After losing one it probably should have won against Kansas State last week, Tulane lost one it could have stolen against Oklahoma today. The Wave was fortunate to be close, but once Tyler Grubbs had the pick-six early in the fourth quarter, the momentum clearly was in Tulane's favor. It all turned on Darian Mensah's interception on third-and-1. That call will be criticized, but the coaches were trying to take a chunk when they thought Oklahoma would sell out to stop the run. Didn't work. Don't think it was a bad call.

Sumrall is 1-2 for the third consecutive year. Tulane has a whole lot to work on to make Sumrall a conference champion for the third consecutive year as well, but all is not lost. Beating UL is essential next aturday and then the AAC schedule begins.

Sumrall, Mensah and Grubbs talked after the game:

SUMRALL

Disappointing loss. Against a team like that it's almost impossible to dig yourself a 21-0 hole and think you've got any chance to come back to win. That falls on me. I didn't get us ready to play the game early the right way. Very proud of the resilience our guys showed to come back in a 21-0 game against an opponent like that to make it 24-19 and have some opportunities to come back and win the thing, and just didn't quite get it done. Everybody in the locker room, I just told them we have to look in the mirror and own what just happened. It starts with me. We've got to be men. In our program we definite a man as someone who is accountable for their own actions. I've got to own what I've got to do better to help this team be their best, and everybody on the team has gotta do the same. We'll get back to work. We've got to respond quickly. We've got another good opponent coming up, but very disappointed with the outcome today. Frustrated with a lot of things I think we could have done better. Hats off to a good opponent. They are a quality team. They are very talented at a lot of spots and they're well coached, and we'll get back to work and get going."

On third-and-1 pass decision that ended in interception:

"Yeah, they'd been really aggressive. They'd shown some things that maybe we felt like maybe a run action with a shot was in our best interest there because they'd knocked us back a couple of times. We were trying to hit a dagger, and it backfired."

On if hurricane-altered prep work was factor in dismal first 27 minutes:

"I can't blame that. It would be real easy to sit here and go we didn't have our normal week. Well, who cares? Like, nobody is looking for excuses. I'm not going to allow that to be an excuse. Was our schedule abnormal? Sure. Was it really goofy and funky for everybody? Yeah. Does the scoreboard care? No. I'm not going to sit here for one second and act like that (was the. reason). We clearly started slow. I don't know if it was first road trip, if it was the movement of the week that was not normal from a schedule standpoint. I'll look at all of it and see if there's stuff I can do better to help us address that. but while we ha n abnormal week, the scoreboard doesn't care."

On what changed defensively in second half:

"It's weird. Slim Despanie is one of our best players, and he went out for targeting, and in a weird way, we got better after he left the game. It's almost like it sorted of jolted our guys. We sent Kevin Adams and Jack Tchienchou in the rotation a lot more there. At halftime we came in and our guys just responded. We probably called some things a little differently, too, to maybe help them pin their ears back. I felt like there was a different sense of urgency. I don't know that we've played out best as a D-line or even close to it all year, but for the first time in the second half you started to feel the front turn it on, so that affected the way the game went there in the second half. We stepped it up defensively quite a bit. We've got to start faster to do that, but I did think we finally showed a little bit of life in some areas that I don't that we had."

On if Oklahoma looked like SEC-level defense:

"SEC, Big 12, whatever, Oklahoma looked like one of the best defenses I've seen. Dan Roushar, our O-line coach, was with the Saints forever and he was with the staff here last year and he's still here. This week I was picking his brain about what he thought about this defense, and he was like it's the best one we've played since I've been at Tulane. We played SMU last year, Virginia Tech, some good teams. I think it's a very legitimate SEC outfit defensively, and really offensively there's weapons. You can tell they are finding themselves in some areas. The quarterback's talented. No. 6 (slot receiver Deion Burks) is a real guy. The tight end (Bauer Sharp) is a special player. They've got good players and their defense is really good. The interior D-line and their linebacker group is elite, just watching them. I recruited 28 (linebacker Danny Stutsman) when I was at Kentucky, and he's a dude. He plays like a grown man."

On what happened to Jacob Barnes on 50-yard field miss (he did not play again):

"He had a little tweak. He actually had it last week, a little tweak, and was good to go today, and then on that field goal, that swing irritated himself, so you saw (Ethan) Head. Obviously his first extra point didn't go real well. Look, the worst thing you can do on a kid like that on his first shot is go over and give him an earful. I said, hey, that went as planned, didn't it? He looked at me like I was crazy. I said I know the second one can't be worse than that; you'll be fine. He'll be fine. He's a good dude. He's worked hard. He's done a good job kicking off since the first game. But Jacob Barnes definitely had something bothering him and couldn't go."

On giving up pressure in fourth quarter:

"When we got (in) predictable pass (situations), they were pinning their ears back, and I felt 32 (end Mason Thomas) a lot today, their edge guy, a lot there at the end of the game. When you get yourself in situations that are obvious pass, good pass rushers can pin their ears back and it 's hard to block them. Those guys did a nice job of presenting some six-up pictures and some looks that maybe make your protectors question who's coming and who's dropping and how you want to target it and ID it. A really good scheme with really good players makes it hard to protect."

On what Oklahoma did differently on offense than he had seen on film:

"They operated on first down better. What made them more successful on third downs early in the game than what they had been was they were in third-and-2 and third-and-3 and not third-and-8 and third-and-9. They were more first and second down efficient, which makes it harder on defense. I don't have a lot of great third-and-2 and third-and-3 calls for our defensive staff. Third-and-9, I can call a lot of good defenses. They just stayed on schedule better. They ran the ball better. Some of that had to do with us, but they committed to stay on schedule."

On clinching TD run by Oklahoma QB on third-and-11:

"We really should have had him. I don't want to speak until I catch it again, but I think we had a bad rush leverage there. We probably could have had an opportunity to get him down. He's athletic. His two long runs, that was one, and then the other one down our sideline (for 43 yards), a zone-read keep, we didn't leverage the football properly and have to coach it better, but he burned us on the last one. That was kind of the one that broke us."

On third-quarter defensive adjustments:

"It was more about us. We didn't necessarily come in and go, hey, they're doing this. The plays that were beating us was one guy not doing his job the right way, so it was like, guys, let's all play together and execute. We improved there. It wasn't necessarily a thing that we thought we had them. We just maybe did our job better."

On his being 1-2 for the third straight year:

"I'm not proud of it, but I'm pretty good at going 1-2. I've done that a couple of times now. It's not my highlight, but our response has usually been pretty good. We'll see how we respond now. I think we'll be fine. We have to show up quick. I'm not going to sit around and mope. I've been 1-2 before. We have a lot of work to do getting where we need to go."

On Mensah's performance:

"Up and down. He probably did some good things. One time I saw ball security that we've got to keep harping on. He was a little bit loose on one scrambling. Timing, he did a couple of things really well of seeing some things on time. A couple of times he didn't really realize that the shot clock was going to be faster because of the pressure. He did some good things. He's a third-game college player. He still has a lot of things he can get better at."

On struggling to get the ball to Mario Williams (three catches, 36 yards):

"One of them we took a shot. He had three catches. He had eight targets. He had a drop on the first play of the game, and then a couple of others they played well. One was a contested 50-50 ball on their sideline that was deep. There was another time we took a shot on a post to Dontae (Fleming) and we had Mario probably open on the over, which would have been a big play. It wasn't all Mario and it wasn't all the quarterback. There are just some things you've got to maybe a better look. That's a really veteran secondary. It's like senior, junior, senior, junior, senior, guys that have played a lot of football. They did a great job of identifying what was coming. I watched their defensive backs pre-snap communicate at an elite level. I was very impressed on them recognizing splits. spacing and what routes. They are well coached. I have a lot of respect for their team and their staff, and I think Mario's lack of production was them doing a really good job of knowing where he was and how to stop him."

Collectively it was a good week, with six of us getting at least six games right and seven more getting five games right.

WEEK 2 RESULTS

8

charlamange8

7

p8kpev
diverdo
LSU Law Greenie
winwave
Guerry

6

MNAlum
greenwave1997
GretnaGreen
wavetime
money.max
tacklethemanwiththefootball
WaveON

4

chigoyboy
roll wave
greeniegent
paliii
DrBox


OVERALL STANDINGS

15

winwave
Guerry

14

charlamange8

13

money.max
wavetime
LSU Law Greenie

12

GretnaGreen
MNAlum
WaveON
diverdo

11

greenwave1997

10

tacklethemanwiththefootball

9

chigoyboy
paliii

8

roll wave
DrBox
p8kpev

6

2DatWuzAGoodDay2 (missed 1 week)

4

greeniegent (missed 1 week)


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane over Kansas State 18 out of 18
Texas over Michigan 13
Iowa State over Iowa 4
South Florida over Alabama 7
Tennessee over NC State 14
Nebraska over Colorado 16
Boise State over Oregon 9
Texas State over UTSA 6

Good article. When are you going to post your answers?

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com. Weak slate of games this week nationally.

Oklahoma (-14) Tulane
Florida State (-6.5) Memphis
South Carolina (+7) LSU
Wisconsin (+15.5) Alabama
Florida (+4.5) Texas A&M
Missouri (-17) Boston College
Houston (-4) Rice
Washington (-4.5) Washington State

Tulane practiced at the Saints indoor facility today when an on-campus bubble sure would have been nice. It turns out the Wave could have practiced at Yulman Stadium, but last night's forecast indicated lightning in the area during the morning instead of the light rain with no lightning that actually happened.

Jon Sumrall, former Oklahoma receiver Mario Williams (2021) and DE Adin Huntington, who chose Tulane in a two-way battle with Oklahoma when he transferred from Louisiana-Monroe this summer, talked when the team got back to campus. I am not sure if there will be a media availability tomorrow with Francine approaching, and if there is, it probably will be just Sumrall. I already am working on getting an Engaging the Enemy. My flight to Oklahoma City leaves early Friday afternoon, which is supposed to be a beautiful day in New Orleans. Fingers crossed that nothing severe happens Wednesday or Thursday.

SUMRALL

"Just got back from practice. Getting ready for a lot of things weather related. Obviously a big game, full speed ahead. Didn't get much sleep last night and probably won't get much the next couple of nights. Trying to do as much as we can to help keep things going for our guys while being safe and being where they need to be and that sort of thing."

