Guerry,

In your article for the Advocate, you failed to mention R. J. McGee who signed with Tulane on April 17th.

If nothing else, Sunday’s breathtaking win showed the resiliency of our team this year. Being held in check all week, our hitters finally came to the fore while our pitching continued to disappoint, particularly our weekend starters. Campbell, Cellucci, and Johnson were the only pitching bright spots.

For the year, our three weekend starters have a combined earned run average of 6.11: Roper (4.99), Gillies (7.77) and Solesky (6.16). Since we started conference play they’ve been much worse. In his last five starts, Roper has thrown 24.2 innings, allowed 33 hits, 17 free passes (walks and HBPs) and 18 earned runs (6.57 ERA). In his last four starts, Gillies has thrown 18.1 innings, allowed 22 hits, 10 free passes, and 16 earned runs (7.85 ERA). And Solesky has pitched 18.2 innings in five appearance and been hammered for 27 hits, 12 free passes, and 21 earned runs (10.13 ERA). During those games, opponents have batted .324 against Roper, .361 against Gillies, and .338 against Solesky. We’re not fooling many hitters with our weekend starters. For interest, on the year, our mid-week starters (facing weaker teams in general) have an ERA of 4.93, allowing only 34 hits in 42 innings though also allowing a dreadful 38 free passes in those same 42 innings. As a team our ERA of 5.65 is only exceeded by the 1990 team’s 6.72 ERA which may be “safe” and the 5.66 ERA in 2010 and 5.72 ERA in 2017, which may not be “safe.” Terrible.

The only positives I can see recently are the performances of Campbell and Cellucci. Campbell walked a bunch Saturday but held a good hitting team at bay for five innings. Cellucci was also dynamite on Sunday until the fly ball homer. He then appeared to get tired which isn’t surprising. If we had anyone to bring in, he’d probably have been replaced during the eighth inning, though he survived even that without allowing a run. Johnson also looked good allowing two potential double play grounders to the two guys he faced. When he came here last year I expected him to be a front-line guy. Maybe there’s still a chance. Where we go after them is still a mystery.

I was impressed with the way our hitters stuck in there on Sunday after being humiliated two games in a row and falling behind 5-0 in the third inning. Great comeback! We’re hitting .308 as a team though, despite Sunday’s performance, only hit .255 for the week. Some of our best hitters have had a rough go lately: Bedgood (0 for 8), Jensen (1 for 17), Mathews (1 for 14), Glancy (1 for 13) and Kobi Owen (now 10 for his last 63), in a long slump. Although he sat on Sunday, Nieman has only been held hitless in 2 of his last 13 games, hitting .326 over that period. Hoese, Haskins, and Artigues are killing the ball and I’m wondering if Artigues should be returned to the leadoff spot he held almost all of last year.

Jewett pushed a lot of right buttons on Sunday starting little-used lefties, Acy Owen, Burns, and Stevens. Between them they went 5 for 13 while scoring three and knocking in five. That’s accounting for 8 of our 9 runs. Congrats to the coach!

We didn’t help ourselves this week with a 1-3 record but we didn’t completely close the door on an “at large” regional bid. Still, we’ve put ourselves in a situation where we can’t lose more than a couple of our remaining 12 games to have a realistic shot. With our pitching, I’m afraid we’re closing in on a situation that winning the conference tourney may be our only possibillity. Let’s hope not.

Roll Wave!!

Hoese probably is not going to win college baseball's premier Player of the Year award it because Oregon State's catcher is putting up preposterous numbers with his bat and his arm, but if you took out that guy, Hoese's numbers would make him the frontrunner.

UNO shortstop Augie Schmidt won the Golden Spikes Award in 1982 with numbers nowhere near as good as Hoese's.

Here is an NCAA.com article on the top candidates by position:

https://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/...1-golden-spikes-award-contender-each-position

Tulane faces its biggest series in Travis Jewett's three years this weekend. Although the odds of reaching a regional have gone down considerably with almost every pitcher on the staff struggling, the Green Wave can resurrect its hopes with an unlikely series win against what appears to be the best team the AAC has produced in the five years Tulane has been in the league.

Kaleb Roper, Keagan Gillies and Chase Solesky have to pitch well this weekend to give the Wave a chance. It's that simple. If they go deep into the game, Tulane's big bats can hang with anyone, but if the bullpen comes in play early, it's curtains.

ECU has a front-loaded lineup with five guy hitting .320 or better and no one else hitting above .273, although some of the guys at the bottom of the order are good bunters who do the little things well. The Pirates have two outstanding starting pitchers in Jake Agnos (2.85 ERA, 91 strikeouts in 60 innings) and Jake Kuchmaner (2.05 ERA, 26 hits allowed in 52.2 innings) and a weak link in Tyler Smith (5.07 ERA, 55 hits allowed in 49.2 innings). Kuchmaner has been pitching Sundays, with Smith going on Saturdays, although they reversed the order in a Saturday series-ending doubleheader against UConn last week. Everybody that comes out of the bullpen this weekend will have a better ERA than anyone who comes out of Tulane's bullpen save Josh Bates, whose artificially low ERA does not square with his pitching prowess.

Roper was outstanding against a very good ECU team in the AAC tourney last year (one run, two hits, zero walks and 11 strikeouts) before tiring in the 8th inning. If he gives a similar performance this Friday on a night ECU is trying to set a program attendance record, the Wave will have a fighting chance.

I talked to all three starting pitchers yesterday because they are the key to a weekend.

ROPER

How big of a weekend is this for you guys?

"It's a huge weekend. A lot's at stake that could potentially make a difference down the road as far as the conference tournament and all, but like I always say, it's just a different team. We're playing the same game. The opponent's always the same in my eyes. I'm preparing the same way. I'm ready to get back out there and improve on what happened last week."

That was maybe the worst start of your two-year Tulane career (7 runs in 1.2 innings). What went wrong?

"That's baseball. I don't know. Maybe because we kept getting pushed back (the game was scheduled for Thursday and ended up being played Saturday due to weather). I don't want to make excuses, but at some point that kind of stuff starts to make a difference. It was just one of those days. I didn't have good stuff and was leaving stuff over the plate and got punished for it but I'm not going to let that affect my preparation. I'll prepare the same way. I'm ready to get back out there."

East Carolina's first five guys all hit above .320 and a very tough outs. What do you need to do against them?

"It's all about executing pitches. As long as I'm executing pitches then I should be fine. It's when you start missing and making mistakes where you get hurt."

Does last week's performance add a little fuel to your fire?

"It adds a little fire. I'm itching to get back out there, but it's always the same. I want to get out there and compete and do what I love doing."

SOLESKY

This is a statement weekend. You are the only team within striking distance of East Carolina. How are you approaching it?

"It's huge. I'm getting chills thinking about it. They are trying to set the attendance record on Friday night and we're all amped up to get up there and take the field and do our thing and show everyone what we're made of. We respect them and they respect us. Every game is going to be a dogfight, from the first pitch of the game until the last pitch of the game. We have to be in it, stay momentary and play the baseball that we've been trained to play and just trust in our abilities."

How important is it for the weekend rotation to have quality starts this weekend, and how capable do you feel like you are of coming through?

"All of us are kind of looking at it as a challenge. If we want to make a postseason run, we all realize these are the kinds of teams we are going to be facing day in and day out, weekend after weekend if we want to achieve our goals. We're prepared for it. Everyone's having some ups and downs, but maybe we need to pick up the slack of those guys and if one of us struggles, they are going to come in behind us and pick up our slack. We're going to try to play a team game. I feel like a lot of times the offense gets the praise and for good reason, but we've won 26 games now and to win 26 games, the pitching can't be that bad. We all need to see the positives in that and take those positives into this weekend and use it to our advantage."

You didn't start this weekend because the third game was canceled (he pitched 2.2 innings in relief of Gillies and got the win in a 20-5 game). How much are you looking forward to this opportunity?

"It's going to be great. Coach Latham and I have done some extra things this week. I threw a bullpen yesterday, which is not normal for me, and then I'm going to throw again tomorrow. I've been getting some extra work to prepare for this start and I've been doing some extra work on the side trying to fix some things that I feel like have gotten out of balance. I'm well prepared and I think it's going to be a good weekend for all of us."

Your last start you were outstanding for five innings (against USF, allowing one hit, one walk and zero runs) before appearing to get tired (giving up five hits and four runs while recording one out in the sixth). What happened?

"Yeah, I was battling some sickness earlier in the week and just got tired. Obviously I jus hit a brick wall. I was still competing, throwing strikes and they were just hitting the ball well. There's nothing you can really do about that."

Is the goal to pitch the way you did the first five innings?

"Yes. The goal this week for us is to command the strike zone, get ahead early in the count and to be able to throw two to three pitches for strikes. If we do that, it's a good recipe for success with the way our offense has been playing recently."

GILLIES

How pumped are you for this weekend? You guys are the only team within striking distance of ECU.

"We saw it in the distance but we tried to focus on every game in the moment going up to this, but it's here now. We're going in there ready to strike. It's the two best teams in the league right now and we're going for first place. We'll be coming out swinging for sure."

How important is it for the starting pitchers to eat up a lot of innings?

"It will be very important. That's a really good lineup they have over there. They have a really good team. Just getting deep into the innings and giving our bullpen some rest and trying to have as many pitchers going into my game and Sunday with our best arms will give us the best chance to win the series."

Your numbers are worse this year than last year. What can you put your finger on for the difference?

"There's been some issues control wise at some points, losing my stuff in the later innings, but overall I've just grown into each start. I'm treating this as kind of a second season and am working on and building off of each start."

When you are pitching well, what are you doing?

"Really just being convicted and really confident in the pitches that I'm throwing and picking the pitch for each situation that I think is best and throwing it with conviction."

What makes ECU tough in their batting order?

"If you make a mistake, they are going to make you pay for it, but if we just attack our game plan and make our pitches with conviction we can perform very well this weekend."

This will be a pressure-packed weekend. Do you feel you guys are ready?

"Yeah, we're definitely ready. Our hitting is obviously one of the best in the country, and I think our pitching is going to show up this weekend. We are going to show the country that we belong there."

Despite this week’s sweep, we clearly have a problem with our pitching. Roper (3.56 ERA) has done the best by far and in recent weeks has started to look like the Friday night starter we hoped for and expected. Solesky (5.32 ERA) has been less consistent and after a couple of good games has allowed 13 earned runs in his last 13 innings. When he loses it; he loses it quickly. Gillies (7.09 ERA) has only had a couple of good starts all year and seems to fade rapidly after the first time through the batting order. Opponents are hitting .306 against him. Still, nothing has suggested we have anyone else to take their place as weekend starters.

