Tulane had a really spirited practice this morning at Yulman Stadium, with a fight between defensive and offensive players during an 11-on-11 drill almost breaking out at one point. The intensity was very high from start to finish, and at one point coach Willie Fritz blew.a whistle, called the players together and lauded them for their "great energy" and "great competitiveness" before sending them to individual drills.
Chris Hampton has not been officially hired yet, so he was not out there (there will be an official announcement tomorrow), but the defense was flying around the field and whooping and hollering quite a bit. The unit played without starting bookends Cam Sample and Patrick Johnson, who were named first-team All-AAC today. I'm not sure where Johnson was--Fritz had to cut his post-practice interview short because of a recruiting Zoom call--but Sample was out there giving pointers but not in full uniform. I will check on their status later this week. A large number of players were not there, which may be contract-tracing related. The absent included cornerback Kevaris Hall, who was replaced by Ajani Kerr, KJ Vault, whom I have not seen in a long time, Duece Watts, Jacob Robertson, Tyrek Presley, Keshon Williams and Colby Orgeron. Additionally, Michael Lombardi, Josh Remetich and Reggie Brown did not have their helmets, but linebacker Kevin Henry, who has not played since taking a cheap shot to the knee against Army, practiced.
A few notes:
--The offensive play of the day came from tight end Will Wallace, who made a juggling catch in traffic and broke into the clear for what would have a big gain in a live drill. Freshman safety Shi'Keem Laister, who played sparingly this year, defended a deep ball from Michael Pratt to Jha'Quan Jackson perfectly. Linebacker Marvin Moody made a nice break-up in seven-on-seven work.
--The front four without Patrick Johnson and Sample was Angelo Anderson, Eric Hicks, Jeffery Johnson and Darius Hodges. Carlos Hatcher, who has been out with injury since the UCF game, was back practicing.
--An an example of the staff's attention to detail, Fritz kept hollering out during a punt-block drill that Nevada's punter if left-footed.
--Christian Daniels got some reps at running back.
--Tulane had eight players on the All-AAC team, matching its number from 1998 and exceeding every other year since it got 10 in 1997. The third first-team was punter Ryan Wright, whose 45.78 average is third in school history behind Brad Hill (46.19) and Ross Thevenot (45.80). The four second-teamers were Stephon Huderson, Corey Dublin, Sincere Haynesworth and Dorian Williams. Joey Claybrook was honorable mention. When he began talking, Fritz said Michael Pratt deserved to be AAC Freshman of the Year. SMU's Ulysses Bentley would have been the right choice if they went with just one, but they went with two and ECU's Rajhai Harris (629 yards, 4.9 yards per carry) did not have as good a season as Pratt. Fritz also said Nick Anderson should have been somewhere (I agree). He singled out those two because they spoke on the video conference after he did..
FRITZ
"Since I last spoke to you, Chip Long has been added to our staff as our offensive coordinator. He will also be coaching the quarterbacks. George Barnett has started for us and he'll also be our offensive line coach. He comes to us from Miami of Ohio. I'm excited to get him. I know some people who know George well and recommended him highly. He's going to do a super job for us. The same thing with coach Long. We're going to have a new defensive coordinator, but nothing is official right now, so I can't comment on that, but we will have a new defensive coordinator that will be with us. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to announce that, but we've got to cross some t's and dot some i's. We all know coach Hall went over to Southern Miss, and then Jordy Joseph is going to be the wide receiver coach over there. He's been working as an analyst for us. I'm really proud of Jordy. He's got three degrees from Tulane and did a fantastic job for us. He will be their wide receiver coach (actually running backs). And then Cody Kennedy went over there. Cody did a super job for us, and then Ben Thomas, who coached the offensive line as one of our graduate assistants, he's going to go over with coach Hall as an analyst. We're gonna lose a few guys, but we're happy for them, but we're also bringing some guys into the family as well."
On changing defensive coordinators:
'It's always difficult to do that. There are some areas we did a very nice job of and some areas that we wanted to improve on. There are just some things we want to do a little bit differently. Coach Curtis worked extremely hard for us. I appreciate all of his efforts."
On the Potato Bowl:
"We're excited about it. As I told our guys, there's not many teams that played 11 games, much less a bowl game. It's the first time I've ever played at Boise in their stadium. It's another chanced to play on national TV. We'll be on ESPN, and I believe we'll be the only game in the world going on at that time. I don't think there's going to be another game on any other station. It's the only bowl game going on and I know the NFL's not playing that day. I don't think there's any high school games on a Tuesday, so If people want to watch football at 2:30 our time wherever they are at all over this great world, they are going to be watching the Green Wave, so we're excited about that."
