Spring Scrimmage News

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Baywave1
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by Baywave1 »

They were 2-10 for reasons which have to be addressed individually and collectively (in no particular order) to have a big immediate turnaround: talent, schedule, injuries, lack of clutch play, some bad bounces and coaching.

Doable? Don’t know.

I’m always optimistic but I ain’t running to the sports book until October at the earliest if even then.
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tulaneoutlaw
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by tulaneoutlaw »

Baywave1 wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:36 pm They were 2-10 for reasons which have to be addressed individually and collectively (in no particular order) to have a big immediate turnaround: talent, schedule, injuries, lack of clutch play, some bad bounces and coaching.

Doable? Don’t know.

I’m always optimistic but I ain’t running to the sports book until October at the earliest if even then.
Depends on what the early season win totals are. If they set the mark at 3 or lower I might bite :lol:
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Ok. You’re chumming me in….
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by Marathon Wave »

tjtlja wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:09 pm I read a long report on the other board and appears more of the same. Lots of punts, lots of pressure, lots of sacks. OL looked awful by all accounts and kicking game struggled. The OL recruiting has been lacking since year one. I suggest we sign nothing but OL out of the portal as spots open up. Otherwise, another year of Pratt and company will be wasted.
Apparently OL is worse than last year. Is that even possible? Our DL crushed them. And this isn't the top defense in the league. Thank goodness for early whistles, or Pratt might not be able to play come Sept.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by Marathon Wave »

waverider wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 11:52 pm
tjtlja wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 10:42 pm https://www.nola.com/sports/tulane/arti ... 3f324.html

Pratt’s team didn’t score a touchdown. Just miserable to read this. New offense for an OL that cannot sustain blocks. WF should have probably stayed with the offense he played at Georgia Southern.
Not really surprised. The White team had the starting OL, the Watts brothers and Canady on defense. They were my pick to win the game and they did.

Sounds like Horton had a nice TD pass to Wallace who will likely be the #1 TE.

Besides, it’s a scrimmage against ourselves, is there really a lot to read into?
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by ml wave »

Marathon Wave wrote: Sat Apr 23, 2022 7:25 pm
tjtlja wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:09 pm I read a long report on the other board and appears more of the same. Lots of punts, lots of pressure, lots of sacks. OL looked awful by all accounts and kicking game struggled. The OL recruiting has been lacking since year one. I suggest we sign nothing but OL out of the portal as spots open up. Otherwise, another year of Pratt and company will be wasted.
Apparently OL is worse than last year. Is that even possible? Our DL crushed them. And this isn't the top defense in the league. Thank goodness for early whistles, or Pratt might not be able to play come Sept.
Again, the 1st team OL (not exactly gangbusters to begin with) was split up between the two teams...I don't think you can make any judgments if we're better/worse based on the spring game.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by long green »

TU23 had Eman Naghavi on his podcast. No wild revelations to pin hope on. Naghavi has worked for some good people, sounds like a solid fit. He put an emphasis on getting better by doing what we do best, which is running the ball.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Thanks, Long Green. I had a good talk with Coach Naghavi both on and off the podcast. He's got great energy and the players are going to like him a lot. The feedback I've gotten from the o-linemen has been really positive. He's fired up to be coaching at Tulane. The proof is always in the pudding, but I think we've got the right guy in place.

I think its important not to overreact too much to a Spring game. If we had ones on ones with game planning, no red jerseys on QBs, etc., then we'd have something realistic to gauge. But that won't happen because we don't want to get anyone hurt. Let's let the OC get his whole offense installed, let's put our best guys out there against the best guys from UMass with a game plan in place and see what happens before condemning our offense.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Let's not bury our heads in the sand either. The D line was split up in the game too. There's the now long history of poor play by the line. More importantly all the reports on the scrimmages when it was 1's v. 1's was the same- the D-line was beating the O-line regularly. This staff has their work cut out for them to scheme around it. As to trying to be a run dominant team that's a joke. Sure we'll run over UMASS and Alcorn St. but when we play teams that it would be meaningful to beat it's not going to work. It's the day and age of the passing game. We need to be balanced otherwise besides losing we'll also lose on the recruiting trail when trying to get quality QB's and WR's.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Nobody is suggesting we bury our heads in the sand. What I said was let’s wait and see how things are once we choose 5 starters, have our full offense installed, game plan for an opponent and actually play a game that counts.