Over his last seven appearances, Johnson (3.38 ERA) has only allowed one earned run in 7 1/3 innings. But that's a little misleading. During that time he has allowed 8 hits and 10 “free passes” and his good ERA over that period is due more to being “bailed out” by his relief than his good pitching. And, like yesterday, he’s done no favors for the pitchers he has replaced. He's come in several times with a couple guys on base, allowed them to score, and then got the out or two necessary to get out of the inning without allowing any earned runs attributable to him. Campbell (4.46 ERA) has pitched very well on several occasions recently with only one truly terrible outing. His pitching against UCF, of course, was spectacular. And Cellucci (4.21 ERA), after a slow start, has been excellent for the last few weeks (2 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings, allowing 10 hits and 5 walks). He’s become our “go to” guy in the bull pen. He and Campbell are clearly key to our bullpen success. But, we need more guys to “step up.”

Pellerin (5.01 ERA) has apparently “lost it” since giving up the walk off HR against UNO. Including that game and his last three appearances, he’s walked 12 in 7 1/3 innings, allowing 7 earned runs. And Raj (4.93 ERA), since his outing against Wichita State a week ago, has appeared twice, giving up 4 hits, 5 “free passes,” and 7 earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. Whelan (5.79 ERA) has looked pretty good at times, but over his last 4 appearance (2 total innings) has allowed 7 hits, 3 walks, and 5 earned runs. Price (6.39 ERA) pitched pretty well for a while but faced only three batters earlier this week, allowing three straight hits to raise opponent’s BA against him to .321. And Green (8.10 ERA) hasn’t pitched in a couple of weeks due mostly likely to the fact that opponents are hitting .379 against him. We need a couple of these guys to pull it together... soon.

That leaves us four players who haven’t pitched at all of late. I can only assume that in their day-to-day performance in practice that they are not as good as the pitchers we are using. Still, Bates (1.26 ERA) pitched very well in his first two starts of the year, allowing no runs in 12 innings, though he walked or hit 9. Since then, he’s only appeared in three games, walking or hitting 8 in 2 1/3 innings. Can he simply not get the ball over the plate? Is it time to give him another change? Or does his day-to-day performance preclude that? Boeneke hasn’t pitched in a while but did OK in four earlier appearances (3 hits, 1 walk, 2 HBPs, and no runs in three innings). In Segar’s only game he allowed 1 earned run and 2 hits in 2 2/3 innings—pretty good. Should he get another chance or is he injured/redshirting for some reason? Finally, there is our freshman, All-American from three years ago, Ross Massey. We’d all like him to show the stuff he had back then, yet… He pitched one inning in garbage time this year and took 29 pitches (13 strikes and 16 balls) to dispose of a lineup composed mostly of backups. He didn’t look particularly comfortable to me but he didn’t allow any runs while walking two and striking out two. Can he contribute?

Not knowing how some of these guys are pitching outside of their game-time experience, it’s hard to know how to evaluate kids who aren’t playing. Most of us still trust Latham though many of our pitchers seem to be regressing rather than improving. Who should we turn to? Tomorrow night’s game against UNO and this weekend at Memphis could go a long way to finding out.

Roll Wave!!!

Guerry- Any idea when you'll be able to post your interview with Coach Speer? Should be a good one.

Roll Wave!!!!

Sorry I forgot to get the list of visitors after the spring game like I promised, but better late than never.

1) Justin Ibieta, the QB from Country Day.

2) Allen Merrick, a 6-2, 225-pound an inside linebacker from Gadsden City High in Gadsden, Ala.

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3) Cornelius Dyson, a 3-star ATHLETE from Kentwood High

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4) Jamie "Greedy" Vance, the 3-star CB from Karr High who committed to Arkansas in February.

5) Caleb Spann, a 2021 ATHLETE prospect from John Curtis and a nephew of deceased former Tulane baseball star Tookie Spann

6) Fitzgerald West, a 2022 DT prospect from Lafayette Christian Academy

is transferring to UNLV.

Be interesting to see who shows up for the Spring game.

Roll Wave!!!

Tulane has now played 28 games, half the regular season schedule, and have also completed one conference series. Our record is 19 - 9 (2-1) and our RPI to this point is 105, mainly due to a less than expected strength of schedule, currently listed as 158. Of our 28 games, we’ve played 20 at home, three at neutral sites, and five “on the road.” We can expect to face tougher competition the second half of the season and will be away from home for 12 of our remaining 28 games.

Hitting We started the season on fire and though we’ve only hit .284 since the Ole Miss series our team batting average sits at .301, with 40 HR’s (1.42/game). Compare that to last year when we hit .265 and hit 48 HR’s all season (.83 HRs/game). We’re also walking more (including HBPs) 6.8 to 5.1 per 9 innings and striking out less (7.3- to 8.6 per 9 innings). We’re even scoring more—8.0 runs/game to 6.3 runs/game.

We’ve got six starters hitting over .300 with Kobi Owen (.241) and Gozzo (.223) filling out the order. Bedgood (.281) has been our primary DH against right handed pitching and we really haven’t found a DH to face lefties. Glancy (.231), Acy Owen (.281), and Burns (.294) are all left handed hitters, and our right-handed hitters on the bench (McKeithan, Sepcich, Heinrich, and Power) are a combined 7 for 38 (.184). Gozzo’s game Sunday gives some hope to his offense but Kobi is hitting only .161 over the last 20 games. In fact, several of our best hitters have slumped recently-- Nieman (11 for 39, .282), Hoese (7 for 26, .269), Mathews (4 for 17, .235), Haskins (5 for 23, .217), Bedgood (5 for 27, .185) and Glancy (3 for 17, .176.) That can’t continue. Hopefully, Ty Johnson will return soon to compete for a starting position and to provide more depth.

Pitching Statistically, our pitching is much improved over last season. Whether that’s due to the “dumbed down” schedule, Coach Latham, or some other reason, it’s hard to say at this point. The rest of the season will probably give more evidence one way or the other. Our ERA so far is 4.47 compared to last season’s 5.42, almost a run per game better.. Opponents are only hitting .235 against us this year vice last season’s .272. Last year we walked or hit batters at a rate of 6.44 per 9 innings and struck out 6.90/9 innings. This year, we’ve issued 5.51 free passes per 9 innings and fanned 9.23 per 9 innings. All much better and some pretty darned good.

Ten of our pitchers have thrown at least ten innings each this year and, among them, our best ERA’s are 1.35 and 3.20 for Bates and Raj respectively. Unfortunately, Bates has virtually pitched his way out of consideration by walking or hitting 15 batters in 13 innings and Raj isn’t much better issuing free passes to 25 hitters in 25 innings. If they are to contribute against the better hitting teams during the remainder of the year, they must improve their control. Roper (3.40) has completed at least 5 innings in six of his seven starts. Gillies (6.75) has looked better of late but opponents are hitting .303 against him on the season and he’s only gotten through five innings in three of his seven starts. The good news is that his last two starts against the weak hitting Houston Baptist and Cincinnati were his best of the year. We need that trend to continue. Solesky (4.96) has gone at least 5 inning in 5 of his 7 starts but his performance against Cincinnati is very concerning.

If Raj or Bates doesn’t come through, I don’t know where we’ll find a mid-week starter. The options are not good. And our bullpen has been hit or miss through much of the year though Pellerin (3.38) has looked good the last month or so. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last seven appearances (9 1/3 innings), walking five but allowing only one hit. After getting hit hard early in the year, Whelan (5.79) went six games without allowing an earned run before getting knocked around for five over his last two innings. Ty Johnson (3.52), Campbell (4.74) and Celluci (5.12) have had up and down seasons but may be coming around Johnson has not allowed an earned run in his last 4 appearances (4 innings), though he’s walked 5 and allowed 2 hits in that period. Campbell has allowed one earned run in his last 5 2/3 innings (5 appearances), while walking only one and allowing three hits. Cellucci has been even better of late, also allowing 1 earned run in his last five appearances (10 innings) while walking only one and allowing 5 hits. He’s also struck out a whopping 14 men in those ten innings. Add to those recent performances are Price and Green who, between them, have appeared in four games over the past two weeks allowing no earned runs in five innings (4 hits and 3 walks). Better pitching, especially in the control area will help a lot.

Fielding Our fielding average is slightly better than last year but I think, other than our pitchers, we’ve been much better. Unbelievably, our pitching staff has made 12 of our 26 errors this season, while our infield has only made 11. In my opinion, Jensen is very good at first; Hoese is solid at third and, to me, Artigues is 100% better this year than last at second. He’s also improved greatly at turning a double play. And Gozzo has continued his excellent defense through the first half making even me discount his previous years. He’s only made three errors but seems to be getting a better jump on the ball and the throw he made last week from his knees to complete a double play showed an arm strength I don’t think he had in past years. Outfield play has been OK but Mathews is out there for his bat and his bat only. I’m also concerned about Kobi Owen’s arm. It’s neither strong nor accurate, though he generally covers centerfield better than we’ve seen in recent years. Nieman has played well at catcher allowing only two passed balls and committing only one error, though it contributed to our losing last week to ULL. He’s only nailed 3 of 16 attempted base stealers, but, Acy Owen and McKeithen have only thrown out 2 of 15. That hasn’t been a team (pitchers share the blame) a strong point.

The Path Forward: I’m not worried about our hitting though I’ve noticed through the years that when we receive an inordinate number of walks, our aggressiveness at the plate suffers. Sunday was a good example I think. We only put seven first strikes into play (three of our four hits) and got to two strikes over half the time—not good. We fanned on 9 of those 15 times and got no two strike hits. Pitching looks to be better and it needs to be.

Earlier talk of hosting a regional looks to be silly at this point though a 28 game win streak would clearly change that . Our SOS will improve over the rest of the year but we will probably need to go 19-9 during the back half of the season to ensure a regional bid. Going 38-18 and 2-2 in the AAC tournament would probably give us an RPI in the 45 range which combined with our record, standing in the AAC, and solid finish should be enough. We don’t have a lot of room for error, however.

Roll Wave!!!

Here are some observations after a spring game that featured more points than usual, partly because of offensive mistakes that were turned into two defensive touchdowns and a short field. I'm glad winwave saw the one-one-one combat drills at the the end of the first quarter because from my position in the press box, I could not see a dang thing. The players surrounding them blocked my view.

1) Tulane's defense really does have excellent depth

We know about the defensive line, where Carlos Hatcher figures to be a pass-rushing terror despite not starting and the entire second unit appears to be starter caliber, but Tulane also has three good nickelbacks and four cornerbacks. Tirise Barge and Will Harper were playmakers at nickel on Saturday. After playing extensively for the first time a year ago, they are set to excel next fall. And the third guy, Larry Bryant, is pretty good, too. Chris Joyce, the fourth cornerback entering the spring, was outstanding in coverage. The corners are largely unproven, but I like Thakarius Keyes, and Willie Langham had a good spring, too. Throw in Jaylon Monroe, who played a lot last year, and they should be able to find a good starting unit at a position that normally does not substitute much.

