Due to a conflict, I got to practice later than the first two days, around 9:10, but saw the entire 11-on-11 portion.
Three days into camp, Andrew Hicks has accepted a planned move to tight end. He practiced there exclusively today, and wide receivers coach Jeff Conway said he would stay there.
"We've moved him to tight end full time," Conway said. "Part of his development is learning all the new blocking schemes, which we don't really resemble what we do at wideout. That's the biggest change. We know Andrew can run and catch, but the blocking phase, the run phase, is still and wait-and-see on Andrew."
Although Tulane's best receiver by far is Terren Encalade, Devin Glenn made the play of the day with a touchdown in the back of the end zone on a post pattern, running under a nice throw by Jonathan Banks. Glenn's 5-7 height always will be a limitation, making the quarterbacks throw very accurately if they want to hit him, but he has improved by leaps and bounds from early last fall, when he still wasn't buying into the position. He was overjoyed when he was moved back to running back temporarily due to injuries and disappointed when he returned to wideout a few weeks later, finishing with only three catches for 32 yards as the new coaching staff failed to figure out a way to utilize his track speed.
This year might be a different story. Glenn, the fastest player on the team, self-reported he ran a 4.31 40, during the summer.
"We want to utilize it everywhere we can, to be honest with you," Conway said. "Devin had done a great job of grasping, and it took a while, and committing himself to the receiver spot. Well now because of his great speed he is catching the deep ball with regularity, and that helps us a bunch."
Even a play Glenn didn't make impressed Conway. On the opening day of preseason drills, Conway watched a deep ball leave the quarterback's hands and immediately thought it would be well out of Glenn's reach. Instead, he made up the distance with his blazing speed and tracked it down before dropping it.
"Just the fact that he got there is tremendous progress," Conway said.
Glenn and Encalade are Tulane's best and really only deep threats until some of the freshmen maybe gain some experience. Jabril Clewis, who has not practiced yet due to a summer class conflict, was good on intermediate routes in the spring but largely came up empty on deep routes, failing to get separation. Chris Johnson, the fastest of last year's newcomers, is just returning to practice from a serious knee injury and is about 80- to 85-percent healthy according to Conway.
When Conway began coaching the receivers in the spring of 2016, Tulane had four scholarship wide receivers, an unimaginably low number for a D1 program. Now it's 10, a much more acceptable number, and walk-on junior Brian Newman (he is incorrectly listed as a senior on the official roster) is as good as a scholarship receiver.
"There are drills where instead of going both sides of the field, we had to go one at a time (in 2016), "Conway said. "Well now, because we've got seven quarterbacks running and 13 wideouts running (the other two walk-ons are Rocky Ferony and Reed Green), we can go both sides of the field an increase our reps. Kids at this level get better by doing, and the fact that we can go out on the field and not stand around to save their legs is a huge help."
The breakdown of the wideouts:
Encalade, Glenn, Clewis and Newman are juniors.
Darnell Mooney and D.J. Owens are true sophomores
Chris Johnson and Jacob Robertson are redshirt freshmen
Jaetavian Toles, Travis Tucker and Kevin LeDee are true freshmen.
Although I was impressed the most by Tucker of the freshmen on day 1, both Willie Fritz and Conway labeled Toles the most likely to contribute in his first year. He is quicker than his taller classmates, who at 6-3 (Tucker) and 6-5 (LeDee) need some time to develop into their bodies. He has not been spectacular by any means, but he makes a few nice plays every day.
"To his credit, he'll have a bad play and then come right back with a tremendous play," Conway said. "He has some resiliency, quickness and good ball skills. He's been able to go get the deep ball much better than what we anticipated, but there's so much to be learned and we're in a better place right now (depth-wise to not have to rely on a freshman)."
Robertson showed a lot of improvement in spring drills, and Owens, who caught one pass for a 28-yard touchdown a year ago (against Houston), has stepped up in the first three days of camp. He is a thickly built 5-10, 195 pounds and is making more plays after a relatively quiet spring.
"He was one of those freshmen last year who was just lost," Conway said. "Part of it was because we put him in a tough position. He played a lot of running back in high school, and that transition to receiver was a huge deal for him. Now that he's settled in, he's just so much better than what we anticipated. We're really happy with his progress."
Mooney was the only freshman who was ready to play last fall--despite not getting to enroll in the summer--finishing with 24 catches, 267 yards and two scores, all second to Encalade on the team. Fritz wants him to get better at avoiding contact from physical cornerbacks who bump him off his routes, and the early signs are good. Mooney caught a pass from Banks on the last play of Wednesdays' practice on a nice out route.
