Tulane's special teams have gotten better incrementally under Willie Fritz and one reason is how hard he coaches that unit. When I arrived at practice on a beautiful morning, he was drilling those guys hard on kickoff returns. Jalen McCleskey, who appears destined to be the primary returner, broke outside of his blockers (it was a simulation with no actual hitting or coverage unit; the drill was just to have the blockers and returners run upfield in the right formation) on one of them, and Fritz screamed "stay between them," repeatedly, explaining that the returner could freelance only in extreme circumstances but needed to follow the plan.
Next, they went to 7 on 7 drills, and believe it or not, Christian Daniels completed the most passes. He's not making a move up the depth chart, but he looked improve from the fall even though his injured knee is not 100 percent year. Going against backup defenders, he completed passes to Dane Ledford and Jared Poche in stride among others. Near the end of practice, he threw a really nice pass to walk-on Ryan Thompson.
Keon Howard absolutely, positively has to improve his accuracy. He missed an open receiver in the middle of he field and even threw a swing pass into the ground. That cannot happen. Howard rebounded a little bit in 11 on 11, throwing a nice pass to Ygenio Booker over the middle and finding Dauphine for a short gain. But he also threw over the wrong shoulder to Jorrien Vallien on a deep ball. Vallien adjusted to it poorly, taking too long to move outside when he thought it was coming to his inside shoulder, resulting in an incomplete pass. Jaetavien Toles then caught a pass on the outside. T
It was not Justin McMillan's sharpest day, either, as the defense had the upper hand in 7 on 7 and 11 on 11. He threw behind Corey Dauphine, had a pass for Jorrien Vallien broken up by Lawrence Graham. After connecting with McCleskey over the middle, he threw a pretty deep spiral to no one as someone broke off a route or McMillan simply missed the call.
Tulane still does not have a proven No. 3 wideout, but Toles is the closest. The other guys still need to improve a lot. Sorrell Brown, who was promising at the beginning of fall camp a year ago before tearing two knee ligaments, is dressing but will not get reps this spring as his knee continues to heal. I did not see Kevin LeDee, another 2018 injury, running routes, either. I might have missed him, but the group of him, Jacob Robertson, Booker, Vallien and Ledford are not ready at this point. They have 10 more spring practices to get better.
The depth charts offensively and defensively remained the same. I like the defense, with the only real concern at both safety spots. P.J. Hall needs to play better than last year, and the Chase Kuerschen/Macon Clark combo at strong safety is unproven. The cornerbacks, despite losing Donnie Lewis, should be fine with some combination of Thakarius Keyes, Jaylon Monroe, Willie Langham and Chris Joyce.
Amare Jones did not practice. Fritz said he attended meetings but was ill and unable to work out.
FRITZ
How would you assess practice?
"It went all right. We worked on four-minute (drill) here at the end of practice. I think that's something that often gets overlooked, bleeding the clock, milking the clock, the calls we make defensively in that situation, the calls we make offensively in that situation. There's a whole lot of things we have to talk about in our meeting we have to do when we are in a four-minute type situation, and then we did a little perimeter drill throwing the ball, bodies on bodies, physicality, so that was good, too. We're starting to incorporate more special teams into practice as well."
You coached those kickoff return drills hard. How important are the details in stuff like that?
"It's all important. You have to make a good decision first of all. They changed the rules (last year) and now you get the ball on the 25-yard line (on all fair catches from the 25 through the end zone) and I believe 70-some-odd percent when you bring it out of the end zone, you don't make it to the 25. We're going to take it and fair catch it and get it on the 25-yard line. You gotta catch that ball with your momentum going forward. There's a stat in the NFL about how successful the returns were based on whether the guy was stationary or going backwards and drifting when he tried to bring it out. It's a huge difference. Just getting the right bodies on the right bodies. We try to play our best players in the kicking game."
What have you seen out of your running backs?
"Today I liked there at the very end, Cam Carroll ran with some power. He split two guys and those were some glancing blows and the size and speed of our guys, they ought to run through arm tackles. That should be their goal. Obviously defensively we're coaching that that can't happen, but we've got to do a better job of running with power. We're not running with power all the time out here in practice. Sometimes we fall down because we're not running with that power. We need to have a good forward lean but not so much we fall on our face."
What is Sorrell Brown's status?
"Yeah, he'll be ready July 30th when we have our first day (of preseason drills). We're not trying to push. He (tore) both his ACL and his MCL, so we're waiting a little bit, but he's getting better and better every day."
How much credit should Kyle Speer get for the strength of the players?
"He does a great job. Kyle was with me at Sam Houston, I brought him to Georgia Southern and I brought him with me over here. It's he and his staff. He has a good staff. We also are very involved as coaches. For 15 years I was a strength coach. I love getting in the weight room. Other coaches love being in there. Everyone reinforces what we're looking for in the strength program and Kyle does a great job of leading us."