On plans for Wednesday:

"We were able to practice at the Saints today. Very grateful to those guys. We got a normal Tuesday practice in for the most part. Had to cut a few things just for time with travel over and travel back. Tonight we'll stay together as a team. We'll go to our team hotel the like we would the night before our home game. We'll do that the next couple of nights it looks like. Our team hotel has generators and those sort of things to keep things online for our guys hopefully. I've told them pack like you're going on a couple-days road trip, bring all your school supplies. We'll have some academic time tomorrow at the hotel and tonight, do our normal football activities as much as we can. Tomorrow's practice is going to be very dependent upon the timeline with the weather getting here. Practice isn't the No. 1 focus. Health and safety is, but we'd like to get into as much of a normal practice routine as we can, so if we can we'll try to find a location. We're working through logistics of could that be the Superdome or could that be the Saints or could it be here. I don't mind practicing in the rain. I would have practiced here today if I'd have known it was just going to rain, but yesterday the forecast had lightning at this time, so it changes. We'll try to go about an hour tomorrow if we can, which is a touch shorter than normal, but we'll trying to get something. I'm untrained meteorologist at this point in life. I think it looks like mid-dayish (for the effects of Francine to be felt heavily), so we'll try to make sure we're all in place a couple hours ahead of time."

On dealing with this before:

The first game here (as as assistant coach under Curtis Johnson in 2012) was Ike, so were in Birmingham (I heard some horror stories about the disorganized nature of that evacuation under CJ). This one's a little more unique because it's in the middle of a game week. We knew that one a little bit earlier. We knew there was the potential, but it really heightened yesterday. Normal evacuation is Birmingham, which we did that year. With the charter flight for the game (at Oklahoma), there were three or four different options talked through with our administration. I told them first and foremost healthy and safety and then what makes the most sense for the well-being of our team. As we kind of evaluated things, we felt like this was probably the best decision."

On Brett Venables' defense at Oklahoma:

"They're well coached. Brent does a great job with defense. The defensive staff's really good. They've got really good players. Good scheme and good players usually make for good football, and they're really well coached with great players. They're multiple. They keep you really guessing, keep you off balance, do a lot of different things schematically. They present a lot of challenges with what they do, and the guys they're doing it with make it even tougher. We've got our work cut out for us. People have not put up points on them this season (Houston had 12 and Temple had 3 despite Oklahoma's struggling on offense in both games)."

On Oklahoma forcing nation's best eight turnovers:

"They attack the ball carrier. They swarm. They run with great energy to the ball, and they've got guys that can make plays. They put you in a bind with what they do schematically. They put you in some pressure situations and they've gotten people into obvious pass, but they're really an attacking group. The multiplicity they present also presents problems for your offense, and playing there--this is game 3 in a row for them at home and it's a hostile environment. It's loud. I've had texts with other coaches in the league and I've texted with Chris Klieman, who we played this past week, and Chris texted this morning it's one of the loudest places you'll ever go. I've played most places in the SEC as a coach or a player, but I haven't been to Oklahoma, but by all accounts it's loud."

On message to Mensah about taking care of the ball with pass rush:

"One of his strengths is his poise and calmness and confidence in the pocket. He's got to know when the journey's over. Sometimes the show's over, just go down or get it out, and we learned the hard way on a couple of those. We had the grounding. That's a new thing for him. Everything's new for him, and then understanding hey, a 6-yard sack, while maybe not desired, is better than getting careless for the football and turning it over and giving them a touchdown. He's learning. Today at practice he had one that we were all screaming at him to hey, put the ball away. He's gonna get it. He's going to learn it. It's like being a kid and you touch a hot stove and you learn it's hot, don't touch it anymore. Hopefully he learns, hey, if I'm in traffic, put the ball away. I think he will. He's smart, he's conscientious and he's thoughtful, but there's a lot of lessons to be learned. A lot of positives, but there's some things he' needs to get better at and grow from, and I'm confident he will. I've liked his approach. The best thing about it is he's been harder on himself than I could ever be on him. That usually bodes well for being a good player when you care that much. He's gotta bounce back. He's gotta do some things better. We all do. The coaches do, too."

On having guys who played for Power 4 programs and are used to hostile environments:

"Yeah, maybe individuals have had that exposure. It's our first time as a team to handle that atmosphere, and there are a lot of individuals that haven't, so it's a new experience for everybody involved. We're a team that's never gone and done it together, and it's a place that's traditionally loud and hostile and hard to play in. We've got to be really poised with how we handle it. I think you can get over-excited about it, like you almost have to just ignore it to some degree. and control what's right in front of you. We worked today with the crowd noise in practice. I don't know if the offense could really communicate very well verbally, so we're making them have to work through some of that right now. It's a challenge for sure. It will be new for some our guys, and I don't care how many times you've been in those environments, there's still a challenge. Even as a coach, I'm like, all right, it's nice to be able to communicate at home, and when you go on the road in that kind of environment, it gets loud."

On Mario Williams having back-to-back 100-plus-yard receiving games:

"He's been extremely impactful. What, 10 catches and 250 yards (252) roughly is a pretty good two-game start. I've said this. He's worked incredibly hard. Watching him in our offseason training, I've got no doubt he's going to have the kind of success he's having because he brings it every day. He works his tail off, he's extremely competitive. The biggest thing for him as we move into this game is don't worry about the him-going-back-to-Oklahoma piece. That doesn't have any impact on you playing well. What helps you play well is do your job at a high level, focus on the details of what your job is and go execute and be the best you can be individually and help support your teammates. I'm excited for him to have that opportunity to go back to the place he started his career, but what gets you the results he's gotten, you can't focus on the logo of who we're playing. You just have to do your job to the best of your ability."

If I am Tulane, I am practicing today. I’m even practicing early tomorrow before I get on a plane or doing walk-throughs. I recall you mentioning, Guerry, that they like to use there legs and run around a little on Fridays.

When their teams play Thursday or Friday games, football coaches tend to change the day of the week when they are talking, referring to Monday as Wednesday and so forth to keep everyone on track as if it were a Saturday game. This week I have had to work a day in advance for The Advocate because of weather concerns, and I fell victim to that thought process when I talked to Jon Sumrall on the phone after practice and asked him what time the team was flying to Oklahoma "tomorrow." My brain already thought it was Thursday. Oops. He explained they weren't leaving until Friday, and I had to explain to him why I had made the mistake.

But enough rambling minutia on my part. Tulane practiced early this morning at the Saints indoor facility because the Saints were practicing later this morning at the same site, so the length had to be reduced to about an hour. I did not see a single second of practice this week--Mondays never are open and the last two days were indoors because of approaching Francine--which is also true of the last time Tulane traveled to Oklahoma in 2021, when the team practiced in Birmingham the whole week. Something about Oklahoma being on the schedule produces the worst in Mother Nature.

Here is what Sumrall said when he called me:

"They (the Saints) moved their practice up, but in turn we moved ours up, too and sort of frontloaded our day. We met yesterday on what we were going to do in today's practice. Now we're at the hotel and the guys are doing some academic work for the next couple of hours, so we were able to get to the Saints and get not a full practice. We probably cut our practice down by about half, but we at least got something done."

On if he is comfortable with what happened with practice time the last two days:

"Yeah, ideally you'd like to get everything you'd normally get, but if you get told you have from 7:45 to 8:45 to practice in here, then you figure out instead of an hour and 20 or an hour and a half or whatever, we get 55 minutes and what's mandatory after warming up, which takes about 10 minutes, and then after that, we pared it down to what's most needed. Look, we got enough work in to be sharp and be prepared."

On potential for upper 90s temperature for Oklahoma game:

"From a mental standpoint our guys are a little bit used to that. There is a physical piece where we haven't got that heat this week. Usually we're the ones that are probably most used to that climate, where the last few days here we have not gotten that kind of conditioning. That is maybe a slight concern, but the biggest thing is making sure our guys are hydrated and ready to go. A week ago yesterday was the hottest practice we had all training camp, so it's not like we haven't had one in a while, so we've had some of that. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a factor."

On Dontae Fleming locking up Kansas State DB the entire time while Alex Bauman ran about 20 yards for a touchdown:

"Every Monday we do a not our standard tape and a setting the standard tape on the review of the game. and that Monday setting-the-standard reel had that play for a reason. We showed it to the whole team and said, hey, look, this is what team football looks like. If you don't have the ball in your hand, you go make a block and you go sustain a block. I'm very proud of Dontae. Obviously week 1 he didn't have the performance he wanted. I was very proud of his response week 2 and I have a lot of faith in him and trust in him because of how he's wired and cares. It's important to him, and to see him make that sort of a selfless contribution to the success of somebody else's effort and to the team effort, we highlighted that in front of our entire team on the set-the-standard tape and made sure the whole team recognized that it doesn't matter what position you play, you can do something maybe sometimes outside your normal job description that is extra effort to help the team have success."

On schedule for Thursday:

"I'm currently crossing Canal Street to the Sheraton figuring out where can we walk through tomorrow maybe. We'll probably stay on the hotel premises tomorrow depending on how this thing hits and how many of our guys have and don't have power, we may stay in the hotel through Friday, which we're kind of working through. We've got contingency planning of what if everything goes great and what if everything doesn't go great the next 12 hours. We were in the hotel last night. We'll be in the hotel tonight. Nobody will be in their rooms when the main part of the storm is hitting. We're going to have everybody downstairs. We're going to watch a movie as a team and kind of just hang out and relax."

Tulane let one get away it easily could have won, getting no help from the officials on the final drive when they called offensive pass interference on Dontae Fleming. Fleming should have tried to disengage from the DB who grabbed him, but he did not, allowing the official to throw the flag and robbing Tulane of sending the game to overtime, assuming a made extra point. Tulane definitely was not going for 2 because the extra-point team started to run on the field.

The Wave, though, put itself in position to lose by getting beaten at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and making a few too many costly mistakes. Big plays in the passing game gave it a 10-point halftime lead--Darian Mensah's 342 passing yards was better than all but one of Michael Pratt's games--but Mensah's fumble that turned into a scoop and score proved to be the difference on the scoreboard.

Oklahoma is beatable next week, but Tulane will have to fix the sloppiness that has hurt it the past two weeks and manufacture a better pass rush to give itself the best chance to win.

Sumrall, Alex Bauman, Patrick Jenkins and Mensah talked after the game. '

SUMRALL

"Obviously a heartbreaking loss. I feel for our players because they've invested a lot into preparing to have an opportunity to win a game like this. It's also a bunch that's not going to hang their heads though. Losing a game stinks. Don't like it. It's not the standard and never will be. We're not OK with losing. But I also told them we are going to respond, I have no doubt. If you have a pulse, you have a chance, and we've got a pulse, so we've got a chance. We'll keep showing up. I promise you this team will not back down. Our kids fought hard. We didn't play some detail things a certain way we needed to at certain times. We've got to coach better. It starts with me. If you want to blame somebody for the loss, don't blame the guys. Blame me."

