Willie Fritz does not want SMU to know what his plans are at QB for Saturday's game, which makes sense since SMU is not revealing its plans.
Logic suggests Jonathan Banks will start and his play will dictate what happens the rest of the way. Justin McMillan did not play well enough against Cincinnati to take the job away from him, but here's what Banks cannot do: throw the ball too low for his receivers to catch on a simple out route, as he did once today with Darnell Mooney against the scout-team defense.
Thursday was a light practice, but Tulane is very healthy coming off its open date. The only rotational player unavailable due to injury is backup defensive end Peter Woullard, who likely will not be back any time soon with what I believe is a leg injury. I have not seen him at practice this week. Jamiran James might have been in the rotation by now but he remains sidelined by a hand injury.
Other quick thoughts:
Look for more of Amare Jones in the backfield. He has not done much in his limited rushing opportunities, but he was terrific on kickoff returns against Cincinnati and the coaches love what he can do in open space. SMU's defense figures to give him some open spaces.
If Corey Dublin gets hurt, John Leglue will move to center instead of Hunter Knighton playing. Leglue spent a lot of time at center today working on snaps. He bounced one but was fine otherwise. They mixed and matched on the offensive line as they often do Thursday. with Joey Claybrook getting some reps at first-team right tackle and Noah Fisher getting some reps at first-team left tackle. When Leglue was at center, Dublin shifted to left guard and Dominique Briggs moved to right guard.
One of the reasons Tulane practices strength on strength quite a bit during the week (first and second teamers vs. first and second teamers) is the shakiness of the scout team offense. There just are not enough quality athletes being redshirted or not playing on that side of the ball to give the defense a good look. They went with the scout teams today, and none of those guys compare to what Tulane will see Saturday. James Poche, Nick Toppino and Ryan Thompson were targets.
Chase Kuerschen, who made five tackles against Cincinnati, continues to play a more prominent role than he did in the first five games. He won't start, but he should play a fair amount.
I did not ask much of Fritz today.
Will Jonathan Banks start today?
"We'll wait and see."
Do you have a plan for both quarterbacks?
"It's a wait and see also."
Just to be clear, this was not a testy exchange. It was friendly. I understood where Fritz was coming from. Then I asked him one more question he could answer.
How do you feel the defense is playing?
"The thing I'm excited about is we're doing a much better job up front. We're more aggressive, we're getting some minus plays and more sacks. We have not had a whole lot of sacks here. Last season we didn't, and we're starting to manufacture some tackles for loss and some sacks as well with our front, so we're much more active. We've got some good kids up there and we have some decent depth up front, too."
John Leglue got a lot of reps at center today.
"Yeah, we always have to worry about what if. We've got a few different ways we can go."
Logic suggests Jonathan Banks will start and his play will dictate what happens the rest of the way. Justin McMillan did not play well enough against Cincinnati to take the job away from him, but here's what Banks cannot do: throw the ball too low for his receivers to catch on a simple out route, as he did once today with Darnell Mooney against the scout-team defense.
Thursday was a light practice, but Tulane is very healthy coming off its open date. The only rotational player unavailable due to injury is backup defensive end Peter Woullard, who likely will not be back any time soon with what I believe is a leg injury. I have not seen him at practice this week. Jamiran James might have been in the rotation by now but he remains sidelined by a hand injury.
Other quick thoughts:
Look for more of Amare Jones in the backfield. He has not done much in his limited rushing opportunities, but he was terrific on kickoff returns against Cincinnati and the coaches love what he can do in open space. SMU's defense figures to give him some open spaces.
If Corey Dublin gets hurt, John Leglue will move to center instead of Hunter Knighton playing. Leglue spent a lot of time at center today working on snaps. He bounced one but was fine otherwise. They mixed and matched on the offensive line as they often do Thursday. with Joey Claybrook getting some reps at first-team right tackle and Noah Fisher getting some reps at first-team left tackle. When Leglue was at center, Dublin shifted to left guard and Dominique Briggs moved to right guard.
One of the reasons Tulane practices strength on strength quite a bit during the week (first and second teamers vs. first and second teamers) is the shakiness of the scout team offense. There just are not enough quality athletes being redshirted or not playing on that side of the ball to give the defense a good look. They went with the scout teams today, and none of those guys compare to what Tulane will see Saturday. James Poche, Nick Toppino and Ryan Thompson were targets.
Chase Kuerschen, who made five tackles against Cincinnati, continues to play a more prominent role than he did in the first five games. He won't start, but he should play a fair amount.
I did not ask much of Fritz today.
Will Jonathan Banks start today?
"We'll wait and see."
Do you have a plan for both quarterbacks?
"It's a wait and see also."
Just to be clear, this was not a testy exchange. It was friendly. I understood where Fritz was coming from. Then I asked him one more question he could answer.
How do you feel the defense is playing?
"The thing I'm excited about is we're doing a much better job up front. We're more aggressive, we're getting some minus plays and more sacks. We have not had a whole lot of sacks here. Last season we didn't, and we're starting to manufacture some tackles for loss and some sacks as well with our front, so we're much more active. We've got some good kids up there and we have some decent depth up front, too."
John Leglue got a lot of reps at center today.
"Yeah, we always have to worry about what if. We've got a few different ways we can go."
