Tulane concluded its first four-practice session of preseason camp with easily the hottest workout yet in a week of scorchers. The temperature is expected to go up to 99 or 100 today, and already was quite toasty when I arrived at 8:30 this morning at Yulman Stadium. The Wave is headed indoors to the Superdome for a pair of practices next week (Tuesday and Thursday) as Willie Fritz plans to alternate indoor and outdoor practices for the rest of camp, but first they had to get through the grind of another outdoor workout. That new turf had to help some because I can't even imagine how unbearable it would have been today on the old turf--this is the hottest August weather I have experienced--but it had to be tough on everyone. I was thankful this was a snoball day after practice, allowing me to cool off with a cherry snoball before interviews, and all I had done was stand in the shade watching guys run in the sun.
Michael Pratt and Lawrence Keys turned in the best offensive play of camp in the final 11-on-11 session today, Fritz had the offense start at its own 1-yard line in what I call the Ron Zook drill. When Zook took over from Steve Spurrier for a largely unsuccessful two-and-a-half year stint as head coach in 2002, he kept having the offense start from the 1 in controlled scrimmages. There's nothing really wrong with that, but it was a major change from Spurrier, who did real scrimmages with no situational stuff. Spurrier's practices simulated actual games other than having less contact, so it was jarring seeing what Zook did, although his approach was probably more the norm than what Spurrier did. I guess now I should refer to the 1-yard line work as the Patrick Jenkins drill in honor of his Cotton Bowl-changing safety in the same situation. But anyway, Pratt threw a beautiful deep ball to Keys down the sideline. I had the perfect angle as it dropped down to Keys around the 45-yard line in the only place he could catch it with cornerback Lance Robinson running stride for stride with. Keys held on to the ball as he fell to the ground, The perfection of the throw was reminiscent of the passes Pratt made on the four-play TD drive against Cincinnati last November after Tulane fell behind for the first time in the fourth quarter, but this one had a higher degree of difficulty. Keys did well, too, and I really think he is going to have a breakout year in his second season with the Wave after starting slowly last year.
I was asked on this board to look for LSU transfer linebacker Jared Small earlier this week, and I finally found him today. He hit walk-on running back Tate Jernigan as he caught a short out pass on the sideline right in front of me, then walked over to slap his hand and apologize since it was not a full-contact drill. Small is not very high on the depth chart at the moment, but he showed good athletic ability on that play. After two consecutive torn ACLs wrecked his past two years at LSU, he can at least help on special teams and maybe more. It will be interesting to watch his progress. In LSU's 2021 spring game, he had 14 tackles with an interception.
As you would expect, Justin Ibieta continues to try to wipe the rust off as he recovers from a second torn labrum in two years. His throws tend to be low, but he is getting as many reps as Pratt and Kai Horton while working with the third team in practice and has a month to get in rhythm. He did throw a nice pass to Yulkeith Brown over the middle in an earlier 11-on-11 session.
I don't put much stock in rating running backs during practices in shorts and shoulder pads, but freshman Trey Cornist was noticeable today. He won the award for most times running all the way to the end zone after a rep ended, but he looked smooth as part of what is a six-man competition at running back, with the depth chart to be determined by what happens in August.
Pratt whiffed on a shotgun snap during the first 11-on-11 session. I had not seen that from him before. Obviously Sincere Haynesworth's snap was not perfect, but it appeared to be a rare loss of concentration from Pratt. He then rolled out and hit Cotton Bowl star Alex Bauman with a short pass. Bauman is another guy headed for a big year. His Cotton Bowl was no fluke, and I predict he will catch more passes this year than any tight end in the Fritz era.
Carson Haggard made a nice throw to Trevor Evans, who is not really in the mix for playing time but continues to impress as a walk-on. He has really good hands and a knack for making plays. Separation speed is the issue.
Jalen Rogers made an incredible catch from Ibieta, although I'm not sure it would have stood up on replay review and he made the play more difficult than it needed to be. Ibieta threw behind him about 20 yards down the field, and he could not quite hold on to the ball as he tried to make a tough grab, bobbling it before grabbing just before (or after) it touched the turf. The offensive players on the sideline insisted it was a good catch, and it might have been, but it was awfully close.
After the drill from the offense's 1-yard line, which produced no other big plays after Pratt's dime to Keys and featured a near interception by Jai Eugene by a pass from fifth-string QB Darian Mensah, they reversed direction and made it a first-and-goal drill from the 1. Kai Horton had a nice scoring toss to Phat Watts on a rollout. Watts is less than 11 months removed from a torn ACL but appears to have recovered well. The day ended with an Ibieta TD toss to Dontae Fleming in the corner of the end zone.
I did not do much depth chart notation today because not much has changed in the first week of practice. The changes will come as camp moves along and particularly after the first scrimmage, which is set for next Saturday. There will be a second scrimmage the following Saturday (Aug. 19).