On what explanation of refs was on pass interference call:

"I didn't get very many good explanations in the second half from the officiating. It left a lot to be desired. That's probably about all I can say. Big 12 crew in case you were wondering."

On if they considered running the ball on first-and-goal from the 2 instead of passing:

"Yeah, there was. We had two timeouts in the pocket. We considered all things. You're in a fast situation making a quick call with little time left, but we felt like our best chance was trying to get it in the end zone. You never know how things are going to play out at the end. We probably could have run it. We thought about it, talked about it with the headsets, but just decided let's take our shots toward the end zone."

On Mensah's ability to bounce back from his errors:

"Yeah, you know, the fumble there he probably got a little careless with the ball. He's got really good poise in the pocket. That's part of what makes him special. He's just got to understand that you have to protect the ball. That was a critical play. The (interception) at the end I don't even really put a whole lot of stock into it. You're trying to win the game and make a throw and you can't take a sack probably. He could have taken one, but you move yourself back and we needed to try to stay in range of making a shot there. I'm proud of the kid. In that environment he played really admirably. Does he has to get some things better? Yeah, we all do."

On message to Mensah after his scoop and score fumble:

"We have a deal in our program, if good things happen, we say good, and if bad things happen, we say good. I just looked at him and said good, it's an opportunity to respond. He's got some grit. He's got some toughness. He was maybe a little fired up ready to go respond. He's a courageous young man, and he's got a bright future. His response was the right way and he's wired the right way."

On beating themselves rather than getting dominated by the opponent:

"It's frustrating to be honest because we talked the message all week just do your job, and the first half we did a pretty good job of that for the most part. There were a couple of things on defense I didn't think we did very well. We have to get a lot better on defense. That's on me and we'll get it fixed. Look, we're a good team. We're going to keep showing up. In this game you get every seven days to either get promoted or exposed. We had some things exposed today. We had an opportunity to get promoted. We put ourselves in some situations to have success, but against a team like that you can't give them anything. They are a really good team. They are a quality team and they took advantage of some things we didn't do well."

On what changed after halftime:

"There were some momentum things. They got the ball first. They punted. We went three-and-out. Early in the third quarter it felt like a stalemate a little bit and then they hit some plays. The one that really probably more to me than the fumble was the fourth down (45-yard touchdown pass). We had a decent call on. We just kind of busted something. It's not on the kids. We've got to coach them better. We probably should have had a stop there. If we get a stop there, the game feels a lot different because we're still up."

On not sacking Avery Johnson:

"He's a hard kid to get on the ground. He's very elusive. He's athletic. It's been documented he's the fastest guy on the team. He didn't kill us with like huge chunks that went for 40 or 50, but he found a way to keep the chains moving and keep the play alive. He's a hard guy to get down on the ground. That's one of his strengths is his mobility for sure. Good player. Hat's off to him. He made it hard on us today."

On Makhi Hughes:

"Better people make better football players. Makhi is a great person, very hard working, very tough, very dependable, very consistent. You don't have to worry about him bringing effort and being ready to go. We blocked some things up for him pretty good and he showed explosiveness. He caught the ball out of the backfield well today. That was probably the thing that stood out to me. He played like a big-time player because he is. It's amazing how guys that work really hard usually play really good, and I'm proud of him. He's hurting. He's the type of guy that always feels he could have done more, but I'm proud of his effort."

On what he learned about team:

"We've got fight. I told them there's going to be adversity. They are a good team we are playing and there's going to be some things that go sideways. In the third quarter things were kind of going sideways, and we had some guys step in front of the train and say the train isn't going to keep going down the track this way, we're going to try to slow that train down. The way they responded after the third quarter was encouraging. The way we started the game was encouraging to see. There were just a lot of little things that I'm probably stuck on right now that we have to do better, but I'm encouraged with our group. I've got a lot of hope in who we can be and who we can become, and like I said, I like our team. I like our locker room. I'm grateful to be a part of this team and I love these kids. I think they love each other. They'll keep showing up and they'll fight to a better end."

On high-fiving guys on their way into locker room:

"I love these guys whether we win or lose. Don't get it twisted. I want to win. I don't like losing, but these are all fantastic young men and they're hurting. Everybody's hurting and I wanted them to know like, hey, we've got your back, keep your head up, no pouting. Nobody's going to feel sorry for us. There's people in life that have real problems. We lost a game today. That sucks, but we'll move on, we'll get better from it and we'll bounce back. I'm not OK with losing, but we'll find out more about who we are by how we respond than losing a game today."

Guerry
Is there any other reports available other than the two you posted this week?

Any commentary or insights?

Thanks to Georgia Southern scoring a late touchdown and making a two-point conversion for a backdoor cover against Boise State, I had my best opening week in years and winwave was deprived of a perfect start.

8

winwave
Guerry

7

money.max
wavetime

6

GretnaGreen
charlamange8
LSU Law Greenie
MNAlum
2DatWuzAGoodDay2
WaveON

5

diverdo
greenwave1997
paliii
chigoyboy

4

roll wave
DrBox
tacklethemanwiththefootball

1

p8kpev


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane over Southeastern 17 of 18
USC over LSU 6
Georgia over Clemson 11
Miami over Florida 10
Notre Dame over Texas A&M 12
Penn State over West Virginia 10
Kentucky over Southern Miss 9
Georgia Southern over Boise State 7

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com.

Tulane (+10) Kansas State
Michigan (+7.5) Texas
Iowa (-2.5) Iowa State
Alabama (-31) South Florida
North Carolina State (+8) Tennessee
Nebraska (-7) Colorado
Oregon (-19.5) Boise State
Texas State (-1) UTSA

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Practice was moved to the Saints indoor facility because of bad weather and will be in the Superdome tomorrow for the same reason, so I was not at practice today and will not be there tomorrow. But I did talk to Sumrall and Mensah today when the team got back to the Wilson Center.

SUMRALL

On how nice it is to be able to practice at Saints facility when there is lightning:

"Big time. I cannot thank them enough. I just texted Dennis Allen and Jay Romig both and just said thanks for allowing us. We would have lost half of our practice. I got the first lightning alert at like 9:30. We would have lost over half our practice if not more. We moved there today and it looks like tomorrow we'll probably go to the Dome. I don't want to wear out our welcome at either place, but it's nice to be able to have that as a resource and slide over there. And after the heat yesterday. Yesterday the heat index was 135 on the field. We had more cramps yesterday in practice than we've had all of training camp, so it was kind of nice to get that work yesterday in the heat and be able to go inside today and it's 77-something degrees and it felt pretty cold at times in there. Pretty nice."

On Kansas State QB scoring five rushing TDs against Texas Tech as a reserve last year:

"He can play. He's a major threat with his legs."

On how to combat that type of running ability from a QB:

"There's no way to simulate it. You can have somebody in the right spot against a guy like this. He's a really good player and he'll still go make a play, so we've got to be on high alert for him running the football all the time. I've told our staff third down doesn't mean it's a passing down. Third down may mean it's a quarterback draw or a power read with the quarterback running."

On if they will have a spy on him:

"There's something to it, but when you use a spy, the guy that's spying him has to be able to catch him. We've got some things that are built in to where a guy like this you may have to use two, a spy to his left and a spy to his right, and then you also have to have good rush lanes and you have to have good rush integrity in your lanes. We've got some stuff where there are some spies that can be implemented, but like I said, if you spy him with somebody my athletic ability, it's not going to go very well. You spy him with somebody that can run and you have a chance, but they still have to make the play, and that's what's so impressive about this kid. You can have somebody in the right spot, and with that ability, he can be better than the guy who's trying to catch him."

On John Rhys Plumlee doing exactly that to Tulane in first meeting two years ago:

"I was at Ole Miss when we recruited JRP, so I've seen that before with my own two eyes."

On running game against SLU:

"Early in the game we were just trying to get into a rhythm and I don't think we were necessarily clean up front early. It got better as the game went on. We talk a lot about the first game action for the quarterback. Well it was the first time as an O-line unit that group has played together. There is no Sincere. Cam Wire's not here. There are some moving parts that are new playing with each other, so even though they're experienced, they're not experienced with each other. It will take some time to get on the same page. It's nice to have a game like that where you can work out some of those kinds, but guys in spots played really well. Early in the game they did move on us a little and create some negative plays or some plays for a gain of 1 or 2 that they did a good job on. When you're committing to run the ball and people know they have to commit to stop the run, there are going to be times when you bang your head for 1- or 2-yard gain, and that's not a bad thing. You just have to be committed to seeing it through and then wearing some people down."

On false start penalties:

"Well, Derrick (Graham) got called for one false start. He was going down in a 3-point stance when the ball was snapped, so that should have been called. Now there was another play where the Southeastern left tackle and tight end moved a full second before the snap and they didn't call that one, so I'm like what is a false start? Rah Rah (Rashad Green) got called for not being on the line of scrimmage once and Reese Baker got called for not being on the line of scrimmage once. Both in my opinion were bogus calls, and they came back and said we got it right. It wasn't even close. We could call a penalty on every play if we're going to call that."

On Mensah's only offers being from Idaho State and Lindenwood other than Tulane:

"Recruiting is an inexact science. The recruiting process has become so sped up to where in some way we devalue what a guy does as a senior. He didn't have the laundry list of offers that you usually see for a Division I quarterback. I've echoed to our team a lot it doesn't matter how many stars you've got or how many offers you've got, it's how you perform. That's what matters. Sometimes guys with a lot of stars are great. Sometimes guys with no stars are really good players. It is amazing to think, his early success was one game versus an FCS team, but a guy that was under the radar for sure."

On message to bandits and DEs:

"Really this week the message to all those guys is you've got to play the run first because you don't get opportunities to rush the passer against a group like this unless you stop the run, so we have to stop the run first. We'll see who settles in. The message to a guy like Adin (Huntington) is the plays will come your way if you're just doing your job. Bad things happen when guys are trying to play outside themselves and go make a play instead of just playing really hard when the play happens. We'll see. Those bandits know we've got to be a little bit better, and hopefully soon we'll find our rhythm there of who the guys are. But up front all those guys have to stop the run first."

On Huntington's performance in game 1:

"Solid. He probably flashed the most in the game in pursuit of plays that weren't really at him, playing with effort away from the play, but he's disruptive, has great athletic ability and is very strong and powerful. He's still refining who he can be from a technique standpoint. I'm not saying he's not good. That's where he's got room to continue to grow."

