Tulane had a light practice Tuesday morning on the heels of a heavier workout Monday afternoon, concentrating heavily on special teams (though not field goals) before ending with some seven-on-seven work.
I don't have to watch any more of Jonathan Banks to know he has the tools to be successful in the Willie Fritz/Doug Ruse offense. The only question now is whether he can translate his practice skills to game days, which some players can do and others can't. Today, he hooked up with Jabril Clewis and Darnell Mooney for consecutive touchdowns on red zone plays from the 3-yard line. He was decisive and accurate with his throws, zipping the one to Mooney on an in route with little open space. He almost had a third TD but was a little late with his throw, forcing Jacob Robertson to run out of bounds before he caught it on a comeback route.
The play of the day was turned in by Glen Cuiellette and Terren Encalade, who combined on a perfect throw and catch on a corner route in the back of the end zone. On his next play, though, Cuiellette fired a pass five yards over walk-on Rocky Ferony's head and out the back of the end zone.
John Leglue, who sprained his ankle last week, returned to practice today, helping the offensive line. Cornerback Donnie Lewis took some reps in individual drills but was not part of the 7-on-7 work. As I did once earlier this spring, I forgot about John Washington when I listed the injured offensive linemen in the Monday practice thread. He will not return this week, but everyone else who was not already hurt practiced today, leaving the line with Leglue, Devon Johnson, Keyshawn McLeod and Tyler Johnson at tackle, Leeward Brown, Dominique Briggs and Hunter Knighton at guard and Junior Diaz at center.
The tackling drill today for the linebackers and DBs involved one player holding a tackling pad and another tackling the pad. They never, ever skip the tackling drill in Fritz' practices.
To answer a post in another thread, Eric Thomas will not return to the team as a graduate senior. He participated in Pro Day at the Saints facility and played all four years of his career, so he has no eligibility left. I have no idea why he suddenly is listed as a grad senior on the official roster.
I talked to Encalade, Mooney, Clewis and wide receivers coach Jeff Conway for an Advocate feature after practice today. The receivers aren't great quotes, and Conway does not like to give specifics, but I will post some of what they said later.
The channel 4 TV crew was at practice today and dominated the questions for Fritz. Here's the transcript:
Is Encalade the No. 1 guy at wide receiver?
"He's doing a great job. He's really much improved and being more consistent catching the football. And the great think we like about Terren is he's very aggressive. He can block. Some receivers, that's not part of their game, but with our offense you've got to be able to do that. He's a great route runner, catches the ball well and also is very physical in blocking. He can be utilized in the kicking game, too.
"Right now he is (the No. 1 wideout), but we've got some other guys right there with him. Jabril Clewis has had a good spring. Darnell Mooney has gotten much better. Jacob Robertson is kind of like another new guy, too, because he got hurt last year, too. We're much improved in that area."
You said last year your receivers were smaller than the rest of the conference. Does Jabril Clewis give you that six?
"He's about 215 pounds, he's 6-1 and he really high points the ball. We've done a good job of throwing some fades to him and some 50-50 balls. I'm an old DB coach, and the toughest thing to do is teach those guys how to turn on the sideline and adjust to the football. It's difficult to do, and the receiver should have an advantage. Last year we couldn't really do that very often. He really allows us to do that. You can kind of throw it up for a jump ball."
How nice is it to have depth at receiver this spring?
"Well, we've got nine guys (counting walk-ons) and nobody's gotten hurt, so that's good. We kept nine from the first day of practice to the very end."
Jonathan Banks said he hadn't run the read option before. How hard was it to guess if he would be good in your system?
"Well he ran quite a bit of what we do, the zone read and the power. Obviously we wouldn't have recruited him if we didn't think he'd be able to do this type of offense. He's been able to pitch the ball as well. He's a tremendous threat running the ball. If a quarterback can run the ball a little bit, it opens up everything. He's done some of it before. Some of it he hadn't done, but he's really taken to it."
How has Darius Bradwell progressed at running back?
"He had a great practice yesterday. He's a big guy with great vision, and he's going to explode through arm tackles. I'm impressed with him, and he's another guy that can really do everything. He's got really soft hands, runs routes, is fast enough to run on the perimeter and is really good between the tackles. He's a bigger back, so he ought to be able to block."
Who approached whom about the move?
"He stayed there at quarterback last year but was having a hard time throwing the ball. What we saw was a good athlete who was staying over there by me, and we wanted to get him on the field. In the last game we ran him three plays in a row against Connecticut and he really showed some stuff to it. It's been a good move for our team."
How about the running back group in general?
"We're deep there. We've got some guys we think are bonafide Division i players. Dontrell Hilliard and Sherman Badie have looked really good. We've added Stephon Huderson. He's going to be a really good player for us. Unfortunately Corey Dauphine is ineligible this year, but he is going to be outstanding."
Leglue was back today?
