Keyshawn McLeod practiced today, so on a weekend when key players were dropping left and right across the country, Tulane came out of its opening 43-14 win against Grambling as close to full strength as possible. McLeod will start at right offensive tackle for the Green Wave against Navy this Saturday, allowing Dominique Briggs to slide back to right guard and sending Leeward Brown to the bench.
Other than than that, there's not much to report from practice today. Willie Fritz' and his staff's attention to detail continues to be impressive. They had another tackling drill today, and the significance of that daily work has become evident. Tulane missed far fewer tackles a year ago than two years ago, and the starters missed few tackles against Grambling on Saturday. That will be a key element to slowing down Navy, which lives off of missed tackles as teams break down mentally and physically trying to defend the triple option.
In another example, a grad assistant worked with Darnell Mooney, Chris Johnson and Rocky Ferony on catching the ball when they otherwise would have had nothing to do during a kickoff drill. He bounced the ball to them on a short hop to test their reflexes and hand-eye coordination, threw high to them on purpose and threw low and away to them on purpose. The exercise took 10 minutes, but it is the type of thing that can determine the outcome of a game.
Other quick notes:
---Offensive line coach Alex Atkins, walking gingerly on a sore ankle today, joked that "I can't call y'all soft anymore."
---Miles Strickland was in full uniform. It's doubtful he will crack the running back rotation this week, but seeing him dressed was a rare sight.
---Tulane has five grad students this year, but none of them appear to be missing practice days like Josh Rounds and Lazedrick Thompson did last season. They are defensive end Quinlan Carroll, offensive tackle John Leglue, linebacker Luke Jackson, defensive end Ade Aruna and, of course, backup center Hunter Knighton.
--Today was a media crush by Tulane standards with four local TV stations on hand along with me and the new Nola.com guy, so I did not get any one-one-one time with Fritz. Here's what he had to say in the media session they conduct inside right next to the field in what has replaced the more formal news conference and luncheon that had taken place every year since I've been on the beat:
"We came out and played sharp (against Grambling) in all three phases. We started the second half off great with a great kick return and got a score to make it 31-0. We got a little bit sloppy at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. We had some young guys in there with the opportunity to play and show us what they can do, and some of them took advantage of it and some of them didn't. You go out and practice, you script everything and try to go through every situation and scenario that you can. There's no substitute for a real game. It's all full speed, and we learned a lot from the experience.
"Navy is a great program. Coach Ken (Niumatalolo) has done a phenomenal job. I've got a lot of respect for him and his staff. They do a super job of recruiting. That's really underrated for that program. They've got some good athletes and a lot of them. We know what we are going to get from them in the offense, defense, kicking game. They just do a great job of technique and fundamentals. We're just going to have to go up there and be really tough and play four quarters of football if not longer and have a tough mindset in order to win this game."
Can this be a statement win for this program?
"Every one we get right now is a statement win for us. We've got to get this thing turned around. Sometimes some of the coaches and players have a hard time keeping up with me, but I approach every game like it's the Super Bowl. It is because we're playing in the game. Our margin for error is very slim. We've got to do everything right, and if we do that, we've got a chance to win every game we play. Our job is to prepare them, and their job as a Division I player is to go out and play lights out on game day. We want to get this one just like we want to get every other one."
How much of their option is like 1970s option football, and how efficiently do they execute it?
"They do a great job. They've been running this offense. We watched Georgia Tech last night. Coach (Paul) Johnson was the head coach at Navy and coach Ken was one of his assistants. He took over, and it's a very similar type offense, both of them. We call it an under-center triple option. It has a lot of man-blocking principles rather than zone blocking principles like we do, so there are a lot of differences in what we do and they do in the fact that there is a dive player, a quarterback player and a pitch player who can run the ball on every play. It's a physical type offense. They come straight at you and sometimes they get big plays in the passing game. They are very efficient in the passing game. They don't throw for a lot of yards, but it's a high completion rate. It's a good offense. There's really on a few schools running it at a Division I level--Army, Navy, Air Force does a little bit of it and Georgia Tech. They've kind of got their own club. They've got their own cult."
How much does it help that you run something similar offensively?
"Really what we're doing is a lot different than what they're doing. It starts with the offensive line. The mesh point, there are a few similarities but not a whole lot. It's a little bit like (John Curtis') under-center split-back veer. When you run it from the gun, the mesh point and timing are totally different."
You brought Jonathan Banks here to win big games for you, and is a game like this the reason he is here?
"We're going to have to score some points. It's hard to beat these guys scoring one or two touchdowns. You've got to match them. They were number one in the nation in third-down conversions last year at 56 percent (actually 54.5) and the next closest was in the high 40s (actually 53.7 at Western Michigan; eight teams were above 50 percent). They are very good on fourth down and will go for them a lot, so we've got to match it. This is going to be a pretty quick game. This won't be a three-and-a-half hour game. Last year when they played Notre Dame, each team had six series (Notre Dame had six and Navy had seven). Most games you are going to play will have 12 or 13. Usually with our style it's 11. There's is probably eight or nine, so you've got to do a good job with ball security, a great job with takeaways and a good job of matching them moving the chains."