When I walked into practice today they were working on kickoff coverage, which was the single weakest element of the opener against Southeastern Louisiana, which returned Ethan Head's second kickoff 45 yards (the first was a touchback) and the next one 39 yards before settling down. Four of his nine kickoffs went for touchbacks, and the other five were returned, with one resulting in a penalty and the other two going for 19 and 25 yards. The two early ones almost broke even bigger, and a couple others were close. Jon Sumrall is not taking the issues sitting down.

"We made a couple of personnel changes in the game," he said. "The plan was (Patrick) Durkin and Head were going to rotate (on kickoffs) going into the game, but Durkin wasn't quite ready to go swing in a game, so Head got them all. That may or not be the case this week. We don't know that yet, but there were a few things we changed within the game and there are two or three things coach Mac (Greg McMahon) and I talked about (this week). There are a couple guys that played positions last year that they didn't play last week and we go back to where they were last year because they were comfortable year. There are some things we're tinkering with definitely and maybe a thing or two schematically. Any time something doesn't go right, you are always re-calibrating and assessing. We've clearly got to bet better there, looking at personnel and scheme."

Kai Horton went in second in a 7-on-7 drill, so it may be another package week for Ty Thompson behind Darian Mensah, who completed passes to Shaadie Clayton-Johnson, Zycarl Lewis and Bryce Bohanon during the session.

I did not see any new injuries today. Scout-team QB Kellen Tasby was wearing the No. 2 jersey of Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson in practice.

Sumrall, Yulketih Brown, Shaadie Clayton-Johnson and Rayshawn Pleasant talked after practice. Sumrall definitely is playing down Tulane's chances against Kansas State unless it improves dramatically from last Thursday. We will find out whether it is coachspeak on Saturday.

Two years ago, when Tulane won at Kansas State in September, the game was on ESPN+. This year it is on ESPN. That says it all about what the two programs have done since that day, which was a breakthrough for the Green Wave and galvanized the chastened Wildcats to go on and win the Big 12 championship.

SUMRALL

"We have to really take up the urgency and preparation to have an opportunity to play in this game. A big opportunity. Really good opponent in our stadium, ranked opponent, but if we don't get ready and improve a lot, it's not going to matter what the opportunity looks like. We've got to get better in house before we worry about the opponent."

On what stands out about Kansas State:

"You start with their defense. They are big, physical, athletic. They are experienced. Their linebackers, DBs, a lot of guys I recognize from last year (when K State beat Troy 42-13). There D-line's long. They look like. a really well coached team across the board, but defensively big and athletic. Offensively they are really veteran on the O-line. A couple of the guys started last year, but they are really veteran. They are all seniors and juniors. The quarterback is a tremendous athlete. He throws it well, but he's really gifted athletically. I've heard he's the fastest guy on the team, and when you see him go, it wouldn't surprise me. And the backs--DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards. Gidden is a physical guy who runs well. Edwards is electric with the ball in his hands. He's a good pass catcher and a good runner. He's good in punt returns as well. The thing that probably doesn't get enough credit is how good they are on special teams. They blocked seven punts the last two years. They blocked two last year and they blocked one last week, so we've got to be really good in punt protection and then we have to cover kicks better obviously, but their special teams units have been really good. When you watch them play, they are really well coached, they are very detailed and the play incredibly hard. They don't beat themselves. They are a really good team."

On familiarity:

"I looked back on our roster to see who was dressed out for that game, and it ain't many guys. It's like four guys who played a lot of snaps and four or five other guys who played some kicking game snaps or backup snaps. I think there are 10 guys or maybe 11 guys who were even on the sideline for that game on our team, so totally different rosters than it was then. And looking back last year, they have a new offensive coordinator--Colin Klein's gone to Texas A&M and they've got really two guys running the offense. They are doing some good run game stuff and the pass game stuff matches the run game well. They are efficient with what they do, but there's some carry-over on both sides of the ball. Defensively they're the same as what they've been. A lot of three-safety pictures, a unique structure that can stress you a little bit, so there are some knowns on both sides. I've got a lot of respect for their staff. Chris Kleiman won a bunch of national titles at North Dakota State and all they've done at Kansas State is just win. We'll both have some things we didn't show last week."

On Darian Mensah:

"About the same as I felt after the game Thursday night. He was 10 for 12 and one of those was a drop, so he should have been 11 for 12. There was a procedure penalty for not enough guys on the line, which I could argue from what I saw on tape, but if you don't take that one back, he would have been 12 of 13. That's pretty efficient. He took care of the ball. He probably left two throws a little short than he would like--the one to Mario he had to come back and dive for and the touchdown to Yulkeith, he needs to put the ball a little further out there. He knows that. You don't leave a corner throw in the end zone short. You'e got to put it out there and let the receiver go get it and the DB can't play it. Yulkeith did a really nice job coming back for the ball, but first--game action along with first start, he looked poised and played with good command. I'm not really surprised by that. You just never know what a guy's going to do when they get under the lights. He handled the moment really well."

More on Mensah:

"He's just steady. He's very consistent. Same guy every day, and I think that's what bodes well for him is you don't have to wonder whats he going to be like energy wise, what's he going to be like focus wise. Hes just very calm. The challenges are about to get much harder, and he knows that. We're going into big-boy football real fast. We've got a stretch of games starting with Kansas State that's grown-man football every week, so there's going to be some adversity. I think he'll handle it well and he'll be ready for whatever comes his way."

On depth at RB:

"Shaadie's really stepped up. He had four carries for more than 40-something yards. He's improved a ton. Duda's been solid, and then Trey Cornist came and Jamauri McClure came in and they had some physical runs, too. I like the depth of the room. We need those guys to continue to grow faster and become more capable of carrying some of the load. Makhi's strength is really getting him a ton of runs. He wears the defense down, and he didn't get his normal workload the other night, but it was nice to see the other guys step up and play with production and we need them to continue to do that."

On if Tulane feels overlooked as nearly 10-point underdog:

"I'm not oblivious to the outside world. I don't always know the spread or all that stuff, but I try to focus on what's going to help us play our best. Last week the message for me was be where your feet are. My biggest fear was guys looking ahead to what was to come. This week it's just do your job. Nobody has to be a superman. Everybody on our team, the way they've been put together, they are more than good enough. Last week maybe at times some guys tried to do a little too much in some roles, and then some guys weren't maybe as detailed as they needed to be. It's just as simple as doing your job to the best of your ability and doing it really well and having urgency in your preparation. We try to make sure they understand they are on high alert. Complacency's a killer, and anybody that's ever complacent in life is getting ready to get exposed. We won't be complacent. We've got nothing to be complacent about. We played a really average game. We're getting ready to play a really good opponent, a top 20 team, and we're not a top-20 team. We didn't play like one on Thursday last week. If we play like we did last Thursday, we will get destroyed coming up. It will not be close."

On what offense needs to do to have a chance:

"I think the team that can run the ball best this game is going to have a good opportunity to win. The team that protects the ball and doesn't turn it over and the team that executes explosive plays when they present themselves. Those are the things that you're looking for. I don't think it's anything magical. it's run the ball, take care of the ball and hit the shots when they present themselves. Both sides will probably tell you similar type answers. That's the way they play, too. They are a physical team and they run the ball and they hit vertical shots off of it typically. That's where the key is. It's not playing outside of yourself. It's playing within yourself."

Tulane's second shutout of the century was not nearly as pretty as that statistic would indicate, but Darian Mensah's performance at quarterback was a huge positive tonight. Tulane will need to play better to beat Kansas State next Saturday, but the shakiness was understandable considering it is a new coaching staff and a whole bunch of new players. I saw more positives for the immediate future than negatives tonight.

Sumrall, whose voice was half gone, Mensah, Mario Williams and Tyler Grubbs (subbing for an AWOL Rayshawn Pleasant) talked after the game.

SUMRALL

"Before I even address the game, I'd like to thank our student section. The turnout was amazing, and then sticking around through the weather. I was worried whether we were going to kick off on time tonight because of potential lightning. For them to show up the way they did, the student section was big time tonight. They definitely made a difference. They brought a lot of energy to the stadium. You could feel it on the sideline. Never a bad win. I'll never complain from a win. The scoreboard looked nice. We have a whole lot to clean up. That was a really average performance to be quite honest with you. We'll celebrate tonight and have a good time, but if we think that was our standard, we're going to get exposed here real fast, like the next few weeks are going to be a rude awakening. We've got a lot to improve upon. Some of the things that really stood out to me as negatives we have to clean up fast--we used two first-half timeouts that were poorly used. One was because of communication subbing from punt safe to punt block/return. The other was a third down offensively that we didn't quite get the play in clean enough to the quarterback. We ran into the kicker early. That was a dumb call by the coach. That was on me. That wasn't on the kids. I'll eat that one. Our kickoff coverage unit was really poor, like that was embarrassing. That's not good enough. We didn't rush the passer very well. They got the ball out quick. They weren't really going to hang out back there and give us much time. Tackling, we gave up some leaky yardage, and offensively one of Mensah's two incompletions was a drop and should have been a touchdown. The other was a 50-50 ball down our sideline. They were in good coverage and played that ball well, but we had another third down we converted with a little option route to Yulkeith (Brown) that we got a procedure penalty for being aligned incorrectly on offense. When you convert third downs and then lose 5 yards and have to convert third downs over, that's not how you win games. It's how you lose games. I'm very happy with 52-0. I'm not really just thrilled with how we played. We played OK. The upcoming gauntlet of games we've got, the way we played will get you losses. We've got to get some stuff cleaned up fast."

On Mensah:

"We wanted Darian to get a full run. Kai has started games and played games here. We don't have the privilege in college football of playing preseason games like the NFL. I'm not treating our non-conference schedule as preseason games because they all go on your record. They all count, but our biggest goal is let's go compete for a conference championship, and we've got to figure out what gives us the best opportunity to do that personnel wise. Probably thought we would use the other two guys a little earlier. Ty's stuff was more packaged, and we wanted to see him run the normal offense when he had the opportunity to later in the game. We just hoped it would happen a little earlier. You know, it's a 14-0 game until Rayshawn has the pick six. It's about to be 14-7, and the floodgates opened after that, but it was a very competitive game until late in the second quarter, and I told our team that coming into this game. Southeastern last year against Mississippi State, it was 10-7 with three minutes left in the second quarter. It was 7-7 versus South Alabama with three minutes (actually four) left in the third quarter, so I knew it was going to be a dogfight tonight. I would have liked to get the other guys in a little earlier, but I wanted to give Darian a full run of it because it was his first college in-game experience. He performed pretty well. 10 of 12, the run game helps that. We ran 38 carries for 240 yards or something like that (39 for 241). He played well, he played efficiently, he protected the football. He's got a little confidence. I don't know if y'all feel it, but I feel it. I feel like I'm a better coach when I'm around him. I think we can win with any one of those three. I really do. What those three guys do is different a little bit. We've got to tailor the package to whoever's in the game."