2) Cam Carroll had a rough day

Maybe he was too tense after being told he would be showcased. but he looked sluggish and never had a chance to show his speed. It's one thing to run hard in a no-contact drill, when Carroll looked the part of a big-time runner in the spring. It's another thing entirely to do it live, and Carroll did not show much while gaining 14 yards on eight carries with no significant gains. His best play might have been his first, when he broke two tackles but still lost a yard. He did not make anyone miss after that, and when he caught a pass in the open field, linebacker Quentin Brown nailed him for a short gain one-on-one. It's hard to envision Carroll working his way into the running back picture with Darius Bradwell, Corey Dauphine, Amare Jones and Stephon Huderson in front of him. Huderson, whom fans ripped all year long for his lack of production compared to the other guys, showed a lot more on his touchdown reception and a 14-yard run up the middle than Carroll did on any of his touches.

3) The running backs will be huge factors as receivers

That was the focus of my game story for The Advocate, but I got little help from anyone I asked about it afterward. It was comical the way they avoided saying what I hoped they would say, all for different reasons. It was not about hiding anything from opponents, but Fritz, when asked the question about the running backs as receivers by someone else, talked about Will Hall using the field vertically and horizontally, a quote I'd already used in my advance. Hall used the coaching cliche 101 about championship teams being able to run the ball--true but not what I was asking--and then the same horizontal/vertical quote as Fritz before saying he wanted to get all five skill positions involved. Keon Howard, strangely, talked about Cam Carroll. Justin McMillan talked too much about Ygenio Booker. They were all unusable, so I culled together something from what McMillan said, cutting out the part about Booker, who is good but still has work to do to get on the field in that crowded backfield. Sorry for the digression into inside journalism stuff, but it amused me. I believe the biggest difference in Hall's offense from Ruse's offense as it relates to the field next fall will be the use of the running backs as regular receivers. Those are high-percentage passes to guys--Amare Jones in particular--who can make big plays out of nothing plays.

4) Field goals are a concern

I'm not going to make too much out of four kicks before a scrimmage, but Merek Glover is an adventure on anything around 40 yards on longer. His career long after two years is 40 yards, and the lack of belief in long kicks affects the play-calling when Tulane is around the 30-yard line. He had the distance on a 50-yarder on his first try before the scrimmage but sent it wide right, and he hooked a 40-yarder badly. Sterling Stockwell actually kicked much higher than Glover, hitting a 39-yarder and banging a 49-yarder into the right upright, but obviously the coaches trust Glover more after watching them in practice the past two years. I did not see a single field goal try in the 12 practices I attended before the spring game, but if Glover does not improve, it could make the difference between winning the AAC West and coming up short.

5) McMillan is the key to the season

Will Hall talked about McMillan's talent after the spring game but said he needed to realize how his actions affected everyone else, in my mind the most interesting quote of the day. If McMillan builds on his performance in the second half of 2018, when he was inconsistent but made big plays when it mattered, Tulane will contend for the AAC title and win at least eight games despite what appears to be a harder schedule, though it's always shaky to make statements about schedule strength the way teams' performances vary from year to year. If McMillan thinks he already has all the answers, the Wave will be up and down, which is not good enough. He has the arm talent and the poise to be an outstanding quarterback, as his strike to Darnell Mooney proved Saturday, but he is not there yet. He threw awful interceptions agains Navy and UL-Lafayette that changed the tenor of both games, turning a blowout into a nail-biter the first time and a blowout into a closer game (for a little while) the second time. If he cuts out those plays and focuses on every down, the Wave will be fine, but it's not a given.

6) The defensive line is the truth

It's not just that these guys are very talented. They also have the right attitude and work ethic. Tulane will win games on defensive line dominance alone next year, which gives the Wave more margin for error in other departments. That's a big deal.

It was a mostly overcast morning with a pretty good breeze blowing from north to south. The offense was in the Sky Blue's and the D was in all black with dark green numbers which are hard to read.

I got there early and the kickers were kicking FG's with the use of a tee. Casey Glover has a nice leg swing and good strength. Not sure what he could do under pressure but he looked good.

The offense and defense broke into separate groups for drills and then got together for stretching. They started with FG's. Merek Glover tried one from 50 from the middle of the field and missed right. He then shanked one left from 40. Wright held for him.

Sterling Stockwell then came on and was good from the left hash 40 yards out. He then kicked from 50 yards out in the middle of the field and hit the right upright and it bounced out. Neenan held for him.

Kick-offs were next. from north to south. They did use whole units. Stockwell kicked off to the 10 and it was run back to the 30 by I believe Jones. Kick-off team was PJ Hall,Joyce, Anderson, Vault, Hatcher, Dorian Williams, Jones, Carroll, Monroe and one more that I didn't get.

Harvey kicked-off to the 7 McCleskey ran it back to the 15.

Punt were next. Wright kicked from the south end for 36 yards. It was just the snapper and the return man on the field. Neenan then punted for 53 yards. He got a good roll after it hit at the 33.

The scrimmage started one's against one's. The line left to right was Johnson, Dublin, Montano, Jackel and Claybrook. The d was P. Johnson, De'andre Williams, Jef Johnson and Sample. Anderson and Dorian Williams at LB's as WF said Moody and Graham were nicked up. Keyes and Langham at CB, Clark and Hall at safety and Barge at NB.

No huddle . Started at the 30 going south to north. McMillan dropped back and had to run and got 2. On second down Jones swept across to the left but had trouble taking the hand-off and eventually fumbled it and it was returned for a TD. Merek made the XP.

Harvey kicked-off and hit a line drive 8 yards deep into the end zone. Starting at the 30 and going north to south it was the two's . Howard was live. The line left to right was Shafter, Hogan, Lewerenz, Bratcher and Remondet. Howard was in the shot gun. He threw in to right flat and Will Harper picked it off and ran it back . They marked it at the 18. The one's came in and McMillan scrambled right and over threw McCkleskey in the front of the end zone . He then hit Amare Jones at the 11 and he scored. Stockwell made the XP.

Stockwell kicked off to the 11. The 2's started at the 35 . Carroll hit in the backfield and lost 2. He hit Vallien on the right for 22 yards. Carroll stuffed for a loss of 2. He then ran for 2 up the middle. Barge on the tackle. Howard hit Huderson at the 20 on the right and he made a nice cut back and scored easily. He was wide open. Harvey made the XP with Wright holding.

Stockwell kicked offto the 7. Fair catch by Jones. The one's came in starting at the 35 going from north to south. McMillan scrambled and threw it away on the right. He then scrambled for 2. De'Andre Willianms then sacked him for a loss of 8. He went right through Jackel. Wright then kicked a 67 yarder.

The 2's came out going north to south. Booker took a jet sweep for 3. The next down had a penalty on the offense for 5 yards. Wallace caught a pass on the right for 5. Howard then took off for no gain. Neenan punted for 50 yards.

The one's came in. McCleod replaced Jackel at RG . Mcmillan scrambled up the middle for 6. Mooney then made a great catch while draped by Willie Langham. Got to the 14. Bradwell ran up the middle for 10. McMillan the hit McCleskey in the back of the end zone under the goal post for a TD. He then danced off the field. Glover made the XP.

Harvey kicked off to Huderson and he dropped it at the 4. The 2's went south to north from the 30. Howard kept for no gain. He then ran for 15 on a scramble. Poche then lost one. Howard ran left for one. He hit Booker in the flat on the left for 5. Quentin Brown on the tackle. Pass to Ryan Thompson for 14 yards. Brown on the tackle again. He then overthrew Vallien on the left at the front of the end zone. He hit Huderson for 3. Nio gain by Howard running left. Howard then ran 34 yards to the right or a TD. He made it look easy. Glover good on the XP.

Casey Glover kicked-off to the 13 with Jones on the return. The ones started at the 35 going north to south. Bradwell for 3 up the middle. Then a throw away to the left. Then another throw away to the right under pressure by Will Harper. Wright punted 62 yards to the and it went into the end zone.

The 2's started at the 20 going north to south. Hatcher hit Poche in the backfield.for a loss of 4. Howard then lost one with Hatcher on the stop. He then hit Vallien in the numbers but Joyce broke it up. Neenan punted a line drive to Jones for 46 yards.

The one's started at the 30 going south to north. Huderson started going right after a hand-off and cut back to the middle and gained 23. Mcmillan threw incomplete toMooney who was closely guarded by Macon Clark. On a read option McMillan ran for 7to the left. Clark made the tackle. Then there was another false start by the offense. Patrick Johnson then sacked him for aloss of 5. Wright punted for 40 yards. McCleskey was the return man. The 2's came out and started on the 13 going north to south. Holl came in at QB. He ran for no gain. He then scrambled for 5. That ended the half.

The best part of the day was next. The whole team came to Glazer club sideline. They had two separate areas of cones set up . The cones were maybe 3 yards apart for the players opposing to start from. In one set of cones you had skill position players going at it and the other set had linemen going. The skills would go first and then the linemen would go next. It started with Bradwell v. Nick Anderson. Anderson stuffed him.

Ziegler beat Wattenmaker.

Quentin Brown went against Carroll. Carroll ran him over.

Tyler Johnson went against P. Johnson and Johnson won.

Booker then beat Sean Harper.

Montano and Jeff Johnson then had an epic battle that Johnson eventually won.

Toles beat Monroe. Lewerenz lost to Jamiran James.

Bratcher and Singletary then had another epic battle and finally Singletary won.

Amare Jones then broke free through Barge. In another classic battle Dublin finally won against De'Andre Williams.

The crowd really got into it during this drill.



There was another 10 minute scrimmage. The linemen were the same for the one's and two's but the QB's were mostly the walk-ons, Hurst and Moll.

Daniels did come in on the second series. It started at the 40 going south to north. Huderson ran for 1. He threw incomplete over the middle to Logan Ammons.. He led him too much. He then got touch sacked. Neenan then punted for 45 yards.

The next series with the 2 linemen ended with a high snap to Moll going over his head and returned for a TD by Barge. Glover made the XP.

Sean Harper picked off Hurst on the next series. He read the play from the beginning and covered it perfectly.

Daniels did the last series. He hit Booker on a crossing route for 13. He ran for 2 on a read option. Poche ran for 6 up the middle. Daniels scrambled for 3. Carroll ran for two and they called it a day.

There was no huddle all the way. The tempo was fast but not at a break neck speed.

Dauphine did not play at all. Carroll did not live up to the billing WF had given him.

Overall the offense was more balanced. They certainly threw to the backs more. Not so much to the TE's today. I expect that will change. It was mostly inefficient with some explosiveness. They'll get better. It's clear they held back on some things as we know WF penchant for not wanting exposure.

The defense looked good as expected. Macon Clark is making the most out of his opportunity while Keurchen is out injured. WF has said Keurchen would be the starter but I think that will change. Joyce also looked good as did Barge. The D-Line dominated as expected.

Wright is going to be even better this year. As for kicker I'm not sure if the kick-offs were short because WF wanted them to be or our kickers just couldn't get it into the end zone. As for FG's we once again have a lot of work to do there.

