Sorry for the late report. Last week I agreed to help cover Pelicans Media Day for The Advocate, forgetting Tulane would practice today before a Friday game, so I had to head straight to the Pelicans after practice today. I ended up not even writing anything about the Pels after sitting through three hours of interviews with each of the 19 players going up the podium separately.
Tight ends Charles Jones and Kendall Ardoin did not practice again today. Defensive coordinator Jack Curtis told me nickelback Larry Bryant might be cleared to play against Memphis after missing the last three games. He could help the depth behind Will Harper because Tirise Barge is struggling a bit.
Someone wondered what happened to Devin Glenn last week after my Thursday practice report did not mention him. It turns out he missed the game with an injury I did not know about and was not on the travel squad. I'll check on his status tomorrow.
Taris Shenall started instead of P.J. Hall at safety against Ohio State. Hall has not played as well as I expected to this point, but Shenall did not play well, either. Tulane needs to be a lot better at that position against Memphis.
I asked Fritz about the fair catches on kickoffs. Here's his response:
"The big thing is the field position. We were guaranteed to have the ball at the 25-yard line, and they've done a great job of getting the ball in the field of play with over four seconds of hang time. And they have some fast dudes running down the field. I believe the statistic is above a 4.0 hang time inside the 5-yard line and then catching it in the end zone, 70 percent of the balls don't make it to the 20. We were playing the percentages."
I did some research. In the opener against Oregon State, Ohio State kicked the ball inside the 5 but not to the goal line six times. Oregon State called three fair catches and returned the other three, getting stopped at the 20, the 24 and the 17. In the second game Rutgers called a fair catch on every kickoff except for one, when it was stopped at the 13. TCU tried to return the kickoffs. The first one went to the 4 and was returned to the 17. The second one went to the 1 and was returned to the 16. TCU tried a nifty lateral later on a kickoff return but the guy threw it forward for a penalty, forcing the drive to start at the 4. The last kickoff went to the 3 and was returned to the 22.
So as much as you might find the decision to fair catch the kickoffs distasteful, it was the right call. No team all year has returned a kickoff to the 25-yard line against Ohio State. Oregon State and Rutgers fair caught some kickoffs in the field of play, and the seven times a team did not call a fair catch in the field of play, its average starting position was the 18.
Here is the rest of Fritz. I was flying solo today with no other media representative there.
You are not going to play any team remotely as good as Ohio State the rest of the year, but Memphis has terrific skill position players. What are the keys to slow those guys down?
"We've got to be sound. That's the big thing. We have to make sure we've got bodies on bodies, we're covering people, we're playing with an edge on all our defense. Number one, we don't give up easy ones and number two, we've got to do a good job with leverage playing these guys. They've got one of the best backs in the country (Darrell Henderson, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards as a junior and senior in high school before starring at Memphis). He can play for anybody. He would have started at Ohio State probably. He's a really good, quality back. The quarterback has picked up where the last guy left off. They are really good defensively and are very opportunistic. They do a good job swarming to the ball, getting takeaways. This is an excellent team. This is a top-20 team."
When you lose like you did at Ohio State, how do you make sure the guys don't get beaten down by the way the first half went?
"We've got to move on. I talked to them about it in the locker room. The one thing I was happy about is we came out and we played hard in the second half. There's a big difference right now between our 1s and there 1s, but their 2s and our 1s are pretty close. We did a decent job in the second half of playing properly and doing the correct things, but it's a long season. That's one of the things I had on the board today--in-season heroes. A lot of guys are really good in January, February, March, April, May, June and July. We need their best right now."
Cam Sample had a very good second half. Is that what you need out of him the rest of the way?
"He played really well. We have five to 10 guys that could have played for them (Ohio State), and Cam would be one of them. He would get on the field for them without question. He showed that Saturday."
Rod Teamer came to play, too.
"Oh yeah, he's another guy that could play at that level, too. He goes hard every down."
What were the issues in pass coverage against Ohio State, and how much better does the communication need to be?
"It needs to be a lot better. There were a couple of times where we just turned guys loose. You just can't do that. You have to make calls out there and do some things. It was simple stuff where the offense calls a pick route. You've got to be able to communicate. If you don't communicate, they are going to run it all day. That's day 1 (stuff). It's disappointing."
Was that the most frustrating aspect of the game?
"Yeah. The back was catching the ball out there in the flat. That was just miscommunication, and you knew it was coming by their splits."
How did Banks play?
"He did some good things, but it's like talking about the secondary. Some of that's pass rush, too. When the guy can sit there and pat the ball for a long time, it's going to be tough to cover for a long time. You've got to coach both sides of it--getting a good pass rush and covering for as long as humanly possible. Jonathan did some good things. The big thing we just want to do is get crisper at when to give and when to pull. There were a few times they kind of ran at the mesh and we misread what we needed to do. We've just got to get better at that."
Any new injuries?
"No, we're not in too bad a shape."
You had no turnovers. How important is that going forward?
"You know, the only thing I was disappointed in was missed assignments. We had a few on defense and a few on offense. In that kind of game, you've got to be spot on, and we had four pre-snap penalties. They actually had a lot more penalties than us, but we had more of the pre-snap variety. which we control."
Bradwell ran really hard. How much do you like the way he ran?
