With another heat advisory in place for New Orleans, Tulane practiced at the Saints indoor facility in the first of five consecutive practices that will occur away from the glaring sun. The timing is coincidental--the Saints' facility is available because they are headed to Los Angeles to practice against the Chargers, and the Superdome was available on Friday and Saturday--but it certainly will make for better practices.
Actually, today would not have been too bad because of a constant cloud cover, but the Wave still took advantage of the climate-controlled conditions on Airline Highway with a much longer 11-on-11 session than normal. Willie Fritz said they ran 66 plays on Tuesday, almost double the 36 they had yesterday at Yulman Stadium.
There were no fights like the last time they went to the Saints' facility, but the workout was spirited. The team (11-on-11) portion started with a goal-line drill before they turned it around and forced the offense to start from its 1-yard line. Later, they did the normal scrimmage-type stuff with full contact at the line of scrimmage but not full tackling.
Ygenio Booker, an outstanding receiver out of the backfield, made one of the two catches of the day when he dove to snag a pass from Keon Howard in the corner of the end zone, beating freshman safety Tyler Judson. But tight end Will Wallace may have topped Booker on the last play of the day. After already getting wide open for a big-gaining reception on a bootleg by Howard, Wallace leaped to catch a Christian Daniels pass in the middle of the field with linebacker Nick Anderson draped all over him. It was the best play I've seen from Wallace as a receiver, and he really helped himself today.
When the first-team offense tried to move the ball out from its 1 against the first-team defense, it did not have much success. Most of the plays were stuffed for little gain. That changed when the second-team offense and defense went out there, with Stephon Huderson making consecutive nice runs for first downs, or what likely would have been a first down in a live drill.
During the regular portion of the 11-on-11 work, freshman linebacker Dorian Williams batted down a Daniels pass on a blitz. I'm not sure if Tulane's backup linebackers are starter quality, but four of them--Williams, Anderson, Malik Lawal and Quentin Brown--are in the mix for playing time and have made plays during the preseason.
Tulane's defense has used a lot of looks, experimenting with different combinations even though the guys who are going to play a lot are obvious. With better depth and more versatility, defensive coordinator Jack Curtis will make sure opponents won't have a good read on what his scheme is doing. Lawal and Anderson got some reps together with the first-team defense today while Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody had some reps with the second unit. Graham was flying around anyway.
Larry Brooks provided a brief scare when he collapsed, holding his leg, but after walking slowly to the sideline, he was back in about three plays later.
They worked on kickoff returns with a ball machine sending kickoffs to the returners with blockers in front of them. Jalen McCleskey, who was full go today, was the only player to muff one, but he looks smooth as a returner and should be a nice complement for Amare Jones.
Jones almost dropped a pass during team drills, but he found a way to bring it in for a nice gain as it slipped down his body.
Justin McMillan's prettiest pass of the day was a perfect fade to Darnell Mooney for a touchdown int he corner of the end zone.
The longest gain of the day was a touchdown connection from Daniels to Jorien Vallien against a busted coverage. I'm not sure whose fault it was, but safety Sean Harper, the closest defender, was more than 10 yards away when Vallien ran under the pass.
The first-team offensive line was the usual suspects plus Keyshawn McLeod at right guard. The second-team line was Nik Hogan at LT, Jackson Fort at LG, Sincere Haynesworth at C, Ben Knutson at right guard and Timothy Shafter at RT. Cameron Jackel did not practice with an injury, watching the workout without a helmet. Near the end of the 11-on-11 work, the line was Shafter at LT. Fort at LG, Trace Oldner at C, Knutson at RG and McLeod at RT as offensive line coach Cody Kennedy continued to experiment with different combos and double-train some guys.
The first-team D-line was the usual suspects. Behind them were Davon Wright, Eric Hicks, Mike Hinton and Juan Monjarres, wiih Carlos Hatcher getting some reps at joker, too.
Chris Joyce got some reps with the first-team defense at corner in Jaylon Monroe's spot. With Willie Langham sitting out, Joyce would be the No. 3 corner.
