Tulane’s football season is over; a bowl victory is secured; and the spring semester is beginning soon. We're a month away from National Signing day and, by my count, Tulane has at least four and as many as seven openings to go. How to use them? Although many of our fans would be ready to jump off a bridge if we don’t sign more than 1-2 freshmen on February 5th, I’d like to see most, if not all, of those slots go to graduate transfers.
First, I believe 2020 will prove to be the toughest schedule we’ve had in years. UCONN is gone and most of our conference foes are likely to improve, some markedly. And, though we’re not facing Oklahoma, Ohio State, or Auburn this coming year, we’ll face two P5 teams and a much tougher Southeastern team than any of our recent FCS opponents. Add to that an Army team that is likely to bounce back from a down year. Like this year, we could be improved and not have a better record. We need some immediate help and players with solid college experience are simply more likely to provide that than an incoming freshman who, more than likely, based on recent results, will redshirt.
Second, I think it is important to establish a strong pipeline of freshmen players who can be expected to letter for four years and hopefully start for at least two, whether they redshirt or not. Signing 25 one year and a dozen or so the next is not the way. For 2020, we have 14 seniors on our current roster and are more than likely to have only 12 or less by the summer. If we fill out our remaining openings for 2020 with incoming freshmen, that would mean we’d have only 12 opening for 2021 augmented by a few slots to make up for attrition. That’s not enough.
If we brought in seven graduate seniors who performed as well as the six we had this year, it would not only improve our 2020 chances but allow us to sign 19+ players for 2021, and close to 25, depending on attrition. For the next year we currently have 19 openings before accounting for any additional losses. Attrition would allow a few graduate transfers even then.
So, although I would like to see improvement at every position, what are our ishort-term needs? I think we have immediate needs everywhere but Tight End, Defensive Line, and Running Back, and for the latter, I think we need to prepare for the future.
Tight End: With six tight ends either on the roster or signed, we have plenty. Since none of them will be seniors until 2021, we’re actually good for a couple of years.
Running Back: We have five running backs coming back. Still, after next year, we’ll need to restock to some extent and bringing in a freshman would fill that bill this year.
Along the defensive line we have all our starters returning plus Devon Wright and hopefully fully- recovered Carlos Hatcher, Juan Monjarres, and Alfred Thomas. Add to that redshirt freshmen Eric Hicks, Armoni Dixon and Darius Hodges and already signed incoming freshmen Angelo Anderson, Noah Taliancich, and Brandon Brown and we have 14 linemen already signed or in the fold. Certainly, if a major addition knocked on the door, that would immediately start, I’d “snap him up” in a heartbeat. But barring that unlikely development, I think we’re fine. Our guys simply need to play up to their potential.
Now to the positions of need:
Quarterback: Keon Howard is our likely starter in 2020. Whether Christian Daniels or Dane Ledford (if he returns to QB) can hold off our two incoming freshmen for the backup position should be interesting. I’d really like to see us sign a graduate transfer who could push or beat out Howard for the starting job. That said, I’m not sure what graduate transfer would choose to come to Tulane with the likelihood of being a backup and I’m also not convinced signing a “backup” for one year makes much sense from a Tulane perspective. That said, if we can get the “right” guy, I’d feel more confident in the coming year. I might consider a “big time” JC but I wouldn’t sign another freshman until next year. I’m very happy with our incoming frosh.
Offensive Line: Although we have 16 players either on the roster or recently signed, we have only five scholarship players who have played much at the college level. The others have played little or none. Barring major injuries, we tend to need about eight linemen to navigate the season. That means we are short. We still might sign Trey Tuggle but, like most freshmen, he’s not likely to help a great deal right away. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had some attrition at this position by the summer and think we need to sign one or two graduate transfers.
Wide Receiver: Counting the two JC’s enrolling this month, we only have 8 wide receivers on the roster, but that includes Sorrell Brown, who has been injured since his arrival, and QB/WR Dane Ledford who hasn’t been able to break into the “two deep” in a very “shallow pool.” Toles and Robertson look like our starters at this point with sophomore Jhaquan Jackson and redshirt freshman, Tyrek Presley, showing potential to go along with the Watts twins. A solid graduate transfer would be terrific here.
Linebacker: We only play two linebackers at a time so we don’t need many, but, the three we have returning for 2020 is clearly well short of “need.” Moody started 10 games this past season but was inconsistent—a great play and then a bad “whiff.” Nick Anderson (26 tackles), who had a really good bowl game, and Dorian Williams (9 tackles) played in 12 and 10 games respectively as our 4th and 5th linebackers after the departing Malik Lawal and Lawrence Graham (our 9th and 3rd leading tacklers). The late additions to our signing class of Jesus Machado and Matthew Hightower help a lot. In fact, I think Machado could be a VERY early and major contributor. But I’d really like to see another Malik Lawal signed for 2020.
Defensive Backs: We lose five players from our defensive backfield: Thakarius Keyes, Will Harper, P.J. Hall, Larry Bryant, and Tirese Barge. We still have six others with experience coming back along with six redshirt freshmen and four recently signed true freshmen. I’d still like to see us grab an experienced graduate transfer or even a JC who looks capable of helping immediately.
Special Teams: Our deep snapper, Geron Eatherley, is a senior and won't be back for 2020. We all remember the snapping problems through much of the Toledo and Johnson years and we can't go back to that. Graduate transfer, JC, freshman recruit, or someone on the current roster, we need someone immediately And, of course, Merek Glover, who may be the most improved player on the team, will be a senior in 2020. We have several walk-ons who might replace him, including his younger brother, so it may not be an immediate problem, simply one to keep an eye on.
Anyway, I’ll not be concerned if we don’t sign a bunch of high school recruits on February 5. I’d much rather we work the graduate transfers rather than take a kid who will likely redshirt and be two years away from helping.
Roll Wave!!!