On Mensah looking very similar to how he looked at practice:

"He looked very similar tonight. He's very calm. He's very confident. He's got really good poise. There are going to be some things that come the next couple weeks. The opponents will maybe make him speed up, so we'e got to prepare for that, but he really handled the first game really well for a guy that's never played in a college game. That's a big deal, and he handled it really well."

On when he decided to have Mensah out there first:

"About a week and a half ago we probably knew, but just like anything, you have to keep showing up to earn it. We told him 10 days ago, hey, you're going to go the majority with the 1s here. We're not naming you the starter. You're probably going to get the start, but you still have to practice really well and prepare really well. If he didn't show up to practice and work hard, I wasn't going to start him. If he doesn't show up tomorrow on time to meetings, he won't start next week. Everything's earned. You gotta keep showing up. You gotta do the right things week in and week out, but after the Thursday scrimmage we had two weeks ago from today, that first drive with the 1s, I was like all right, we need to give the guy a little run here. He's been really consistent through training camp. But our staff didn't make the final decision until a couple of days ago because if he had come out there and practiced awful, I wasn't going to start him."

On defense from end of spring until now:

"In the spring I thought we sucked on defense. I didn't just not know what we had. I knew what we had and it sucked. We had a goal line period during the spring where I don't know if anybody on defense really hit anybody. I was livid after practice. Six of the 11 that started on defense tonight were transfers. Ray made the big play, but Micah and Johnathan started tonight. Then you got Jalen Geiger at free safety, Caleb Ransaw at nickel, Adin Huntington at field end, Terrell Allen at bandit. That's six, right? (he momentarily forgot about Sam Howard at LB, making it seven). Over 50 percent. Sam Howard, too. We're trying to come together. It's really frustrating at times because we shut them out, but we didn't really play great. We played average. We didn't rush the passer at all. We didn't affect the quarterback hardly at all. I was kind of disgusted watching it. I'm happy with the shutout, but we're not where we need to be yet. If we have any expectations of winning our conference or anything remotely close to that, we gotta get better really fast."

On Pleasant's pick six:

"Game-changing. It's 14-0 and if they score a touchdown there, it's 14-7. They converted one right before that play on a coverage mistake on our side, and if they score, the game feels a whole lot different at 14-7 at the half. We get the pick six and it's 21-0 and we know we're getting the ball coming out of the half. Now all of a sudden you're like all right, now we have a chance to really get this thing going. That was the pivotal play of the game without question."

We already had some good takes on the scrimmage in another thread, but here's my full report. I would like to emphasize, as winwave pointed out, that all of the bad snaps came from Elijah Baker, who would be Tulane's fourth-string center behind Vincent Murphy, Caleb Thomas and Gabe Fortson, who is out with an injury. I don't think center is Baker's natural position. The coaches love his potential, but he won't be playing center in a game any time soon.

I'm not sure what aspects of the special teams other than kicker Pauley is referring to from last night--and even the kickers were not terrible. Every kickoff went into the end zone again. It is impossible to judge coverage and returns in a scrimmage.

They started with field goals that included blocking and a (nominal) rush. Jacob Barnes connected from 33 yards and 40 yards before missing wide right from 50, which is stretching his range. Ethan Head clanked a 21-yard off the right upright, which is a no-no, but he nailed 40- and 50-yarders. Patrick Durkin made kicks from 21, 40 and 50 yards.

Will Karoll did drop a perfect snap on his first punt, which would be disastrous in a game, but that was an outlier. He kicked a high one 44 yards on his next attempt and had one go into the end zone from 41 yards. HIs backup, Brice Busch, had one from the same spot and it was downed at the 6.

They had individual drills next, and Mario Williams was the only receiver to drop a pass. He has great ability, but his concentration is lacking at times.

When the scrimmage started, it was Darian Mensah as promised with the 1s against the first-team defense, and the offensive line was intact with Rashad Green returning at right tackle, Vincent Murphy at center (for the first series only) and Josh Remetich at right guard. Mensah definitely looks better than the other two quarterbacks at the moment, and although it remains a small sample size, I now believe he will be the starter if he keeps up this level. Kai Horton has been better than Ty Thompson, but Thompson would benefit from real game action because he is a major threat to run. He got hosed out of a first down last night on a scramble because the referees were blowing the whistle when a defender was near the QB. I expect Tulane to use more than one quarterback in the opener against Southeastern, and I do not think Sumrall will announce his plan ahead of time.

I will list each series the QBs ran and then go on to the next QB rather than going sequentially.

(MENSAH SERIES 1)

1-10-25: Complete Makhi Hughes +2 in flat
2-8-27: Hughes power run +11
1-10-38: Complete Williams +27 on beautiful improvisation by Mensah, who rolled away from heavy pressure and threw a strike to Williams, who did a terrific job of keeping a foot inbounds while leaning to catch it.
1-10-35: Shaadie Clayton Johnson +9
2-1-26: Clayton-Johnson minus-1
3-2-27: C Dontae Fleming +6 on crossing route.
1-10-21: Clayhton-Johnson +4
2-6-17: Complete Sidney Mbanasor +6 despite tight coverage from Johnathan Edwards
1-10-11: Hughes +2
2-8-9: Complete Alex Bauman as safety valve +5
3-3-4: Incomplete on pass to wide open Mario Williams in corner of end zone. Simple drop. Gotta catch that.

(apparently a penalty was called because they lined up for third-and-1 from the 2 after that play)

3-1-2: Clayton-Johnson no gain
4-1-2: Fleming no gain on run that appeared perfectly set up. I believe Yulkeith Brown would have scored on same play, but it was terrific tackle by safety Kevin Adams to stop the drive.

MENSAH SERIES 2 (fifth overall, again 1s vs. 1s)

1-10-25: C Mario Williams +24 on a dart that beat double coverage
1-10-49: Arnold Barnes no gain
2-10-49: Complete Clayton-Johnson +7 in flat
3-3-44: Incomplete throwaway after heavy pressure from Angelo Anderson
4-3-44: PENALTY false start minus-5 when offense was going for first down
4-8-49: PUNT 38 yards, fair catch Bryce Bohanon (no punt rush)

MENSAH SERIES 3 (1 vs. 1 and No. 7 overall, right after halftime)

1-10-25: Barnes +8
2-2-33: Barnes minus-1
3-3-32: PENALTY false start minus-5
3-8-27: Incomplete spike into the ground because of pressure from Gerrod Henderson.

MENSAH SERIES 4 (No. 9 overall)

1-10-35: Complete Mario Williams minus-5 on outstanding open-field tackle by Rishi Rattan (even with a strong spring, Rattan has fallen out of the picture on the depth chart)
2-15-30: Complete Fleming +5
3-10-35: Complete Clayton-Johnson +1 on dumpoff

Analysis: Although Mensah did not produce any points on his four series, his first one would have been a TD without the easy drop by Williams. He appeared to make the right decision almost every and threw some pretty passes. Despite never playing in a game and being considerably younger than Horton or Thompson, he appears more sure of himself. I have him going 10 for 13 for 83 yards with the drop by Williams on what should have been an easy TD.

KAI HORTON SERIES 1 (No. 2 overall, with the 2s vs. 2s)

1-10-25: Incomplete Bohanon slipped on look-in, so the ball almost was intercepted on trap on what probably would have been completed pass without the slip
2-10-25: Trey Cornist no gain (He gets stuffed almost every time he touches the ball, and Sumrall never mentions him as a candidate for playing time)
3-10-25: Incomplete pass in which nickelback Javion White grabbed the receiver before the ball arrived but did not draw a flag
4-10-25: PUNT +33, fair catch Fleming

HORTON SERIES 2 (No. 3 overall)

1-10-25: Complete Garrett Mmahat +11 on sideline (Mmahat has been a favorite target for Horton when he plays with the 2s).
1-10-36: Jamauri McClure +18 (This guy can be a special runner and will not be filed because of his fumbling issue)
1-10-46: Incomplete on deep ball, not that close
2-10-46: McClure second effort +8 (he is fast, has good instincts and possesses power, too)
3-2-38: Cornist minus-1 (there was no hole)
4-3-39: Complete Mbanasor +15
1-10-24: Incomplete as Gerrod Henderson hits him before throw
2-10-24: McClure loses fumble (the second is as many scrimmages for him)

HORTON SERIES 3 (No. 8 overall)

1-10-25: McClure +14 (have I mentioned how much I like his running ability)
1-10-39: McClure +1 (big hit by Chris Rodgers)
2-9-40: Cornist minus-1 (he is running with too much hesitation)
3-10-39: Snap over Horton's head by Elijah Baker

HORTON SERIES 4 (No. 11 overall, and a 2-minute drill where they were calling timeouts after almost every play)

1-10-40: Incomplete pressure Terrell Allen
2-10-40: Complete Zycarl Lewis +7
3-3-47: McClure +1
4-2-48: Complete McClure swing pass +12
1-10-40: Incomplete off Shaun Nicholas hands on slant (the throw could have been better, but he should have caught it)
2-10-40: Incomplete nearly picked off by Jayden Lewis
3-10-40: PENALTY offsides Shi'Keem Laister
3-5-35: SACK by Deshaun Batiste.

Analysis: Horton has some bad luck when receivers did not execute, when the refs did not throw flags for interference, when McClure fumbled and on a terrible snap, but he also went to his first read almost every time. His numbers were 4 of 11 for 45 yards by my count.

TY THOMPSON SERIES 1 (No. 4 overall, 1 vs. 1)

1-10-25: Incomplete deep and not close
2-10-25: Hughes draw+12
1-10-37: Hughes +1
2-9-38: Complete Bohanon minus-2 (stuffed by Micah Robinson, who I like a lot)
3-11-36: Incomplete high throw for Barnes after scrambling
4-11-36: PUNT +47, fair catch Mario Williams

THOMPSON SERIES 2 (No. 6 overall, 2 vs. 2)

1-10-25: PENALTY false start minus-5
1-15-20: Complete ZyCarl Lewis +17 on excellent throw through tight window
1-10-37: Incomplete not close
2-10-37: McClure +3
3-7-40: Thompson scramble +11 with nice block by McClure
1-10-49: McClure +3
2-7-46: Incompletion on pass I thought was clear interference by Joshua Moore down the sideline and was flagged initially before the flag was picked up
3-7-46: Complete Josh Goines +6 (nice catch by Thompson on a bad snap)
1-10-40: PENALTY +5 Makai Williams jumps offsides anticipating snap count
1-10-35: Bad snap minus-5 (Thompson could not repeat his feat from two plays earlier)
2-15-40: Cornist +3
3-12-37: Incomplete misses Bohanon
4-12-37: Punt downed at 11

THOMPSON SERIES 3

1-10-35: Incomplete Barnes drops (he has exhibited hands of stone)
2-10-35: Complete Barnes +3
3-7-38: Thompson keep +1 that would have been an easy first down in a game but was whistled down prematurely

Analysis: I thought Thompson was slightly better than Horton in this scrimmage, but it was hard to gauge with the mistakes by players around them. I like his ability to do damage with his legs, but he has work to do making the correct decisions in the passing game. His final numbers were 4 of 8 for 24 yards with a drop.