Tulane will hold its first night practice tomorrow at Yulman Stadium, and if not a full-fledged scrimmage, it will be full pads with hitting. Should be interesting.
Actually, today would not have been too bad because of a constant cloud cover, but the Wave still took advantage of the climate-controlled conditions on Airline Highway with a much longer 11-on-11 session than normal. Willie Fritz said they ran 66 plays on Tuesday, almost double the 36 they had yesterday at Yulman Stadium.
There were no fights like the last time they went to the Saints' facility, but the workout was spirited. The team (11-on-11) portion started with a goal-line drill before they turned it around and forced the offense to start from its 1-yard line. Later, they did the normal scrimmage-type stuff with full contact at the line of scrimmage but not full tackling.
Ygenio Booker, an outstanding receiver out of the backfield, made one of the two catches of the day when he dove to snag a pass from Keon Howard in the corner of the end zone, beating freshman safety Tyler Judson. But tight end Will Wallace may have topped Booker on the last play of the day. After already getting wide open for a big-gaining reception on a bootleg by Howard, Wallace leaped to catch a Christian Daniels pass in the middle of the field with linebacker Nick Anderson draped all over him. It was the best play I've seen from Wallace as a receiver, and he really helped himself today.
When the first-team offense tried to move the ball out from its 1 against the first-team defense, it did not have much success. Most of the plays were stuffed for little gain. That changed when the second-team offense and defense went out there, with Stephon Huderson making consecutive nice runs for first downs, or what likely would have been a first down in a live drill.
During the regular portion of the 11-on-11 work, freshman linebacker Dorian Williams batted down a Daniels pass on a blitz. I'm not sure if Tulane's backup linebackers are starter quality, but four of them--Williams, Anderson, Malik Lawal and Quentin Brown--are in the mix for playing time and have made plays during the preseason.
Tulane's defense has used a lot of looks, experimenting with different combinations even though the guys who are going to play a lot are obvious. With better depth and more versatility, defensive coordinator Jack Curtis will make sure opponents won't have a good read on what his scheme is doing. Lawal and Anderson got some reps together with the first-team defense today while Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody had some reps with the second unit. Graham was flying around anyway.
Larry Brooks provided a brief scare when he collapsed, holding his leg, but after walking slowly to the sideline, he was back in about three plays later.
They worked on kickoff returns with a ball machine sending kickoffs to the returners with blockers in front of them. Jalen McCleskey, who was full go today, was the only player to muff one, but he looks smooth as a returner and should be a nice complement for Amare Jones.
Jones almost dropped a pass during team drills, but he found a way to bring it in for a nice gain as it slipped down his body.
Justin McMillan's prettiest pass of the day was a perfect fade to Darnell Mooney for a touchdown int he corner of the end zone.
The longest gain of the day was a touchdown connection from Daniels to Jorien Vallien against a busted coverage. I'm not sure whose fault it was, but safety Sean Harper, the closest defender, was more than 10 yards away when Vallien ran under the pass.
The first-team offensive line was the usual suspects plus Keyshawn McLeod at right guard. The second-team line was Nik Hogan at LT, Jackson Fort at LG, Sincere Haynesworth at C, Ben Knutson at right guard and Timothy Shafter at RT. Cameron Jackel did not practice with an injury, watching the workout without a helmet. Near the end of the 11-on-11 work, the line was Shafter at LT. Fort at LG, Trace Oldner at C, Knutson at RG and McLeod at RT as offensive line coach Cody Kennedy continued to experiment with different combos and double-train some guys.
The first-team D-line was the usual suspects. Behind them were Davon Wright, Eric Hicks, Mike Hinton and Juan Monjarres, wiih Carlos Hatcher getting some reps at joker, too.
Chris Joyce got some reps with the first-team defense at corner in Jaylon Monroe's spot. With Willie Langham sitting out, Joyce would be the No. 3 corner.
Tulane will hold its first night practice tomorrow at Yulman Stadium, and if not a full-fledged scrimmage, it will be full pads with hitting. Should be interesting.
