Day two of Tulane's preseason camp left coach Willie Fritz a little disappointed, but only because there were four false-start penalties in the 60-play 11-on-11 work at the end after there were two on Monday. He wants unforced mistakes like that to decrease rather than increase.
"We have to do a better job on that," he said. "That's a big part of our philosophy is the Wave don't beat the Wave. We want to make sure the other team beats us, not ourselves. If we play clean, we have an excellent chance of winning. That was a little disappointing, but I saw some good things. (Johnathan Brantley) had a good day running the option and throwing the football. The other thing you gotta look at is who was that guy playing with, who was his line, who were his backs, who's playing defense as well. You have to temper your enthusiasm sometimes and go back and watch the tape, but we're getting better. We had a good walkthrough last evening and we'll have another good one tonight."
There definitely is no change in the pecking order at quarterback, with Jonathan Banks No. 1 and Brantley a clear No. 2 after two days. Glen Cuiellette threw during one-on-ones but did not get any reps in seven-on-seven or 11-on-11, with freshmen Khalil McClain and Dane Ledford operating as the No. 3 and 4 QBs. Cuiellette did not throw well in 1-on-1 work, so he might have a slight shoulder, although Fritz did not bring it up after practice.
Not much has changed on the depth chart after two days of non-contact work, but John Leglue spent some time at left tackle with Keyshawn McLeod getting reps at right tackle. I predicted Tyler Johnson as a starting OL before camp began, but given what has been posted on this message board and my own eyes, I'm changing it to McLeod. It's always made sense to me for Leglue to go on the left side because, in the coaches' eyes, he is Tulane's best tackle.
"We're having him do both," Fritz said. "Last year we barely had one deep. We're trying to get where we can play at least eight guys. We'd like to have three tackles, two centers and three guards. If you can do that, you've got some pretty good depth."
Depth is only part of the issue, of course. Tulane needs its offensive linemen to improve across the board, but I can see eight guys ready to play: Leglue, McLeod and Tyler Johnson at tackle; Dominique Briggs, Leeward Brown and John Washington at guard; and Junior Diaz and Hunter Knighton at center, with Knighton having the flexibility to play anywhere on the line in case someone gets hurt. But ready to play well? We'll have to wait and see.
Ade Aruna continued to get the bulk of his work inside, and Fritz continued to play down that development.
"He's a guy we feel like we can move from a defensive end playing outside the tackles to playing inside as a 3 technique in pass rush match-ups against guards. The only time we'll really do that is in pass rushing situations. We're trying to take advantage of a matchup. Maybe they've got a weak guard. That's what we tried to do with Tanzel (Smart) a lot last year in passing situations. We tried to get him on the worst of the two guards."
Aruna talked after practice (his Q&A comes later), but he identified De'Andre Williams after starters Sean Wilson and Eldrick Washington as a guy who was really coming on. Braynon Edwards missed practice because of a class conflict for the second straight day, along with wide receiver Jabril Clewis, and Fritz said they would be out all week for summer school. It's the product of the NCAA making a late decision about changing the schedule, allowing teams to begin practice a week earlier due to the elimination of two-a-days. The class schedules already had been set up, so this is not simply an issue of Tulane academics getting in the way of football. Still, it's never good when a likely starter (Clewis) and a project who was coming on in the spring (Edwards) have to miss an entire week of practice.
I got there just as one-on-one passing drills began, and I charted a lot of them. The rotation, with one rep and off, was Banks, Brantley. McLain, Ledford, Cuiellette. The two walk-ons did not participate.
Banks threw an incomplete pass to Chris Johnson deep when he was blanketed by Jaylon Monroe, had a pass go off the hands of tight end Will Wallace in front of P.J. Hall, threw a perfect strike deep down the sideline to Terren Encalade for a long gain on Jarrod Franklin, (Encalade is head and shoulders above the rest of the receivers), hit Darnell Mooney on a slant inside of Stephon Lofton and hit Johnson on an out route when he made a nice catch.
Brantley hit Jacob Robertson on an inside route against Willie Langham, threw a short pass to Charles Jones on Sean Harper, watched Jaetavian Toles drop a throw on Thakarius Keyes, could not connect with Robertson deep when he was covered well by Quentin Brown and hit a receiver on an out route (I missed the number).
McClain, who has a live arm, overthrew Connor Prouet on Taris Shenall, ran when D.J. Owens slipped to the ground making his cut and threw a very short completion to Chris Johnson on Langham. I missed his other reps.
Ledford had a pass go off the hands of Brian Newman on Tirise Barge, completed a deep, underthrown ball to an open Devin Glenn, forcing Glenn to wrestle it away from Lofton, hit Robertson on an out route, threw behind Kevin LeDee on Shenall and hit Newman over the middle on Teamer.
Cuiellette threw a comeback to Mooney when Mooney faked Keyes out of his socks with a quick reversal, hit Reed Green on a post pattern against Quentin Brown, hit Kendall Ardoin on an out route against walk-on Jeremy Allen and woefully underthrew a deep ball down the middle that Parry Nickerson intercepted easily in front of Glenn.
