August 22 Scrimmage Report

BY TIM SCANDURRO

JUICE. 

The team experienced a cool front yesterday morning, or what passes for one in August here.  The temperature and humidity were both down from the sauna-like conditions of last weekend’s scrimmage, and it led to some spirited, high energy work Saturday morning from start to finish.

BLEACHER REPORT. 

We have a running joke at my house when we get one of those fancy outdoor furniture catalogues in our mailbox.  Anything with a cushion on it, or anything made out of material that can either rot or rust, invariably leads to a “how long do you think that would last outside here?” question.  The over-under is always measured in months and not years.  Many of the Glazer Club cushioned seats were looking a bit mildewed and discolored last week.  Yesterday, during the scrimmage a crew was scrubbing the seats with bleach, an essential product we deploy by the gallon down here, and blasting them with a water hose.  In three weeks we’ll see how they look for the home opener.

No, no, no, YES! 

A quarter century ago I attended an August practice in Hammond, where Tulane was holding its preseason camp.  Our quarterback that year was Patrick Ramsey, a cannon-armed passer from Ruston who ended up getting drafted at the end of the first round the following year. We had a young receiver on that team named Roydell Williams, another future NFL player and a recruit that all the big boys had wanted.  Ramsey looked his way often that day, and when I made that observation after practice he looked at me and said, “Wouldn’t you?”  I was reminded of that Saturday morning when Zeon Chriss-Gremillion locked in on Destyn Hill a couple times.  Once he tried to fit a ball in over the middle that he was lucky to get back, but the next time he found him on a ten yard curl that turned into about a 30 yard gain when Hill snatched it and immediately spun upfield.  In a perfect world the quarterback is always throwing where the coverage dictates the throw.  In real life, sometimes the best play is just to throw it in the direction of your best guy and let him make a play.

ABOUT THAT SPIN UPFIELD. 

Receivers who catch the ball with their back to the defense often flinch, hesitate, or in some cases go down.  The instinct is understandable because there is usually a heat seeking missile or two headed their way.  Even when they turn to run, a split second of hesitation is often the difference between a ten yard gain and an explosive play.  One thing I like about Hill is that he assumes the path to paydirt is always wide open, and he catches it and accelerates immediately.  With an offense that might find explosive pass  plays downfield harder to come by this season, it’s nice to have a guy who can turn a ten yard pass into a house call from anywhere on the field.

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT.

Coach Hall indicated earlier in the week that Jesuit product William Hudlow had the inside track on the punting job, and credited the evolution of his mindset—specifically, the development of his “short memory” skill to let the last punt (good or bad) go, before hitting the next one.   Kicking specialists are particularly susceptible to confidence problems or anything else that disrupts their mental focus and routine.  Hudlow had a rough day during the scrimmage portion of practice, hitting three consecutive punts against a live rush that traveled 35, 27 and 37 yards in the air.  Brooks Moore followed with three of his own that went 47, 47 and 39 yards in the air.  Hudlow apparently has built some cushion across this long camp, but you’d have liked to see a bit more yesterday considering the vote of confidence he’d gotten earlier in the week.  Very small sample size though, and a good opportunity to practice those mental skills his head coach talked about. Our returners were Seth Gale, Maurice Turner and Jaylin Lucas.

Against a live rush, Jackson Courville converted field goals of 31 and 26 yards, and Cooper Helmke converted from 29 yards.  With the whole team watching but without a live rush, Courville came up short from 57 yards away, and Helmke missed a 42 yarder wide left. I’ve only seen our three scrimmages but this looks like a situation where Helmke may be the guy you bring in at the end of a half or game when you need a really long one, with Courville handling all other placements.

RUN THE D@MN BALL. 

With Jamauri McClure continuing to watch from the sideline, the touches for our top healthy backs were kept to a minimum yesterday.  Despite that, both Maurice Turner and Jaylin Lucas had very nice 10 yard-plus runs that showed off their speed and wiggle.  The workhorses on Saturday though were Gabe Mocek and Jake Randle, who lack the dynamism of the guys ahead of them but run with authority behind their pads.  Randle caught a fourth down throw in the red zone short of the sticks and bowled full speed into several defenders in an effort to convert it.  Two of the backup DBs who tackled him got up very slowly.  He was a hard tackle in high school and accounted for over 50 touchdowns at Newman, where he ran for over a thousand yards as a junior, got moved to quarterback and then ran for over 800 more and almost ten yards a carry as a senior.  Tough kid.  He and Mocek may never get a live carry in a game this year, but they showed that they belong on this football team.

