I caught the last 30 minutes at the Saints facility today and the big news was tight end Charles Jones practicing in a full-contact jersey.
Tulane missed Jones against Wake Forest. Kendall Ardoin drew a crucial 15-yard personal penalty for a blatant cut block that has been outlawed, stalling a late-first-half drive, and neither Ardoin nor Will Wallace was a factor in the passing game. True freshman Tyrick James caught a pass for 4 yards but he is still learning the offense.
The depth chart they released is the same as last week, which simply means the coaches did not update it. Jones should be available to play this Saturday against Nicholls State.
Keon Howard made a heck of a throw while serving as the scout-team cornerback. I did not catch the number of the receiver, but he threw a dart on the roll through traffic. I'm sure he was not thrilled when Justin McMillan transferred. It should be a good competition between them for the starting job next year, but I'm getting too far ahead. McMillan took some reps with the second-team offense today, so it is not inconceivable he will play against Nicholls.
Terren Encalade remained in a no-contact jersey, but we saw how little his injury status affected his play last Thursday. Jorrien Vallien looked good today. No idea whether he will play this year, but he is impressive physically. I was surprised Brian Newman did not play against Wake Forest after the amount of reps in he received in preseason camp. Tulane is thin at wide receiver in terms of production--Encalade and Darnell Mooney combined for 16 catches for 263 yards against Wake, Jabril Clewis had one catch for 13 yards despite being a repeated early target and the rest of the crew was blanked. That dovetails with what I saw in the preseason. when Newman made more plays than the others but was not consistent. Jacob Robertson and Jaetavian Toles played Thursday but came up empty.
Today's practice ended with a tipped pass that Mooney caught. That brought to mind what may have been the pivotal bad break for Tulane on Thursday. During Wake Forest's three-and-out near the end of regulation after Tulane tied the score, Cam Sample had a bead on an interception off a tipped ball, but Marvin Moody did not see him and deflected the ball away from him going for his own pick. Tulane would have gotten the ball in long field goal range on the spot, which guarantees nothing considering the Wave's struggles in Wake territory all game but certainly would have been beneficial. Instead, Wake punted, and Tulane had to start at its own 37.
Without question, even though Tulane gave up a lot of yards and could not stop Wake on third down--a huge problem last year as well--this team played faster on defense and has the potential to make more big plays than a season ago.
Tulane missed Jones against Wake Forest. Kendall Ardoin drew a crucial 15-yard personal penalty for a blatant cut block that has been outlawed, stalling a late-first-half drive, and neither Ardoin nor Will Wallace was a factor in the passing game. True freshman Tyrick James caught a pass for 4 yards but he is still learning the offense.
The depth chart they released is the same as last week, which simply means the coaches did not update it. Jones should be available to play this Saturday against Nicholls State.
Keon Howard made a heck of a throw while serving as the scout-team cornerback. I did not catch the number of the receiver, but he threw a dart on the roll through traffic. I'm sure he was not thrilled when Justin McMillan transferred. It should be a good competition between them for the starting job next year, but I'm getting too far ahead. McMillan took some reps with the second-team offense today, so it is not inconceivable he will play against Nicholls.
Terren Encalade remained in a no-contact jersey, but we saw how little his injury status affected his play last Thursday. Jorrien Vallien looked good today. No idea whether he will play this year, but he is impressive physically. I was surprised Brian Newman did not play against Wake Forest after the amount of reps in he received in preseason camp. Tulane is thin at wide receiver in terms of production--Encalade and Darnell Mooney combined for 16 catches for 263 yards against Wake, Jabril Clewis had one catch for 13 yards despite being a repeated early target and the rest of the crew was blanked. That dovetails with what I saw in the preseason. when Newman made more plays than the others but was not consistent. Jacob Robertson and Jaetavian Toles played Thursday but came up empty.
Today's practice ended with a tipped pass that Mooney caught. That brought to mind what may have been the pivotal bad break for Tulane on Thursday. During Wake Forest's three-and-out near the end of regulation after Tulane tied the score, Cam Sample had a bead on an interception off a tipped ball, but Marvin Moody did not see him and deflected the ball away from him going for his own pick. Tulane would have gotten the ball in long field goal range on the spot, which guarantees nothing considering the Wave's struggles in Wake territory all game but certainly would have been beneficial. Instead, Wake punted, and Tulane had to start at its own 37.
Without question, even though Tulane gave up a lot of yards and could not stop Wake on third down--a huge problem last year as well--this team played faster on defense and has the potential to make more big plays than a season ago.