Nobody has also suggested that we go to a run heavy offense. What has been discussed is running the ball effectively. That doesn’t mean we have to run the ball constantly. It means we can run the ball when we want to and when we have to. Coach Svoboda is known for creating big plays in the passing game and putting up big passing numbers. We’re not going back to the Doug Ruse or even the Will Hall days. We’re going to throw the ball plenty…but we’d like to be able to sustain drives and use play action and have the defense actually bite. We’d like to be able to salt a game away with a good 4 minute offense.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by wavedom »

The 5 starters are chosen. From left to right it's Claybrook, Remetich, Haynesworth, Thomas and Green. Not much success there. There were reports of more designed rollouts which I have been hoping for for a long time. As I noted above they have a lot to scheme around. I certainly hope it works out but there are definitely reasons to be concerned .

Maybe you haven't said it but others have as far as just being run centric. That's a failed system here. We need to to do more than just give lip service to being balanced.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by ml wave »

wavedom wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 12:48 pm Let's not bury our heads in the sand either. The D line was split up in the game too. There's the now long history of poor play by the line. More importantly all the reports on the scrimmages when it was 1's v. 1's was the same- the D-line was beating the O-line regularly. This staff has their work cut out for them to scheme around it. As to trying to be a run dominant team that's a joke. Sure we'll run over UMASS and Alcorn St. but when we play teams that it would be meaningful to beat it's not going to work. It's the day and age of the passing game. We need to be balanced otherwise besides losing we'll also lose on the recruiting trail when trying to get quality QB's and WR's.
We already knew the DL is deeper/better than the OL, right? Sure it was split up but 1) again, they're better and B) you rotate more on the DL than you do on the OL so you've got players that actually play on the better unit vs. players that won't really play (barring injury) on the worse unit...of course they dominated. You mention the long history of poor play by the line...there's no magic wand here, hopefully we get some incremental improvement.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by wavedom »

As I said above the poor OL play wasn't just in the spring game. The reports on the scrimmages during camp were that the DL was dominating the OL.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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ml wave wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:05 am
Marathon Wave wrote: Sat Apr 23, 2022 7:25 pm
tjtlja wrote: Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:09 pm I read a long report on the other board and appears more of the same. Lots of punts, lots of pressure, lots of sacks. OL looked awful by all accounts and kicking game struggled. The OL recruiting has been lacking since year one. I suggest we sign nothing but OL out of the portal as spots open up. Otherwise, another year of Pratt and company will be wasted.
Apparently OL is worse than last year. Is that even possible? Our DL crushed them. And this isn't the top defense in the league. Thank goodness for early whistles, or Pratt might not be able to play come Sept.
Again, the 1st team OL (not exactly gangbusters to begin with) was split up between the two teams...I don't think you can make any judgments if we're better/worse based on the spring game.
Thanks. Didn't quite understand how the teams were split up. Good to know, I guess, that that line isn't, necessarily, the one that will start in the fall.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Heard the podcast didn't sound like Gloom and Doom to me. Yes the OL took a few steps but but their were a lot of reasons for this . To start Chip Long add a QB room where everyone was hurt a WR room with injuries ,drop passes and poor route running let the D send the house on every down without the fear of getting burned. With better Coaching better schemes and maybe one more really good transfer we will improve a lot.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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TU23 wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:30 pm Nobody is suggesting we bury our heads in the sand. What I said was let’s wait and see how things are once we choose 5 starters, have our full offense installed, game plan for an opponent and actually play a game that counts.

Nobody has also suggested that we go to a run heavy offense. What has been discussed is running the ball effectively. That doesn’t mean we have to run the ball constantly. It means we can run the ball when we want to and when we have to. Coach Svoboda is known for creating big plays in the passing game and putting up big passing numbers. We’re not going back to the Doug Ruse or even the Will Hall days. We’re going to throw the ball plenty…but we’d like to be able to sustain drives and use play action and have the defense actually bite. We’d like to be able to salt a game away with a good 4 minute offense.
TU23, were the two following questions addressed with the OL coach -

1. Will WF add several OL from the portal this offseason?
2. Have any of the back-ups emerged as serious contenders for playing time (Tuggle, Lombardi, Burns, Solomon, Lillibridge, Fort)? Where is the development after two-three years for some of these guys?

Finally, why have we taken so many projects at this position? Take guys that don’t necessarily have the measurable’s but are mean as crap and technically sound. After 6 years, this is the one position where it appears we have not built any depth (since the Nevada game has Claybrook ever recovered, and has Pratt overcome the nightmares)?
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by tulaneoutlaw »

Tj, I can provide a little color to your question. It will be hard for us to find someone in the portal at OL, not because we aren't looking but because that position group, especially OT, might be the most sought after position group in the portal. Even Alabama and Georgia would like to have an additional good OT for depth. Most good OL don't leave their school and those that do already have their transfer destination lined up if you know what I mean. That leaves less talented OL and those with other issues in the portal.