I talked to Frank Scelfo Tuesday afternoon. He wondered if had the longest tenure of anyone who coached at Tulane, so I looked it up and found out his 11 years (under three coaches) from 1996-2006 was the third longest consecutive stretch behind Greg Davis Jr. (12) and someone from the olden days with 13. Here's what he had to say in the interview:

On coming back to play Tulane:

“It’s going to be good. I’ve got great memories of being there. It was 11 seasons. That might have been the longest tenure in the history of Tulane football. I gotta be close. Some great memories. I haven’t seen Yulman Stadium yet. I’m looking forward to doing that. I made some great lifetime friends while I was there in New Orleans, so it’s kind of mixed emotions going back. I want to win. I prepare to win, but I pull for the Wave. I’ve always been a Wave fan my entire life because of the family, but not this Thursday.”

On relationship with Sumrall:

“I really don’t know him that well. I’ve talked to him a couple times and we’ve texted back and forth. I know this—everywhere he’s been they’ve hired him back as the head coach. The next stop will be Kentucky, so once Stoops retires, he’ll be at Kentucky.”

On bouncing back this year:

“We feel good. We weren’t that far off last year. The wins and losses really is not my concern. It’s always about how we perform and how we stack on games week after week after week. Are we getting better or are we getting worse? Our guys played hard last year. I didn’t do a good job managing our team as well as I could have, and I take full responsibility for that.”

On his saying Southeastern would use three quarterbacks:

“It’s kind of like you’ve got three pitchers ready to go, one starter and a couple in the bullpen, and we’ll see how long the starter can go. You always gotta be ready. The next guy’s gotta be next man up.”

On differences and similarities between three QBs:

“They’ve all got good arms. Eli’s a little bit more familiar offensively with the whole system. They’ve all got different skill sets. That’s the main difference, so there might be some things that are more geared towards them individually, but for the most part our offense can run through all three.”

On Damon Stewart, the third quarterback, being at fourth school in four years:

“He’s been here since the summer and has done a good job assimilating within the team. That’s one of the positives of being able to bounce around is that those guys have met a lot of people and learned how to make friends with different types of people and fall into the culture of other teams, too.”

On first-team All-Southland pick (wide receiver, returner) Darius Lewis:

“All those return yards are hidden yards. He does a great job of getting those for us. He’s definitely a weapon for us and he’s got a chance to pick up 10, 12, 15, 20 yards on a punt return, and that’s huge when you look at flipping the field.”

On having played Miss St. and South Alabama tough for long stretches last year:

“You go back and forth with your talent level and each year it’s a different team. The competitive character of our team last year was good. We just didn’t get things done. I think that competitive character’s still here within the culture of our team, and because of that you always have a chance. We don’t go into a game preparing to keep it close. We’ll look up at the end of the game for the scoreboard to find out what it says, and I know it’s coachspeak, but it’s just the way you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to play each play individually and move on to the next.”

On what people are left at Tulane from when he was there:

“Liz Devlin-Ziegler is up in the AD’s office, and she was such a great friend during my time there. In fact I coached her son here the last couple of years at Southeastern. He was born while I was there, which is pretty cool. And then Dr. Greg Stewart is the team doctor. He was our team doctor then. He still takes care of me when I call him. He’s just a really good friend. That’s about it. I don’t know if there’s anybody else there. I know they redid the Wilson Center and walking into the stadium, I haven’t been here, so it’s going to be cool to see.”

On whether he wanted an on-campus stadium when he was at Tulane:

“You get mixed on that. The Superdome was a good place—70 degrees and sunshine every game. It lended itself to what we were doing at the time, which was throwing the football. Our kicking game was always good. We had great punters and kickers, so when you look at those things, but it’s also when you have an on-campus stadium the student body is a lot easier. The fan experience possibly with tailgating, but I know we had some great tailgaters when you look at some of those guys we had. I don’t know. I have mixed feelings about that because I really liked the dome.

On biggest memories of Tulane:

“The couple of years under coach Bowden we went 7-4 and 12-0. Chris took over and O1 we were 6-5 and then 2002 winning the Hawaii Bowl going out there on the island and beating a really good Hawaii football team. Lynaris Elphage, who’s now a local high school coach, took the game over with a couple of punt returns. And then the Katrina team was our best team. We had geared it up after ’02 when they had talked about dropping the program because of the recruiting and the guys that were coming back. Lester Ricard was coming into his own and had that six-touchdown game against UAB at Tad Gormley Stadium and things were just clicking for us in camp when she raised her ugly head and roared into New Orleans.”

On how good Southeastern has been for him:

“It’s been great. This has been good. I’ve been embraced and the community embraces the college. It’s a college town. It’s not like a big city. Other than Louisiana Tech everywhere I’ve been has been a big city, but I really enjoy the small-town feel of everything. You see people in the stands that you know. You see them in church on Sunday. You see them in the restaurants. You see them in town and at the grocery store. That’s a big plus. At some point in time in your career, you’re not sure what you want to do and you keep looking for things and I know that I found it here.”

On Anthony Scelfo being first-time OC:

“He grew up in this game so it’s not something that’s foreign to him. He grew up playing it, grew up in the locker room with me traveling everywhere I’ve traveled, been on planes and buses and sidelines all throughout his life as young as he can remember, and then he played at a high level at Tulane and obviously baseball, too, so he can handle everything that you throw at him. He’s a bright mind. He’s aggressive. He likes to do some things, and I’m looking forward to seeing it unfold. I’m happy to see him having the success at practice and the development of the players. Probably the best thing is his relationship with our guys. That’s what he really does a good job with. He’s very relatable to them and open and honest with them.”

On five Tulane defensive starters who were not on team at end of spring drills:

“Yeah, but they’re five really good players. Adin Huntington is a great player. Everybody knows that, so we’ve got to account for him. You gotta game plan for a guy like that and that’s what we’ve done. We’ll put our best foot forward and see what happens.”

PIck 'em is back. I'm posting this on Sunday since Tulane has a Thursday opener. As always, the home team is listed first, the Tulane game counts double and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com. Neutral games are designated as such.

Tulane (-26.5) Southeastern Louisiana
LSU (-4.5) USC (Las Vegas)
Georgia (-13) Clemson (Atlanta)
Florida (+2.5) Miami
Texas A&M (-3) Notre Dame
West Virginia (+8.5) Penn State
Kentucky (-28) Southern Miss
Georgia Southern (+13) Boise State

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As expected, Jon Sumrall did not announce his plan at quarterback today in his last talk with reporters before Thursday's opener against Southeastern Louisiana. It is clear that Darian Mensah will start, although he did not announce that either. It is less clear who will go in second. I think it will be Ty Thompson, but I don't know it for sure. It also is unclear whether all three will play. Sumrall, rightly in my mind, says it depends on the flow of the game and he can't guarantee what will happen ahead of time. One of my pet peeves over the years is reporters asking coaches how long starters will play as if coaches are even going to publicly admit they are planning for a blowout. I was pleasantly surprised that no one asked that exact question today.

I do not think Jack Tchienchou and Phat Watts will be healthy enough to play Thursday. The third player whom Sumrall listed as questionable on Saturday, Reggie Brown, has a better shot.

Here is Sumrall from yesterday, when I had him to myself.

SUMRALL (Monday)

On why they are using the 6-2, 207-pound Shi'Keem Laister at bandit:

"He's got great athleticism and speed. He's been a really productive special teamer here in a lot of different facets. He's got real athletic traits. His speed is a problem on the edge. He's played primarily nickel and a little safety. He's a big bodied guy for those positions. He's maybe not the biggest guy as an edge rusher, but he might be the fastest guy, and so he's a speed rush guy who I think can present some problems for offensive tackles. He actually strikes blocks a little bit better than I anticipated. We're just trying to figure out where can we find a home for him to give him value for himself within the defense. Does that mean he's going to play 50 snaps a game? Probably not. Does that mean he can play eight, 10 or 12 maybe depending on the flow of the game and get some production and add value to our defense? Yeah. I think just really his twitch athleticism (helps). At the bandit position we've got different guys. You look at T.A. (Terrell Allen, who is 6-0, 275) and (Michael) Lunz (who is 6-3, 244) and IMatthew) Fobbs-White (who is 6-2, 230) and Shi'Keem, they all just have a different style of play. For a tackle that looks across the line of scrimmage, he's got to figure out, if you're a 1990s baseball fan, am I facing John Smolz, Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux? The speed's different, the moves are different, the physicality's a little different, so each guy's got a little different feel."

On depth at defensive end:

"I'm really excited. Adin's back rolling. It's like I feel bad for the scout team guys that are practicing against him at times. Angelo's played a lot of football. Gerrod has really made a big jump. DeShaun Batiste. We can always flip Pat (Jenkins) to the field (end) if needed (he's done a lot less of that in preseason camp than he did in the spring). I don't see that happening a ton, but he can go there as needed. To know there are four guys you can put in the game and feel like they can execute, if you're playing a 75-snap game, one guy's going to play more than others probably, and that's Adin, but right now to know we could play four guys and each of them could play 20 (snaps) and be really fresh and play those snaps as violent and as hard as they can play, I think is exciting to see. The depth up front because of the physicality and the wear and tear in the trenches, I'm excited about seeing those guys roll through."

