. He's going to be an important piece of that game towards the latter moments."

Jewett likes this team, but he knows there is plenty of room for improvement before the Feb. 19 opener against ULL.

"We had our first scrimmage of the fall on Friday trying to replicate a weekend series, and the words that would describe us would be rusty, dusty, muddy. Oof, and all over the place. Saturday was less rusty, dusty and muddy, and we got better as the weekend went along, which is what you're looking for. We want to try to continue to move north, that's the most important thing, and it just kind of naturally happens when you do it more."

I wish Sample had called me at a different time, but he called right when the news was breaking about Keon Coleman choosing Michigan State and I was distracted. I should have asked him about the potential of Angelo Anderson and company and what he thought about the defensive coordinator change, but I didn't.

Here's the interview:

CAM SAMPLE

On how Senior Bowl week went

"It was a solid week. I did a good job of staying mentally sharp throughout the week. A lot of people don’t know this, but our schedule was pretty hectic. Things were going on all day, and apart from that I did well in the interviews and showed my talents on the field."

On what he is doing to get ready

"I’m down here training in Fort Lauderdale at XPE (Sports) working out every day doing position drills, interview prep, all that stuff, so it has been a pretty busy time just getting ready for the next couple of months."

On voted as best DL by OL at Senior Bowl

"It is definitely a great compliment when the guys that you are going against give you that kind of recognition, but honestly it’s all fueling me. It’s just extra motivation to keep going on. I’m very thankful for it."

On game performance (team-high seven tackles, 1/2 sack)

"I did good. They should have given me credit for the whole sack, but it’s all good. It was fun going out there playing one more college game before the professional thing. I actually got pretty close to some of the guys."

On what learned about himself at Senior Bowl

"Definitely going out and playing against great talent at the Senior Bowl and doing well definitely adds some confidence, but it’s also fueling that hunger. I’ve got this chip on my shoulder. I’m just a hard worker who puts his head down and works. My main goal is to take it one day at a time."

On goals in terms of draft

"Honestly I just want to do my best in the pre-draft process and run as fast as I can. I think I check the boxes at the Senior Bowl. I just want to go as high as I possibly can for sure."

On where will be for draft

"I’m probably going to be back home and do something with the family out there. Nothing’s official yet, but that’s pretty much what we’re leaning to."

On Pro Football Focus rating as MVP DL in country

"When you work this hard for something, it’s really good to see the recognition, so I’m thankful for that."

On not playing in Potato Bowl

"I definitely talked with the coaches. Coach Fritz and the rest of the staff said of course they’d love to have me play in the game, but if I decided not to, they understood 100 percent. I told them the big thing for me was should I decide not to play in the game, I still wanted to travel with the guys and still be around for the practices and help coach them up and all that. Coach Fritz was 100 percent behind that. He wanted me to do that anyway, so I was happy he was on the same page."

On future plans for working in front of scouts

"They are not doing the physical testing at the (NFL) combine, but they are doing some type of medical evaluation and stuff. I don’t have all the details on that yet, but I’ll definitely be taking part in that and whenever Tulane decides their Pro Day is, I’ll be there working out showing my talents again. Those are the two events coming up for me."

On what will remember the most about Tulane career

"I’ll remember all the highs and all the lows as well. That’s all part of the experience, but that first bowl game we got, the Cure Bowl, was huge, especially Tulane not having a bowl game in I don’t know how many years before that. That last home win against Memphis was big to send the seniors and everybody off for the right now for the season."

On Tulane’s level now compared to when he arrived

"I think Tulane is looked at very differently than it was when I got there. Honestly I felt like we’ve had the pieces there for a while and I think they are reloading and are going to have some stuff. I feel like when Tulane puts a complete season together in all phases of the ball, the world will take notice of them. I’m just waiting to see when that comes around."

On lingering disappointment about not doing more this year

"Yeah, definitely. We had a bunch of games we lost that were very close. We lost twice in overtime this year. You kind of go back and think if I would have made this play here, it might have been a different game, so it definitely was a tough pill to swallow, but it’s something you learn from and keep going."