It was fun out there. Looking forward to the season.

I was too busy yesterday to post this, but here is the report from the last practice before the spring game.

When I got there, they were working on kickoff returns. The drill was not live, but they were lining up and getting into their blocking formation to make sure everyone knew what his blocking role was and where he was supposed to funnel the kickoff coverage guys to create a seam. The primary kick returners were Jalen McCleskey and Amare Jones, with Stephon Huderson the third guy.

In the forrmation, Willie Langham, P.J. Hall, Larry Brooks, Will Harper, Tirise Barge and Larry Bryant were on the front line, Tyrick James and DeAndre Williams behind them, Patrick Johnson next and Huderson serving as an upback if the kick were a little short, with either McCleskey or Jones standing at the goal line. They did not actually field the kicks because this was a drill for the blocking formation. Randy Harvey kicked one deep into the en d zone, and Merek Glover reached the end zone, too. Sterling Stockwell's attempt landed at the 2. Willie Fritz ran the drill, paying meticulous intention to detail as he instructed various guys who they were supposed to block and what yard line they were supposed to engage them.

I was not at every spring practice and rarely saw the first hour, but I did not see a single fight. The closest moment came Thursday when freshman Dorian Williams shoved Corey Dublin after getting knocked to the ground. They had words for a second, and that was the end of it.

When they went to a receiving drill, they had a few too many drops. Darius Bradwell dropped a swing pass from Justin McMillan that was slightly behind him, and Tyrick James dropped a pass from McMillan that was slightly high. McMillan threw a nice pass to Darnell Mooney on a quick out before misfiring deep to Mooney in double coverage on a pass that never had a chance. Tulane's passing game still is not crisp, although the backs clearly are going to be heavily involved for the first time in ages and can do damage when they get the ball in space.

Redshirt senior Keyshawn McLeod, the only fifth-year senior on the roster who came in as a freshman, did not practice with an injury and was replaced by walk-on Timothy Shafter on the second-team line. The 11-on-11 work featured a heavy does of runs, which are hard to judge in no-tackling drills, and particularly a heavy does of Cam Carroll, who figures to be the feature back tomorrow in the spring game as the coaches watch what he can do in a live drill.

Here is the depth chart I have gleaned from watching all of spring practice. Some of the battles are closer than others, but they generally have lined up this way when healthy:

QB

1) McMillan
2) Keon Howard
3) Christian Daniels

RB

1) Bradwell
2) Corey Dauphine
3) Jones
4) Huderson
5) Cameron Carroll

WR

1) Mooney, Jaetavian Toles and McCleskey

2) Jorien Vallien, Dane Ledford and Ygenio Booker (also Ryan Thompson)

TE

1) Will Wallace
2) James

LT

1) Tyler Johnson
2) Michael Remondet

LG

1) Dublin
2) Ben Bratcher

C

1) Christian Montano
2) Stephen Lewerenz

RG

1) Cameron Jackel
2) Nik Hogan

RT

1) Joey Claybrook
2) Keyshawn McLeod

DE

1) Cam Sample
2) Davon Wright

DT

1) DeAndre Williams
2) Alfred Thomas

NT

1) Jeffery Johnson
2) Jamiran James

OLB

1) Patrick Johnson
2) Carlos Hatcher
3) Juan Monjarres

ILB

1) Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody
2) Nick Anderson and Dorian Williams/ Quentin Brown

NB

1) Tirise Barge
2) Will Harper
3) Larry Bryant
4) KJ Vault

CB

1) Willie Langham and Thakarius Keyes
2) Chris Joyce and Jaylon Monroe

SS

1) Macon Clark
2) Chase Kuerschen (Fritz says he would be first team if healthy)
3) Sean Harper

FS

1) P.J. Hall
2) Larry Brooks

On a beautiful morning, Tulane conducted a two-hour practice to kick off the final week of spring drills. Several players were held out due to minor injuries, with linebackers Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody, OLB Juan Monjarres and freshman safety Kanyon Walker watching rather than participating, joining the usual wide receivers (Jacob Robertson, Kevin LeDee, Sorrell Brown) who have been out all spring.

"It was good," coach Willie Fritz said. "The kids had a good bounce in their step. We've only got three left. We talked about how everybody starts strong but not very many people finish strong. That's a big point of emphasis for us to really utilize these last three practices and improve our team."

Practice ended with the wildest celebration of the spring. On the final play of 11-on-11 drills, Keon Howard threw deep for walk-on Logan Ammons, a 5-foot-8 redshirt sophomore from New Baunfels, Texas who likely never will play, and Ammons caught it in traffic for a touchdown. The offensive players, including all the ones on the sideline, sprinted into the end zone and mobbed him while screaming, almost ending up in a dog pile.

Ammons moved to wide receiver from running back a couple weeks ago because the Wave has a body shortage there due to the injuries. He made a couple of nice catches today.

"Me and Logan were actually talking about it on the sideline," Howard said. "I said, Logan, I'm coming to you if we got a vertical route, be ready. We were in there, I kind of looked at him, he looked shocked and I was like, I got you right here. I saw him on an outside release and he beat (his man). I was like, OK, I've got to give him a shot, so I gave him a shot and you saw the rest."

Added Fritz: "A little genuine enthusiasm never hurt anybody."

I did not catch who Ammons beat--it was all backups on the field--but this team definitely finds a way to have fun at practice even though the overall tone is serious.

"Ever since I got here on campus it's been a family-oriented program," Howard said. "You know these are your brothers. We're all coming together. We're competing against each other, but coach Fritz lets us have fun and be able to be comfortable within the system. It's very fun. I love it here."

The quarterbacks had more success in general today than I had seen in the past three weeks. Howard completed a 20-yard pass to Jorien Vallien on the sideline against free safety P.J. Hall when Vallien appeared to get away with a slight push-off. Darnell Mooney got open deep to haul in a pass from Justin McMillan, who got a little lucky on another deep ball, an underthrown pass in double coverage that Jaetavian Toles snagged and took to the end zone. That one appeared targeted for an interception or at least an easy break-up.

I'm a broken record when it comes to Howard needing to improve as a passer, but he definitely looks better now than he did four weeks ago.

"He's doing a nice job," Fritz said. "He's a little rusty obviously because he hasn't played for a year and was doing all scout team (last fall as a redshirt transfer from Southern Miss) so it was something different every week, but he's got a lot of ability. His ceiling's very high and he's getting a little better every day. He's got a good, strong arm and has good velocity. Like all young quarterbacks, he has to make good decisions all the time and he's also a big-time run threat. He's a big dude. He's 220, 225 and runs fast. When he gets behind his pads, he's not going down on an arm tackle, so he's definitely a dual-threat quarterback."

Fritz said he watched a lot of Howard at Southern Miss and a lot of his high school tape, so he knew what he was getting when Howard transferred after two up-and-down years with the Golden Eagles and feels like he is a good fit for the Wave's offensive scheme. Ball security issues led to his benching in back-to-back years in Hattiesburg, but Fritz has not seen them at Tulane.

"He's done a nice job with it here," he said. "As far as running the ball he has excellent ball security. It's been more of the decisions throwing the ball over the middle of the field. His big thing, and the same with Justin McMillan, if guys are covered and we're decisive in making the decision to run, that's a good play for us because they both can run. They've just got to make that decision and go."

Cornerback Willie Langham has emerged as a starter at one cornerback spot, ahead of Jaylon Monroe, while Willie Langham mans the other spot. Hall and strong safety Macon Clark are with the first team as well while Chase Kuerschen, whom Fritz said would be his first-team strong safety if healthy earlier in the spring, continued to practice in a no-contact jersey. The first-team linebackers were Nick Anderson and freshman Dorian Williams in the starters' absence, although Quentin Brown usually would have been there instead of Williams and drew heavy praise from Fritz after the practice.

"Quentin Brown has had an outstanding spring," Fritz said. "I'd like to see if he's really tackling those guys (in the spring game). He's in position to do it a whole bunch (in practice), but is he really tackling those guys?"

It's a really thin linebacker group at the moment, with walk-on Sam Brauchaus the fourth body, so Williams got a ton of work today. He's one of two true freshmen on the roster for spring along with Walker, who is hurt.

"I'm not a big proponent of having guys graduate early and come in early," Fritz said. "That's a personal decision. I don't want somebody not to finish their high school career the way they want to, but when you get a guy in early, boy, is it an advantage. He's going to be a veteran beginning the summer workouts. He knows everything that's going on, he's acclimated to the school, he's acclimated to New Orleans, he's very comfortable with his teammates.

"He's going to be a good player for us. He's got good size and length. He's got tremendous strength He bench presses close to 350, and for a high school kid that's really good, especially a long-armed guy like him, so he's got a very bright future for us. He's going to get a bunch of reps (Saturday)."

Tirise Barge has been the first-team nickelback all spring, ahead of Larry Bryant, Will Harper and K.J. Vault. The defensive line had the usual suspects as starters and top backups.

Amare Jones, who has been terrific all spring, made a ridiculous low catch over the middle, diving to grab it about an inch off the ground and exhibiting strong hands to hold on to it, raising the ball over his head to let everyone know he had caught it.

They did a drill I had not seen this spring where one player had to run from the sideline and get past by a defender in a five-yard-wide area and run about 25 yards toward the middle of the field. The defender ran off the sideline first, followed by the guy trying to get by him. After the defenders had early success, Fritz told guys they needed to make their move right before they reached the defender rather than earlier, and it worked. Monroe got by Chris Joyce easily, as did Will Harper against Carlos Hatcher and Larry Brooks against Clark. Monroe stuffed Joyce a little later, and Harper stopped Hatcher before the drill ended.

Torri Singletary, who is not on the two-deep depth chart, practiced with the OLBs, joining Patrick Johnson and Hatcher while Monjarres sat out.

SPRING GAME

Fritz talked about his plans for the spring game in more detail today.

"We are going to do a little bit of kicking game and then we're going to try to go a half of football. The quarterbacks won't be live. If it's a fourth down situation that wouldn't be something we'd go for, we're just going to have the snapper and punter. We'll do a little bit of real kicking game prior to the scrimmage. It's hard to do it (during the scrimmage) because the guy on offense and defense are on opposite sidelines. Then we're going to do field goals and extra points as well during the scrimmage if there's touchdowns.

"Some guys are going to play a little and some guys are going to play a whole lot. For a bunch of these guys it's going to be like a game for us to evaluate. It's not a real game. The quarterbacks aren't live, but it's as close as we can get to it. Cam Carroll, I want to see what he can do. He's a big, strong, fast guy, and he's going to get a chance to show us what he can do. Some of these guys are going to play almost the whole half and some of them are going to play six to 10 plays."

Other guys Fritz said they would take a long look at are defensive end Davon Wright, Hatcher, Monjarres if he gets healthy (he had a back issue), all four nickelbacks, Langham, Monroe and safeties Larry Brooks and Clark on defense. On offense, he will be looking at Nik Hogan, Cameron Jackel, Stephen Lewerence and Michael Remondet among the linemen, Will Wallace and Tyrick James at tight end and Vallien.