What can Banks do better?
"If you ask him, he's going to say passing (this was funny because it's true. Every time Banks talks, he emphasizes his passing ability and plays down his running skills). That's what he wants to do. He's like all quarterbacks. He'd like to throw it 50 times a game. The reason we recruited him is he's a dual-threat guy. He can throw it. We're starting to evolve our passing attack, which we need to. There are going to be some games where we'll have him thrown 30, and there are going to be some games where they are having a hard time slowing us down and we throw it 10. Each week you do it based on your opponent and what you're having success on and what you're not having success on."
You have a lot of veterans on defense who have faced this style of triple option a ton (Georgia Tech twice, Navy twice, Army once). How much can that help?
"It helps. To me it's a mindset. You've got to shift gears every week. Games are different. Teams to prepare for are different, but this one is way different. The attention to detail. Tennessee has a good team and they gave up over 500 rushing yards last night (against Georgia Tech). I'm sure they worked on it quite a bit. That was their opening game. It's a booger. We've just got to be on point every single play."
Their coach said he's surprised people don't talk about their quarterback more and they still talk about Keenan Reynolds. What are your thoughts on (Navy QB) Zach Abey, who had 232 rushing yards against Florida Atlantic?
"What happens is he's not real flashy. I don't know a whole lot about Keenan Reynolds, but I think he had some flash to him. This guy is big. If you don't get him between the clubs, he's not going down. You've got to physically tackle him every single time. I know we have a lot of respect for him. He puts his foot in the ground and gets vertical. Most of these guys have run that style of offense forever. I'm guessing he probably ran the under-center, triple-option type offense in high school."
Were you pleased with the maturity your guys showed to open the Grambling game?
"We did a great job in the first quarter coming out of the blocks. They had three or four pre-snap penalties early and we did a great job staying away from them. It got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter. I think we had eight penalties, and six of them were in the fourth quarter, so we need to clean that up. Navy is always the least penalized team in the country, so we have to do a good job of matching them in that area as well."
Fritz also mentioned the importance of being turnover free in the middle of an otherwise extraneous question and answer, referencing the costly fumble that cost Georgia Tech a win against Tennessee last night. Tulane was one of 28 teams that did not turn the ball over in its opener.
"The "Georgia Tech running back is wishing he had great ball security. The game would have been over if he hadn't gotten stripped. Somebody came up to his blind spot and stripped him. Most of our guys watch TV maybe too much, and they are going to see all that stuff happen. The game would have been over 30 minutes before."
Other than than that, there's not much to report from practice today. Willie Fritz' and his staff's attention to detail continues to be impressive. They had another tackling drill today, and the significance of that daily work has become evident. Tulane missed far fewer tackles a year ago than two years ago, and the starters missed few tackles against Grambling on Saturday. That will be a key element to slowing down Navy, which lives off of missed tackles as teams break down mentally and physically trying to defend the triple option.
In another example, a grad assistant worked with Darnell Mooney, Chris Johnson and Rocky Ferony on catching the ball when they otherwise would have had nothing to do during a kickoff drill. He bounced the ball to them on a short hop to test their reflexes and hand-eye coordination, threw high to them on purpose and threw low and away to them on purpose. The exercise took 10 minutes, but it is the type of thing that can determine the outcome of a game.
Other quick notes:
---Offensive line coach Alex Atkins, walking gingerly on a sore ankle today, joked that "I can't call y'all soft anymore."
---Miles Strickland was in full uniform. It's doubtful he will crack the running back rotation this week, but seeing him dressed was a rare sight.
---Tulane has five grad students this year, but none of them appear to be missing practice days like Josh Rounds and Lazedrick Thompson did last season. They are defensive end Quinlan Carroll, offensive tackle John Leglue, linebacker Luke Jackson, defensive end Ade Aruna and, of course, backup center Hunter Knighton.
--Today was a media crush by Tulane standards with four local TV stations on hand along with me and the new Nola.com guy, so I did not get any one-one-one time with Fritz. Here's what he had to say in the media session they conduct inside right next to the field in what has replaced the more formal news conference and luncheon that had taken place every year since I've been on the beat:
"We came out and played sharp (against Grambling) in all three phases. We started the second half off great with a great kick return and got a score to make it 31-0. We got a little bit sloppy at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. We had some young guys in there with the opportunity to play and show us what they can do, and some of them took advantage of it and some of them didn't. You go out and practice, you script everything and try to go through every situation and scenario that you can. There's no substitute for a real game. It's all full speed, and we learned a lot from the experience.
"Navy is a great program. Coach Ken (Niumatalolo) has done a phenomenal job. I've got a lot of respect for him and his staff. They do a super job of recruiting. That's really underrated for that program. They've got some good athletes and a lot of them. We know what we are going to get from them in the offense, defense, kicking game. They just do a great job of technique and fundamentals. We're just going to have to go up there and be really tough and play four quarters of football if not longer and have a tough mindset in order to win this game."
