Spring Spotlight - Donnie Lewis Jr.
Mar 16, 2018 | Football
By Oliver Grigg
TulaneGreenWave.com
NEW ORLEANS – Donnie Lewis Jr. is the next man up. He knows it's his time.
Just a two-star recruit coming out of Central High School in Baton Rouge, Lewis redshirted his true freshman year in 2014. Little did he know he was enrolled at DBU – Defensive Back University.
That season, he sat behind future NFL draftees Taurean Nixon and Lorenzo Doss. He watched Sam Scofield and Darion Monroe cover the field like heat-seeking missiles. He bonded with Parry Nickerson, who went on to earn First Team Freshman All-American accolades from USA Today and Phil Steele Publications.
But that was then. Those guys are gone now. Lewis is the secondary's new leader.
"I was starting with Parry for three years," Lewis said. "Now he's gone, and it's all on me. I'm ready."
He hasn't just moved his way up the depth chart and assumed the role because of experience. He's gone out and earned it.
Lewis played in 11 games with nine starts as a redshirt freshman, totaling 30 tackles and tying for fourth on the team with three pass breakups. As a sophomore, he started all 10 games and finished with a career-high 39 total tackles, two interceptions and nine pass breakups, tying Parry Nickerson for most on the team.
Last season, he took his game to a new level.
Starting all 12 games, Lewis had a breakout season for the Green Wave with 36 tackles (27 solo), three tackles for loss, three interceptions and a team- and career-high 11 pass breakups. He saw his ball-hawking skills flourish, displaying his nose for the football in Tulane's overtime win at ECU with six pass breakups to go along with four tackles and one tackle for loss.
The college football nation noticed. Lewis received All-American Athletic Conference honorable mention accolades for his year, and expectations for his senior season are high.
"I've got a lot of room for improvement," Lewis said. "I'm really hard on myself, so anything as simple as anybody catching the ball in front of me at practice really gets to me. I'm really hard on myself this year. It's a big year for me, and I have some big goals for this year.
As spring practice begins, Lewis, who enters the 2018 season already in the school's top 10 in career pass breakups with 23, is taking another step up. His team needs him to.
"I always tell Donnie he's next up, and I don't expect anything less from him," safety Roderic Teamer Jr. said. "I expect to see him at the [NFL] Combine next year. I expect to see him going up to the next level. I expect Donnie to have a better year than he had last year, and I tell him that every day."
Another season under head coach Willie Fritz and his staff will help chemistry this year, and a strong group of returners in the secondary including Teamer, Taris Shenall and P.J. Hall will look to continue high levels of production.
"We're trying to outdo what we did last year," Lewis said. "Come out, get better, learn from our mistakes last year, believe in what the coaches are teaching us and trust the process."
Under Fritz and defensive backs coach Chris Hampton's tutelage, Lewis feels increased familiarity and comfort with the Green Wave's defensive system. The team has a better understanding of the schemes, more trust in one another and a greater focus on finishing the play.
The final play from last year's season-ending 41-38 loss at SMU is still fresh in his mind. Tulane finished the season just inches shy of six wins and bowl eligibility when quarterback Jonathan Banks was ruled short of the goal line as time expired.
"One inch," Lewis said. "That's the difference between finishing and not finishing. A bowl game is the big thing for us, but we're trying to get better as a family. We're trying to build and trust one another. Once we do that, everything will fall in place."
TulaneGreenWave.com
NEW ORLEANS – Donnie Lewis Jr. is the next man up. He knows it's his time.
Just a two-star recruit coming out of Central High School in Baton Rouge, Lewis redshirted his true freshman year in 2014. Little did he know he was enrolled at DBU – Defensive Back University.
That season, he sat behind future NFL draftees Taurean Nixon and Lorenzo Doss. He watched Sam Scofield and Darion Monroe cover the field like heat-seeking missiles. He bonded with Parry Nickerson, who went on to earn First Team Freshman All-American accolades from USA Today and Phil Steele Publications.
But that was then. Those guys are gone now. Lewis is the secondary's new leader.
"I was starting with Parry for three years," Lewis said. "Now he's gone, and it's all on me. I'm ready."
He hasn't just moved his way up the depth chart and assumed the role because of experience. He's gone out and earned it.
Lewis played in 11 games with nine starts as a redshirt freshman, totaling 30 tackles and tying for fourth on the team with three pass breakups. As a sophomore, he started all 10 games and finished with a career-high 39 total tackles, two interceptions and nine pass breakups, tying Parry Nickerson for most on the team.
Last season, he took his game to a new level.
Starting all 12 games, Lewis had a breakout season for the Green Wave with 36 tackles (27 solo), three tackles for loss, three interceptions and a team- and career-high 11 pass breakups. He saw his ball-hawking skills flourish, displaying his nose for the football in Tulane's overtime win at ECU with six pass breakups to go along with four tackles and one tackle for loss.
The college football nation noticed. Lewis received All-American Athletic Conference honorable mention accolades for his year, and expectations for his senior season are high.
"I've got a lot of room for improvement," Lewis said. "I'm really hard on myself, so anything as simple as anybody catching the ball in front of me at practice really gets to me. I'm really hard on myself this year. It's a big year for me, and I have some big goals for this year.
As spring practice begins, Lewis, who enters the 2018 season already in the school's top 10 in career pass breakups with 23, is taking another step up. His team needs him to.
"I always tell Donnie he's next up, and I don't expect anything less from him," safety Roderic Teamer Jr. said. "I expect to see him at the [NFL] Combine next year. I expect to see him going up to the next level. I expect Donnie to have a better year than he had last year, and I tell him that every day."
Another season under head coach Willie Fritz and his staff will help chemistry this year, and a strong group of returners in the secondary including Teamer, Taris Shenall and P.J. Hall will look to continue high levels of production.
"We're trying to outdo what we did last year," Lewis said. "Come out, get better, learn from our mistakes last year, believe in what the coaches are teaching us and trust the process."
Under Fritz and defensive backs coach Chris Hampton's tutelage, Lewis feels increased familiarity and comfort with the Green Wave's defensive system. The team has a better understanding of the schemes, more trust in one another and a greater focus on finishing the play.
The final play from last year's season-ending 41-38 loss at SMU is still fresh in his mind. Tulane finished the season just inches shy of six wins and bowl eligibility when quarterback Jonathan Banks was ruled short of the goal line as time expired.
"One inch," Lewis said. "That's the difference between finishing and not finishing. A bowl game is the big thing for us, but we're trying to get better as a family. We're trying to build and trust one another. Once we do that, everything will fall in place."
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