Trying to get the legs fresh for Friday's scrimmage, Tulane conducted a light half-practice on Thursday morning at Yulman Stadium that started an hour late and ended at the usual time. Players wore caps instead of helmets and walking through drills they normally do not do. For instance, they had a field-goal block drill without a ball. The rushers lined up where they were supposed to before a fake snap and a fake kick.
Nearly the entire one-hour workout was devoted to special teams. Coaches reminded players they can return long field goals that come up short. They worked on kickoff returns against air, and since this is a full-service site, I wrote down the 11 guys on the kickoff return team. The No. 1 unit has Willie Langham, P.J. Hall, Larry Brooks, Chase Kuerschen, Larry Bryant and KJ Vault as the first line, Tyrick James, Patrick Johnson and Will Wallace as the up backs and Stephon Huderson and Amare Jones as the deep men. I believe Jalen McCleskey is the usual deep back along with Jones. I did not write down the second and third units, but the deep men on the No. 2 group are Chris Joyce and Jaetavian Toles and on the No. 3 group are Tyjae Spears and Jha'Quan Jackson.
The drills had no contact at all but required mental attention. At one point, Willie Fritz hollered out, "This is part of my eval. It's going to be impossible for me to tell him something during a game and have him do it" if he doesn't listen to instructions in practice.
During some of the special teams work, defensive coordinator Jack Curtis worked with the jokers (OLBs). They are Patrick Johnson, Carlos Hatcher, Juan Monjarres and Torri Singletary.
When the workout was over, Fritz praised their attention to detail in the team huddle and then told them,"Leave your hat in your lock boxes. They are for the whole year."
Here is Fritz after the practice:
How much can you get out of these practices?
"A bunch. It's really good. We go over things we don't get a chance to go over once the season starts. We're pretty lucky where the bye weeks fall. We will review some situations that will occur very often in those bye weeks, too. One of them is after four games and the other one's after eight games, so that works pretty good. It's excellent to go over a few things you don't get to go over on a daily basis."
About how many plays will the scrimmage be tomorrow?
"It's going to be fairly similar to the spring game format. We're going to go two quarters and some guys are going to play a lot and some guys are going to play a little."
What is the difference in Justin McMillan as a leader now that he's been here a year?
"He knows the guys. I read somewhere he made a comment he wasn't quite sure what Darnell Mooney's name was when he threw a touchdown pass (to him against Memphis last September). Hopefully he did, but maybe he didn't. He just knows all our players. That's good. I think he's very comfortable with coach Hall. Coach Hall does a fabulous job, not only with the offense, but he's really a good quarterback coach. There's not a lot of them out there. There's guys that act like they're quarterback guys, and if they are they probably can't tie it into a scheme. Or else the guy knows scheme but he doesn't know the proper mechanics of quarterback play. He really does a good job of both."
I will have quotes from Patrick Johnson and Cam Sample a little later.
Nearly the entire one-hour workout was devoted to special teams. Coaches reminded players they can return long field goals that come up short. They worked on kickoff returns against air, and since this is a full-service site, I wrote down the 11 guys on the kickoff return team. The No. 1 unit has Willie Langham, P.J. Hall, Larry Brooks, Chase Kuerschen, Larry Bryant and KJ Vault as the first line, Tyrick James, Patrick Johnson and Will Wallace as the up backs and Stephon Huderson and Amare Jones as the deep men. I believe Jalen McCleskey is the usual deep back along with Jones. I did not write down the second and third units, but the deep men on the No. 2 group are Chris Joyce and Jaetavian Toles and on the No. 3 group are Tyjae Spears and Jha'Quan Jackson.
The drills had no contact at all but required mental attention. At one point, Willie Fritz hollered out, "This is part of my eval. It's going to be impossible for me to tell him something during a game and have him do it" if he doesn't listen to instructions in practice.
During some of the special teams work, defensive coordinator Jack Curtis worked with the jokers (OLBs). They are Patrick Johnson, Carlos Hatcher, Juan Monjarres and Torri Singletary.
When the workout was over, Fritz praised their attention to detail in the team huddle and then told them,"Leave your hat in your lock boxes. They are for the whole year."
Here is Fritz after the practice:
How much can you get out of these practices?
"A bunch. It's really good. We go over things we don't get a chance to go over once the season starts. We're pretty lucky where the bye weeks fall. We will review some situations that will occur very often in those bye weeks, too. One of them is after four games and the other one's after eight games, so that works pretty good. It's excellent to go over a few things you don't get to go over on a daily basis."
About how many plays will the scrimmage be tomorrow?
"It's going to be fairly similar to the spring game format. We're going to go two quarters and some guys are going to play a lot and some guys are going to play a little."
What is the difference in Justin McMillan as a leader now that he's been here a year?
"He knows the guys. I read somewhere he made a comment he wasn't quite sure what Darnell Mooney's name was when he threw a touchdown pass (to him against Memphis last September). Hopefully he did, but maybe he didn't. He just knows all our players. That's good. I think he's very comfortable with coach Hall. Coach Hall does a fabulous job, not only with the offense, but he's really a good quarterback coach. There's not a lot of them out there. There's guys that act like they're quarterback guys, and if they are they probably can't tie it into a scheme. Or else the guy knows scheme but he doesn't know the proper mechanics of quarterback play. He really does a good job of both."
I will have quotes from Patrick Johnson and Cam Sample a little later.