WILLIE FRITZ on Sample

On thoughts

"He's an awesome young man. I went over there last Thursday to practice and because of COVID restrictions they wouldn't allow the coaches to go out on the field like they normally do, so I was up in the stands. I knew he was having a good week because a bunch of these scouts were trying to find me to come over and talk to me. That was neat. I followed him around in all of his drills, and when I got back I talked to a couple of our coaches and they asked me how he did and I said I know I'm biased because I love Cam, but it looked to me like he was dominating, and I guess he was."

On guys barely laying a hand on him in video

"They do a half-line drill and he dominated that. They got in team (11 on 11) and he dominated that. The thing about it is they were playing him inside. That's not the best spot in my opinion. He was playing 3 technique and he's 275-280. He can play in there. What helped him is they saw that God, this guy can do everything. I think he's a four-man front defensive end. He just has got really strong hands. He gets on guys and gets off blockers. We call it a block destruction. He's just excellent at that, and he was doing it there. There were a couple of these big, old dudes and they were blocking back on him, and he'd patch across and get on the other side of them. He did it against everybody."

On if he had played his way into second day of draft (second and third rounds)

"Gosh, I hope so. I've heard higher than that from some people. The one thing about him is he's got every character intangible that you could possibly have. He was practicing harder than everybody else, too. I was proud of that because we talk about that every day, and he went out there and did it. To me he's a first-round pick, but I'm very biased."

On not playing in Potato Bowl

"That was a conversation between him and me. If it hadn't have been this year with all the crap going on with this year, we would have had him play in the game and he would have played. It's just a different year. There was so much uncertainty all year and heck, he's a Tulane guy. We talk about that all the time and he's the epitome of that."

Working for The Advocate and here, I have talked to Travis Jewett, Nicholls State's basketball coach, Willie Fritz, Cam Sample and Shae Wyatt today for various stories that will appear in the next few days. Amazingly, not one of the calls conflicted with another,. With the obvious exception of the Nicholls coach, all of that material will make its way to this site, but here are news tidbits from Fritz.

1) Tulane's spring practice will begin March 2 and run through April 3 with Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday practices all the way through. Fritz does not expect the final practice to be open to the public due to continuing coronavirus restrictions. The tentative date for Pro Day is Tuesday, March 30, and it will take place at Tulane since the Saints indoor facility will not be available.

2) Joey Claybrook did have surgery on his knee and will miss spring drills. I do not know the exact injury because Fritz is not comfortable revealing that info, but he said Claybrook would be recovered in six weeks and although he will not be allowed to practice in the spring, certainly will be 100 percent for the summer conditioning workouts.

3) Fritz said he is 99-percent certain Corey Dauphine's career is over. Dauphine is eligible for an unprecedented seventh year, but married and with a chid, he is ready to move on and become a teacher and coach after his Achllles injury last summer.

4) Tulane's class is probably done. Fritz said they were looking a a couple more players but nothing was imminent. There is a better possibility of another transfer or two coming in, but there is nothing definitive there, either.

5) The decision for Cam Sample not to play in the Potato Bowl was mutual. Fritz said if it had been a normal year rather than a crazy COVID season, he would have expected Sample to play in that game and Sample would have played, but it just did not make a lot of sense considering the circumstances.

Starting at the 1:25 mark, Sample blew by just about everyone he faced. Very impressive.

Sample dominant

Conner Harrell, who has offers from Tennessee, UCF and UAB, tweeted he had been offered today. According to MaxPreps.com, he went 229 of 312 for 3,568 yards and 42 TDs with 3 INTs in Alabama's highest classification. He also ran 61 times for 319 yards and five scores, leading Thompson High to a 14-0 record and the No. 6 ranking nationally by MaxPreps after a miraculous state championship 29-28 victory against Auburn high in the final. Thompson trailed 28-19 after turning the ball over on downs with 1:18 left before rallying to win. Until then, Thompson had scored at least 31 points in every game and won all of them by at least 14 points.


Harrell profile

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It turns out Ron Hunter had coronavirus and pretty much all of the symptoms. I talked to him today for the first time since right after the Wave's loss to Houston on Jan. 9, when was just beginning to feel under the weather.