McMillan will play probably close to a quarter, with Howard in next and Josh Holl getting a few reps. Fritz was unsure about third-string QB Christian Daniels because he is recovering from an ACL tear and likely is not ready for a live drill even though he has participated in spring practice.

It looked like Tulane was ending its six-game losing streak to Southeastern in emphatic fashion. Instead, another ninth-inning calamity, which was preceded by bad baseball everywhere but with the bat, left the Green Wave relieved rather than revved up when Frankie Niemann threw out a runner trying to steal second, saving my Advocate feature guy Brendan Cellucci from having to record a final out.

Here is what everyone said:

KODY HOESE

Typical day at the ballpark, huh?

"Yeah, I don't know. Same thing."

You had a 13-1 lead in hits, then they got three in a row and it was tie game at 9, putting a lot of pressure on you. What was the pitch you drove out of the park (to give Tulane a 12-9 lead).

"I think it was a fastball in. I don't even remember honestly. Going up there like I said all the time, just stick to my approach. That's all I do. Give credit to our offense. We're always putting 10-plus hits on the board. It's always a slugfest for us. We're just backing up our pitchers."

Were you surprised that you weren't pitched around?

"You definitely have to take the situation into hand. If there are guys in scoring position in a tie game, I'm looking off speed first pitch. He threw me a slider and I put a good swing on it and just missed it. Then from there it's just kind of figuring out what his best pitch is and sitting on that, too."

How big was the throw that Niemann made?

"We were up six. It was like a flashback. I saw the kid stealing out of the corner of my eye and was like, wow, what is he doing, and Niemann threw a good ball to Artigues and he put a tag on him and that was it."

How much were you thinking about Wichita State?

"It was Wichita State. Chooch has been great for us, and he was pounding the strike zone. It was just the fact that they were getting jammed, blooping it over us. It was just unfortunate events happening, but Chooch kept throwing strikes and didn't walk anyone and stuck it out."

What about Robert Price?

"Robbie was huge for us. He got us through two, maybe three innings. To get Robbie out there and throw strikes was huge for us."

ROBERT PRICE

When you come in in that situation, what's going through your mind?

"I think it was just sort of get the ball over the zone and let our defense make plays. I'd put our defense up against anybody in the country and I knew the bats were going to come around again. I just put the ball over the zone and let good things happen."

It's been two years since you got a win. How does it feel?

"It feels good. I'm glad to come over here. I've been coming here for a couple of years now and been 0 for 4, so it's good to get in the winner's column with these guys."

The home run by Hoese, how glad were you to see it?

"Oh, it's awesome. The kid's unconscious, and everybody from top to bottom is stroking the ball, and my guy Luke Glancy is crushing the ball and went yard twice. Nobody is more deserving than those guys, and it's showing."

Is 19 hits and five home runs not even a surprise to you anymore?

"As a pitcher in playing fall ball and the spring, I can definitely assure you that they are good at hitting. They can swing the bat, top to bottom, there's no hitters off. They are incredible in what they do and the work ethic they put in every day is insurmountable, and I think it's starting to show. As a pitcher you have that thing in the back of your mind that says, 'they've got me.' They'll pick you up at any time and no matter what happens, they'll always find a way."

LUKE GLANCY

Can you talk about your two home runs?

"The first one I saw a couple of pitches. Obviously Nanners (I have no idea what that means, but he must have been referring to Grant Mathews) went deep before that, so that was good to see. I saw all of the first three pitches he threw well and then fell behind in the count and saw a pitch I liked and just put an easy swing on it and it happened to go out. It was solid."

What was the pitch?

"A fastball inside. He was trying to get it over."

And the second one?

"The second one, the guy was new. The report said that he was a big changeup guy and had a lot of sink on his heater, so I just got up on the plate and wanted to see it deep. The first one was just a hanging changeup. I just put an easy swing on it again and it kind of got up in the air and went over the fence."

How confident are you guys at the plate right now?

"Pretty confident. We're seeing it well, we feed off of each other. I feel like there's no inning where we go 1-2-3. Every inning somebody's getting on, we're getting something going and stringing some hits together and that's a good feeling. If it's not you coming through, you've got the guy behind you coming through."

Were you having flashbacks to the Wichita State game in the ninth?

"We were just trying to take it pitch by pitch, get an out at a time and play the game the same way we played the first inning. We scored one more run than they did, so we ended up winning."

FRANKIE NIEMANN

Were you expecting them to try to steal there?

"Yeah. Whenever someone brings a pinch runner on in a tight game like that, he's probably going to be fast so you are definitely looking for them to try to do something, steal the bag. Brendan did a great job of holding him on and I just tried to give a throw to Jon (Jonathon Artigues) that he could handle and thankfully it happened."

You had a couple of errant throws earlier in the game. How good did it feel to redeem yourself on the final throw?

"It felt really good. Part of the reason that we were in even that close of a game is because I made some really lazy plays that are just inexcusable. That's all I have to say about that. You have to flush it but you have to understand that that's now how you play baseball."

Are you particularly upset about the throw after the third strike? It looked like you didn't run as wide to give yourself a clear throw to first base to avoid the runner.

"Yeah, I didn't clear myself. I lobbed the ball. It's just a bad baseball play. It's completely inexcusable."

What did you feel like Robbie Price was doing well?

"When he can get the ball to move like that, it's so tough to hit. He did a great job of just getting in the zone and letting the defense work for him. He was great tonight."

You needed all 15 runs. How confident are guys at the plate right now?

"You see it. We go out every night and just swing the bat. That's been one of the constants this season. Whenever we go up to the plate, we just smell blood and we just try to attack."

MATT RISER

You were being outhit 13-1 and the score was only 9-4, then three hits later it was tied. How much do you give your guys credit for hanging in there?

"Yeah, 100 percent. Tip your hat to that team. That team can hit. It's a very offensive club. We knew that coming into it, but obviously they shined tonight, and against good arms. It's not like we ran midweek arms out there. We ran (good) bullpen arms out there and they had a lot of success, but tip your hat to our guys, too, because they had some resilience. We had a lot of free passes we took advantage of and then we had some two-out knocks."

You are a running team. Did you feel like the stolen-base attempt at the end of the game was the right call?

"This is on me. This is not on the kid. It's a freshman running out there and he got a really bad read. We're supposed to go first move there and he almost went back to the bag and then tried to take off. We talked about if you don't get a jump just don't go. Again, that's on me because I didn't coach him up well enough for him to be prepared for that moment. If he goes first move, he steals the bag with no problem, we get the tying run in scoring position and we're rocking and rolling. We're going to live and die by the sword. That's our identity, but at the end of the day, when you don't execute it right, you maybe look a little silly and it bites you in the behind, but that's just part of it."

When Hoese came up in the tie game with runners at the corners, did you consider pitching around him?

"Oh yeah, of course. He's putting up player of the year type numbers. That's one of the best hitters in the country. Obviously the time of the ball game that we were in, if he does it, three-run homer, we've still got three innings left to play baseball, a lot of time to score some runs. Let him continue to prove what he's gotta do. Obviously the young man's having a fantastic year. He's a fantastic hitter, and the player of the year in my eyes. We felt comfortable with the guy on the bump and hey, man, he got us."

is reportedly joining Ron Hunter’s staff at Tulane. He is currently at USL as an assistant. Previously coached at La Tech, Centenary and Nichols State.

Rollins, a three-star defensive end from Parkview Baptist in Baton Rouge, was on campus the other . day and received an offer. He also has an offer from Tennessee.

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Tulane held a closed practice at the Saints indoor facility this morning due to thunderstorms, so I did not get a chance to watch. I talked to Willie Fritz, Kevin Peoples and Jamiran James when they got back to the Wilson Center.

FRITZ

The Saints facility came to the rescue again, right?

"That's right. I doubt we would have gotten this one in. We had a good practice. We worked on punt block, the return game, kickoff return, kicked some field goals. It's always fun to kick out there because of the more narrow goal posts. We did a lot of open-field team stuff."

Who will be the holder this year?

"Right now Ryan Wright and Coby Neenan are competing for the job."

What is the plan for Saturday's practice?

"We are going to to some good on good, punt returns, kicks, kickoff returns, do some live field goals, versus field goal block and then we're going to do some red zone, pass skelly and then some open-field stuff. It will be about 42 plays."

PEOPLES

You are two deep across the board. How nice is it to be in that position?

"It's nice. We're still young. We don't have any seniors and obviously we want to make sure we're not being complacent. We have to keep pushing hard every day with the guys that are starters and the guys that are backing up right now so they become starters and try to create competition. "We can be really good."

Where are Carlos Hatcher and Juan Monjarres in their development?

"They are both working really hard. They both have some real pass rush ability and are trying to get more experience playing the run and when we do ask them to get in coverage. They've improved drastically and hopefully they can be in position to make more plays for us this coming year."

Jamiran James did not play last year after hurting his left hand. Where is he?

"Right now Twin (his nickname because he has a twin brother) is a backup nose. He's a real change of pace guy. Jeffery is a big, 320-pound guy. Twin is considerably lighter and has more quickness. We've got one guy that really be firm and solid against the run and another guy that has the ability to make some plays in the backfield and gives us a spark. He's doing a real nice job as well."

Alfred Thomas played some last year. What is his role?

"He is inside. He's going to be a very good player. He's really come along this spring as well. I'm happy with where he's at, but he has to keep going."

How do you envision the rotation?

"Jeffery, DeAndre and Cam (Sample0)all have a lot of experience, with Alfred pushing and Davon (Wright) pushing them and having different packages they'll start in. We like to look at five or six guys as starters in different position groups that we put out there. We're trying to get a place for all the guys to be able to use their talents. Really the leader of our defensive line is DeAndre. He really pushes guys and encourages and admonishes at times. He's a very good leader."

JAMIRAN JAMES

How frustrating was it last year to not get on the field because of your hand injury?

"It was frustrating. You just have to look at the bright side of it. It's just a chance to improve every day and get better as a team and be closer as a defensive line unit. I really got familiar with the blocks and the schemes that we're trying to do, so it was kind of like a blessing,"

How are you doing this spring?

"We are making steady improvement and just trying to get better every day."

Individually what do you need to work on?

"I need to work on my hands and my hips and just get better every day."

What is your best strength?

"I feel like my best strength is physicality. I love bringing my physical play to the game."

What exactly happened to your hand last year?

"I tore a ligament in my left hand. It's healthy now. I was making a tackle in one of the scrimmages, and one of our big running backs, Cam Carroll, it got jammed up on him in a preseason scrimmage during camp."

How do you like nose guard?

"I like it. I'm a physical player and this is a real physical position right over the ball. I really think it brings out my best contribution."

You have like nine defensive line who look ready to play. How is that going to work out?

"We all bring different stuff to the table and we all have different packages. We are all getting better every day."

