Tulane moved its practice to the Saints indoor facility today because of expected rain that this time did materialize, although the worst of it was over by what would have been the beginning of practice. I caught maybe the last five minutes, but Willie Fritz was open about the injuries some of his players have sustained recently.
Jamiran James and Juan Monjarres will miss the rest of the year with non-contact practice injuries they sustained last week. Fritz said he believed they happened Tuesday, which means I had three chances to notice and whiffed. As an excuse, I can point out that I was watching the offensive line almost exclusively last Wednesday in anticipation of my big feature on that group and Thursday I missed almost entirely when they moved it to the Saints facility. Still, that's something I should have noticed, and I didn't.
Monjarres could be a big loss. He has really come on lately, and none of his fellow backups are as good rushing the passer as he was. He had a huge game against Memphis last season. James was playing better recently, too, but he is more replaceable.
"Their injuries were two minutes apart in non-contact," Fritz said. "Hopefully we'll get Alfred Thomas back this week. Jeffery (Johnson) is full speed. You never want to see anybody get hurt, but we've got a couple of guys who were banged up a week ago back."
If Thomas can play, Tulane's depth chart at tackle will be Jeffery Johnson and De'Andre Williams starting with Davon Wright and Thomas backing them up. Michael HInton is in the picture, too.
Darius Bradwell may not be ready to play this week. He was in uniform for the end of today's practice but is not 100 percent after hurting his leg in the fourth quarter at Army and missing the UConn game. He is a valuable back, but with Tulane's depth, he would not be as valuable if he were gimpy. It could make more sense to hold him out until the Navy game, when Tulane really will want to control the ball.
"I think he's going to dress," Fritz said. "He was running around pretty good today."
Here is the rest of Fritz:
You mentioned earlier this year you specifically told coach Hall that the way Corey Dauphine practiced was not an indication of how well he plays in games and that he needed to stick with him. What is that about?
"It kind of takes him a little bit to get warmed up sometimes, especially at the beginning of practice" Fritz said. "When he's running around out there, you don't realize how fast he is, how quick he is, how decisive he is. When he gets in a game, like the run over by our sideline last week. He was bottled up inside, he bounced it outside, they regained leverage, he put his foot in the ground and all of a sudden you had a 14-yard play out of a loss. He definitely has another gear when you get in the games."
A lot of guys with track speed don't have football speed and football instincts. Is he just a football player?
"He really is. He's really fast, like Saturday when he had the long touchdown run. As soon as he got to the corner I said 'touchdown.' It looked like that guy might have had the angle, but they are not going to catch him. If a guy gets him, that guy is really fast, too. I think he's one of the fastest guys in college football."
How is his role evolving?
"The thing I like about what we're doing with him is coach Hall's just getting him more involved every week in the offense, throwing him the ball, pass pro besides running the ball inside, outside. He's a tougher inside runner, too. We talk all the time about seeing two guys and splitting two guys, so no guy gets a head-on hit on you and only gets a glancing blow. He really does an excellent job of accelerating through. Maybe you made the tackle, but he fell forward three yards."
You had 300 rushing and passing yards against UConn.
"That's tough to do. That's the balance you like to have. That was excellent. It's hard to do when you have a bunch of guys, but our game plan and execution and the play-calling, we got a lot of guys involved early and often, and you've got to do that because we have a lot of playmakers. We've got playmakers on the perimeter and playmakers in the backfield. It's easy to get the quarterback involved, but we got the receivers and the tight ends and the running backs involved."
Jamiran James and Juan Monjarres will miss the rest of the year with non-contact practice injuries they sustained last week. Fritz said he believed they happened Tuesday, which means I had three chances to notice and whiffed. As an excuse, I can point out that I was watching the offensive line almost exclusively last Wednesday in anticipation of my big feature on that group and Thursday I missed almost entirely when they moved it to the Saints facility. Still, that's something I should have noticed, and I didn't.
Monjarres could be a big loss. He has really come on lately, and none of his fellow backups are as good rushing the passer as he was. He had a huge game against Memphis last season. James was playing better recently, too, but he is more replaceable.
"Their injuries were two minutes apart in non-contact," Fritz said. "Hopefully we'll get Alfred Thomas back this week. Jeffery (Johnson) is full speed. You never want to see anybody get hurt, but we've got a couple of guys who were banged up a week ago back."
If Thomas can play, Tulane's depth chart at tackle will be Jeffery Johnson and De'Andre Williams starting with Davon Wright and Thomas backing them up. Michael HInton is in the picture, too.
Darius Bradwell may not be ready to play this week. He was in uniform for the end of today's practice but is not 100 percent after hurting his leg in the fourth quarter at Army and missing the UConn game. He is a valuable back, but with Tulane's depth, he would not be as valuable if he were gimpy. It could make more sense to hold him out until the Navy game, when Tulane really will want to control the ball.
"I think he's going to dress," Fritz said. "He was running around pretty good today."
Here is the rest of Fritz:
You mentioned earlier this year you specifically told coach Hall that the way Corey Dauphine practiced was not an indication of how well he plays in games and that he needed to stick with him. What is that about?
"It kind of takes him a little bit to get warmed up sometimes, especially at the beginning of practice" Fritz said. "When he's running around out there, you don't realize how fast he is, how quick he is, how decisive he is. When he gets in a game, like the run over by our sideline last week. He was bottled up inside, he bounced it outside, they regained leverage, he put his foot in the ground and all of a sudden you had a 14-yard play out of a loss. He definitely has another gear when you get in the games."
A lot of guys with track speed don't have football speed and football instincts. Is he just a football player?
"He really is. He's really fast, like Saturday when he had the long touchdown run. As soon as he got to the corner I said 'touchdown.' It looked like that guy might have had the angle, but they are not going to catch him. If a guy gets him, that guy is really fast, too. I think he's one of the fastest guys in college football."
How is his role evolving?
"The thing I like about what we're doing with him is coach Hall's just getting him more involved every week in the offense, throwing him the ball, pass pro besides running the ball inside, outside. He's a tougher inside runner, too. We talk all the time about seeing two guys and splitting two guys, so no guy gets a head-on hit on you and only gets a glancing blow. He really does an excellent job of accelerating through. Maybe you made the tackle, but he fell forward three yards."
You had 300 rushing and passing yards against UConn.
"That's tough to do. That's the balance you like to have. That was excellent. It's hard to do when you have a bunch of guys, but our game plan and execution and the play-calling, we got a lot of guys involved early and often, and you've got to do that because we have a lot of playmakers. We've got playmakers on the perimeter and playmakers in the backfield. It's easy to get the quarterback involved, but we got the receivers and the tight ends and the running backs involved."