Here is what he had to say:

Did you have coronavirus?

"Yes, I did have it. I tested positive for it. I had extreme symptoms. I'm probably only about 60 percent right now. Shortness of breath. Even if we had played last Saturday, there is no way I could have coached that game. It's no joke. It's absolutely no joke."

What have the last two weeks been like?

"It's been a living hell, I'll be honest with you, from watching my team have to perform, then all of a sudden half of my team being quarantined to me just trying to get out of bed. All I've done is get out of bed. I tried to come to practice Sunday. We had six guys. Yesterday I had seven guys. Today I had eight, so I think Thursday will be the first time that I've been around my team since January 9 with a full program together, but not everyone will play Thursday because of some guys just getting out of quarantine."

Do you know who will be available?

"I don't want to say that. I don't want to give the other team (Houston) any edge. We need all the help we can get."

You knew this season was going to be unlike any other, and I guess it has been.

"I'll be honest with you, until you have this, and I had this, I think completely differently now. I think there's no way we should be playing right now. Going through what I've been through and what I'm still going through right now, and then even to see my kids, part of what I've got to do right now is get my kids mentally (back). The wins and losses don't even matter right now. It's the mental aspect of what COVID has done to people. I just felt we're in the middle of this pandemic and we're canceling games. I understand the end game. I understand about the NCAA tournament and the money, and that's important. Hell, it pays my salary, so I understand that, but from a humane standpoint about what we're doing right now, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. If you look around the country at head coaches that are my age right now that have tested positive for COVID, it's one thing when you don't have it and you think you are at risk for it and you are around all these young people, and then you get it or you lose somebody to COVID. It makes you think completely differently about what you're doing. I do respect what Tulane has done. I'm at the best place in the country in regards to testing, and even my health, they've done a great job helping me get through this, but my job is these 18-, 19- and 20-year olds, and I'm worried about mentally what this is going to do long term, not just today and tomorrow, but what is this going to do long term for everyone."

What caused the last two postponements?

"Right after I was tested, two or three guys had it, so you just never know the timing of it. The most that we've had together, we had five guys that could have played Saturday and like I said, there were six Sunday and today we were at seven or eight. And again, knock on wood, we tested again this morning, so I could wake up tomorrow and the few guys who hadn't tested positive could turn around and test positive here. You just don't know. You really just don't know."

You have a ton of games coming up. How do you handle it?

"I've thought about that and what's mostly important right now, especially after being with the team today, is that I've got to get these guys mentally enjoying life again. The wins and losses, we'll get this thing going, but right now where everybody's at, I can just sense the guys are tired mentally. Part of my job as a leader is to get these guys excited about being in college and playing basketball and just take the pressure of winning and losing completely away right now and just staying healthy. For the guys who haven't caught it, they are worried about getting it. The guys that are out of quarantine, they are going in a completely different way. The last few weeks of the season really for me is to make sure these kids are mentally healthy enough that we can finish the year."

When you were watching the Temple game from home, how tough was that for you?

"I was in bed because I couldn't get out of bed. I locked myself in my bedroom and I fell out of bed twice. I was so angry, not at my players, I was angry at COVID because I felt helpless. I couldn't do anything. I'm yelling at the assistants to make substitutions. Of course they can't hear anything I'm saying. It was so funny. my neighbor called and checked on me to make sure I was OK because they thought they heard something break. It's something I never want to do again."

When did you first start feeling symptoms?

"The evening of the 9th. On our way back from Houston, I just didn't feel well."

You get to coach against Houston twice in a row. Your thoughts?

"They are really good. In a way I kind of feel bad for them in the sense they are having an unbelievable year in a COVID year, when all fans can't be there to watch. But hey, it's part of what we're living in, but my concern isn't so much about Houston. It's important that my guys put on those uniforms again, represent Tulane and come out and have fun. The process of building a program is going to continue to happen, but right now that's on the backburner. What's important is I get these kids enjoying college again, enjoying college basketball and get them back to having some more fun."

