The conditions were sweltering this morning at Yulman Stadium as Tulane had a practice in pads and shorts that lasted two hours. Willie Fritz said Monday practices usually last two hours and 15 minutes, but since the Green Wave already had worked some on FIU for four practices last week, he cut it slightly shorter.
I have not gotten confirmation on it, but it appears Ben Knutson will start at right guard ahead of Keyshawn McLeod. Knutson took all the reps with the first unit today, while McLeod worked with the 2s both at right guard and right tackle alternately. The coaches are getting the eight or so guys who they believe can help Tulane win ready to play, so Cameron Jackel split time at second-team right tackle and left guard. Sincere Haynesworth is the other guy I think is ready to play, although his time will be limited behind starting center Christian Montano since the starters rarely come out up front. I don't see the other guys on the second unit--Stephen Lewerenz and walk-on Timothy Shafter-getting meaningful action yet.
On the defense front, one guy who has had a good camp is sophomore Davon Wright, who had shoulder surgery in the spring but has come on strong in his return. He is versatile enough to play end and nose guard --a pretty rare combination--and has passed Alfred Thomas on the depth chart in the middle. Look for him to be in the rotation.
"He's really progressed well," Fritz said. "He's a really good athlete with good movement."
Patrick Johnson has been impressed with Wright's development.
"Davon has a motor on him," he said. "He's a big guy (6-1, 300) and a lot of people wouldn't expect him to run a 4.9. He ran a 4.9 after his freshman year and we were like, hold on, that's a 300-pounder moving. He's very athletic. It's great having him back (after the spring shoulder surgery). I told him the other day, ,man, it's nice having you back. When you have a guy that can run and be that big, he's an athlete and he proves it every single day."
Although the defensive starters are pretty evident, plenty of backups will get significant time against FIU, too, as the coaches find the best combinations. This is not news to anyone who has read these reports, but Fritz said safeties Macon Clark and Larry Brooks would roll in for Chase Kuerschen and P.J Hall, all four returning corners would play a bunch, three nickels would play (starter Tirise Barge and two of the three among Larry Bryant, Will Harper and K.J.Vault), three linebackers would play substantial downs at the two ILB spots (I'm thinking it's really four with Nick Anderson and Malik Lawal behind Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody) and three or four end/joker guys. Obviously, Patrick Johnson and Cam Sample will not come off the field often, but Fritz said he would not be surprised if 20 guys played on defense.
During the 11-on-11 work today, Fritz hollered out the down and distance before each play, going from third-and-6, to second-and-10 and all over the place. That has been the traditional mode of practice for all of camp, and it's by design. Asked how camp had gone overall, he emphasized that part.
"There are still a lot of new things offensively, but we've done a good job of having a plan of attack with situational football throughout camp," he said. "I've seen more coaches make a mistake, the day before the first game they're trying to put their hands team in and onside kicks and punt after afety. We've worked all those things throughout camp (I can vouch for that because I've seen all of them worked on)."
Tulane played one of its worst games of Fritz's tenure at FIU two years ago, getting beaten 23-10 and dominated statistically as the Panthers rushed and threw for more than 200 yards while holding the Wave to 239 yards total. But if you look at who played in that game, Darius Bradwell had one carry (for 26 yards), Stephon Huderson had a carry, Jacob Robertson caught two passes and no one who had a carry or a catch or threw a pass is still on the roster. Defensively Sample had five tackles, Patrick Johnson had three stops, Bryant and Moody had two, Graham and Hall had one and everyone else is gone, including the six top tacklers in that game.
The FIU quarterback, running backs and receivers who had big games are all gone, too.
"I don't know," Fritz said when asked how much carryover there would be from two years ago. "When we played down there and we have a lot of guys that weren't on the team when we played that game. But a lot of things are the same. Coach (Butch) Davis is still the (FIU) head coach and they run the same style defense we assume. That's one thing about the first game. You just don't know what everybody's going to do. We are going to throw a lot of new wrinkles they haven't seen before on offense, defense and in the kicking game, and they'll be doing the same thing. You have to be prepared to be flexible in what you're running."
The message on the scoreboard today was #Beat FIU, a welcome change from the It's All About the Ball that has been there for awhile. That's definitely not my favorite catchphrase.
Jaetavian Toles turned in the play of the day, making a leaping catch over Hall in the middle of the field. Bryant made a nice play on Will Wallace, staying with a play to slap the ball away from him after they grappled for it for a few seconds. Wallace began juggling it and finally had it slip from his grasp, with Bryant getting a compliment from a defensive assistant for his stick-to-itiveness.
All seven running backs received at least a few reps with the offense. Fritz was noncommittal when I asked him how he would handle that situation in a game.
"I've been in situations where you thought you were really deep at a spot and then all of a sudden you're not," he said. "I hope that becomes a problem getting guys enough touches."
Marvin Moody made a one-handed interception against the scout-team offense.
Tulane will return to the practice field tomorrow morning at the Superdome for the equivalent of a Tuesday practice. When I covered Florida under Urban Meyer, his term for that day in 2005 was "Bloody Tuesday," with really physical workouts. Times have changed in the last 10 to 15 years.