How important is it to know you share the same philosophy with Speer?
"The thing that's good for me is I don't have to sit around and micromanage him. I did the first spring I was with him in 2010, but since that time, he runs the program exactly the way I want him to run it and does a very good job with our guys."
Next, they went to 7 on 7 drills, and believe it or not, Christian Daniels completed the most passes. He's not making a move up the depth chart, but he looked improve from the fall even though his injured knee is not 100 percent year. Going against backup defenders, he completed passes to Dane Ledford and Jared Poche in stride among others. Near the end of practice, he threw a really nice pass to walk-on Ryan Thompson.
Keon Howard absolutely, positively has to improve his accuracy. He missed an open receiver in the middle of he field and even threw a swing pass into the ground. That cannot happen. Howard rebounded a little bit in 11 on 11, throwing a nice pass to Ygenio Booker over the middle and finding Dauphine for a short gain. But he also threw over the wrong shoulder to Jorrien Vallien on a deep ball. Vallien adjusted to it poorly, taking too long to move outside when he thought it was coming to his inside shoulder, resulting in an incomplete pass. Jaetavien Toles then caught a pass on the outside. T
It was not Justin McMillan's sharpest day, either, as the defense had the upper hand in 7 on 7 and 11 on 11. He threw behind Corey Dauphine, had a pass for Jorrien Vallien broken up by Lawrence Graham. After connecting with McCleskey over the middle, he threw a pretty deep spiral to no one as someone broke off a route or McMillan simply missed the call.
Tulane still does not have a proven No. 3 wideout, but Toles is the closest. The other guys still need to improve a lot. Sorrell Brown, who was promising at the beginning of fall camp a year ago before tearing two knee ligaments, is dressing but will not get reps this spring as his knee continues to heal. I did not see Kevin LeDee, another 2018 injury, running routes, either. I might have missed him, but the group of him, Jacob Robertson, Booker, Vallien and Ledford are not ready at this point. They have 10 more spring practices to get better.
The depth charts offensively and defensively remained the same. I like the defense, with the only real concern at both safety spots. P.J. Hall needs to play better than last year, and the Chase Kuerschen/Macon Clark combo at strong safety is unproven. The cornerbacks, despite losing Donnie Lewis, should be fine with some combination of Thakarius Keyes, Jaylon Monroe, Willie Langham and Chris Joyce.
Amare Jones did not practice. Fritz said he attended meetings but was ill and unable to work out.
FRITZ
How would you assess practice?
"It went all right. We worked on four-minute (drill) here at the end of practice. I think that's something that often gets overlooked, bleeding the clock, milking the clock, the calls we make defensively in that situation, the calls we make offensively in that situation. There's a whole lot of things we have to talk about in our meeting we have to do when we are in a four-minute type situation, and then we did a little perimeter drill throwing the ball, bodies on bodies, physicality, so that was good, too. We're starting to incorporate more special teams into practice as well."
You coached those kickoff return drills hard. How important are the details in stuff like that?
"It's all important. You have to make a good decision first of all. They changed the rules (last year) and now you get the ball on the 25-yard line (on all fair catches from the 25 through the end zone) and I believe 70-some-odd percent when you bring it out of the end zone, you don't make it to the 25. We're going to take it and fair catch it and get it on the 25-yard line. You gotta catch that ball with your momentum going forward. There's a stat in the NFL about how successful the returns were based on whether the guy was stationary or going backwards and drifting when he tried to bring it out. It's a huge difference. Just getting the right bodies on the right bodies. We try to play our best players in the kicking game."
What have you seen out of your running backs?
"Today I liked there at the very end, Cam Carroll ran with some power. He split two guys and those were some glancing blows and the size and speed of our guys, they ought to run through arm tackles. That should be their goal. Obviously defensively we're coaching that that can't happen, but we've got to do a better job of running with power. We're not running with power all the time out here in practice. Sometimes we fall down because we're not running with that power. We need to have a good forward lean but not so much we fall on our face."
What is Sorrell Brown's status?
"Yeah, he'll be ready July 30th when we have our first day (of preseason drills). We're not trying to push. He (tore) both his ACL and his MCL, so we're waiting a little bit, but he's getting better and better every day."
How much credit should Kyle Speer get for the strength of the players?
"He does a great job. Kyle was with me at Sam Houston, I brought him to Georgia Southern and I brought him with me over here. It's he and his staff. He has a good staff. We also are very involved as coaches. For 15 years I was a strength coach. I love getting in the weight room. Other coaches love being in there. Everyone reinforces what we're looking for in the strength program and Kyle does a great job of leading us."
How important is it to know you share the same philosophy with Speer?
"The thing that's good for me is I don't have to sit around and micromanage him. I did the first spring I was with him in 2010, but since that time, he runs the program exactly the way I want him to run it and does a very good job with our guys."