Despite a banged-up offensive line, we ran the ball much better this week than last.  To illustrate how fickle fans can be, last week I came away wondering why we couldn’t open up more holes in the run game, and this weekend I came away wondering why we weren’t stiffer up front on defense.  Better to have that feeling change week to week though, I think.  Beats the alternative.

NICE AND TIGHT.

With Ty Thompson watching from the sideline, the first two tight ends were transfers Dawson Johnson and Vance Bolyard.  Thompson was there supporting his teammates and was walking with no apparent difficulty.  Hamstrings are tricky, but I think we are optimistic that he may be back sooner than later.

FLASHERS. 

Chase Green had an excellent practice, not only getting an interception but making several athletic and physical stops in run support.  Reshad Sterling looked as good as I’ve seen him look against the run and the pass.  Gerrod Henderson had a good practice.  On one play he pursued from his bandit position and brought down a wide receiver ten yards downfield after catching a screen.  Defensive linemen who chase plays down from behind save a lot of yards and points in this sport,  and often force turnovers.  I’m old enough to remember when our D-linemen jogged behind the play just hoping to get to the new line of scrimmage before the next snap.  Times have changed.  Team wide in the back seven, we look like a fast football team on defense.  We aren’t quite as dynamic off the ball as last year in the middle of the defensive front, and may need to blitz more to create some interior pass rush push.  It helps that we have very fast, physical linebackers and slot/spear players who can come from anywhere.

CRASHERS. 

In addition to a handful of errant snaps, the game officials working practice called a couple of false starts (those have been rare this camp), and even one defensive delay of game on a third and two, presumably due to a simulated snap infraction.  Whatever it was, the guilty party should probably steer clear of DC Tayler Polk for a while.

Having watched practice the past couple of years, we have overall been far less sloppy and mistake prone this year, especially considering how fast everything moves.  We seem to be more efficient lining up and executing on both sides.  Of course talent can erase mistakes on both sides of the ball, and last year we were able to do that a lot in game situations. 

THE FIELD GENERALS.

The best drive of the day was the very first one, led by Kadin Semonza.  He looked decisive, in command, and efficient on that drive in both the intermediate and short areas,  and executed the read option well.  Still, we had to settle for a field goal which has been a recurring theme in the work I’ve watched this August.  Our defense does not make it easy, but we need to finish drives with touchdowns.  Later in practice, Semonza threw a ball intended for his brother at the goal line which came dangerously close to being intercepted by Macho Stevenson.  After the play the two talked, Kadin telling Cash what he was reading on the play.  The two did hook up for a nice gain in the  middle of the field, but the officials blew the play dead when Reshad Sterling raced in and touched Semonza just as he threw. 

Zeon didn’t attempt a whole lot of passes yesterday, as we worked more on the run game when he was in, it seemed.  He did hit Hill on the nice play mentioned above.  On a third and long he threw a jump ball deep for Gabe Daniels, who was singled up with Chase Green in the middle of the field.  Green came down with the pick, but I thought it was the right read.  Zeon was also victimized, as were all of our quarterbacks, by errant snaps.  We had several, one of which forced a throwaway by Zeon on third and short and a field goal in the red zone.

Our two young quarterbacks got in later in the scrimmage, and despite some cohesion issues with all the substitutions they both made some plays.  Dagan Bruno picked up a rolling shotgun snap off the ground, rolled to his right and found tight end DJ Cicero running free up the sideline for a nice gain.  Trace Johnson found Garrett Mmahat on a deep over route for about 30 yards.  When he hit the back of his drop, Johnson did a really nice job climbing the pocket hard to clear the edge rusher  before releasing the throw.  He’s a perfectionist who seems to get frustrated when things go off schedule, but he continues to be impressive to these eyes as a technician.

A lot can change when you actually start game planning to a quarterback’s strengths and when the red jerseys come off, and it’s impossible to truly assess this competition when the quarterbacks can’t be hit.  Right now FTW is expecting Zeon to get the initial nod based on his upside, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see two quarterbacks play this year.  Or three.  Production at this position is going to make or break this season, so that candle I lit last week is going to stay lit this week.