On Jacob Barnes, whom I mistakenly though was the guy who hit a field goal at the end of a two-minute at the end of practice, which allowed Sumrall to segue into a typically long but informative answer:

"That was Bobby (Noel, who is a practice kicker). Jacob Barnes nailed a similar kick last Wednesday that was a 58-yarder. His deal has really been consistency inside of 40, but he hit a 58-yarder last Wednesday. We have two kicking groups depending on who's up each day, so every kicker's not active each day, and today was not Jacob's day to kick field goals in the stadium. The guys that will play in the games, they kick on Tuesdays in a game week, which was yesterday (Sunday), and they'll kick on Thursdays in a game week (Tuesday in this case), but they won't kick on Wednesday (Monday) and Friday (Wednesday). Today's a Wednesday, so the guys not likely to be in the game will kick. That was more of a two-minute situational deal. We wanted to work the clock, but how we got to it was not how I anticipated. We had some funky things happen in there. They were real game deals like the defense jumped offsides and gave the offense a free play on fourth-and-11 or 12. Then the offense jumped offsides under two minutes and it would have been a 10-second runoff with a penalty, which we enforced. We went from 22 to 12. Then at 12 we got the first down (on a strike over the middle from Mensah to Shaun Nicholas), had to get to the ball and clock it. We talk all the time you don't rise to your level, you fall to the level of your training. Well if you've trained those situations you can probably execute them. If you haven't trained them, good look on executing them."

Mensah's pass was a beautiful play at the end of a shaky drive. It started with a screen that was diagnosed well and ruled to be no gain (there was no hitting, so the marking was an estimation). Next was a nice 1-handed catch by Sidney Mbanasor out of bounds on a scramble play. Then came a deep incompletion that sailed well out of bounds when Nicholas was not open. Mensah converted the fourth down with a pass to Dontae Fleming over the middle before the two penalites, and then he completed the pass to Nicholas to get the offense in range for the 47-yard field goal.

Trey Tuggle, who is out for the year with a knee injury, was walking stadium steps during the practice as part of his rehab.

Bailey Despanie, who appears poised for a big year, had two interceptions against the scout team.

I was asked on a radio show recently which coaches were really loud on the field, and I said neither coordinator was a yeller but some of the younger support staff was very vocal during practice. But yesterday, Joe Craddock was livid after a receiver (or receivers) ran a wrong route on a play. He lit into them.

Freshman Zycarl Lewis, who has shown flashes but is not on the depth chart at the moment, looked like he tweaked his knee in a collision with Jayden Lewis.

Mensah threw a rare interception in a seven-on-seven drill, with Javion White doing the honors.

The practice today was just a walk-through. They actually will do more tomorrow, but the day before games is off limits to reporters.

The only concern spots on defense in my opinion are free safety with Jalen Geiger and bandit. I'm not saying Geiger can't do the job--far from it--but I'm pretty certain the other nine starters will do the job. Bandit is wide open, and I don't have a good feel for which player, if any, will stand out. Laister, though clearly not an every-down player, has been effective at his surprising new spot.

On offense, the position of interest other than quarterback is receiver. Not one of those guys is a proven performer at Tulane, so there are plenty of question marks even though the group has a lot of potential. Having Carter Sheridan as coach will help them tremendously.

It's not good.

Eight home games, none against teams that finished last year with a winning record and two against NAIA opponents (Louisiana Christian, Dillard).

FSU is the only power conference opponent, and the game will be in Miami. Georgia Mason, which hosts Tulane, is the only opponent that finished more than one game above. 500.

schedule

Adin Huntington was back in action today and made a play on the first down of a goal-line drill that was the initial good-on-good 11-on-11 work of the day, going around the line to make a tackle on a run up the middle. He's missed quite a bit of time in camp with a knee injury, but the coaches absolutely love him and believe he can be an All-Conference performer. The depth is scary good at defensive end, with Gerrod Henderson having an outstanding camp, Angelo Anderson looking better than at any time in his five years and Deshaun Batiste flashing several times. It is the only position that has four names on the official depth chart for the opener.

There's not much else to report. The only significant thing I am not sure about is who will be the second quarterback against Southeastern. My hunch is Ty Thompson, but that is not coming from any inside information. Sumrall has made it clear he will not announce the plan before the game, so I have not even bothered to ask him the past two days. Thompson and Horton are getting about the same number of reps, with one going in before the other on alternate days.

The scout-team offensive line today was Tristen Fortenberry, a walk-on, Gabe Fortson, Jayce Mitchell and a walk-on from left to right, so it is safe to say Fortson will not play against Southeastern unless it is late in a blowout.

One other player who is injured that I've rarely mentioned is tight end Guiseann Mirtil, who got hurt early in spring drills and looks like he will be out for the year. Add him to the list of Jesus Machado (not ruled out for the whole year yet), Trey Tuggle (definitely out for the year), Jah'Rie Garner (pretty sure he's out for the year). Everyone else that is hurt should return soon with the possible exception of Shazz Preston, whom Sumrall said might miss as many as five games but maybe only one as he recovers from a hamstring injury.

Jack Tchienchou did not practice today. He was doing rehab drills underneath the stands. Neither did Reggie Brown, who was walking stadium steps during practice.

I talked to Sumrall about Mario Williams, who has terrific physical gifts and has looked good in the last two weeks after what I felt was a slow start to camp. He has all the tools, but I'm not 100-percent convinced about his consistency. Sumrall said his character had been exemplary, another concern for a former five-star prospect who was a starter at Oklahoma and USC. I also talked to Williams, who is pretty tight-lipped but not in an unfriendly way. I conducted the one-on-one interview while an alarm was going off in the interview room, so that was quite distracting as well.

SUMRALL

On Williams being a team player:

"I've been really pleased. Going back to January when he got here and the February gauntlet, which is like our offseason mat drills, you worry about a guy that's been at a high level, productive on top of being at a high level. He was a good player at a high level, and you worry about that guy coming in and being above some of the gritty work, the gauntlet, and every morning when we came in that whole stretch for that month, he saw who he was paired up against and he brought it every day. The strength staff pairs you up with another guy in the morning at six different stations, and it's basically a gut check. You get your toughness challenged every day, and it's on details--start behind the line, finish through the line and do the drill right. We keep score on winners and losers of every rep, and Mario's competitiveness really shined there. Through the spring he flashed as a good player, but some of my favorite plays of the spring were him blocking downfield and bringing great effort, so I've just been really pleased. He wants to do well individually, but he's also into the team, and he's got good energy. He's one of the guys at practice that I really enjoy kind of messing with if you will. We go back and forth plenty, but in a good way."

On finishing first in Catapult measuring system every day (the thing that is clipped inside the back of their jerseys that measures speed and number of steps taken):

"The yardage he does on a daily basis, you're like, all right, why did you go that far? We actually have to keep an eye on him because he's a guy that just naturally will go further and do more than maybe is prescribed in that practice, so he's always the leader in total yardage. His speeds are always good, but his yardage will blow you away."

On his drops:

"The two that stick out from training camp, one was a legitimately challenging catch (on a pass from Ty Thompson in the back of the end zone during scrimmage 1) on the left side, and you couldn't tell if we tipped the ball or not but may have. But I don't know if he could see the ball until it was on him. The other one (an easy drop in the second scrimmage) he ran the wrong route. Him and Yul (keith Brown) both ran the wrong route, and he got jacked up. He's also made some really big catches, too. He made the one down in that far right corner the other day that was a big-time play. So, yeah, has he had a drop or two? Yes. Has he had some really big-time catches? Yes. Maybe we'd like to see the consistency on tracking the ball improve a touch, but for every one that you'd say, oh, why didn't he catch it, there's been a couple like wow, what a play. I think he'll be fine when it's time to go put it on tape and play in a game."

MARIO WILLIAMS

On running faster and doing more than any other receiver in practice:

"Yeah, I'm a receiver. I gotta run, and that's what they want on the next level--guys that can run and make plays."

On excitement for season to start:

"That's what I came here for. We've got practices that you have to go through. You have stuff that you have to do in order to get to this point, so this is the point we've been waiting on as a team."

On not having sense of entitlement:

"I don't know. I've never been a part of anything where I felt entitled. I mean, you have to show up every day with the mindset that you have to work and you have to go get what you want. I just instill that in me and try to instill that to the other guys and let them know, especially the younger guys. You always have to show out. Just come out here and do what you need to do and it will pay off."

On best asset:

"Just being me. That's really it. Just being me. Being able to play my game and do what I do."

On adjustment to team and New Orleans:

"Them just adjusting to me, me adjusting to them and just coming together and being on the same page so we can go out here and win."

On how good team can be:

"We are going to be great. We gotta prove it week in and week out."

On receiving corps:

"We are going to be really good as well. We've got some stuff to clean up, but I think we're going to be really good."

On drops:

"It wasn't frustrating. It's part of the game. Just move on, next play."

On his goals:

"Like I said, just being a great team player, going out there and doing what I need to do in order to help the team win. That's the whole goal."

On why chose Tulane:

"I felt like it was a great fit. Coach Sumrall did a great job recruiting me. I'm just here to win, man."

On Darian Mensah:

"I mean, all the quarterbacks are great. Darian is great. He's been doing what he needs to do in order to give himself a shot. All the quarterbacks have been doing great to give themselves a shot, but we still are trying to find out who's going to play quarterback. I'll be excited for whoever we take out there. Let's go do it."

On mesh with Joe Craddock's offense:

"Great. He's a guy that's not scared, and he believes in his players."

The Monday Night Football theme music blaring at Yulman Stadium minutes after Tulane's practice on Saturday morning meant one thing--this is a Monday in Jon Sumrall's parlance since the opener is next Thursday and everything has moved up two days--and that means 10 minutes of live reps for the freshmen and scout-team players. I wrote about this last Monday when they did it for the first time, but it is Sumrall's idea to keep the guys who are not slated for playing time excited and eager while giving them some experience if they end up playing later in the year. Javion White, who is competing with Jayden Lewis for the top backup spot at nickelback (spear), was the most notable guy getting extra action. The offensive line from left to right was Tristen Fortenberry, walk-on Collin O'Carroll, Gabe Fortson, Jayce Mitchell and walk-on Leo Wulfratt. Elijah Baker and Reese Baker and Dominic Steward were not involved because they are in the mix for playing time.

During the regular practice, Darian Mensah continued to get the first-team reps, with Kai Horton and Ty Thompson flip-flopping from Wednesday and Horton getting the second-team reps before Thompson. Sumrall has not changed his stance on announcing a pecking order at the position, but he was forthcoming about the injury status of guys who did not practice today. Obviously guys like Trey Tuggle (out for the year) and J'ahrie Garner and Jesus Machado with long-term injuries will not be available, and wide receiver Shazz Preston is "very doubtful to out," and Sumrall admitted it was not certain when he would return because hamstring injuries are tricky. He discarded the crutches for the first time today but is not close to being able to practice. Outside of that, Sumrall was not ready to say anyone was definitely out.