Can this be a statement win for this program?
"Every one we get right now is a statement win for us. We've got to get this thing turned around. Sometimes some of the coaches and players have a hard time keeping up with me, but I approach every game like it's the Super Bowl. It is because we're playing in the game. Our margin for error is very slim. We've got to do everything right, and if we do that, we've got a chance to win every game we play. Our job is to prepare them, and their job as a Division I player is to go out and play lights out on game day. We want to get this one just like we want to get every other one."
How much of their option is like 1970s option football, and how efficiently do they execute it?
"They do a great job. They've been running this offense. We watched Georgia Tech last night. Coach (Paul) Johnson was the head coach at Navy and coach Ken was one of his assistants. He took over, and it's a very similar type offense, both of them. We call it an under-center triple option. It has a lot of man-blocking principles rather than zone blocking principles like we do, so there are a lot of differences in what we do and they do in the fact that there is a dive player, a quarterback player and a pitch player who can run the ball on every play. It's a physical type offense. They come straight at you and sometimes they get big plays in the passing game. They are very efficient in the passing game. They don't throw for a lot of yards, but it's a high completion rate. It's a good offense. There's really on a few schools running it at a Division I level--Army, Navy, Air Force does a little bit of it and Georgia Tech. They've kind of got their own club. They've got their own cult."
How much does it help that you run something similar offensively?
"Really what we're doing is a lot different than what they're doing. It starts with the offensive line. The mesh point, there are a few similarities but not a whole lot. It's a little bit like (John Curtis') under-center split-back veer. When you run it from the gun, the mesh point and timing are totally different."
You brought Jonathan Banks here to win big games for you, and is a game like this the reason he is here?
"We're going to have to score some points. It's hard to beat these guys scoring one or two touchdowns. You've got to match them. They were number one in the nation in third-down conversions last year at 56 percent (actually 54.5) and the next closest was in the high 40s (actually 53.7 at Western Michigan; eight teams were above 50 percent). They are very good on fourth down and will go for them a lot, so we've got to match it. This is going to be a pretty quick game. This won't be a three-and-a-half hour game. Last year when they played Notre Dame, each team had six series (Notre Dame had six and Navy had seven). Most games you are going to play will have 12 or 13. Usually with our style it's 11. There's is probably eight or nine, so you've got to do a good job with ball security, a great job with takeaways and a good job of matching them moving the chains."
What can Banks do better?
"If you ask him, he's going to say passing (this was funny because it's true. Every time Banks talks, he emphasizes his passing ability and plays down his running skills). That's what he wants to do. He's like all quarterbacks. He'd like to throw it 50 times a game. The reason we recruited him is he's a dual-threat guy. He can throw it. We're starting to evolve our passing attack, which we need to. There are going to be some games where we'll have him thrown 30, and there are going to be some games where they are having a hard time slowing us down and we throw it 10. Each week you do it based on your opponent and what you're having success on and what you're not having success on."
You have a lot of veterans on defense who have faced this style of triple option a ton (Georgia Tech twice, Navy twice, Army once). How much can that help?
"It helps. To me it's a mindset. You've got to shift gears every week. Games are different. Teams to prepare for are different, but this one is way different. The attention to detail. Tennessee has a good team and they gave up over 500 rushing yards last night (against Georgia Tech). I'm sure they worked on it quite a bit. That was their opening game. It's a booger. We've just got to be on point every single play."
Their coach said he's surprised people don't talk about their quarterback more and they still talk about Keenan Reynolds. What are your thoughts on (Navy QB) Zach Abey, who had 232 rushing yards against Florida Atlantic?
"What happens is he's not real flashy. I don't know a whole lot about Keenan Reynolds, but I think he had some flash to him. This guy is big. If you don't get him between the clubs, he's not going down. You've got to physically tackle him every single time. I know we have a lot of respect for him. He puts his foot in the ground and gets vertical. Most of these guys have run that style of offense forever. I'm guessing he probably ran the under-center, triple-option type offense in high school."
Were you pleased with the maturity your guys showed to open the Grambling game?
"We did a great job in the first quarter coming out of the blocks. They had three or four pre-snap penalties early and we did a great job staying away from them. It got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter. I think we had eight penalties, and six of them were in the fourth quarter, so we need to clean that up. Navy is always the least penalized team in the country, so we have to do a good job of matching them in that area as well."
Fritz also mentioned the importance of being turnover free in the middle of an otherwise extraneous question and answer, referencing the costly fumble that cost Georgia Tech a win against Tennessee last night. Tulane was one of 28 teams that did not turn the ball over in its opener.
"The "Georgia Tech running back is wishing he had great ball security. The game would have been over if he hadn't gotten stripped. Somebody came up to his blind spot and stripped him. Most of our guys watch TV maybe too much, and they are going to see all that stuff happen. The game would have been over 30 minutes before."