Chris Hampton has not been officially hired yet, so he was not out there (there will be an official announcement tomorrow), but the defense was flying around the field and whooping and hollering quite a bit. The unit played without starting bookends Cam Sample and Patrick Johnson, who were named first-team All-AAC today. I'm not sure where Johnson was--Fritz had to cut his post-practice interview short because of a recruiting Zoom call--but Sample was out there giving pointers but not in full uniform. I will check on their status later this week. A large number of players were not there, which may be contract-tracing related. The absent included cornerback Kevaris Hall, who was replaced by Ajani Kerr, KJ Vault, whom I have not seen in a long time, Duece Watts, Jacob Robertson, Tyrek Presley, Keshon Williams and Colby Orgeron. Additionally, Michael Lombardi, Josh Remetich and Reggie Brown did not have their helmets, but linebacker Kevin Henry, who has not played since taking a cheap shot to the knee against Army, practiced.
A few notes:
--The offensive play of the day came from tight end Will Wallace, who made a juggling catch in traffic and broke into the clear for what would have a big gain in a live drill. Freshman safety Shi'Keem Laister, who played sparingly this year, defended a deep ball from Michael Pratt to Jha'Quan Jackson perfectly. Linebacker Marvin Moody made a nice break-up in seven-on-seven work.
--The front four without Patrick Johnson and Sample was Angelo Anderson, Eric Hicks, Jeffery Johnson and Darius Hodges. Carlos Hatcher, who has been out with injury since the UCF game, was back practicing.
--An an example of the staff's attention to detail, Fritz kept hollering out during a punt-block drill that Nevada's punter if left-footed.
--Christian Daniels got some reps at running back.
--Tulane had eight players on the All-AAC team, matching its number from 1998 and exceeding every other year since it got 10 in 1997. The third first-team was punter Ryan Wright, whose 45.78 average is third in school history behind Brad Hill (46.19) and Ross Thevenot (45.80). The four second-teamers were Stephon Huderson, Corey Dublin, Sincere Haynesworth and Dorian Williams. Joey Claybrook was honorable mention. When he began talking, Fritz said Michael Pratt deserved to be AAC Freshman of the Year. SMU's Ulysses Bentley would have been the right choice if they went with just one, but they went with two and ECU's Rajhai Harris (629 yards, 4.9 yards per carry) did not have as good a season as Pratt. Fritz also said Nick Anderson should have been somewhere (I agree). He singled out those two because they spoke on the video conference after he did..
FRITZ
"Since I last spoke to you, Chip Long has been added to our staff as our offensive coordinator. He will also be coaching the quarterbacks. George Barnett has started for us and he'll also be our offensive line coach. He comes to us from Miami of Ohio. I'm excited to get him. I know some people who know George well and recommended him highly. He's going to do a super job for us. The same thing with coach Long. We're going to have a new defensive coordinator, but nothing is official right now, so I can't comment on that, but we will have a new defensive coordinator that will be with us. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to announce that, but we've got to cross some t's and dot some i's. We all know coach Hall went over to Southern Miss, and then Jordy Joseph is going to be the wide receiver coach over there. He's been working as an analyst for us. I'm really proud of Jordy. He's got three degrees from Tulane and did a fantastic job for us. He will be their wide receiver coach (actually running backs). And then Cody Kennedy went over there. Cody did a super job for us, and then Ben Thomas, who coached the offensive line as one of our graduate assistants, he's going to go over with coach Hall as an analyst. We're gonna lose a few guys, but we're happy for them, but we're also bringing some guys into the family as well."
On changing defensive coordinators:
'It's always difficult to do that. There are some areas we did a very nice job of and some areas that we wanted to improve on. There are just some things we want to do a little bit differently. Coach Curtis worked extremely hard for us. I appreciate all of his efforts."
On the Potato Bowl:
"We're excited about it. As I told our guys, there's not many teams that played 11 games, much less a bowl game. It's the first time I've ever played at Boise in their stadium. It's another chanced to play on national TV. We'll be on ESPN, and I believe we'll be the only game in the world going on at that time. I don't think there's going to be another game on any other station. It's the only bowl game going on and I know the NFL's not playing that day. I don't think there's any high school games on a Tuesday, so If people want to watch football at 2:30 our time wherever they are at all over this great world, they are going to be watching the Green Wave, so we're excited about that."
