Spring & Football?

After watching the spring game, a cynic might point out one positive thing that simply leapt out: Beckman punted well. Heck, he punted great. And let’s face it, it behooves Tulane more than a lot of other programs to excel here. (Photo credit)

I was a little disappointed in the game however. Normally, you leave a game like that filled with exciting new reasons to hope- or players that caught your eye. I found the game simply confirmed, almost to the letter, what can be anticipated from the key members of the squad.

Offensively, it took Ricard awhile to get in rhythm- and when he did, he was fine. But we know this about Ricard already, right? Put in a familiar situation, without having to worry about pressure, given time within the game context, he clearly relaxes at some level and plays real well. And when he plays real well, he’s got a whole lot of scary good tools in that frame to punish you. So yeah, he was categorically impressive at times.

However, the standard struggles getting adjusted- and yes, a pair of not-so-good turnovers on pretty routine throws- remain. He is the exact same guy- always struggling under any sort of duress- but very capable of lighting it up in positive playing conditions. In other quarterback news, young Scelfo impressively knew the offense- or at least the dozen plays he was asked to run. Four throws- all to the right guy- and right there. But I imagine he’ll need to show more before he pushes Elliot.

The perimeter skill guys were the nicest surprise. Brown was quiet- but we know that he is a studly C-USA player- so he gets a pass. There were some dropped balls- but hey, its spring. But there were a variety of body types: speed guys, possession guys, one of the tight ends looks gorgeous size-wise- all who looked in terms of either or good height/body as being a real plus in our League. A lot of guys caught multiple balls- and looked darn athletic doing it.

Forte had a nice day. Any honest deconstruction of this guy admits he can run- and he was able to rip off some big, charismatic runs against a defense similar to the ones 2004 Army and Northeast Louisiana put out there (i.e. arguably more good for I-AA than bad I-A). But we already know Forte can do that- use his speed to beat awful 2004 Army-level defenses either to the corner or reinforcements to the point of attack. But he had a bunch of runs go no further than the first guy who touched him- still weak on his feet. And his next vote for all-League will be his first- and yes, I still doubt we’ll see it this year either.

But Forte seemed “better”- and did show enough to suggest he could contribute back as the back who catches the ball and provides the change-of-pace. But who gets those other carries? Beats me. Boudreaux had a most fun day- but he is categorically not a I-A running back. And no one else showed much. I am not all that familiar with the bottom of the depth chart- and there was no program per se- but Tulane doesn’t seem to have many running backs.

The defense is harder to evaluate. Ricard and Forte gouged them for big chunks of yards- but the untaxed Ricard is a good I-A quarterback and he was in his yellow submarine for the latter half of the game. He’d shred a lot of people playing like that. But there was nothing to suggest that Tulane’s traditional inability to stop people with a modicum of capacity rushing the football will change. It is the same guys looking pretty much the same to me.