• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Oct. 24, 2007

By Nakia Hogan
New Orleans Times Picayune

Each week he challenges himself and his staff to devise a game plan that somehow beats defenses that are crowding the line to stop star senior running back Matt Forté.

It can be challenging, but the plans seem to be working.

Even with an offense that has been one-dimensional in its success, the Green Wave has racked up more than 400 yards in four of its past five games.

The biggest reason for Tulane's production has been the play of Forté and the coaching staff's ability to improvise ways to get the ball into the running back's hands.

"What we do on Sunday is we come in, look at (the opponent), and we try to scheme up runs against their defense," Toledo said. "We try and anticipate what they're going to do. That's a big thing, so you don't just have to adjust during the course of a game.

"We look at what do they have in the packages that they've done and what might they do. From there, we try and think of some things. We have a pretty big game plan, and as we get into the course of the game, I try and find out what they're doing -- and we react accordingly."

With defenses showing eight- and nine-man fronts, that's left for some interesting Sunday conversations among the coaches.

Each week, they try to devise a new scheme, implementing new plays to help spring Forté, the nation's leading rusher with 1,261 yards.

This past Saturday night in a 41-34 overtime win against Southern Methodist in Dallas, the Green Wave lined Forté up at quarterback in the shotgun, and spread its quarterback out at receiver in hopes of loosening the defense.

From that formation, Forté took direct snaps and ran for first downs. He also attempted a pass that likely would have gone for a 71-yard touchdown, but the ball fell off the fingertips of receiver Jeremy Williams.

"It's a lot more creative," Forté said of the play calling. "But I expect that out of Coach Toledo. Ever since he's gotten here, we've seen plays that he ran at UCLA and New Mexico. Each week we have a new wrinkle or something else to do. That shows how good of a coach he is to put your most talented players in different positions on the field and maybe get a play made out of it."

Sophomore quarterback Anthony Scelfo agreed.

"Coach Toledo said he was going to have a lot of wrinkles each week," Scelfo said. "He said there was going to be some trick plays, some gadget plays he'll run each week."

But more than the trickery, Toledo said the Green Wave has had to be creative with the use of its tight ends and fullbacks to help block extra defenders.

Tulane's offense features a bevy of motion and shifts in its alignments to try and attack the defense at good angles.

It's just more difficult when seemingly the entire stadium knows the ball is going to Forté, who has generated 1,443 of the Green Wave's 2,619 (54 percent) total offensive yards.

"One of the things we try and do is scheme up some formations and runs to be able to block the eighth or ninth defender in the box," Toledo said. "It's not easy, and sometimes, (Forté) has to be the guy that blocks. We say BYOB -- Be Your Own Blocker. So, sometimes, he has to block the safety, and he's done a pretty good job of that. But for the most part, we try to scheme things up and get an extra guy through either formation or motion to block the eighth and/or ninth guy."

Just in case Forté can't be his own blocker, the coaching staff is busy at work, diagramming plays to catch Memphis' defense off guard Saturday at the Superdome.

"I don't really think that he's digging deeper to try and find a play," senior center Aryan Barto said. "I think it's just the nature of how we play our offense. Coach Toledo is Coach Toledo. His playbook is pretty expansive."