I have not gotten confirmation on it, but it appears Ben Knutson will start at right guard ahead of Keyshawn McLeod. Knutson took all the reps with the first unit today, while McLeod worked with the 2s both at right guard and right tackle alternately. The coaches are getting the eight or so guys who they believe can help Tulane win ready to play, so Cameron Jackel split time at second-team right tackle and left guard. Sincere Haynesworth is the other guy I think is ready to play, although his time will be limited behind starting center Christian Montano since the starters rarely come out up front. I don't see the other guys on the second unit--Stephen Lewerenz and walk-on Timothy Shafter-getting meaningful action yet.
On the defense front, one guy who has had a good camp is sophomore Davon Wright, who had shoulder surgery in the spring but has come on strong in his return. He is versatile enough to play end and nose guard --a pretty rare combination--and has passed Alfred Thomas on the depth chart in the middle. Look for him to be in the rotation.
"He's really progressed well," Fritz said. "He's a really good athlete with good movement."
Patrick Johnson has been impressed with Wright's development.
"Davon has a motor on him," he said. "He's a big guy (6-1, 300) and a lot of people wouldn't expect him to run a 4.9. He ran a 4.9 after his freshman year and we were like, hold on, that's a 300-pounder moving. He's very athletic. It's great having him back (after the spring shoulder surgery). I told him the other day, ,man, it's nice having you back. When you have a guy that can run and be that big, he's an athlete and he proves it every single day."
Although the defensive starters are pretty evident, plenty of backups will get significant time against FIU, too, as the coaches find the best combinations. This is not news to anyone who has read these reports, but Fritz said safeties Macon Clark and Larry Brooks would roll in for Chase Kuerschen and P.J Hall, all four returning corners would play a bunch, three nickels would play (starter Tirise Barge and two of the three among Larry Bryant, Will Harper and K.J.Vault), three linebackers would play substantial downs at the two ILB spots (I'm thinking it's really four with Nick Anderson and Malik Lawal behind Lawrence Graham and Marvin Moody) and three or four end/joker guys. Obviously, Patrick Johnson and Cam Sample will not come off the field often, but Fritz said he would not be surprised if 20 guys played on defense.
During the 11-on-11 work today, Fritz hollered out the down and distance before each play, going from third-and-6, to second-and-10 and all over the place. That has been the traditional mode of practice for all of camp, and it's by design. Asked how camp had gone overall, he emphasized that part.
"There are still a lot of new things offensively, but we've done a good job of having a plan of attack with situational football throughout camp," he said. "I've seen more coaches make a mistake, the day before the first game they're trying to put their hands team in and onside kicks and punt after afety. We've worked all those things throughout camp (I can vouch for that because I've seen all of them worked on)."
Tulane played one of its worst games of Fritz's tenure at FIU two years ago, getting beaten 23-10 and dominated statistically as the Panthers rushed and threw for more than 200 yards while holding the Wave to 239 yards total. But if you look at who played in that game, Darius Bradwell had one carry (for 26 yards), Stephon Huderson had a carry, Jacob Robertson caught two passes and no one who had a carry or a catch or threw a pass is still on the roster. Defensively Sample had five tackles, Patrick Johnson had three stops, Bryant and Moody had two, Graham and Hall had one and everyone else is gone, including the six top tacklers in that game.
The FIU quarterback, running backs and receivers who had big games are all gone, too.
"I don't know," Fritz said when asked how much carryover there would be from two years ago. "When we played down there and we have a lot of guys that weren't on the team when we played that game. But a lot of things are the same. Coach (Butch) Davis is still the (FIU) head coach and they run the same style defense we assume. That's one thing about the first game. You just don't know what everybody's going to do. We are going to throw a lot of new wrinkles they haven't seen before on offense, defense and in the kicking game, and they'll be doing the same thing. You have to be prepared to be flexible in what you're running."
The message on the scoreboard today was #Beat FIU, a welcome change from the It's All About the Ball that has been there for awhile. That's definitely not my favorite catchphrase.
Jaetavian Toles turned in the play of the day, making a leaping catch over Hall in the middle of the field. Bryant made a nice play on Will Wallace, staying with a play to slap the ball away from him after they grappled for it for a few seconds. Wallace began juggling it and finally had it slip from his grasp, with Bryant getting a compliment from a defensive assistant for his stick-to-itiveness.
All seven running backs received at least a few reps with the offense. Fritz was noncommittal when I asked him how he would handle that situation in a game.
"I've been in situations where you thought you were really deep at a spot and then all of a sudden you're not," he said. "I hope that becomes a problem getting guys enough touches."
Marvin Moody made a one-handed interception against the scout-team offense.
Tulane will return to the practice field tomorrow morning at the Superdome for the equivalent of a Tuesday practice. When I covered Florida under Urban Meyer, his term for that day in 2005 was "Bloody Tuesday," with really physical workouts. Times have changed in the last 10 to 15 years.
