Tulane had a serious injury at practice this morning, prompting Willie Fritz to call it off early. I do not know who got hurt, but when I arrived at Yulman Stadium, they had medical personnel gathered around a player on the ground who was then taken away in a stretcher.
Understandably, Fritz elected not to say who was hurt because the family had not been notified, but offensive coordinator Doug Ruse said it looked like the unnamed player would be OK as he left the field. I did not see whether it was an offensive or defensive player.
"I'd rather not do anything until we find out what's going on and I have a chance to talk to his mom," Fritz said. "It was an injury, but I think he's going to be OK. Actually I'd rather not jump the gun on anything and talk to the proper people and all that stuff."
The practice, which was scheduled to go until 10:30 a.m. before the team takes four days off during its bye week, was halted a little before 10 a.m.
"We ended it a little bit early, I think 18 plays, so it's no big deal," Fritz said. "This week obviously it's not as critical."
That was it on that topic, but hopefully whoever it is will turn to be fine. When anyone gets taken off a field on a stretcher, it's always scary.
Tulane has eight takeways through four games, ranking in a tie for 25th nationally in that category. Fritz, who preaches ball security endlessly, said the high rate of forced turnovers was not by accident.
"It's something we work on a bunch," he said. "A secret to how a lot of people get a lot of takeaways is film study, video study. Every time you push the ball carrier, it's a chance to get the ball out, and there are certain techniques we use based on the location of the ball and your angle of arriving to the ball. The good coaches are able to really talk to guys watching film with me, because that's all I do, is what you need to be doing: punching the pocket, fingertips over the table, rake, high point the ball, my elbows need to be above my eyes. Just everything. You have to coach that. They don't just fall out. They do sometimes, but usually they don't just throw it to you. You've got to do a good job of taking an interception path. Where should I break on the cut where I can intercept the ball rather than being an uphill, shoulder player. It's easy to say, hard to do, but we've done a pretty good job the last 20 years."
I asked Fritz how much he'd been able to judge his defense based on the unusual opponents in the first four games--FCS Grambling, national championship contender Oklahoma and two triple option teams in Navy and Army.
"It really has been a whole lot of different stuff," he said. "I was disappointed in the Oklahoma game because we gave up some easy ones. Three deep and we aren't playing three deep, just stuff like that. It's simple. You've got to make them work at it, and we had three big busts in that game and most of the games we had zero. We played with a lot of toughness last Saturday. They are a tough team to play. You've got to be on point every single play. You've got to have physicality on every single play. For the most part, we did that."
Tulsa isn't exactly the norm in Tulane's next game, either, running the Baylor offense that spreads the field but pounds the ball up the middle without the option element of Fritz' system. But it will be a good test for the defense.
"They are really unique, too," Fritz said. "They'll go three by ones, two by twos, they'll take big, gigantic splits, and everybody thinks they are a real big passing team, but they are a great running team and Baylor was a great running team whenever that was. They are really a good team. Big splits with the offensive line, but if you honor that too much out there, they are going to run it down your throat. If you pack the box, they feel like they have good match-ups and they'll take advantage of it. You've got to be multiple against them and not line up in just one front or one coverage or you'll get killed."
Fritz is relishing the opportunity to get another crack at Tulsa after Tulane's defense cracked a year ago against the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa ran for 330 yards on 58 carries and passed for another 236 yards, finishing with 556 yards after the Wave had not allowed 400 yards in its first six games.
"We played horribly," Fritz said. "We'll need to play a lot better than what we played. Last year they found some match-ups that were good for them and took advantage of it. We had a tough time defending some of the guys."
Tulane will lift weights Thursday but won't practice again until a light workout Monday. Fritz has become more conscious of not overworking his teams as he has gotten older.
"The older I've gotten, the more I've realized that rest and recovery is a lot more important," he said. "You don't have a lot of opportunities to do it. We need to get healed up and we are fairly healthy right now. It's a good time to let the kids unwind a little bit. We've got to be mature enough to get back to work on Monday."
Tulane has scored seven touchdowns in eight red zone possessions through four games, settling for a field goal on the other one, but Fritz did not appear overly impressed by that stat. The Wave is one of 17 teams that have scored on every red zone series, and its percentage of touchdowns is higher than all but UTEP, New Mexico State and Oregon State. Those teams are a combined 3-9, so maybe Fritz has a reason not to be impressed.
"We've done a good job of play calling, but we've got to score more points," Fritz said. "We've got to take advantage of every series. The good offenses don't have dropped passes. They don't miss open targets. They finish runs. They move the chains. We've got to do a better job of that. We're playing a bunch of teams that are high powered, and obviously it behooves us to score more points. We didn't do that."
Fritz pointed out the winning drive against Army was not exactly textbook.
"A lot of it was improvisation by Banks, and he did a great job of that and we're going to need more of that, too," Fritz said. "That's called taking advantage of your athletes, but everybody's got to do their one-eleventh and everybody's got to be on the same page. If we do that, I think we can have a high-scoring offense. But it sure helps you defensively. As I mentioned before, if we could have just gotten up 21-10. It was 14-10 all that time, and I really think it might have become a runaway, but we couldn't do it, and hats off to Army."