Meanwhile the guys over at 247 and other recruiting services freely admit the two hardest positions to project out of high school are QB and OL. OL is tough because size and strength are so important and those traits are still developing coming out of high school. It's no surprise given our place in the recruiting pecking order that we have more projects than many of the schools we would like to be competing with. Heck one of the main differences in the P5 and G5 is the difference in line play (as a generalization). That's not to say we should just give up or excuse the poor results there, but I don't think we should expect lots of immediate help from the portal to solve the issue.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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TU23 wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:30 pm Nobody is suggesting we bury our heads in the sand. What I said was let’s wait and see how things are once we choose 5 starters, have our full offense installed, game plan for an opponent and actually play a game that counts.

Nobody has also suggested that we go to a run heavy offense. What has been discussed is running the ball effectively. That doesn’t mean we have to run the ball constantly. It means we can run the ball when we want to and when we have to. Coach Svoboda is known for creating big plays in the passing game and putting up big passing numbers. We’re not going back to the Doug Ruse or even the Will Hall days. We’re going to throw the ball plenty…but we’d like to be able to sustain drives and use play action and have the defense actually bite. We’d like to be able to salt a game away with a good 4 minute offense.
More importantly, what is the name of your podcast?
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by wavedom »

G-wave wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:12 pm Heard the podcast didn't sound like Gloom and Doom to me. Yes the OL took a few steps but but their were a lot of reasons for this . To start Chip Long add a QB room where everyone was hurt a WR room with injuries ,drop passes and poor route running let the D send the house on every down without the fear of getting burned. With better Coaching better schemes and maybe one more really good transfer we will improve a lot.
We had 3 QB's get hurt because the the OL couldn't pass block but yeah it was everybody else's fault. I guess it's been everybody's else's fault for the last decade or more for the OL failures. :roll: We have had and continue to have serious issues on the OL. The one transfer there didn't play much where he came from. We need to do much better than that and much better on the recruiting trail.

The other serious concern for next season is PK. The one scholarship kicker came here with accuracy issues and they continue. The others haven't been much better.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Actually, in the Fritz era we’ve had three college transfers on the OL before Ray. All of them, including Ray, are grads. They are Knighton, Montano, and Knutson. Ray’s time at Colorado matches up more closely with Knutson’s time at UVa. If Ray is close to that level it will be a real boost wherever he lines up.

I think some have forgotten that Tuggle started 8 or 9 games in 2020, making six the number of guys we have with lots of starting experience. We’ll see what Naghavi can do with that.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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to echo wavedom's concern... as bad as Glover was, it appears we don't have anyone as "good" as him on the roster to kick this season... I guess we'll be going for even more 4th downs in normal FG range

it's dumfounding... division 1AA schools get kickers who can actually kick... why tf can't Fritz recruit a guy who can hit a FG outside of 20 yards?
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

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Johnny Mac wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:32 am to echo wavedom's concern... as bad as Glover was, it appears we don't have anyone as "good" as him on the roster to kick this season... I guess we'll be going for even more 4th downs in normal FG range

it's dumfounding... division 1AA schools get kickers who can actually kick... why tf can't Fritz recruit a guy who can hit a FG outside of 20 yards?
The guy from Washington State hasn’t gotten here yet.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by NJwave »

Johnny Mac wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:32 am to echo wavedom's concern... as bad as Glover was, it appears we don't have anyone as "good" as him on the roster to kick this season... I guess we'll be going for even more 4th downs in normal FG range

it's dumfounding... division 1AA schools get kickers who can actually kick... why tf can't Fritz recruit a guy who can hit a FG outside of 20 yards?
Really stupid question, do we get kickers that show up to the football camps we host? It seems to me at kicker you could almost have a camp that is a pseudo tryout and offer the top 2 or 3 guys every year. Our recent kickers don't seem to be from Louisiana. Kicker seems like an obvious position to be able to find a local kid that is at least serviceable.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by long green »

We are definitely looking at kickers and bringing them in for visits. You’d have to give Fritz a good grade for the way he’s handled long snapping and punting so far. He found those things but a place kicker is a bridge too far.
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Re: Spring Scrimmage News

Post by wavedom »

long green wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 9:05 am
Johnny Mac wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:32 am to echo wavedom's concern... as bad as Glover was, it appears we don't have anyone as "good" as him on the roster to kick this season... I guess we'll be going for even more 4th downs in normal FG range

it's dumfounding... division 1AA schools get kickers who can actually kick... why tf can't Fritz recruit a guy who can hit a FG outside of 20 yards?
The guy from Washington State hasn’t gotten here yet.
He's our best hope but he didn't PK there. He was the kick-off guy. So we may want to keep looking.
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