April 9, 2008

New Orleans - The Tulane Green Wave continued to show improvement during spring practice with another hard-hitting, 24-period afternoon with the focus on special teams and details as TU wrapped up practice number nine of the spring campaign.

The Green Wave will conduct the 10th session this Thursday from 2-5 p.m. However, Tulane head coach Bob Toledo has changed Saturday's practice time to 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Under overcast skies and a cool breeze at the Westfeldt Practice Facility, the Green Wave addressed special teams and numerous situational drills while focusing on assignments and substitutions.

"Today we did some live kicking with kickoffs and punts. On Thursday, we'll do live kickoff and punt returns. We're doing a lot of situational type things with down and distance, red zone and short yardage. The game is based on substitutions and situational type football. You can't play with 11 guys any more. You have to have 15-17 guys on both offense and defense and we're trying to find the best 15-17 guys right now," Toledo said.

With nine practices in the book, Toledo took time to reflect on the progress and maturity of the Green Wave during his second tour of spring practice at Tulane.

"Comparing our progress to last year is night and day right now. That's doesn't mean we're going to win more games or be that much better, but from an attitude, work ethic and understanding standpoint it's a lot better. Our guys are working hard and they have a better understanding of what is going on, and that can be attributed to experience and having already gone through a year in our system. They understand what we as coaches expect from them. There's a learning curb and the guys that were here last year understand what to do, and our younger guys are figuring out what they need to do.

"The thing with our redshirt freshman is that they were not here last spring, so there is no means of comparison. We can tell how much the guys who were here a year ago have improved, but the freshman still have a long way to go and that's the problem right now. The younger guys lack the experience of being out here in our system. They spent last fall on the scout team and didn't get a chance to learn our system because they were running the opponent's offense and defense. The spring is where the freshmen get better and catch our eye."

Highlights from today's practice were numerous. In a 7-on-7 drill, redshirt freshman Chandler Davis made a diving catch in front of a defender that appeared to be uncatchable.

Several drills later with both the offense and defense squaring off near midfield, sophomore receiver Jeremy Williams turned a short pass into a 45-yard touchdown as he ran untouched into the end zone. One play later, freshman Phillip Davis and a TU receiver both dove for a pass, but Davis came up with the interception.

Freshman Cody Blackwelder showed his concentration when he broke into the flat during a pass play and freshman Joe Kemp send the ball in his direction. However in an attempt to corral the pass, Blackwelder made contact with the ball about the time he was hit by a defender. The ball went up in the air and the defender bounced off and Blackwelder alertly grabbed the ball, out of the air, tucked it underneath his shoulder and rambled for seven yards.

In a red zone drill toward the conclusion of practice, junior defensive end Reggie Scott continued to be a force when he sacked Kemp for a 10-yard loss and ran unblocked on the next play to hurry redshirt sophomore Kevin Moore into an incompletion.

Freshman redshirt Jordan Stephany scored a touchdown on the ground, but it didn't come easy. Stephany was stood up at the line, but ducked the defenders and fought his way over the goal line for a tough two-yard score.