- Going into the season I had two major concerns and they were at QB and OL. OL didn't dominate a team that lost 4-6 DL off of last years JSU team. We have another week for them to get on the same page communicating and tightening up their assignments in the run game or else this will not be a successful season. Two things I saw that can be fixed is the communication and finishing plays until the end. Regardless of the game plan which could limit other positions on offense this OL needs to show more next week. Chris Taylor will be really good but he busted on a couple plays.
- My other major worry going into this season was everyones expectations of Nick Montana. Ryan Griffin was not the greatest QB on the planet but I think Tulane fans severely under-appreciated the skills he did have and more importantly underestimated his intelligence and knowledge of the playbook. If you think I am wrong then just go read anything Sean Payton has said about Griffin and it proves my point. Hell, Griffin was basically calling plays last year. Yes the coaches gave him (like they do Brees) a basic concept of what they wanted for a play but when Griffin went to the line he was free to make any adjustments he wanted and change plays. Nick is not that comfortable yet to have that command. I loved the mobility he showed and you could see that he will be a decent QB with some of the throws he made. Now, I do not think - no - I know we did not throw everything out there this week. CJ wanted to run and then run some more. I think he is very confident that when we need to we can toss the ball around with the playmakers we have at WR (who were also limited due to the game plan). CJ wanted to work on the run game so they can go coach up the OL early in the season. What I saw out of Montana didn't answer many questions but I am not overly worried about it yet either. I did not agree with putting Powell in to start the 3rd Q. Montana is clearly the better QB and the guy that will lead this team baring injury and I would have liked to see us make some adjustments at the half and see what Montana would do after that. I understand CJ has said he wants to use 1-2 games to get guys into games and get them reps but at some point you pick one guy and you go with it. If another guy gets his feelings hurt than so be it. That said, we had the luxury of doing it this week so this is when you do it. The hope is to be able to do that one more time.
- WR Devin Boutte was a nice surprise showing moves on the end around & just as impressive was the Go route he ran in the 4th that was over thrown. He toasted the CB. He is also one hell of a special teams guy. He flies down there along with a few others I will mention later and you can tell these guys have the respect of their teammates for the way they play the game. Devon Breaux showed just a small sample on a decent kick return of 30 yards and then going up high to snag an 11 yard TD pass over the JSU corner that will be drafted in the top 3-5 rounds. Ryan Grant did his job. He drew a penalty and he made an amazing catch showing great concentration and strong hands.
- Orleans Darkwa has the "feel" when it comes to running the ball. He just knows how to read and feel his way through for yardage. Rob Kelley showed why they guys love Rob Kelley. He runs hard and is consistent in the run game and catching balls. Going back to last year this guy just makes plays. Limited opportunity last night but he just seems to be a guy that makes plays when they need to be made out of the backfield. My one complaint is Dante Butler. He did well in his two touches but he is too big, strong and low centered to be running out of bounds when a DB is coming at him.
- As a whole I was very impressed with our ability to stuff the run. JSU or not, in the past any team that wanted to run against us would be able to run on us and if you take away the QB scramble yardage we did a solid job stuffing them on pure running plays. Now vs the pass we still have a lot of work to do up front. We didn't get much pressure at all from the DL. The DEs played well overall but in terms of QB pressure it was not there. That said, I really think this may have had something to do with the game plan. If you are playing a team with a running QB, a team that likes to zone read, option, draw and things like of that nature that you could see they did on film last year, you might not tell your ends to go 100% around the edge and lose containment. Just my assumption here but it would seem to make some sense. Force them to beat you downfield and even though they did a couple times it was obviously not something that hurt us.Absolutely loved what I saw out of all of the DTs. That is one hell of a group and that does not even include a guy like Calvin Thomas who played a lot last year as a true FR. I did really like what I saw out of Royce LaFrance when he was able to play in the second half. If he keeps his head on right he can be really good. We have a lot of depth there so we need to be able to be fresh and get to the passer in the future. Jeremy Peeples had a jersey on and was on the sidelines. He is lean and tall and should hopefully provide some more speed and agility off the edge adding depth as well.