Jeffery Johnson is in front of you. What are your thoughts about him?

"He is actually my roommate, too. I really love him. He's been working with me a lot. He just wants me to get better and improve. We don't look at it as being behind each other. We look at it as improving individually because we all bring different stuff to the table."

Coach Fritz single you out when he was talking about the spring game the other day, saying he wanted to see what you could do in a live situation.

"I'm really looking forward to it now that I'm back at 100 percent. I'm really looking forward to it to show my coaches."

How long did it take you to recover from the hand injury?

"It took a while. Playing D-line, you have to be able to get down on both hands in different stances, and I wasn't able to get down in a left-hand stance, so I had to build the muscle back up to be able to get down and switch my stance up. It took probably about six months for me to fully recover."

You had a great career at De La Salle. How much do you enjoy being able to play in your hometown?

"It is amazing. I just love my coaches. My coaches from high school are about five minutes down the street and they always come to practice. They are just telling me they want me to get better and are seeing me growing."

We talked to new offensive line coach Cody Kennedy last week, and he really loves New Orleans because of its food. He recommends the steak house Mr John's heavily and is a huge shrimp Po-boy fan. The talk of food put him in a good mood.

He's a big contrast to Alex Atkins, who was a great guy but simply hated talking about his players. In 30 years in this business, I've never come across a coach who chose to say less, so I stopped talking to him two years ago, again, not because I did not like him, but because I knew he was not going to say anything interesting.

What is your early impression of the offensive line?

"We are just exiting a learning phase. We have installed all of our concepts that we'll have for the year. The biggest thing I'm trying to build with all of my guys right now is we've got to have confidence in what we're doing. Confidence triggers speed. Speed equals power, so we have to connect those dots right there. The first part of it is the learning. That's the keys we're trying to cross off as we go through the learning process. Guys have done a phenomenal job. They take extra time out of their day to come up and see me on their own time to get better. It's a great testament to who they are. They want to be good, so it's easy to be there for them. You're not having to pester them. They are always at my door wanting to watch film when they have extra time. It really is a good start to what we're building. We've got some new faces rolling in there. Obviously had three contributors up there from last year that we're filling (John Leglue, Dominique Briggs, Noah Fisher), so there are some new faces and they are doing a great job learning the complex concepts we have up front. We are going to do a lot up front. There is going to be a lot of pulling, a lot of moving around up there. Those guys have to execute and communicate."

Christian Montano has been here about as long as you have. What do you like about him as a center?

"I like him because he's a real cerebral kid. You can read the stories about him. Obviously he's got a Brown degree. He's very smart. He's going to question everything in a positive manner. He's going to ask why it's that way, and not in a disrespectful manner. That's how he learns. He's done a great job picking up this offense. Obviously he's taken a majority of the center reps through spring and has done a great job managing coming into a new situation with new guys, which can be tough. He's shown great leadership coming in and running the show up there and getting all our calls and getting us in right situations. In that learning curve there's some tough stuff we've gotta pick up and we've got to do it on the fly against a great defense every day, which helps us. Multiple looks over there. Obviously great athletes as well, so that complicates the learning curve, too, as you're doing new things against a great, well coached defense. They've done a great job."

Corey Dublin played center last year but is probably more a natural guard. What are your impressions of him?

"Dub is very versatile. He's going to do everything you say, how you say to do it. He's a great team leader. I think guard kind of unlocks him a little bit to be who Corey Dublin is, which is a very gritty player. He's going to block through the whistle. He's a tough guy. He's what you want. He's a move-you offensive lineman. He fits the bill of who you want up there, and he's able to make calls from the guard spot, so he's learning center and guard. He can do it all on the interior there, and he's just that type of kid. He sees it, you tell him to do it and he's going to do it. He's a run-through-the-brick-wall type guy."

How does a guard make the calls?

"You're right there. You're seeing the same thing the center is, just from another angle, so he's able to solidify what Christian's seeing, and if sees something, he's smart enough to communicate it. As a center you're always communicating. You're the quarterback of the offensive line, and that never leaves you even though you may be playing a different position. You're constantly taking in the defensive looks and if there's something that maybe slips Christian, Dub's there, and he may say all right, I kind of like this call better, let's do this. Obviously the center rules the coop. He's the guy you listen to, but Dub is there to cement calls and different things like that, so it's good to have him there. He gets center reps, too, so he can be a good utility player inside."

Coach Fritz talked about Dublin's pulling ability.

"Absolutely. That plays right into him. He's a gritty player, so if you get guys moving around striking people, we've got some guys that can do that. We've got some guys that can move around. Dub's not the only one. He is good at it, getting around there, setting the edge on plays. We've got some good edge players out there, some elite edge players that he's having to compete against every day. He's doing a really good job of creating power through doing that. It will be a strong concept for us this year in the run game."

How much do you like having a defense like that to go up against every day?

"It is awesome. I would rather get thrown into the deep end 10 out of 10 times and swing my way out of it. They are having to prepare for multiple looks every day, so you can't spoon feed them. We're throwing them in the deep end with a lot of concepts, and some days they are doggie paddling through it. Other days they are on top of it and got it handled. I love it. Coach Curtis does a phenomenal job and we've got great athletes over there. You can walk out to practice and see that. They do a great job of giving you multiple looks, and what that does from an offensive lineman's standpoint is it gets you thinking, and when you're thinking, you slow down a little bit, so we have to fight through that aspect of it and hold true to our technique and concepts and play fast and create some power."

Your first-team line has pretty much been the same from day 1. Do you feel comfortable with that group right now?

"It has but there's competition. I like to keep those guys in certain positions while they're learning. Now we'll get to the phase that coach Fritz addressed as far as pecking order and competition. You'll see a lot more in this next phase. I wanted to get guys in comfortable positions to learn concepts, and now that they know concepts they can play in multiple positions, so you'll see a little more of a shakeup. It's my job to create competition. If you want to be great, you've got to have competition. I can do that in two ways--developing and recruiting, and I've got to be good at both of those facets to create competition, and that's how you create a great unit. If everybody is coming out every day with their job on the line, you are going to have that extra you're going 110 percent to solidify your position as a starter, so we've got to create that."

The three guys who redshirted last year--Nik Hogan, Stephen Lewerenz and Michael Remondet--do they still have a lot more developing to do?

"They are right in the mix and right on cue with where they should be. There are some facets of their game they've got to get better at, and that's one thing I focus on every day with those guys. When they hit the turf out here, they've got to have something on their mind that they're getting better at. One thing. And you build on that every day, and that's kind of the phase those guys are in. In the fall it's not as much developing. You've got to go win games. You've got to go game plan, you've got to get it done, you've got to put your guys in the best position. In the spring you are able to develop your guys, so I think you'll see great leaps from those three guys just because of the focus in the spring on development from drills. We're just trying to get those confident in what they're doing so they can play with speed. Those guys are doing a lot of thinking and not a lot of playing with speed, but they are building to that and you'll see big strides from those guys."

How much stronger do they need to get?

"I don't think that's a huge issue for any of those kids. Coach Speer does a phenomenal job of developing those guys in the strength aspect of it. We just have to develop so they are thinking about football the right way and seeing the full landscape and playing with the speed. That's the biggest thing. They are capable of playing with speed. They just don't do it all the time. When you're learning a new activity, you are not going to do it 110 miles an hour. They haven't played a lot of college football reps, so this is all new for them. We're just trying to develop that."

Keyshawn McLeod is the only fifth-year senior on the team. What have you seen from him?

"Competition, man. He's nipping at some people's heels. Some days he'll be out here with the 1s. Some days he's nipping at somebody's heels, but he's that catalyst as far as competition goes. He's got to go win it, solidify it, just like everybody's got to go solidify a spot, so that's part of it. He's doing a good job in spring, taking control of the new system, learning. Everybody's got to develop up there. It's just a different level. Some guys have more reps and are developing in other aspects. it's individualized, but he's doing a good job. We just have to breed that competition. It needs to be everywhere."

The report will be brief today because it was straight-up cold out at Yulman Stadium this morning, unlike any April New Orleans weather I have experienced in the past.

Like most of the practices this spring, the defense was in control. Justin McMillan got frustrated a couple of times last week when the offense was struggling, and although he stayed calm today, there were not many big plays. He needs to continue working on his accuracy. In one stretch of 11-on-11 work, he threw slightly behind Jaetavian Toles on a crossing route and Toles could not hold on in traffic. If the ball had led him a little more, he likely would have made the grab. McMillan then misfired to running back Amare Jones coming across the middle. Both plays were close and both could have been successful with better throws.

Most of Keon Howard's completions were in the flat and on short sideline routes. He did not have the clear misfires that have been common in other practices. The quarterbacks do not have much time to thrown because the defensive line is beating the offensive line consistently, which is no surprise considering the talent up front and the adjustment to a new scheme on offense.

Corey Dauphine looked as fast as ever today. He took one run to the end zone on a sweep, and while I don't put much stock in those results when they are not tackling, his acceleration and speed continue to excite. He's a natural runner. The difference between him, and say, Sherman Badie from the past, is significant. They both had a lot of speed, but Badie's was straight line. Dauphine is quick everywhere.

It was Willie Fritz's birthday today, so the players sang "Happy Birthday" to him at the end of practice. After joking that he was 37 last week, he changed it to 21 today. He's actually 59, one year away from a big landmark. Fritz talked about what he expects to be able to do in the spring game today, and don't look for long appearances from the starters. He said the experienced guys on both sides of the ball would play one or two series before sitting out, and depth issues due to health might limit the game to one half of real football.

How do you feel about your backup quarterbacks?

"I feel good. Keon Howard has a lot of experience. He started I believe eight games at Southern Miss a couple of years ago. He's really a student of the game. He comes in every day extra and gobbles up everything he can as far as what we're doing offensively, and Christian Daniels has done some good things, too, so we feel good about all three of those guys. It's hard to get three quarterbacks reps. Mostly it's been Justin and Keon getting reps, but when Christian's been in there, he's done a nice job."

So moving forward, quarterback will be a real emphasis for the class of 2020?

"We are going to definitely sign one quarterback and possibly two. We just have to see where we're at, but one for sure."

How important is to bring in a guy with experience like a grad transfer?

"I'd rather not. Keon will have another year. Christian will have another three. You never know how things this day and age in college football will play out, but we definitely are on the hunt for a high school quarterback."

Will what you're doing offensively under Will Hall help in that pursuit?

"I think so. Our passing attack, when we show the clips, it's the Atlanta Falcons, the 49ers, the Patriots. Those are the concepts we're using, and also we are using the quarterback run element that's predominant in college football. It should help us. The main thing is we want an offense that can help us score points and win, but also if a guy envisions himself having the opportunity to play after that, we certainly can groom him to do that."

How are you going to handle the spring game?

