OK, I've taken my post-football break for the past week-and-a-half, doing little work, but that time is over.
Here's a look at three things that interest me today.
1) Tulane's offensive numbers this year were legit.
I read somewhere else that Tulane's near-record setting offensive totals this season should be taken with a grain of salt because teams run more plays in the no-huddle era than in the past. That is counterintuitive to the rule changes put in place more than a decade ago to speed up the game, so I looked it up and found what I expected. Twenty years ago, the top 10 offenses in the country averaged almost three MORE plays per game than they did this season. The clock runs on all out of bounds plays except for the last two minutes of each half after the referees mark the ball in play instead of starting at the snap, and the clock runs after offensive penalties like delay of game and false start when it used to stop until the snap. This was a way to get games to finish in the three-and-a-half hour window despite the addition of extra commercials, and although the proliferation of rapid-fire offenses has made a difference, the net is a loss of plays from the past, not a gain.
Tulane, with a quarterback who was not very accurate and an offensive line that had to be schemed around, averaged the third-most yards (449.3) in its history behind the two Tommy Bowden/RichRod years and the third-most points (33.1) in its history behind 1998 and 2000. Willie Fritz, Will Hall and Cody Kennedy did a tremendous job there, and with Hall almost certainly returning for a second year, it will be interesting to see what he can do in the second year of his system with a new quarterback.
2) The spring football practice schedule is out.
For those who missed the release released on twitter recently, spring practice will start Thursday, Feb. 27, with weekly workouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the morning and an extra session on Wednesday, March 25. The spring game will be 10 a.m. Saturday on March 28 at Yulman Stadium. All eyes will be on freshman quarterback Michael Pratt to see if he has a chance to be ready in the fall. Although Tulane likely will sign a grad transfer in the summer--it will happen if they find a good one who will be admitted to school--this is Pratt's chance to get a head start and provide a comparison to Keon Howard.
It will also be important for some receivers to step up. Tulane did not get an early grad transfer at the position, leaving the team bereft of proven performers in the spring. Some combination of Jaetavian Toles, Jacob Robertson, Sorrell Brown, Jha'Quan Jackson, Tyrek Presley and Dane Ledford have to step up because the spot is wide open. I've advocated moving Ygenio Booker to wideout for a while, but the coaches know his skill set better than I do.
3) The hoops struggles at home continue.
Although optimistic about the chance for AAC success this year, I said I'd wait to see how Tulane fared at home before making a concrete judgment, and the results were not pretty last week. In one of the most confounding stats of all time,Tulane is now 7-41 in AAC home games since joining the league. The Wave is not good on the road, either, checking in at 12-36, but it's unheard for a basketball team, particularly a bad one, to be better on the road than at home. Tulane was uncompetitive with UCF, which played very well, and could not hang on to an early lead against Tulsa, which shot horribly in the first half but took over in the second because of superior talent in the paint. Ron Hunter chalked it up to a bad shooting slump that Tulane will get out of, but I saw two opponents take and make higher quality shots than the Wave was getting.
The Wave has a winnable (and losable) game at ECU, the worst team in the league, this Saturday, but the real test will come against struggling USF on Jan. 29 at Devlin Fieldhouse. The Wave absolutely, positively must win that game to harbor hopes of being competitive in the AAC this year. USF is the only team Tulane has a winning record against since joining the league, and the Wave needs to be 4-4 in conference before beginning February with trips to SMU and Houston.
Here's a look at three things that interest me today.
1) Tulane's offensive numbers this year were legit.
I read somewhere else that Tulane's near-record setting offensive totals this season should be taken with a grain of salt because teams run more plays in the no-huddle era than in the past. That is counterintuitive to the rule changes put in place more than a decade ago to speed up the game, so I looked it up and found what I expected. Twenty years ago, the top 10 offenses in the country averaged almost three MORE plays per game than they did this season. The clock runs on all out of bounds plays except for the last two minutes of each half after the referees mark the ball in play instead of starting at the snap, and the clock runs after offensive penalties like delay of game and false start when it used to stop until the snap. This was a way to get games to finish in the three-and-a-half hour window despite the addition of extra commercials, and although the proliferation of rapid-fire offenses has made a difference, the net is a loss of plays from the past, not a gain.
Tulane, with a quarterback who was not very accurate and an offensive line that had to be schemed around, averaged the third-most yards (449.3) in its history behind the two Tommy Bowden/RichRod years and the third-most points (33.1) in its history behind 1998 and 2000. Willie Fritz, Will Hall and Cody Kennedy did a tremendous job there, and with Hall almost certainly returning for a second year, it will be interesting to see what he can do in the second year of his system with a new quarterback.
2) The spring football practice schedule is out.
For those who missed the release released on twitter recently, spring practice will start Thursday, Feb. 27, with weekly workouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the morning and an extra session on Wednesday, March 25. The spring game will be 10 a.m. Saturday on March 28 at Yulman Stadium. All eyes will be on freshman quarterback Michael Pratt to see if he has a chance to be ready in the fall. Although Tulane likely will sign a grad transfer in the summer--it will happen if they find a good one who will be admitted to school--this is Pratt's chance to get a head start and provide a comparison to Keon Howard.
It will also be important for some receivers to step up. Tulane did not get an early grad transfer at the position, leaving the team bereft of proven performers in the spring. Some combination of Jaetavian Toles, Jacob Robertson, Sorrell Brown, Jha'Quan Jackson, Tyrek Presley and Dane Ledford have to step up because the spot is wide open. I've advocated moving Ygenio Booker to wideout for a while, but the coaches know his skill set better than I do.
3) The hoops struggles at home continue.
Although optimistic about the chance for AAC success this year, I said I'd wait to see how Tulane fared at home before making a concrete judgment, and the results were not pretty last week. In one of the most confounding stats of all time,Tulane is now 7-41 in AAC home games since joining the league. The Wave is not good on the road, either, checking in at 12-36, but it's unheard for a basketball team, particularly a bad one, to be better on the road than at home. Tulane was uncompetitive with UCF, which played very well, and could not hang on to an early lead against Tulsa, which shot horribly in the first half but took over in the second because of superior talent in the paint. Ron Hunter chalked it up to a bad shooting slump that Tulane will get out of, but I saw two opponents take and make higher quality shots than the Wave was getting.
The Wave has a winnable (and losable) game at ECU, the worst team in the league, this Saturday, but the real test will come against struggling USF on Jan. 29 at Devlin Fieldhouse. The Wave absolutely, positively must win that game to harbor hopes of being competitive in the AAC this year. USF is the only team Tulane has a winning record against since joining the league, and the Wave needs to be 4-4 in conference before beginning February with trips to SMU and Houston.
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