"He sprained the heck out of his ankle and was unable to practice the last few days, but he's OK now and back ready to go, which is good. He'll play Saturday. "
I don't have to watch any more of Jonathan Banks to know he has the tools to be successful in the Willie Fritz/Doug Ruse offense. The only question now is whether he can translate his practice skills to game days, which some players can do and others can't. Today, he hooked up with Jabril Clewis and Darnell Mooney for consecutive touchdowns on red zone plays from the 3-yard line. He was decisive and accurate with his throws, zipping the one to Mooney on an in route with little open space. He almost had a third TD but was a little late with his throw, forcing Jacob Robertson to run out of bounds before he caught it on a comeback route.
The play of the day was turned in by Glen Cuiellette and Terren Encalade, who combined on a perfect throw and catch on a corner route in the back of the end zone. On his next play, though, Cuiellette fired a pass five yards over walk-on Rocky Ferony's head and out the back of the end zone.
John Leglue, who sprained his ankle last week, returned to practice today, helping the offensive line. Cornerback Donnie Lewis took some reps in individual drills but was not part of the 7-on-7 work. As I did once earlier this spring, I forgot about John Washington when I listed the injured offensive linemen in the Monday practice thread. He will not return this week, but everyone else who was not already hurt practiced today, leaving the line with Leglue, Devon Johnson, Keyshawn McLeod and Tyler Johnson at tackle, Leeward Brown, Dominique Briggs and Hunter Knighton at guard and Junior Diaz at center.
The tackling drill today for the linebackers and DBs involved one player holding a tackling pad and another tackling the pad. They never, ever skip the tackling drill in Fritz' practices.
To answer a post in another thread, Eric Thomas will not return to the team as a graduate senior. He participated in Pro Day at the Saints facility and played all four years of his career, so he has no eligibility left. I have no idea why he suddenly is listed as a grad senior on the official roster.
I talked to Encalade, Mooney, Clewis and wide receivers coach Jeff Conway for an Advocate feature after practice today. The receivers aren't great quotes, and Conway does not like to give specifics, but I will post some of what they said later.
The channel 4 TV crew was at practice today and dominated the questions for Fritz. Here's the transcript:
Is Encalade the No. 1 guy at wide receiver?
"He's doing a great job. He's really much improved and being more consistent catching the football. And the great think we like about Terren is he's very aggressive. He can block. Some receivers, that's not part of their game, but with our offense you've got to be able to do that. He's a great route runner, catches the ball well and also is very physical in blocking. He can be utilized in the kicking game, too.
"Right now he is (the No. 1 wideout), but we've got some other guys right there with him. Jabril Clewis has had a good spring. Darnell Mooney has gotten much better. Jacob Robertson is kind of like another new guy, too, because he got hurt last year, too. We're much improved in that area."
You said last year your receivers were smaller than the rest of the conference. Does Jabril Clewis give you that six?
"He's about 215 pounds, he's 6-1 and he really high points the ball. We've done a good job of throwing some fades to him and some 50-50 balls. I'm an old DB coach, and the toughest thing to do is teach those guys how to turn on the sideline and adjust to the football. It's difficult to do, and the receiver should have an advantage. Last year we couldn't really do that very often. He really allows us to do that. You can kind of throw it up for a jump ball."
How nice is it to have depth at receiver this spring?
"Well, we've got nine guys (counting walk-ons) and nobody's gotten hurt, so that's good. We kept nine from the first day of practice to the very end."
Jonathan Banks said he hadn't run the read option before. How hard was it to guess if he would be good in your system?
"Well he ran quite a bit of what we do, the zone read and the power. Obviously we wouldn't have recruited him if we didn't think he'd be able to do this type of offense. He's been able to pitch the ball as well. He's a tremendous threat running the ball. If a quarterback can run the ball a little bit, it opens up everything. He's done some of it before. Some of it he hadn't done, but he's really taken to it."
How has Darius Bradwell progressed at running back?
"He had a great practice yesterday. He's a big guy with great vision, and he's going to explode through arm tackles. I'm impressed with him, and he's another guy that can really do everything. He's got really soft hands, runs routes, is fast enough to run on the perimeter and is really good between the tackles. He's a bigger back, so he ought to be able to block."
Who approached whom about the move?
"He stayed there at quarterback last year but was having a hard time throwing the ball. What we saw was a good athlete who was staying over there by me, and we wanted to get him on the field. In the last game we ran him three plays in a row against Connecticut and he really showed some stuff to it. It's been a good move for our team."
How about the running back group in general?
"We're deep there. We've got some guys we think are bonafide Division i players. Dontrell Hilliard and Sherman Badie have looked really good. We've added Stephon Huderson. He's going to be a really good player for us. Unfortunately Corey Dauphine is ineligible this year, but he is going to be outstanding."
Leglue was back today?
"He sprained the heck out of his ankle and was unable to practice the last few days, but he's OK now and back ready to go, which is good. He'll play Saturday. "