"Number one, we've got to see where we are health wise. We're OK right now, but we have a few guys we have to get healed up a little bit. What I'd like to do is go a half of real football and really have the guys that need the reps that we haven't seen as much play most of it. We'll do a little bit of kicking game, but I'd like to play a half of football."

So the experienced guys will be on the shelf?

"Yeah, they'll play a little bit. They'll probably do some kicking game and a series maybe. Patrick Johnson and a guy like Jeffery Johnson (who were waiting to be interviewed), I've seen what they can do for 13 games and some of those guys more than that, but there are some other guys, such as in the defensive line, a guy like Jamiran James from De La Salle, I'd like to see what he can do and for him to get a lot of live reps, and Alfred Thomas, Carlos Hatcher at that joker position behind Patrick Johnson, see what he can do. That's good game experience for those guys."

Will you have your regular guys play more on offense in the spring game?

"No, the same thing. Probably the offensive line will go two series and the rest of the offensive line--Stephen Lewerenz and Nik Hogan, a bunch of those guys, we've got to see what they can do on the offensive line. Our two tight ends played some for us last year but I would like to see them in a more highlighted role in the spring game. That's our goal, is to try to play a half of football."

How are those young offensive linemen coming along?

"They are doing a good job. That's probably the most difficult position to come right in and play is the offensive line. Corey Dublin, that's really unique for a guy to come in and start his first game as a true freshman. It was the first time it happened in many years here. We've got three offensive linemen coming in as well, so that will help us with our depth."

Knowing that you have a new offense, will you be as vanilla as possible so the people who shouldn't be watching don't get to see anything?

"No, we'll run most of our offense. I'm trying to get (Will Hall) and he's doing it most every practice, get a reverse or two in there and some other gadget plays. Those are some things we need to see (defensively). We do a good job playing with effort, but misdirection sometimes can get you. That helps our defense out."

How is Corey Dublin doing at guard?

"He's done a good job. He jumped right back into it. That's maybe a little bit more of his natural position. Certainly he can go back in there at center. He started 13 games there last year, so that wouldn't be a big stretch for him to go back there at center."

Tulane concentrated on special teams today but had an extended seven-on-seven drill in the middle of practice.

When I got there, they were doing a conditioning drill where Jeffery Johnson showed surprising speed for a huge man. He raced to a cone to finish the drill and dove into it, knocking into Tirise Barge as they got there at the same time. Barge was not hurt, and it was a heck of an effort by Johnson, who is nothing like Tulane's big, overweight defensive linemen in the past. He has the potential for a phenomenal sophomore year.

A little later, Willie Fritz called out a new drill and quickly realized he had called the wrong thing, correcting himself and apologizing for the mistake before hollering "Some people, the next time they admit they make a mistake will be the first time they admit they make a mistake. I own it. I own it."

As usual, Fritz is coaching these guys hard. He repeatedly yelled at players to get off the field faster when they were subbing units in the 7-on-7 drill. He does not tolerate lolly-gagging.

The 7-on-7 work started slowly for the offense, with Justin McMillan throwing behind Jalen McCleskey, Darius Bradwell dropping an easy pass in the flat from Keon Howard and Tyrick James dropping a pass from McMillan in the flat. It picked up quickly from there. McMillan hooked up with Jaetavian Toles for a long touchdown pass, hitting him in stride behind Willie Langham and P.J. Hall. It's been a running commentary from me that since I started covering Bob Toledo's Tulane practices in 2010, I've seen fewer than 10 legitimate bombs completed cleanly in practice. That's probably an exaggeration, but they have been far and few between. This was a bomb that was completed perfectly. McMillan then threw a beautiful deep sideline pass to Darnell Mooney through a type window, with Mooney leaping to catch it and getting his feet inbounds. On the next snap, Tyrick James got open deep down the middle of the field, and McMillan found him, although he had to slow down to make the grab. McMillan was sharp overall.

Toles is shaping up as the No. 3 receiver I said they still needed to develop earlier this week.

"He's had a great spring ball, he really has," Willie Fritz said. "He's gotten big time better. In high school he played both ways even though he played at a big high school in Texas. He's learning every day and he's good in the kicking game. He's really a competitive guy."

Keon Howard had his usual issues, throwing a wobbly duck deep to Jorrien Vallien that was broken up and throwing too high for Vallien on a crossing pattern. He did hit Will Wallace on a shallow out pattern.

Walk-on Josh Holl has some arm talent. He completed a pass to Vallien in traffic on the final play of 7-on-7.

On kickoffs, Sterling Stockwell, Casey Glover and Randy Harvey alternated and did a decent job, but the Wave has big shoes to fill in that department with the graduation of Zach Block. Aside from the maddening occasional kick out of bounds, he consistently placed the ball in the end zone.

Punter Ryan Wright, who is coming off a promising freshman debut, worked on an interesting drill with long snapper Geron Eatherly right in front of me. Wright told Eatherly to purposely snap the ball short, forcing him to short hop the ball. Wright, a high school QB who also played basketball and baseball, is an excellent athlete. He fielded about 10 in a row cleanly with no bobbles even though they were landing in front of him. Eatherly, by the way, is just as good at executing bad snaps as good ones. The ball goes where he aims it every single time.

It appears that K.J. Vault has moved to nickelback. He practiced there in individual position work along with Larry Bryant, Will Harper and Barge. I did not notice any other position changes, and everyone at the linebacker, secondary, running back, receiver and quarterback positions was available aside from the receivers who have been out all spring (Jacob Robertson, Sorrell Brown, Kevin LeDee.

Fritz started his talk with reporters by mentioning that Vince Gibson's son was at practice and praising Vince Gibson for having done a good job when he was Tulane coach. That allowed me to tell him when I was a kid, I had a T-shirt that read "Three out of Four and Going for More" about the Tulane-LSU series in 1983. I also told him how Gibson got fired after beating the ranked Tigers in Tiger Stadium, a game I watched at then Tulane Arena (Devlin Fieldhouse) on a big screen after they invited fans to attend. That was truly a different era. My uptown neighborhood had not been wired for cable yet, something that finally came a few months after Tulane's win in Baton Rouge.

FRITZ

You said you were going to do a lot of special teams today, and you did.

"We did a bunch. We worked on extra points, field goal, extra point and field goal block (all before I got there) and then we worked all of our punt, kickoff, kickoff return, punt block. We are going to do a lot of good on good (11-on-11 scrimmage type work) tomorrow. We're going to divide guys up and get some nice work in tomorrow."

Halfway through spring drills, how do you feel?

"Good. We've just got to keep the guys locked in and focused and not getting ahead of themselves. We've got a lot of practice left to get better, so we need to keep it up."

Where is the offense in terms of progress?

"Pretty good. We're doing a lot of different things, varying snap counts, using a lot of different personnel, a lot of motions and shifts. I really like where we're at right now, but we still don't have everything in."

It looks like running backs are being put at different spots on the field and being asked to do more.

"Yeah, we're really lucky. We've got a bunch of backs who really catch the ball well, so we'll utilize them in the passing game and also split them out wide. A good tell for you is when you get into empty with one back and spread a tight end or a receiver out and they match a guy with a linebacker, they are probably in man coverage, particularly if you've got them out there as your number one receiver. If they go out there with a corner, they are probably in zone coverage. It's a good pre-snap indicator, and we're just working on that kind of stuff."

I will have more from Fritz later. He talked about Wright and Eatherly among other topics. I also will attend tomorrow's practice and provide an update on the depth chart situation and who looks good.

The defense dominated Tulane's Saturday practice, limiting the offense's productivity from start to finish as the Green Wave tries to digest the new scheme installed by Will Hall. This will be no slight change, contradicting my original belief when Hall was hired, and it could take some for the guys to become comfortable regardless of what they are saying.

They certainly are not there yet after three weeks of spring drills, and a talented defense is part of the reason. Patrick Johnson essentially is unblockable. Today he ran by right tackle Joey Claybrook to register a "sack" (no hitting of QBs and no live tackling) like he was a turnstyle on the final play of the day, and Claybrook played pretty well in the second half of 2018 after entering the starting lineup. It looked like the offense was getting frustrated by the end of the last segment of 11-on-11 work, a two-minute drill pitting the first-team offense against the first-team defense.

In order, the last seven plays were a scramble by Justin McMillan when no one was open, another scramble by McMillan when he felt pressure, a deep pass that fell incomplete when Jalen McCleskey and walk-on Nick Toppino were in the same area (obviously someone ran the wrong route) and neither was close to the ball, an incomplete pass under pressure when McMillan threw late and hight for Stephon Huderson, a completion to Huderson that Wille Fritz blew dead and declared incomplete because McMillan took too long to get rid of the ball and surely would have been sacked in a live drill and Johnson's sack.

There were no really big completions in any of the 11-on-11 segments, which were broken up by special teams work. McMillan tried to connect deep with Jorrien Vallien, but he was not open and the pass was broken up easily. The majority of completions were to running backs, and those plays may be one of Tulane's biggest weapons in the fall after being almost nonexistent before Will Hall arrrived. Feeling pressure again, McMillan missed Vallien on a sideline route that he threw without setting his feet.

Keon Howard simply is not an accurate passer. Maybe it's the rust from sitting out a year as a redshirt, but the ball often does not go where he aims it. He threw one pass today into the stands on purpose when no one was open, bur if I had not been watching the play from the start, I would not have been sure. His only completions came within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. He is an excellent runner, though, with purpose and speed.

Defensively, the depth chart remains pretty similar to the start of spring drills, although a couple of versatile players worked at old positions today. Larry Bryant, who was moved to nickelback from outside pass rusher a year ago, got his reps as an outside pass rusher today. P.J. Hall, moved to safety last year after playing nickelback and cornerback in the past, was at nickelback, allowing him to rush the passer on blitzes a few times.

The 11 guys on defense for the first 11-on-11 drill I saw today were Johnson, DeAndre Williams, Jeffery Johnson and Cam Sample up front, Marvin Moody and Lawrence Graham at linebacker, Tirise Barge at nickel. Willie Langham and Thakarius Keyes at cornerback and Macon Clark and Larry Brooks at safety. Remember, Chase Kuerschen is being held out of a lot of the 11-on-11 work with an injury, and Hall's reps came at nickelback today.

The second-team D has Quentin Brown, who got some reps with the first unit, and Nick Anderson, at linebacker, Carlos Hatcher and Davon Wright at ends, Alfred Thomas and Jamiran James at tackle, Chris Joyce and Jaylon Mornoe at CB (although I did not write down Monroe's number today) and Sean Harper and walk-on Grant Hamel on the second unit. I have not noticed Kanyon Walker much this spring.

I did not notice any changes on the two-deep offensive line. Although I wrote down Keyshawn McLeod's No. 53 as a first-team guard, I think it actually was No. 63 Cameron Jackel. I'll double check at the next practice.

Because this is a full-service site, here are the No. 1 and No. 2 kickoff coverage teams from left to right.

1) Dane Ledford, Brooks, Barge, Keitha Jones, Marvin Moody, Sterling Stockwell, Dorian Williams, Will Harper, Langham, Jaylon Monroe, Keyes.