"He's still a very talented player, but he's so much more cerebral now," Conway said. "He thinks about things that he's supposed to do, routes and blocking concepts. It's not just that I've got that guy (on me). Now it's I've got this technique and I know where the ball's going. It's just a whole different world for him and a tremendous improvement."
Newman, a 5-8 receiver who transferred from Division II Hillsdale College, made a lot of plays in Tuesday's practice. Although he did not have a catch in 11-on-11 drills Wednesday, he has been working with the second team frequently. I'm always skeptical of walk-on wideouts-Larry Dace played his way into a scholarship but never was a big factor in the passing game, and I can't come up with a second impactful walk-on receiver at Tulane--but Newman at least bears watching. He had 26 catches for 293 yards and three scores as a sophomore at Hillsdale in 2015.
"We are extremely happy to have him in the program," Conway said. "Unless he gets injured, I see Brian getting playing time this year, which is a tremendous accomplishment for anybody, much less a guy who transfers and has to sit out a year."
Of the true freshmen, LeDee looks the furthest away because his legs are very skinny. He clearly needs to bulk up and become comfortable in his 6-5 frame.
"He and Travis Tucker kind of represent where we want to go with that position on our football team--a bigger kid," Conway said. "In our league we're battling guys that look like that. I can assure you with Kevin's work ethic, in two years he'll look like an NFL receiver lining up out there. Right now he's a little thin-limbed, and you'd expect that."
It's early, but aside from Encalade, Glenn and Clewis starting, I expect Robertson, Owens and Newman to be on the second group at the start of the year, with Toles getting a chance to show what he can do. I doubt the other two freshmen or Johnson will be a factor at that point. Johnson looks rusty and unsure of himself coming off the injury. He actually was on the training table getting looked at when I arrived today, but he appeared OK the rest of the way.
"Part of that, too, with Chris is conditioning because he's been under rehab the entire summer, and the conditioning phase of it is still a critical part," Conway said. "He's still a ways away, but it's good to have him out there because he is a talented young man."
Basically last year Tulane had two D1 wideouts in Encalade and Mooney. This year it should be at least six. This group still has plenty of proving to do before it is a team strength, but it's no longer an obvious weakness.
Three days into camp, Andrew Hicks has accepted a planned move to tight end. He practiced there exclusively today, and wide receivers coach Jeff Conway said he would stay there.
"We've moved him to tight end full time," Conway said. "Part of his development is learning all the new blocking schemes, which we don't really resemble what we do at wideout. That's the biggest change. We know Andrew can run and catch, but the blocking phase, the run phase, is still and wait-and-see on Andrew."
Although Tulane's best receiver by far is Terren Encalade, Devin Glenn made the play of the day with a touchdown in the back of the end zone on a post pattern, running under a nice throw by Jonathan Banks. Glenn's 5-7 height always will be a limitation, making the quarterbacks throw very accurately if they want to hit him, but he has improved by leaps and bounds from early last fall, when he still wasn't buying into the position. He was overjoyed when he was moved back to running back temporarily due to injuries and disappointed when he returned to wideout a few weeks later, finishing with only three catches for 32 yards as the new coaching staff failed to figure out a way to utilize his track speed.
This year might be a different story. Glenn, the fastest player on the team, self-reported he ran a 4.31 40, during the summer.
"We want to utilize it everywhere we can, to be honest with you," Conway said. "Devin had done a great job of grasping, and it took a while, and committing himself to the receiver spot. Well now because of his great speed he is catching the deep ball with regularity, and that helps us a bunch."
Even a play Glenn didn't make impressed Conway. On the opening day of preseason drills, Conway watched a deep ball leave the quarterback's hands and immediately thought it would be well out of Glenn's reach. Instead, he made up the distance with his blazing speed and tracked it down before dropping it.
"Just the fact that he got there is tremendous progress," Conway said.
Glenn and Encalade are Tulane's best and really only deep threats until some of the freshmen maybe gain some experience. Jabril Clewis, who has not practiced yet due to a summer class conflict, was good on intermediate routes in the spring but largely came up empty on deep routes, failing to get separation. Chris Johnson, the fastest of last year's newcomers, is just returning to practice from a serious knee injury and is about 80- to 85-percent healthy according to Conway.