Sion James played well against Temple. What do you like most about him?

"I just think he's a winner. There are certain guys that are talented. There are certain guys that have what I call the it factor. You can't recruit it. You can't really coach it. He just has that. He's going to be the guy we build this program around. When you look at him and (Jaylen) Forbes and we've got these guys the next three or four years, the foundation is built. When you are trying to start a program like we're doing, it's important that you get a foundation, and we have that foundation. He's also one of those young guys I"m concerned about. I want to make sure we get him healthy and get his mind healthy, not physically, just his mind."

He seems incredibly mature for his age (turned 18 during the season).

"I really am but I want him to enjoy college. What I'm concerned about is we're taking everything so seriously, and we should be because we're in the middle of a pandemic. I want them walking around smiling and enjoying things. We haven't had much to smile about in the last three or four weeks. It's been miserable for all of us, so hopefully getting back, this is our therapy, our medicine, getting back on the court together as a group for the first time on Thursday, I think that will help all of us."

Grad transfer DB from University of Colorado tweets he is coming to Tulane. Started at safety in 2019 and 2020.

Talking to Jewett in 45 minutes. The main focus will be the schedule, which still has not been released, and I will find out what happened to Luke Jannetta, who no longer is on the roster.

Any other specific questions you want me to ask?

I caught up with Sutton the day after the spring semester started at Tulane. He put up huge numbers at McNeese and could have gone down as the most accomplished receiver in school history if he had stayed for the spring season this year, but he wanted to test himself at a higher level and transferred to Tulane, where he definitely should be one of the best four wideouts along with Jha'Quan Jackson, Duece Watts and Phat Watts. Where he fits remains to be seen, but he was a playmaker with plenty of speed for McNeese.

On key factors in decision to transfer to Tulane:

"Truthfully it was really just me wanting to explore more. I was in Lake Charles for four-plus years (he redshirted in 2016 and played the next three). I graduated and did everything I could for McNeese. I figured I can play up, so why not?"

On if Southland Conference postponing season to spring was a factor:

"I think if they wouldn't have postponed the season, I would have played my last season just because I wanted to finish with the guys that I started with. I wanted to leave McNeese as considerably the best receiver to ever come there, but I think I still truthfully had that idea in my head that I wanted to play up. It was tough to leave just off the simple fact that the guys I'd bonded with were still there. It was nothing personal. The decision was based on me wanting to explore other options."

On how he became a great player:

"As soon as I got there in 2016, a great coaching staff (Lance Guidry was his head coach from 2016 to 2018 before getting fired) and even after that. We went through three coaches in four years (Sterlin Gilbert replaced Guidry in 2019 but left to become Syracuse offensive coordinator at the end of the season, prompting McNeese to hire Frank Wilson), so I guess learning from different people helped me out a lot. Different offenses, different terminologies, different schemes, etcetera."

On his best attribute:

"Truthfully I think it's my I.Q. Learning the defenses, knowing what beats what because everybody has speed, but I think it's more mentally than physically."

On Tulane receivers:

"I'm coming in with a bunch of great guys just trying to contribute what I can do and have fun doing it back home in New Orleans."

On what Tulane coaches told him:

"Basically they sold me on being home, needing receivers and just the atmosphere and coaching staff."

On Chip Long:

"We spoke briefly about his plans and ideas. Personally I'm ready to go to see what's going and what's going to happen. I think we're going to be very successful."

On schools he considered besides Tulane:

"I had a few tough decisions. Colorado State made a good offer. Texas State made a good offer. Truly my daughter played the biggest part of it. She is with her mom in Houston, but I think my best seeing her and being with her was in New Orleans with my mom's help. If I would have gone to Colorado, I wouldn't have been able to see her too much."

On not being recruited much out of Lake Area Tech (now John F. Kennedy High):

"Personally I was very disappointed, but it was a new school so I guess I expected that. I guess God blessed me with a chance to play at McNeese and everything happens for a reason, so I'm grateful."

On recruiting out of high school:

"I had an offer from Louisiana College. I had interest from Louisiana Tech, Grambling and I believe that's really it."