Next they went to 7 on 7 work, with Banks and then Brantley getting six reps in a row before the two freshman got three reps each. I missed Banks' first three plays while I checked something on my phone, but he completed a short out to Toles on his fourth rep, had Wallace make a juggling catch down the sideline and threaded a beautiful pass to Jones in traffic, but Jones dropped it.
Brantley began his stint with back-to-back bangs, going deep to a wide open Travis Tucker down the middle and following with a pretty deep ball to Toles on a post pattern, beating Lofton. He then overthrew Chris Johnson on the run, misfired deep into traffic for Robertson, who struggled to get separation all day coming off his knee injury, scrambled and threw into the ground and completed a short sideline pass to Robertson after scrambling again. Brantley's arm is better this year, but he still needs to work on his patience and keeping plays alive when he gets out of the pocket rather than just putting his head down and running.
McLain was next, getting three reps. He threaded a perfect pass to Andew Hicks down the sideline, but Hicks dropped it. He then completed a short one to Prouet in the flat and ran when no one was open right away. Ledford came in, completing a pass to Hilliard in the flat, completing a pass to Mooney but throwing it late and making him wait on the outside and connecting with Glenn on a short sideline gain.
Banks went back in, throwing out of bounds to Robertson deep. He made the catch but was not close to staying inbounds. Banks then threw a picture-perfect pass to LeDee, who was well-covered by Donnie Lewis. The ball dropped right into his hands, and he did an excellent job shielding Lewis from the ball, but he dropped it. LeDee is wearing a glove on one his right hand, possible to protect an injury. Banks finished up with two completions to Encalade and Glenn.
Brantley got another opportunity, completing two short passes to Wallace and Hilliard, before the team broke up into individual drills.
Larry Bryant practiced with the linebackers in those individual drills, as did Quinlan Carroll. When both of them play on the defensive line, they function as stand-up ends, or really outside linebackers.
The usual suspects were on the first team in 11-on-11 work, although Newman, the senior walk-on wide receiver from Dallas, is pretty high on the list. It will be interesting to see if he continues to get reps with the upper units. He definitely runs good routes and has good hands.
The Wave also is executing the option much more crisply, with Sherman Badie and Glenn the most effective players on the team as pitch men. Both Banks and Brantley seem to have the right angle with the running backs now--something that rarely happened last fall--and their pitches are accurate.
Aruna, who tends to fall down with injuries that appear serious but turn out not to be, went down early in the 11-on-11 work, holding his hands on his helmet while trainers looked at his left ankle. A minute later, he got up, limped for a second, then took his position for the next rep. It's an interesting thing, but since he almost never misses any time, it's not a big deal.
I'll post quotes later.
"We have to do a better job on that," he said. "That's a big part of our philosophy is the Wave don't beat the Wave. We want to make sure the other team beats us, not ourselves. If we play clean, we have an excellent chance of winning. That was a little disappointing, but I saw some good things. (Johnathan Brantley) had a good day running the option and throwing the football. The other thing you gotta look at is who was that guy playing with, who was his line, who were his backs, who's playing defense as well. You have to temper your enthusiasm sometimes and go back and watch the tape, but we're getting better. We had a good walkthrough last evening and we'll have another good one tonight."
There definitely is no change in the pecking order at quarterback, with Jonathan Banks No. 1 and Brantley a clear No. 2 after two days. Glen Cuiellette threw during one-on-ones but did not get any reps in seven-on-seven or 11-on-11, with freshmen Khalil McClain and Dane Ledford operating as the No. 3 and 4 QBs. Cuiellette did not throw well in 1-on-1 work, so he might have a slight shoulder, although Fritz did not bring it up after practice.
Not much has changed on the depth chart after two days of non-contact work, but John Leglue spent some time at left tackle with Keyshawn McLeod getting reps at right tackle. I predicted Tyler Johnson as a starting OL before camp began, but given what has been posted on this message board and my own eyes, I'm changing it to McLeod. It's always made sense to me for Leglue to go on the left side because, in the coaches' eyes, he is Tulane's best tackle.
"We're having him do both," Fritz said. "Last year we barely had one deep. We're trying to get where we can play at least eight guys. We'd like to have three tackles, two centers and three guards. If you can do that, you've got some pretty good depth."
Depth is only part of the issue, of course. Tulane needs its offensive linemen to improve across the board, but I can see eight guys ready to play: Leglue, McLeod and Tyler Johnson at tackle; Dominique Briggs, Leeward Brown and John Washington at guard; and Junior Diaz and Hunter Knighton at center, with Knighton having the flexibility to play anywhere on the line in case someone gets hurt. But ready to play well? We'll have to wait and see.
Ade Aruna continued to get the bulk of his work inside, and Fritz continued to play down that development.
"He's a guy we feel like we can move from a defensive end playing outside the tackles to playing inside as a 3 technique in pass rush match-ups against guards. The only time we'll really do that is in pass rushing situations. We're trying to take advantage of a matchup. Maybe they've got a weak guard. That's what we tried to do with Tanzel (Smart) a lot last year in passing situations. We tried to get him on the worst of the two guards."