"I would say a lot of questionables like (Jack) Tchienchou, Phat (Watts) and Reggie (Brown). I'm not going to push, but if they are ready, they're ready, and if they're not, they're not. Those are the three that have a chance to play but may not play. Don't know yet, and I'm not just saying that. That's the truth. Shazz is the most unique one in that he could be game 2, game 3, game 4, game 5. He's off crutches, which is good. The crutches were not necessarily a function of him needing to use them to be able to walk. The crutches were to protect the overuse of the hamstring, but I saw him in our building last week with the crutches over his head walking around, like why do you carry them? He's been fine to walk. Just trying to limit the amount of usage."

Tulane's official depth chart has no real surprises. I listed the safeties at the wrong spots in my depth chart the other day--Bailey Despanie is at strong safety and Jalen Geiger is at free safety--but the rest was accurate. The quarterbacks are listed as Mensah OR Thompson OR Horton in that order. Bryce Bohanon is behind Yulkeith Brown at wideout, with Sidney Mbanasor OR Shaun Nicholas backing up Dontae Fleming and Watts listed as Mario Williams' backup. With Watts unlikely to play in my opinion, the guy getting the most reps is Garrett Mmahat. We'll see if he actually goes in to replace Williams or not. I talked to Carter Sheridan about all of the healthy wideouts today and will have the full interview later, but he indicated Khai Prean and Zycarl Lewis were behind the others in knowledge of the offense although he likes their skill set. At running back, it is Shaadie Clayton-Johnson OR Arnold Barnes behind Makhi Hughes with no mention of Jamauri McClure.

On defense, four guys are listed as such: Terrell Allen OR Matthew Fobbs-White OR Michael Lunz OR Shi'Keem Laister. I'm kicking myself about Laister because I wrote up a practice report with him playing bandit a couple weeks ago, then edited it out a couple hours later because I didn't trust I was wright and figured someone else had worn his jersey number. He is listed at 207 pounds, but they clearly like his pass rushing ability. Chris Rodgers is listed as Tyler Grubbs' backup at Will, with Sam Howard OR Dickson Agu the starter at Mike. Makai Williams is third at Mike. It's Jayden Lewis OR Javion White backing up Caleb Ransaw at nickel. Johnathan Edwards' backup is Rayshawn Pleasant. Micah Robinson's backup is Jaheim Johnson OR Lu Tillery, with no mention at either spot for Rishi Rattan. Kevin Adams backs up Despanie at strong safety, with Joshua Moore OR Tchienchou backing up Geiger at free safety.

The kickoff return guys are Clayton-Johnsnon, who I believe can score Thursday, and Pleasant instead of Fleming. Fleming is the punt returner, with Bohanon behind him.

Sumrall is pleased overall five days before his debut:

"I like where we are in a lot of things," he said. "I'm in a lot better headspace because we did this last week (preparing as if they were playing last Thursday). We worked out the kinds. We have 56 new plays and maybe 58 since we added two walk-ons when school started to be look-team guys. The staff has meshed really well. There's a lot of holdovers and a good number of new guys, and then there are some things we've adapted here that I didn't do at Troy. When your location changes, there are some processes that are mandatory that I believe in deep down, but there are some processes that fit locationally. Morning practice is one of them. I hadn't done that until now (other than his three years as an assistant to Curtis Johnson)., so we're getting used to that. You have to frontload so the night before, when you leave, the whole practice plan has got to be in the safe to pull out the next day. When you're an afternoon practice, you come in in the morning and you're still putting that day together. The other thing I'm trying to make sure we do is going into game one I'm always worried about us as coaches (teaching) no more football than our team can execute. Let's have enough bullets in the gun, but let's not let the gun malfunction because it's just got too many things in it. Let's be smart there, and the morning practice deal, staff-wise, player-wise, because we're all here, I got in late this morning and it was 5:45. That was late for me. Because you're so early on the front end, I'm trying to remind our staff on the back end when the work's done, don't sit here. Coaches have a tendency to want to be here to midnight or 1 a.m., and I'm like, guys, if you do that all year and you're here at 5 and leaving at 1, you're going to end up falling apart and not being very good. It's just making sure we understand the flow. That's why last week was so good, too, to kind of work some of that out.

"But I like our team's mindset. There was a different energy this morning in the team room. You beat up on yourselves and you run around and the bar is get better every day. Now the bar is like, hey, there's going to be a scoreboard on Thursday night and we gotta go play and line up."

Javon Carter was back today but practiced with the scout-team defense along with Elijah Champaigne. I'd say those two guys were the most notable players working with the scouts. On offense, Blake Gunter took advantage of a busted coverage for a long catch with no one near him. Other than that, the scout team offense did not have any significant gains, but they can't afford to have a breakdown like that in the game.

A reminder that Tulane did not practice today. Tomorrow's practice, which is the equivalent of a Monday practice in a normal week, will be open to reporters unlike the actual Monday practices during the rest of the season.

We talked to Tulane's offensive coordinator earlier this week. Here's what he said.

CRADDOCK

On how he feels about the offense right now:

"Right now we've got a lot of weapons. We've just got to find the best ways to put guys in certain spots that helps their skill set and take advantage of what they can do. We've had some guys we felt were more deep ball threats, and they're not. We've had to get those guys more underneath stuff and try to get them touches and let them use their wiggle and go on the outside, and then some guys are deep threats. There's been a lot of mixing and matching in training camp, and I think we've finally found the right lineup at receiver, and we're excited about that. Obviously we have a really good running back who I think is different from last year. Last year you saw him break some big runs and get run down from behind. This year he's a lot faster, he's a lot quicker. He's definitely physical. He's shown that definitely in training camp, and the biggest thing is we have to keep continuing to find who that next guy is with more consistency at the second spot. And then the O-line has been really solid. We've had a couple of bumps and bruises along the way, but getting some guys back healthy is definitely going to help. We gotta continue to develop chemistry up front with those five guys, so it's been a good training camp. I'd still like to see us a little bit farther ahead from a detail standpoint. We've got a lot of offense in, which is a good thing. Now this next week and a half we've just to really focus on the details, splits, alignments and assignments to know exactly what we're doing."

On Troy's Kimani Vidal having 297 carries (the most for any back in the country) for 1,661 yards last year and possible similar numbers for Hughes:

"We had a really good running back last year at our last spot. Kimani Vidal is playing really well right now with the Chargers. He was a guy that made our offense go because if you can run the ball, you open up a lot of things on the back end, so really excited about him and where he is from last year to this year."

On how deep they can go at receiver:

"A couple of bumps and bruises. I'd like to see the second-rotation guys be a little more detailed in what they're doing, but I'm really excited about the talent. Behind those first couple of guys we're young, and those guys have to come on quick because it's a next-man-up mentality. If someone needs a breather, somebody's got to go in, so there can't be any drop-off. We talk about that all the time. They have to be locked in, focused and know exactly what to do if their number's called."

On experienced offensive line:

"That's what makes it all go. You can have a good running back, but if there's nowhere to run, you don't have anything going, so having those guys up front, the chemistry with those guys is going to be crucial. A few have missed some practices, and we've held guys just to get them back healthy for the long stretch of the season, so just developing that chemistry leading up to game 1 and even through game 1 will be critical for our offense."

On Shaadie Clayton-Johnson's hands:

"Yeah, he catches the ball well. Makhi's really worked on his hands as well. Jamauri's got good hands. Duda's got good hands. He's had a couple of drops here and there, but he can still catch the ball so I'm really excited about all of our running backs being able to catch the ball. Shaadie does give you a little bit different dynamic in that he can split out and play slot receiver and be in the backfield. A lot of times when you empty the backfield, he's like an extra receiver out there that people are going to have to pay attention to and they can't just man him up with a linebacker."

On Mario Williams:

"Here's the deal with Mario. He came in and had to learn a whole another offense than what's he used to his whole college career. He's done a very good job of learning how to be a pro and what it takes to learn and study at night. He's gotta continue to develop that because it's a different system for him. I keep telling him, like look dude, the more you know, the more I can move you around, the more I can get you touches in different ways and not just have you in one spot stationary all the time. I've obviously challenged him with that a lot because the more he knows and the more he can move around, the more different things I can do with him."

On Yulkeith Brown as a route runner:

"He's one of our top guys. He's doing a great job as well. He's probably been the more consistent of the older guys, and he's very versatile in what he can do. There's a lot of different ways we can get him the ball as well."

On the tight ends and Alex Bauman:

"He is proven, but he's a different kid right now. He had an offseason procedure that I think has really helped him. He moves better than he ever has. He's one of our most skilled ball catchers, and we've got to do a good job and I've got to go back to my roots from several years ago when I was the tight ends coach about how we can utilize him in the passing game. What's I say about Alex is he as all-around tight end that can run block as well. In our staff meeting yesterday I was watching (video of) Alex cut off the backside, and I was like that's pretty dadgum good. Not only is he a good pass catcher, but he's also a good run blocker and I'm excited about how he looks right now coming out of missing spring training. He looks like a completely different player."

On guys around him helping QB make transition to being full-time starter:

"That's definitely crucial. When I talk to the quarterbacks all the time, there's been several days when you see a guy try to win the job on every single play. Sometimes they put the ball in jeopardy or make a poor decision trying to be Superman. You don't have to be Superman. You've got plenty of people around you that can help you. This is all about distributing the ball and making sure you are playing within the system and getting the ball where it is supposed to go and letting your playmakers make plays. Having the weapons around those guys will definitely help, and as long as they know the game plan and know where the ball is supposed to go, their job should be very easy in my opinion. Quarterback is a very hard position, but when you have a talented group around you, it's about making the right decisions, not putting the ball in jeopardy and distributing the ball where it's supposed to go to the playmakers we have on the outside and the inside."

On if he would be comfortable using more than one quarterback:

"It's all about how you practice. That's what we've talked to all those guys about. Whoever we run out there in game 1 may not be the guy that finishes game 1. Everything's written in sand. You don't want a guy to feel like, oh, I've got to win my job on every play or keep my job on every play, but also you have to go execute. You have to execute within the system, make plays that are there, and if they're not, be smart with the ball and throw it away and live to play another down. If you practice well and you deserve to play, we are going to try to find a way to play you, and if you don't practice well and you have a bad week, then there's really no reason for you to play. We talk about that all the time in that room. Look, whoever we run out there in game 1, this is a long season. We're going to need everybody to be ready at any time, and if you practice well you deserve to get some time. I think coach Sumrall and I are on the same page with that. If we decide like, hey, this guy deserves a chance to go play, let's play him. We don't have a guy that's a proven starter at the position, so how do you do that? Well, you may say third series of the game this guy's going to go in, fourth series this guy's going to go in no matter what to get those guys the reps they deserve if they've proven it in practice and see what they'll do. Like we've told them, if you get your shot, don't ever let us bring you out. Go score the ball and make it very hard for us to put the other guy back on."