Tulane did something at practice today I've never seen in 30 years as a sportswriter. Giving Michael Pratt's throwing arm a bit of a rest during scout-team work, they had him take all of the snaps with the first-team unit while Justin Ibieata stood behind the play and made all the passes when Pratt was ready to throw. Pratt executed all of the hand-offs and had the ball in his hand on each rep, but he did not use his arm in that segment. This almost certainly is not a significant injury because they would not have had him taking all the reps if it were, but with a short week to get ready for Tulsa, clearly they wanted to save him some wear and tear. If I could have gotten Willie Fritz to the side I could have found out the reason, but there is a zero percent chance he would answer that question on a Zoom call that is made available to the public.
It was interesting to watch. Pratt did everything but actually throw the ball, while Will Hall kept drilling into his guys to "embrace the grind" of a short week. A little later, he shouted, "three games in 12 days. Only tough teams can do that. Embrace it, embrace it, embrace it."
Tulsa will be a significant challenge on Thursday night as Tulane goes for its second win against a ranked team in six days after not having one for 36 years. At times, the Golden Hurricane looks mediocre--it needed help from a clueless replay-booth official to beat ECU at home--but at other times its defense has been outstanding. In the second half of its victories against UCF and SMU, it made outstanding offenses look pedestrian, shutting them down.
"They are a three-man odd front and will mix it up playing some man and some zone," Willie Fritz said. "They will rush three, five under, three deep and go ahead and bring a fourth guy, bring a fifth guy. The thing I've been impressed with is when you run the ball they really fit it up where they will have one more guy at the point of attack than you either from the linebacker position or the safety position. There are a little bit of similarities between what they and Army do but also some significant differences."
A one-dimensional Tulane would be in a world of hurt against this particular Tulsa team. After giving up 395 yards and 31.3 points per game a year ago, Tulsa is allowing 370.2 yards and 21.8 points, easily the best numbers in coach Philip Montgomery's six-year tenure, in a season where offenses are dominating.
"When you're one-dimensional and playing against a good defense, they are going to get you," Fritz said. "It's critical when you play high-quality defenses like Tulsa, like Army, if you're two-dimensional, you have an opportunity to do some things offensively. That's what we are going to have to be able to do to have some success offensively against Tulsa."
Defensively, Tulane should be in good shape the way it has played lately. Tulsa has some playmakers on offense, but quarterback Zach Smith is an inconsistent thrower and the running game has been pedestrian (161.8 yards per game), unlike earlier in Montgomery's tenure when it averaged more than 200 yards from 2016 through 2018. Fritz, though, respects the history.
"Coach Montgomery is from the Art Briles spread-you-out school, and they really do a nice job of running. They are a physical team, so we are going to have to play great Thursday night, there's no question about that. (A win) would be huge for our program. I think 1974 was the last time it occurred (actually, it was 1979 with No. 13 Stanford and No. 19 SMU). You look at all those things during the offseason and after the season, but I've got a lot of respect for coach Montgomery. They've got a veteran-laded squad."
Although Jeffery Johnson was nowhere to be seen today after exiting the Army game with what appeared to be a hand or wrist injury from the pile-up on the fourth-down stop early in the fourth quarter, Fritz said he would play against Tulsa, and lately when he has said that, the injured player has played. Kevin Henry, who left a few plays earlier with a left knee injury after an Army lineman dove at it on a downfield block, did not practice today, either, but the Wave is loaded at linebacker. Freshman Jesus Machado got reps with the first unit while Marvin Moody rested. Ben Hicks started alongside De'Andre Williams on the interior of the line.
Duece Watts, who left for the locker room before the Army game was over, practiced today. Sorrell Brown, who practiced last week but did not play Saturday, was not able to go today, and I suspect he may be done for the year. Those two serious knee injuries he sustained in back-to-back preseasons are proving tough to overcome. Tim Shafter reclaimed his starting right guard spot after losing it to Josh Remetich following two holding penalties against Army.