2) Chris Joyce, Hall, Anderson, KJ Vault., Larry Bryant, Casey Glover, Juan Monjarres, Ygenio Booker, Hamel and a number I did not catch.

Hamel, by the way, is a sophomore from the Kansas high school where Fritz's brother is the basketball coach.

Kevin LeDee is not ready for 11 on 11 work but he did run routes in individual position drills.

Jamiran James knocked down walk-on running back James Poche hard on one play. That's not supposed to happen, but I think James is trying to make up for lost time after his hand injury a year ago.

They had a full group of referees for the 11-on-11 work.

Devon Walker attended the practice along with plenty of recruits, some of whom watched from the sideline and others from the stands.

WILLIE FRITZ

You said you wanted to do a lot of good on good today. How did it go?

"It was good. The thing about it is it's not really football because we're not tackling to the ground and all those other things, but it was the closest we could simulate to live football and limiting anybody getting injured. The guys did good. There were a lot of real game-like situations. We started off backed up. We started with a lot of down and distance. Some of the guys understood down and distance and some of the guys weren't sure. The two-minute stuff was good, so I was excited about it."

Patrick Johnson had a huge year and does not appear to be resting on his laurels during the spring?

"He's a really good player. He's got great understanding of what he's doing. He's just got a knack for rushing the passer and is a very coachable guy, a student of the game. The thing I enjoy about Patrick is you watch him do drills and then he goes out and does it in the games. Sometimes guys have a tough time carrying it out through the game."

When I walked in the other day, Jeffery Johnson was running full speed to a cone in a drill. He's not the typical 300-pound plus DT, is he?

"He's got stamina. He's got great strength, a 400-plus-pound bench and a 600-pound-plus squatter, and he's really agile for a big fellow. We really feel like if he keeps progressing he has an opportunity to be an All-Conference guy for us."

Jamiran James did not play last year because of his hand injury, but what type of ability does he have?

"He's got great burst, he really does. He's got really good lateral and vertical quickness. When he starts understanding using the technique, sometimes that's good and sometimes you gotta hold the point, and he's still learning that. Unfortunately because of the injury he wasn't able to work on those things for four months, but we think he's got a bright future."

Defensive line is the position where depth is the most important, and you have to love your depth there?

"We've got some good players up there. Cam Sample and Patrick we talked about, Carlos Hatcher, Jeff Johnson, Davon Wright, Jamiran's going to be in the mix there, DeAndre Williams keeps getting better every single day. I know I'm probably missing some guys, but really good players and you're right, you need two deep because at some point in time you are going to lose a guy here and there or they get tired. For the most part those guys have pretty good stamina. With the pace of play that's happening nowawdays, you've got to be able to go for five, six, seven, eight plays in a row."

How would you assess the quarterbacks after three weeks as they learn the new offense?

"I think some good things. All of them are still learning. It's a new system entirely for each and every one of them. Justin, that was better for the quarterback than probably anybody else in the two-minute type deal because they have to understand when the game clock and the play clock's running and they have all the signals and getting everybody lined up and they have to understand the coverage. There's a lot to process, so that's good to put those guys in those stressful situations. Christian Daniels has done some really good things as well."

Dane Ledford has made some plays in practice. How is he adjusting to being a full-time receiver rather than a quarterback?

"I'm excited to see him keep progressing. He made a couple of plays in the kicking game today and he made a nice catch also during team today. He's got ability. He was a 23-foot-plus long jumper in high school. He can run fast. He's got good size, so the more he gets in there and gets repetition, the better he's going to be."

With the injuries at wide receiver, how much is it affecting what you can do with the pace in practice?

"Big time. We need wideouts. The problem you get into is what are you accenting in January and February and then you get into spring ball in March. We ran, but we didn't run like we are going to run this summer in anticipation of preseason camp, so guys are starting to play themselves into shape. I was talking to Jalen McCleskey about it today. He realizes he is a long way from being in game shape. It's good that they realize that."

Is it a bowl game or bust mentality?

"We feel like it is. Our big goal this year is to compete for a conference championship. We came close last year and that's what we want to do in conference this season."

Here are the top names:

1) Tyler Kirkwood, a 6-1, 185-pound 3-star WR from Holy Cross

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2) Josh Remetich, a 6-5, 280-pound 3-star OG from Holy Cross

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3) Patrick Jenkins, a 6-2, 270-pound DT from John Ehret

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4) Cornelius Dyson, a 6-2, 182-pound 3-star ATH from Kentwood

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5) Justin Ibieta, a 6-5, 220-pound 3-star QB from Country Day

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6) Greedy Vance, a 5-10, 168-pound 3-star CB from Karr (Jamie Vance on Rivals site)

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7) Fitzgerald West, a 2022 prospect, 6-1, 300-pound DT From Lafayette Christian

This is from Tulane. I will add more later if I find out they skipped stuff.

Hunter talks like no coach Tulane has ever had, and his track record indicates he can back up his talk, although probably not as quickly as he expects.

Transcript: Ron Hunter Introductory Press Conference

Ben Weiner Director of Athletics Chair Troy Dannen

“I do want to start by thanking everyone for coming. Great of you to all come and support Ron and Amy as we get started with their tenure today. I do want to start with a couple specific thank yous, and the first is to Amy Hunter. Because people don’t understand, this is a family move. This isn’t a move that Ron is making, this is a family move. I want to thank you for endorsing this and being willing to bring your family. I want to thank their children, their daughter Jasmine and their son R.J. because when I talk about it being a family move, I know in this case the family signed off on this. And there’s one person I’m going to thank who five years from now, she will look at this on a video and that’s their 1-year-old granddaughter Phoenix. Because while she doesn’t know what she just gave up, she gave up grandma and grandpa being home in Atlanta. She doesn’t know yet that I should be thanking her for that. But she’ll be thanking me in six years when she’s on her fourth Mardi Gras and she’s coming to New Orleans and thinking this is the greatest thing they’ve ever done. Also want to thank the Board of Tulane and Chair Doug Hertz, Chair of the Athletics Committee Jill Glazer. Since I got here, I’ve said this doesn’t work unless everyone is behind athletics. From top to bottom, the Tulane board since I got here has done nothing but support this program in every way they’ve ever been asked to support it. They deserve a great deal of credit and thanks for anything that’s ever happening positively, one on this campus but certainly in the athletic department. And then to President Fitts: I’ve got the best president in the world to work for. He’s allowed a very wide berth, and I said from day one when I asked him in the interview what do you want out of athletics, he said, ‘I want to win.’ Everything that’s happened since then has been with that philosophy in mind. But the best advice he ever gave me, and it played out in this search, he said, ‘Always hire ambition.’ And there’s no question we’ve hired ambition in this case.


“A little bit about the search process: When you start this search you ask yourself four or five questions to determine what kind of a job you have before you ever go out to the market. No. 1 is institutional alignment. Are we all in line? Talked about the board, talked about the president. Coach has already met the provost, he’s met the CFO, he’s met at least one of the deans, he’s met some of the faculty. There is alignment on this campus, up and down and all around to make sure athletics can be successful. That is No. 1. You can have the greatest coach, you can have the greatest players, you can have the greatest of everything, but institutional alignment is the key to success. And we’ve got it.


“Resources. Everybody thinks about money. That is a key resource. But people, energy, commitment, motivation, those are all resources that have to be present for anything good to happen. And those are present on this campus in every way shape and form and every respect.


“And then the school and the league. There is no university in the country that is hotter than Tulane right now. You’ve read about it, you’ve seen about it. Everything about Tulane is arcing to all-time highs. And our league obviously there’s a lot of news about our league out there, and probably some of that news will be formal in a few days. But there’s so many good things happening in our league. And so, if you look at our school and our league and the commitment and all those resources, we have a treasure of a job. I don’t care what the record was. I care what the record is going to be. We have a treasure of a job. Now when you have a treasure, your job is to find somebody that has the map to open that treasure, unleash that treasure, unlock that treasure. So, we went out looking for the guy who has the map. The first characteristic we thought we needed to have is somebody who had taken a program that was at the bottom and brought it up to the top. And maybe somebody who has taken a program from NAIA up to Division I and taken them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the school’s history. Maybe someone who walked into a program that had 10 consecutive under-.500 seasons in Atlanta and taken them to six out of eight 20-win seasons and took them to three NCAA Tournaments and a couple NITs and became the talk of the city and the state and became the best program in the state. Maybe somebody like that would have the map to unlock what Tulane is. Ron Hunter is two for two in that. And then we needed someone whose passion and enthusiasm is electric and was going to ignite all of us. Ignite the guys, ignite the department, ignite the university, ignite this community and start a fire in people that don’t know they have a have a fire yet for Tulane. I’m about ready to get off the stage and you’re going to understand, I don’t even have to tell you. This guy is an igniter. He is a fire in and of himself. He brings an enthusiasm and energy and passion that we’re all going to appreciate and we’re all going to love. And then let’s find a coach whose expectations exceed our wildest dreams. His expectations are beyond our – I’ve heard so many times that Tulane’s expectations aren’t what they need to be. Our expectations are exactly what they need to be. Our results have not met them. He’s going to lead our results to our expectations. And maybe the most important, I wanted to find a man who was a great coach but a better man than he was a coach, a man who is a better father than he was a coach. And a man whose integrity and character were impeccable. And in this day and age in Division I college athletics, that’s not as important to everybody. But it’s doggone important to Tulane and it’s doggone important to me. And we found a man who is a great man, who is a great coach, a great father and a great person with a great reputation. A guy like Ron Hunter, that’s the guy.


“So, the search that started eight days ago pointed to him very, very quickly. After Georgia State was eliminated last Friday, we made arrangements, Rob [Bernardi] and I did, to fly to Atlanta to meet with Amy and Ron. We met with them Saturday night. I had offered him the job halfway through dinner. … We came back, negotiated the contract, and Sunday night we announced our coach. Today it’s a pleasure for me to introduce him.


“I go back to the first question that Coach asked me. He said, ‘My charity, Samaritan’s Feet, are you good with it? Would you support it?’ And I was kind of like apoplectic at the question, of course we would. What you don’t know about Tulane, coach, is that since Hurricane Katrina, Tulane has really defined itself by community service. Your charity is our charity. As I thought back on it, I realized how important it was for him to ask me that question right off the bat. Samaritan’s Feet was founded in 2003, and it was about creating hope for kids by giving them shoes. It sounds pretty doggone simple. They’ve given out 7 million pairs of shoes all across the world, all throughout the United States. And you talk about institutional alignment, there is nothing that aligns better with this institution than a man who has that passion in his background above and beyond and outside of the coaching. So, Coach, [unveils gift shoes] we wanted to get things off, if you will, on the right foot. This is a symbol of our partnership as we go forward, and we’re going to support you in every way including what’s important to you in your life in what is now our charity, Samaritan’s Feet.