- Overall the LB group I just can't pick anything out as a whole. I know on the option stuff they did a great job filling their gaps as instructed, not to make plays but to do their jobs taking on blockers so the DBs could fill the hole and make the play. Dominque Robertson late in the game blew the crap out of a blocker on a run play. He literally ran the dude right over as if he did not exist. Robertson was in and out with some small leg injury but if he is healthy he will make plays. The brightest spot of this group was watching Nico Marley. He is only credited with 5 tackles but 4 of them were solo and he was around the ball so many more plays. He was even more impressive on some special teams plays where he was flying downfield and just hitting people. Again, the team recognized this and let him know about it. We had 4 true freshmen play at LB last night and they have a lot to learn but overall I saw a lot to look forward to there and we have not seen Edward Williams yet who missed a good chunk of camp and is just not getting back to practice with the ankle injury.
- Loved what I saw from our secondary overall. Focusing mostly through the first 2.5 quarters when the starters were mostly in we got beat on some plays but we were not toasted. We were in position or right there which is better than what I remember of guys being wide open. I really like Monroe and Scofield. Monroe was more active back there and Scofield is just a pure football player. He does not have any hype and he looks like a regular Joe but he just finds the ball and is great coming up vs the run. The little we saw of Doss was as expected, the guy is only in his 2nd year as a cornerback and is legit. Still a lot to get better at but he is gooood. My one concern is actually that when Doss went out and Nickerson came in, JSU picked on Sullen and he needs to play better 1v1. I think he is trying to be more physical since he is big but that is going to bite him. I think we will be okay here considering Jordan Batiste was suspended and Taurean Nixon was not eligible to play yet.
- Special teams. Cairo was Cairo. Good on FGs and inconsistent on kick offs. Got to get that fixed. Need to punt better overall but the one thing I will not criticize are punts where you are backed into your own endzone. You just have to get those kicks off safely, if they happen to be great then great. Deep snapping. Terrible. Couple high ones on punts and several that skated across the ground on FG or PATs. This guy was supposed to be really good out of HS and he has been here since January I believe. His snaps in Fall camp were not too great either so this might be a problem that needs to be addressed in recruiting if they can't get him fixed up sooner rather than later. The best part of special teams was that we didn't get anything blocked and our coverage picked up or even improved over last year. I saw passion and pride from the guys on special teams. Brandon LeBeau didn't let his guy get 10 yards downfield on a punt. A couple walk-ons that have earned playing time busted their butts getting down to their lanes and a couple guys just blowing guys up. There is not one thing I get greater joy out of then when I see guys busting their asses on special teams coverage. It is all about pride and passion for your job and I have the highest respect for guys that take it seriously.
- Recruits: I saw Tulane commitments Renee Fleury, Peter Woullard, Leondre James, Stephon Lofton and Deondre Skinner. Others that were there: Hawaii commit DB Daniel Lewis & USL DB commit Corey Turner. A few others but I don't have names. I will go out on a limb and say we end up with CB Daniel Lewis http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=6403690
- One last thing. Defense was flying around to the ball and we looked fast..... finally!
Next game vs South Alabama who lost on a last second field goal to Southern Utah 22-21. Yes, Southern Utah. So keep that in mind and these other scores when you think about our 27 point victory last night.
Kent State (11-3 in 2012) had to score a very late TD to beat Liberty 17-10.
UCONN got smoked by Towson 33-18
We handled our business even if it was not pretty. I will take 27 point ugly wins all day. We need to get better and CJ laid into the guys at halftime and he will do his best to get them coached up. I have to imagine we will look better in week two than week one. Everything is not perfect but we won and won big and regardless of the opponent caliber winning big is not common in our vocabulary.
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