Aruna talked after practice (his Q&A comes later), but he identified De'Andre Williams after starters Sean Wilson and Eldrick Washington as a guy who was really coming on. Braynon Edwards missed practice because of a class conflict for the second straight day, along with wide receiver Jabril Clewis, and Fritz said they would be out all week for summer school. It's the product of the NCAA making a late decision about changing the schedule, allowing teams to begin practice a week earlier due to the elimination of two-a-days. The class schedules already had been set up, so this is not simply an issue of Tulane academics getting in the way of football. Still, it's never good when a likely starter (Clewis) and a project who was coming on in the spring (Edwards) have to miss an entire week of practice.
I got there just as one-on-one passing drills began, and I charted a lot of them. The rotation, with one rep and off, was Banks, Brantley. McLain, Ledford, Cuiellette. The two walk-ons did not participate.
Banks threw an incomplete pass to Chris Johnson deep when he was blanketed by Jaylon Monroe, had a pass go off the hands of tight end Will Wallace in front of P.J. Hall, threw a perfect strike deep down the sideline to Terren Encalade for a long gain on Jarrod Franklin, (Encalade is head and shoulders above the rest of the receivers), hit Darnell Mooney on a slant inside of Stephon Lofton and hit Johnson on an out route when he made a nice catch.
Brantley hit Jacob Robertson on an inside route against Willie Langham, threw a short pass to Charles Jones on Sean Harper, watched Jaetavian Toles drop a throw on Thakarius Keyes, could not connect with Robertson deep when he was covered well by Quentin Brown and hit a receiver on an out route (I missed the number).
McClain, who has a live arm, overthrew Connor Prouet on Taris Shenall, ran when D.J. Owens slipped to the ground making his cut and threw a very short completion to Chris Johnson on Langham. I missed his other reps.
Ledford had a pass go off the hands of Brian Newman on Tirise Barge, completed a deep, underthrown ball to an open Devin Glenn, forcing Glenn to wrestle it away from Lofton, hit Robertson on an out route, threw behind Kevin LeDee on Shenall and hit Newman over the middle on Teamer.
Cuiellette threw a comeback to Mooney when Mooney faked Keyes out of his socks with a quick reversal, hit Reed Green on a post pattern against Quentin Brown, hit Kendall Ardoin on an out route against walk-on Jeremy Allen and woefully underthrew a deep ball down the middle that Parry Nickerson intercepted easily in front of Glenn.
Next they went to 7 on 7 work, with Banks and then Brantley getting six reps in a row before the two freshman got three reps each. I missed Banks' first three plays while I checked something on my phone, but he completed a short out to Toles on his fourth rep, had Wallace make a juggling catch down the sideline and threaded a beautiful pass to Jones in traffic, but Jones dropped it.
Brantley began his stint with back-to-back bangs, going deep to a wide open Travis Tucker down the middle and following with a pretty deep ball to Toles on a post pattern, beating Lofton. He then overthrew Chris Johnson on the run, misfired deep into traffic for Robertson, who struggled to get separation all day coming off his knee injury, scrambled and threw into the ground and completed a short sideline pass to Robertson after scrambling again. Brantley's arm is better this year, but he still needs to work on his patience and keeping plays alive when he gets out of the pocket rather than just putting his head down and running.
McLain was next, getting three reps. He threaded a perfect pass to Andew Hicks down the sideline, but Hicks dropped it. He then completed a short one to Prouet in the flat and ran when no one was open right away. Ledford came in, completing a pass to Hilliard in the flat, completing a pass to Mooney but throwing it late and making him wait on the outside and connecting with Glenn on a short sideline gain.
Banks went back in, throwing out of bounds to Robertson deep. He made the catch but was not close to staying inbounds. Banks then threw a picture-perfect pass to LeDee, who was well-covered by Donnie Lewis. The ball dropped right into his hands, and he did an excellent job shielding Lewis from the ball, but he dropped it. LeDee is wearing a glove on one his right hand, possible to protect an injury. Banks finished up with two completions to Encalade and Glenn.
Brantley got another opportunity, completing two short passes to Wallace and Hilliard, before the team broke up into individual drills.
Larry Bryant practiced with the linebackers in those individual drills, as did Quinlan Carroll. When both of them play on the defensive line, they function as stand-up ends, or really outside linebackers.
The usual suspects were on the first team in 11-on-11 work, although Newman, the senior walk-on wide receiver from Dallas, is pretty high on the list. It will be interesting to see if he continues to get reps with the upper units. He definitely runs good routes and has good hands.
The Wave also is executing the option much more crisply, with Sherman Badie and Glenn the most effective players on the team as pitch men. Both Banks and Brantley seem to have the right angle with the running backs now--something that rarely happened last fall--and their pitches are accurate.
Aruna, who tends to fall down with injuries that appear serious but turn out not to be, went down early in the 11-on-11 work, holding his hands on his helmet while trainers looked at his left ankle. A minute later, he got up, limped for a second, then took his position for the next rep. It's an interesting thing, but since he almost never misses any time, it's not a big deal.
I'll post quotes later.