I talked to Fritz and intriguing running back Shedro Louis, the swift 5-8 Liberty transfer from Immokalee, Florida, which is a town in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the Everglades. It's one of the few places I never went to in my 21 years living in Florida. Louis was productive in all four years at Liberty, running back four kicks for touchdowns (two were called back by penalty), gaining 101 yards on seven carries against Ole Miss two years ago and having two 50-plus TD runs in the same game against Syracuse in 2020.
FRITZ
On drill that started from own 1-yard line:
"You've got to have a plan for every situation, and I would hope that we think about what kind of defense we're going to play versus a particular personnel and what plays we're going to run. One year I was out here, we ran a stretch when we were backed up on the minus-1. That's not a good play. It's going sideways and if you get any penetration, it's a safety, so they have to be straight ahead plays. You just have to have a Rolodex of play and also based on the score of the game, the quarter, time left, all that kind of stuff. We sit and talk about it for a while in each situation. Why did you call this? The other thing, too, is, I talked about it last night with a couple of new guys, if you hold in the end zone, what is it? It's a safety. If you are going to pass the ball, it's good to max protect and throw it there because most teams are going to try to out-populate you and you've got 1 on 1 on the perimeter, but you better play clean. It's just things like that."
On Pratt's throw from 1-yard line:
"A good ball. A good ball. He works all the time on it. We talk about throwing a 1 ball on a short pass with some steam on it when you have to fit it in a window. You've got a 2 ball that's usually up the seam or a deep comeback, and then you've got a 3 ball where you've got to put some air on it and it has to go over the top of the defender. He did a really nice job with the 3 ball on the sideline."
On getting Shedro Louis from Liberty after spring drills:
"First of all, when a guy comes in you want him to fit in. That's so important. We've got really good kids here, a great culture, and he's an outstanding young man and has fit in tremendously. He's going to be a good player for us. I think we've got some good backs. We've got four or five guys that can play at this level. We just have to shake it out and see who plays 40 snaps, who plays 20 and who plays five because you can't play six guys."
On being productive despite being 5-8:
"He's compact and he's strong. If he were 6 foot, he'd be 210 pounds. He's just not 6 foot. There's no place to hit him. I had a running back like that at Central Missouri who's the all-time leading rusher there (Kegan Coleman, who gained 3,995 yards on 688 carries from 2001-2004). He' was probably 5-foot-7 and 195 pounds. Everybody kept talking about how little he was, but he was powerful. There was just no place to hit him. But he (Louis) is a good player. He's tough and he's physical and it's hard to find a place to hit him at."
On practicing in Dome Tuesday and Thursday:
"Yeah, we wanted to come out here these practices and acclimate ourselves to the heat, and now we're going to start going outside, inside, outside, inside."
On scrimmage schedule:
"A week from today and then two weeks from today."
Michael Pratt and Lawrence Keys turned in the best offensive play of camp in the final 11-on-11 session today, Fritz had the offense start at its own 1-yard line in what I call the Ron Zook drill. When Zook took over from Steve Spurrier for a largely unsuccessful two-and-a-half year stint as head coach in 2002, he kept having the offense start from the 1 in controlled scrimmages. There's nothing really wrong with that, but it was a major change from Spurrier, who did real scrimmages with no situational stuff. Spurrier's practices simulated actual games other than having less contact, so it was jarring seeing what Zook did, although his approach was probably more the norm than what Spurrier did. I guess now I should refer to the 1-yard line work as the Patrick Jenkins drill in honor of his Cotton Bowl-changing safety in the same situation. But anyway, Pratt threw a beautiful deep ball to Keys down the sideline. I had the perfect angle as it dropped down to Keys around the 45-yard line in the only place he could catch it with cornerback Lance Robinson running stride for stride with. Keys held on to the ball as he fell to the ground, The perfection of the throw was reminiscent of the passes Pratt made on the four-play TD drive against Cincinnati last November after Tulane fell behind for the first time in the fourth quarter, but this one had a higher degree of difficulty. Keys did well, too, and I really think he is going to have a breakout year in his second season with the Wave after starting slowly last year.
I was asked on this board to look for LSU transfer linebacker Jared Small earlier this week, and I finally found him today. He hit walk-on running back Tate Jernigan as he caught a short out pass on the sideline right in front of me, then walked over to slap his hand and apologize since it was not a full-contact drill. Small is not very high on the depth chart at the moment, but he showed good athletic ability on that play. After two consecutive torn ACLs wrecked his past two years at LSU, he can at least help on special teams and maybe more. It will be interesting to watch his progress. In LSU's 2021 spring game, he had 14 tackles with an interception.
As you would expect, Justin Ibieta continues to try to wipe the rust off as he recovers from a second torn labrum in two years. His throws tend to be low, but he is getting as many reps as Pratt and Kai Horton while working with the third team in practice and has a month to get in rhythm. He did throw a nice pass to Yulkeith Brown over the middle in an earlier 11-on-11 session.