When Conway began coaching the receivers in the spring of 2016, Tulane had four scholarship wide receivers, an unimaginably low number for a D1 program. Now it's 10, a much more acceptable number, and walk-on junior Brian Newman (he is incorrectly listed as a senior on the official roster) is as good as a scholarship receiver.
"There are drills where instead of going both sides of the field, we had to go one at a time (in 2016), "Conway said. "Well now, because we've got seven quarterbacks running and 13 wideouts running (the other two walk-ons are Rocky Ferony and Reed Green), we can go both sides of the field an increase our reps. Kids at this level get better by doing, and the fact that we can go out on the field and not stand around to save their legs is a huge help."
The breakdown of the wideouts:
Encalade, Glenn, Clewis and Newman are juniors.
Darnell Mooney and D.J. Owens are true sophomores
Chris Johnson and Jacob Robertson are redshirt freshmen
Jaetavian Toles, Travis Tucker and Kevin LeDee are true freshmen.
Although I was impressed the most by Tucker of the freshmen on day 1, both Willie Fritz and Conway labeled Toles the most likely to contribute in his first year. He is quicker than his taller classmates, who at 6-3 (Tucker) and 6-5 (LeDee) need some time to develop into their bodies. He has not been spectacular by any means, but he makes a few nice plays every day.
"To his credit, he'll have a bad play and then come right back with a tremendous play," Conway said. "He has some resiliency, quickness and good ball skills. He's been able to go get the deep ball much better than what we anticipated, but there's so much to be learned and we're in a better place right now (depth-wise to not have to rely on a freshman)."
Robertson showed a lot of improvement in spring drills, and Owens, who caught one pass for a 28-yard touchdown a year ago (against Houston), has stepped up in the first three days of camp. He is a thickly built 5-10, 195 pounds and is making more plays after a relatively quiet spring.
"He was one of those freshmen last year who was just lost," Conway said. "Part of it was because we put him in a tough position. He played a lot of running back in high school, and that transition to receiver was a huge deal for him. Now that he's settled in, he's just so much better than what we anticipated. We're really happy with his progress."
Mooney was the only freshman who was ready to play last fall--despite not getting to enroll in the summer--finishing with 24 catches, 267 yards and two scores, all second to Encalade on the team. Fritz wants him to get better at avoiding contact from physical cornerbacks who bump him off his routes, and the early signs are good. Mooney caught a pass from Banks on the last play of Wednesdays' practice on a nice out route.
"He's still a very talented player, but he's so much more cerebral now," Conway said. "He thinks about things that he's supposed to do, routes and blocking concepts. It's not just that I've got that guy (on me). Now it's I've got this technique and I know where the ball's going. It's just a whole different world for him and a tremendous improvement."
Newman, a 5-8 receiver who transferred from Division II Hillsdale College, made a lot of plays in Tuesday's practice. Although he did not have a catch in 11-on-11 drills Wednesday, he has been working with the second team frequently. I'm always skeptical of walk-on wideouts-Larry Dace played his way into a scholarship but never was a big factor in the passing game, and I can't come up with a second impactful walk-on receiver at Tulane--but Newman at least bears watching. He had 26 catches for 293 yards and three scores as a sophomore at Hillsdale in 2015.
"We are extremely happy to have him in the program," Conway said. "Unless he gets injured, I see Brian getting playing time this year, which is a tremendous accomplishment for anybody, much less a guy who transfers and has to sit out a year."
Of the true freshmen, LeDee looks the furthest away because his legs are very skinny. He clearly needs to bulk up and become comfortable in his 6-5 frame.
"He and Travis Tucker kind of represent where we want to go with that position on our football team--a bigger kid," Conway said. "In our league we're battling guys that look like that. I can assure you with Kevin's work ethic, in two years he'll look like an NFL receiver lining up out there. Right now he's a little thin-limbed, and you'd expect that."
It's early, but aside from Encalade, Glenn and Clewis starting, I expect Robertson, Owens and Newman to be on the second group at the start of the year, with Toles getting a chance to show what he can do. I doubt the other two freshmen or Johnson will be a factor at that point. Johnson looks rusty and unsure of himself coming off the injury. He actually was on the training table getting looked at when I arrived today, but he appeared OK the rest of the way.
"Part of that, too, with Chris is conditioning because he's been under rehab the entire summer, and the conditioning phase of it is still a critical part," Conway said. "He's still a ways away, but it's good to have him out there because he is a talented young man."
Basically last year Tulane had two D1 wideouts in Encalade and Mooney. This year it should be at least six. This group still has plenty of proving to do before it is a team strength, but it's no longer an obvious weakness.