Understandably, Fritz elected not to say who was hurt because the family had not been notified, but offensive coordinator Doug Ruse said it looked like the unnamed player would be OK as he left the field. I did not see whether it was an offensive or defensive player.
"I'd rather not do anything until we find out what's going on and I have a chance to talk to his mom," Fritz said. "It was an injury, but I think he's going to be OK. Actually I'd rather not jump the gun on anything and talk to the proper people and all that stuff."
The practice, which was scheduled to go until 10:30 a.m. before the team takes four days off during its bye week, was halted a little before 10 a.m.
"We ended it a little bit early, I think 18 plays, so it's no big deal," Fritz said. "This week obviously it's not as critical."
That was it on that topic, but hopefully whoever it is will turn to be fine. When anyone gets taken off a field on a stretcher, it's always scary.
Tulane has eight takeways through four games, ranking in a tie for 25th nationally in that category. Fritz, who preaches ball security endlessly, said the high rate of forced turnovers was not by accident.
"It's something we work on a bunch," he said. "A secret to how a lot of people get a lot of takeaways is film study, video study. Every time you push the ball carrier, it's a chance to get the ball out, and there are certain techniques we use based on the location of the ball and your angle of arriving to the ball. The good coaches are able to really talk to guys watching film with me, because that's all I do, is what you need to be doing: punching the pocket, fingertips over the table, rake, high point the ball, my elbows need to be above my eyes. Just everything. You have to coach that. They don't just fall out. They do sometimes, but usually they don't just throw it to you. You've got to do a good job of taking an interception path. Where should I break on the cut where I can intercept the ball rather than being an uphill, shoulder player. It's easy to say, hard to do, but we've done a pretty good job the last 20 years."
I asked Fritz how much he'd been able to judge his defense based on the unusual opponents in the first four games--FCS Grambling, national championship contender Oklahoma and two triple option teams in Navy and Army.
"It really has been a whole lot of different stuff," he said. "I was disappointed in the Oklahoma game because we gave up some easy ones. Three deep and we aren't playing three deep, just stuff like that. It's simple. You've got to make them work at it, and we had three big busts in that game and most of the games we had zero. We played with a lot of toughness last Saturday. They are a tough team to play. You've got to be on point every single play. You've got to have physicality on every single play. For the most part, we did that."
Tulsa isn't exactly the norm in Tulane's next game, either, running the Baylor offense that spreads the field but pounds the ball up the middle without the option element of Fritz' system. But it will be a good test for the defense.
"They are really unique, too," Fritz said. "They'll go three by ones, two by twos, they'll take big, gigantic splits, and everybody thinks they are a real big passing team, but they are a great running team and Baylor was a great running team whenever that was. They are really a good team. Big splits with the offensive line, but if you honor that too much out there, they are going to run it down your throat. If you pack the box, they feel like they have good match-ups and they'll take advantage of it. You've got to be multiple against them and not line up in just one front or one coverage or you'll get killed."
Fritz is relishing the opportunity to get another crack at Tulsa after Tulane's defense cracked a year ago against the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa ran for 330 yards on 58 carries and passed for another 236 yards, finishing with 556 yards after the Wave had not allowed 400 yards in its first six games.
"We played horribly," Fritz said. "We'll need to play a lot better than what we played. Last year they found some match-ups that were good for them and took advantage of it. We had a tough time defending some of the guys."
Tulane will lift weights Thursday but won't practice again until a light workout Monday. Fritz has become more conscious of not overworking his teams as he has gotten older.
"The older I've gotten, the more I've realized that rest and recovery is a lot more important," he said. "You don't have a lot of opportunities to do it. We need to get healed up and we are fairly healthy right now. It's a good time to let the kids unwind a little bit. We've got to be mature enough to get back to work on Monday."
Tulane has scored seven touchdowns in eight red zone possessions through four games, settling for a field goal on the other one, but Fritz did not appear overly impressed by that stat. The Wave is one of 17 teams that have scored on every red zone series, and its percentage of touchdowns is higher than all but UTEP, New Mexico State and Oregon State. Those teams are a combined 3-9, so maybe Fritz has a reason not to be impressed.
"We've done a good job of play calling, but we've got to score more points," Fritz said. "We've got to take advantage of every series. The good offenses don't have dropped passes. They don't miss open targets. They finish runs. They move the chains. We've got to do a better job of that. We're playing a bunch of teams that are high powered, and obviously it behooves us to score more points. We didn't do that."
Fritz pointed out the winning drive against Army was not exactly textbook.
"A lot of it was improvisation by Banks, and he did a great job of that and we're going to need more of that, too," Fritz said. "That's called taking advantage of your athletes, but everybody's got to do their one-eleventh and everybody's got to be on the same page. If we do that, I think we can have a high-scoring offense. But it sure helps you defensively. As I mentioned before, if we could have just gotten up 21-10. It was 14-10 all that time, and I really think it might have become a runaway, but we couldn't do it, and hats off to Army."