I don't put much stock in rating running backs during practices in shorts and shoulder pads, but freshman Trey Cornist was noticeable today. He won the award for most times running all the way to the end zone after a rep ended, but he looked smooth as part of what is a six-man competition at running back, with the depth chart to be determined by what happens in August.
Pratt whiffed on a shotgun snap during the first 11-on-11 session. I had not seen that from him before. Obviously Sincere Haynesworth's snap was not perfect, but it appeared to be a rare loss of concentration from Pratt. He then rolled out and hit Cotton Bowl star Alex Bauman with a short pass. Bauman is another guy headed for a big year. His Cotton Bowl was no fluke, and I predict he will catch more passes this year than any tight end in the Fritz era.
Carson Haggard made a nice throw to Trevor Evans, who is not really in the mix for playing time but continues to impress as a walk-on. He has really good hands and a knack for making plays. Separation speed is the issue.
Jalen Rogers made an incredible catch from Ibieta, although I'm not sure it would have stood up on replay review and he made the play more difficult than it needed to be. Ibieta threw behind him about 20 yards down the field, and he could not quite hold on to the ball as he tried to make a tough grab, bobbling it before grabbing just before (or after) it touched the turf. The offensive players on the sideline insisted it was a good catch, and it might have been, but it was awfully close.
After the drill from the offense's 1-yard line, which produced no other big plays after Pratt's dime to Keys and featured a near interception by Jai Eugene by a pass from fifth-string QB Darian Mensah, they reversed direction and made it a first-and-goal drill from the 1. Kai Horton had a nice scoring toss to Phat Watts on a rollout. Watts is less than 11 months removed from a torn ACL but appears to have recovered well. The day ended with an Ibieta TD toss to Dontae Fleming in the corner of the end zone.
I did not do much depth chart notation today because not much has changed in the first week of practice. The changes will come as camp moves along and particularly after the first scrimmage, which is set for next Saturday. There will be a second scrimmage the following Saturday (Aug. 19).
I talked to Fritz and intriguing running back Shedro Louis, the swift 5-8 Liberty transfer from Immokalee, Florida, which is a town in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the Everglades. It's one of the few places I never went to in my 21 years living in Florida. Louis was productive in all four years at Liberty, running back four kicks for touchdowns (two were called back by penalty), gaining 101 yards on seven carries against Ole Miss two years ago and having two 50-plus TD runs in the same game against Syracuse in 2020.
FRITZ
On drill that started from own 1-yard line:
"You've got to have a plan for every situation, and I would hope that we think about what kind of defense we're going to play versus a particular personnel and what plays we're going to run. One year I was out here, we ran a stretch when we were backed up on the minus-1. That's not a good play. It's going sideways and if you get any penetration, it's a safety, so they have to be straight ahead plays. You just have to have a Rolodex of play and also based on the score of the game, the quarter, time left, all that kind of stuff. We sit and talk about it for a while in each situation. Why did you call this? The other thing, too, is, I talked about it last night with a couple of new guys, if you hold in the end zone, what is it? It's a safety. If you are going to pass the ball, it's good to max protect and throw it there because most teams are going to try to out-populate you and you've got 1 on 1 on the perimeter, but you better play clean. It's just things like that."
On Pratt's throw from 1-yard line:
"A good ball. A good ball. He works all the time on it. We talk about throwing a 1 ball on a short pass with some steam on it when you have to fit it in a window. You've got a 2 ball that's usually up the seam or a deep comeback, and then you've got a 3 ball where you've got to put some air on it and it has to go over the top of the defender. He did a really nice job with the 3 ball on the sideline."
On getting Shedro Louis from Liberty after spring drills:
"First of all, when a guy comes in you want him to fit in. That's so important. We've got really good kids here, a great culture, and he's an outstanding young man and has fit in tremendously. He's going to be a good player for us. I think we've got some good backs. We've got four or five guys that can play at this level. We just have to shake it out and see who plays 40 snaps, who plays 20 and who plays five because you can't play six guys."
On being productive despite being 5-8:
"He's compact and he's strong. If he were 6 foot, he'd be 210 pounds. He's just not 6 foot. There's no place to hit him. I had a running back like that at Central Missouri who's the all-time leading rusher there (Kegan Coleman, who gained 3,995 yards on 688 carries from 2001-2004). He' was probably 5-foot-7 and 195 pounds. Everybody kept talking about how little he was, but he was powerful. There was just no place to hit him. But he (Louis) is a good player. He's tough and he's physical and it's hard to find a place to hit him at."
On practicing in Dome Tuesday and Thursday:
"Yeah, we wanted to come out here these practices and acclimate ourselves to the heat, and now we're going to start going outside, inside, outside, inside."
On scrimmage schedule:
"A week from today and then two weeks from today."