Aug. 15, 2008

Coach Toledo's Comments Following Friday's Practices

NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane Green Wave football team continued to build towards the 2008 season Friday, as the team focused on game situations in a morning practice at the Westfeldt Practice Facility and then situated their housing for the 2008 season in the afternoon. After a grueling two-a-day session on Thursday tested the Wave physically, head coach Bob Toledo and his staff made sure the players didn't get too comfortable, by mentally pushing the players with new material.

"In everything we do, we are on them to be mentally and physically tougher," Toledo said. After pushing his players' bodies to their physical limits on Thursday, Toledo pushed both body and brain on Friday.

The Green Wave's 24-period practice covered overtime and red zone situations, as well as third-down situations at a variety of distances. Tulane also introduced its onside kick game by putting together its hands team.

"We insert more on the one-a-days than on the two-a-days," Toledo commented. "In a single-practice, with the meeting times built into the day, that's when we can install things. We're throwing a lot of stuff at them and there's so much for them to learn."

In the overtime simulation, the Wave took over from the 25-yard line and picked up a first down as junior running back Andre Anderson carried the ball off-tackle for a 17-yard gain down to the eight-yard line.

Another player turning in big plays on the offensive side of the ball was Troy Wainwright. The 6-3 freshman tight end from Lake Charles pulled down a trio of big-yardage grabs in Tulane's third-down situational drills. Twice, the Green Wave converted on third and long with passes to Wainwright from starting quarterback Kevin Moore, a redshirt sophomore from Highland Village, Texas.

D.J. Ponder, a true freshman quarterback from Baton Rouge, also hooked up with Wainwright on a third-and-short play, connecting for a 32-yard completion.

Sophomore fullback Jordan Stephany hauled in a 15-yard touchdown during the Wave's red zone drills.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Wave white shirts turned in a trio of big plays. Junior linebacker Travis Burks recovered a fumble during third-down drills. Sophomore safety Devin Holland broke up a third-down pass attempt and junior safety Corey Sonnier picked off a pass attempt on the sideline for the lone interception of the day.

Sonnier wasn't the only one getting his hands on the ball, as Toledo and staff brought in the hands team and presented Tulane's onside kick scenarios to the players.

"We wanted to get our people on the hands team, and our on-side kick team put together and get them exposed to it," Toledo said. "We'll take a look at it on video and see what we can teach them. Every once in a while, we'll throw it out there in practice, but hopefully we won't need [to kick] very many of them during the year."

It is the season that Toledo has in mind at all times throughout his practice, as he said "Everything we do in practice is situational. We do things that will happen in games. Every drill that we do, every situation we run through will happen in games."

Tulane will be able to put that to the test on Saturday, as the Green Wave will go through an hour-long, 11-on-11 scrimmage in the afternoon in the second part of the team's 3 p.m. practice. The first practice of the day will be an 18-period practice at 9 a.m.

"We'll try to scrimmage some of the kicking game," Toledo said. "First, we'll scrimmage plays to see who can play, particularly the younger guys. Then we'll scrimmage the kicking game to find out who's going to be on some of those teams. A lot of that will include some freshman, who I want to evaluate to see who's going to be on those teams over the course of the year."

As the early part of the day served as a transition for the team from practice to scrimmage, the afternoon for the Green Wave was another transition for the student-athletes: moving from their temporary preseason dorm into their full-time housing for the season.

Saturday's practices and scrimmages may move from the Westfeldt Practice Facility to another location as the forecast calls for rain and lightning. Tulane officials were still sifting through options Friday afternoon.