Football Holds First Full-Pad Practice Friday At Westfeldt
Aug 12, 2011 | Football
Aug. 12, 2011
Video Interview With Head Coach B.Toledo
Video Interview With Cornerback A.Lauricella
NEW ORLEANS - It's been four-days in the making, but on Friday morning at the Westfeldt Practice Facility, the Tulane University football team suited up in full pads for the first time during the preseason as the Green Wave made day five of fall camp a hard-hitting, highlight-reel affair.
After holding a pair of practices in helmets, jerseys and shorts and another two in shells, the Wave went the full nine on Friday and the team had plenty to be proud of on offense, defense and special teams.
"My expectations were to continue to add to the offense and defense, and see how much the young guys in particular can absorb," Tulane head coach Bob Toledo said. "From there, we will find out who can play. Once you put the pads on, that changes the game a little bit. We're going to find out who can play, and in the next few days we'll have some scrimmage plays. We'll try and look at some of those young guys in those scrimmage situations so we can see who is going to be able to help us this year.
"The thing that we do is we have two tempos - one is what we call `thud' where we don't tackle and we don't cut block, and eventually we'll have some scrimmage opportunities. The big thing is we want to see how they step it up a little bit, and they did. I tell you what, the whole team really elevated its performance today. They made a lot of good plays on both sides of the ball. The attitude and the enthusiasm is really good out here."
Following team stretching and positional drills, the Wave got things going with a live punting drill, and sophomore JoJo Dobbs made the first big play with a block off the left wing. From there, it was on to the alley drill where offensive and defensive players square off one-on-one with a runner trying to advance five yards through a narrow portion of the field.
While there were many hoots and hollers along the way, the highlight of the early portion of practice came in what Toledo called the "score drill" where he pitted the offensive and defensive lines against each other 10 yards away from the endzone. Junior running back Stephen Barnett showed good vision and made some nice moves in the hole, but the defense came away with the victory as senior defensive tackle Chris Asumnu stopped him inches shy of the goalline on the final play of the drill.
Sophomore kicker Cairo Santos followed by nailing 8-of-9 field goal attempts, and his lone miss came from 50 yards out into the teeth of a stiff breeze. The defense came through with another block as junior linebacker Trent Mackey blocked a 35-yard attempt off the toe of sophomore Ryan Rome before the team headed to the locker room for a five-minute break.
Once the team retook the field, it was on to kickoff return practice before working on a series of short passing plays in seven-on-seven drills. Along the way, sophomore safety Kyle Davis, freshman defensive back Anthony Bronso and redshirt-freshman linebacker Ray Oppman batted down one pass each and junior linebacker Darryl Farley posted a pass break-up of his own with a big hit. Junior quarterback Ryan Griffin ended the drill on a high note, however, as he connected with fellow junior Ryan Grant for a 20-plus yard pass play up the left seam.
From there, the team went 11-on-11 in down-and-distance situations, and the offense was able to convert at an impressive rate as Griffin hit Barnett for a third-down conversion, hooked up with sophomore Wilson Van Hooser for a long touchdown strike, connected with redshirt-freshman Carlos Wilson for another score, and found rookie Brandon LeBeau for a long gainer down the left sideline. Not to be left out, junior D.J. Ponder threaded the needle for a significant gainer to Grant and later found true freshman Justyn Shackleford for a 20-yard pickup, and rookie running back Robert Kelley helped spring a scrambling Leon Blouin IV with a key block in a scramble drill.
The day concluded with another series of plays in full-team, 11-on-11 situations and both sides of the ball took turns making plays. The defense held the offense to several incompletions with steady pressure on the quarterback and turned a Griffin-to-Joe Kemp pass into a turnover as Mackey tracked down the senior receiver, stripped him of the ball and recovered the fumble.
Junior cornerback Alex Lauricella put up back-to-back big plays by knocking down a deep pass and then picking off another on an attempted screen. Ponder found redshirt-freshman Keith Harvey II for a nice gain and Kelley showed good wiggle on a broken-field run, but the defense capped the day with a sack as rookie Matthew Bailey drug down fellow freshman Nick SanGiacomo on the final play of practice.
"They both had their moments," Toledo said of his offensive and defensive units. "As a head coach, you're usually never pleased when one side dominates. Today, we had good and bad plays on both sides, so we'll be back here tomorrow for our first two-a-day practice."
The Green Wave return to practice on Saturday, Aug. 13, for a double session with start times of 8:45 a.m. and 3:50 p.m. The morning practice is slated to be full pads while the team will don helmets, shoulder pads and shorts in the afternoon. From there, the team will enjoy a day off from practice on Sunday before retaking the field in full pads on Monday at 8:45 a.m.
Tulane formally kicks off the 2011 season on Saturday, Sept. 3, when the Green Wave play host to Southeastern Louisiana at 2:30 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome. Season and individual-game ticket sales are currently for sale through the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office. The Ticket Office is located on the first floor of the James W. Wilson, Jr., Center on Ben Weiner Drive, and tickets can be purchased in person, over the phone at 504-861-WAVE (9283) or via the Internet at www.TulaneGreenWave.com.