"Oh, we just need him to play physical in all aspects of the game. If he can start doing that, he'll be a big-time player. When he's got the ball in his hands, we call him the Brahma bull. When he does that, he's hard to get down. We have to get him playing physical like that in all aspects of his game."
Tight ends Charles Jones and Kendall Ardoin did not practice again today. Defensive coordinator Jack Curtis told me nickelback Larry Bryant might be cleared to play against Memphis after missing the last three games. He could help the depth behind Will Harper because Tirise Barge is struggling a bit.
Someone wondered what happened to Devin Glenn last week after my Thursday practice report did not mention him. It turns out he missed the game with an injury I did not know about and was not on the travel squad. I'll check on his status tomorrow.
Taris Shenall started instead of P.J. Hall at safety against Ohio State. Hall has not played as well as I expected to this point, but Shenall did not play well, either. Tulane needs to be a lot better at that position against Memphis.
I asked Fritz about the fair catches on kickoffs. Here's his response:
"The big thing is the field position. We were guaranteed to have the ball at the 25-yard line, and they've done a great job of getting the ball in the field of play with over four seconds of hang time. And they have some fast dudes running down the field. I believe the statistic is above a 4.0 hang time inside the 5-yard line and then catching it in the end zone, 70 percent of the balls don't make it to the 20. We were playing the percentages."
I did some research. In the opener against Oregon State, Ohio State kicked the ball inside the 5 but not to the goal line six times. Oregon State called three fair catches and returned the other three, getting stopped at the 20, the 24 and the 17. In the second game Rutgers called a fair catch on every kickoff except for one, when it was stopped at the 13. TCU tried to return the kickoffs. The first one went to the 4 and was returned to the 17. The second one went to the 1 and was returned to the 16. TCU tried a nifty lateral later on a kickoff return but the guy threw it forward for a penalty, forcing the drive to start at the 4. The last kickoff went to the 3 and was returned to the 22.
So as much as you might find the decision to fair catch the kickoffs distasteful, it was the right call. No team all year has returned a kickoff to the 25-yard line against Ohio State. Oregon State and Rutgers fair caught some kickoffs in the field of play, and the seven times a team did not call a fair catch in the field of play, its average starting position was the 18.
Here is the rest of Fritz. I was flying solo today with no other media representative there.
You are not going to play any team remotely as good as Ohio State the rest of the year, but Memphis has terrific skill position players. What are the keys to slow those guys down?
"We've got to be sound. That's the big thing. We have to make sure we've got bodies on bodies, we're covering people, we're playing with an edge on all our defense. Number one, we don't give up easy ones and number two, we've got to do a good job with leverage playing these guys. They've got one of the best backs in the country (Darrell Henderson, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards as a junior and senior in high school before starring at Memphis). He can play for anybody. He would have started at Ohio State probably. He's a really good, quality back. The quarterback has picked up where the last guy left off. They are really good defensively and are very opportunistic. They do a good job swarming to the ball, getting takeaways. This is an excellent team. This is a top-20 team."
When you lose like you did at Ohio State, how do you make sure the guys don't get beaten down by the way the first half went?
"We've got to move on. I talked to them about it in the locker room. The one thing I was happy about is we came out and we played hard in the second half. There's a big difference right now between our 1s and there 1s, but their 2s and our 1s are pretty close. We did a decent job in the second half of playing properly and doing the correct things, but it's a long season. That's one of the things I had on the board today--in-season heroes. A lot of guys are really good in January, February, March, April, May, June and July. We need their best right now."
Cam Sample had a very good second half. Is that what you need out of him the rest of the way?
"He played really well. We have five to 10 guys that could have played for them (Ohio State), and Cam would be one of them. He would get on the field for them without question. He showed that Saturday."
Rod Teamer came to play, too.
"Oh yeah, he's another guy that could play at that level, too. He goes hard every down."
What were the issues in pass coverage against Ohio State, and how much better does the communication need to be?
"It needs to be a lot better. There were a couple of times where we just turned guys loose. You just can't do that. You have to make calls out there and do some things. It was simple stuff where the offense calls a pick route. You've got to be able to communicate. If you don't communicate, they are going to run it all day. That's day 1 (stuff). It's disappointing."
Was that the most frustrating aspect of the game?
"Yeah. The back was catching the ball out there in the flat. That was just miscommunication, and you knew it was coming by their splits."
How did Banks play?
"He did some good things, but it's like talking about the secondary. Some of that's pass rush, too. When the guy can sit there and pat the ball for a long time, it's going to be tough to cover for a long time. You've got to coach both sides of it--getting a good pass rush and covering for as long as humanly possible. Jonathan did some good things. The big thing we just want to do is get crisper at when to give and when to pull. There were a few times they kind of ran at the mesh and we misread what we needed to do. We've just got to get better at that."
Any new injuries?
"No, we're not in too bad a shape."
You had no turnovers. How important is that going forward?
"You know, the only thing I was disappointed in was missed assignments. We had a few on defense and a few on offense. In that kind of game, you've got to be spot on, and we had four pre-snap penalties. They actually had a lot more penalties than us, but we had more of the pre-snap variety. which we control."
Bradwell ran really hard. How much do you like the way he ran?
"Oh, we just need him to play physical in all aspects of the game. If he can start doing that, he'll be a big-time player. When he's got the ball in his hands, we call him the Brahma bull. When he does that, he's hard to get down. We have to get him playing physical like that in all aspects of his game."