Dane Ledford ran the definition of a post pattern late in practice. With Keon Howard at quarterback Ledford caught a ball in the back of the end zone and almost slammed full-on into the goal post, grazing it instead and avoiding injury.
I talked to Will Hall, Ben Knutson and Jha'Quan Jackson in addition to Fritz today and will post their quotes later. Hall, as always, said some good stuff.
It was interesting to watch. Pratt did everything but actually throw the ball, while Will Hall kept drilling into his guys to "embrace the grind" of a short week. A little later, he shouted, "three games in 12 days. Only tough teams can do that. Embrace it, embrace it, embrace it."
Tulsa will be a significant challenge on Thursday night as Tulane goes for its second win against a ranked team in six days after not having one for 36 years. At times, the Golden Hurricane looks mediocre--it needed help from a clueless replay-booth official to beat ECU at home--but at other times its defense has been outstanding. In the second half of its victories against UCF and SMU, it made outstanding offenses look pedestrian, shutting them down.
"They are a three-man odd front and will mix it up playing some man and some zone," Willie Fritz said. "They will rush three, five under, three deep and go ahead and bring a fourth guy, bring a fifth guy. The thing I've been impressed with is when you run the ball they really fit it up where they will have one more guy at the point of attack than you either from the linebacker position or the safety position. There are a little bit of similarities between what they and Army do but also some significant differences."
A one-dimensional Tulane would be in a world of hurt against this particular Tulsa team. After giving up 395 yards and 31.3 points per game a year ago, Tulsa is allowing 370.2 yards and 21.8 points, easily the best numbers in coach Philip Montgomery's six-year tenure, in a season where offenses are dominating.
"When you're one-dimensional and playing against a good defense, they are going to get you," Fritz said. "It's critical when you play high-quality defenses like Tulsa, like Army, if you're two-dimensional, you have an opportunity to do some things offensively. That's what we are going to have to be able to do to have some success offensively against Tulsa."
Defensively, Tulane should be in good shape the way it has played lately. Tulsa has some playmakers on offense, but quarterback Zach Smith is an inconsistent thrower and the running game has been pedestrian (161.8 yards per game), unlike earlier in Montgomery's tenure when it averaged more than 200 yards from 2016 through 2018. Fritz, though, respects the history.
"Coach Montgomery is from the Art Briles spread-you-out school, and they really do a nice job of running. They are a physical team, so we are going to have to play great Thursday night, there's no question about that. (A win) would be huge for our program. I think 1974 was the last time it occurred (actually, it was 1979 with No. 13 Stanford and No. 19 SMU). You look at all those things during the offseason and after the season, but I've got a lot of respect for coach Montgomery. They've got a veteran-laded squad."
Although Jeffery Johnson was nowhere to be seen today after exiting the Army game with what appeared to be a hand or wrist injury from the pile-up on the fourth-down stop early in the fourth quarter, Fritz said he would play against Tulsa, and lately when he has said that, the injured player has played. Kevin Henry, who left a few plays earlier with a left knee injury after an Army lineman dove at it on a downfield block, did not practice today, either, but the Wave is loaded at linebacker. Freshman Jesus Machado got reps with the first unit while Marvin Moody rested. Ben Hicks started alongside De'Andre Williams on the interior of the line.
Duece Watts, who left for the locker room before the Army game was over, practiced today. Sorrell Brown, who practiced last week but did not play Saturday, was not able to go today, and I suspect he may be done for the year. Those two serious knee injuries he sustained in back-to-back preseasons are proving tough to overcome. Tim Shafter reclaimed his starting right guard spot after losing it to Josh Remetich following two holding penalties against Army.
Dane Ledford ran the definition of a post pattern late in practice. With Keon Howard at quarterback Ledford caught a ball in the back of the end zone and almost slammed full-on into the goal post, grazing it instead and avoiding injury.
I talked to Will Hall, Ben Knutson and Jha'Quan Jackson in addition to Fritz today and will post their quotes later. Hall, as always, said some good stuff.
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