Coach Toledo discusses spring training
The football team’s training session concludes Saturday with a spring scrimmage. The Hullabaloo gets Toledo’s take on Griffin, Moore and more.
PHOTO | LEE SAXON | PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
RJ: A lot has been said about Tulane’s depth at wide receiver, but a glance at the stat sheet would indicate that the team is deep at running back as well.
BT: We’ve got three guys. He’s out today with a turf toe injury, but Albert Williams is one. We also have J.T. McDonald and Steve Barnett. We have three different tailbacks that all present a different problem for the defense and give us a little different look offensively. We will probably be a little more of a tailback-by-committee than we have been. We’ve had a feature back the past few years, but this year, I think we’ll have several players that will contribute. We have two freshmen coming in, and I’m excited to see what they can do because they have a lot of physical ability. We’ll have some pretty good depth there as well as wide receiver.
RJ: How does the role of the running back change once you move to a more vertical West Coast Offense?
BT: The plays are really the same. The thing that happens is you don’t have a lead blocker on certain plays, so that eliminates some of the running plays we’ve had in the past. We try to still get into some of them by moving our tight end or H-back to try to create a fullback situation. We really only have one fullback in the program right now. We’re just not going to utilize the fullback as much this year, but basically, the plays are the same. There’s just not a lead blocker.
RJ: While it may be too early to say what position battles have already been won, what positions are most up for grabs right now?
BT: Well, in that sense, most of the positions are probably up for grabs. I think there are a few guys that have solidified positions. You look at Andrew Nierman at center and Pete Hendrickson at left tackle as solid guys, but the rest are still up for grabs. We’ve got a lot of guys that are going to play at tight end. The only proven guy at wide receiver is Casey Robottom, and he’s out right now because he has a little shoulder separation. We’re not scrimmaging him, but he’s a solid guy. We’ve got Devin Figaro and Allen Mitchell competing as well. At quarterback, we’d like to think that Ryan Griffin is the guy right now, but we also feel like Kevin Moore has really made a lot of progress. He gives us quality depth. Defensively, there are more positions open there than anywhere. We don’t have a lot of depth at linebacker, so I would say Trent Mackey has a real good opportunity, as well as Darrell Farley, to be the starting inside backers. After that, we have six freshman linebackers coming in. There’s still a lot of competition on special teams, including in the kicking game.
RJ: You mentioned that Ryan Griffin is the guy right now. Have you been pleased with his spring training progress?
BT: Yeah, Griffin is a guy who broke the freshman passing record previously held by Shaun King, so he has a lot of ability. But he’s still a young guy, and he hasn’t played that much football for us. He has, however, proven that he can play, so he learns something every day. You want to see a continuous progression. He’s got a great grasp of what we’re doing, a great work ethic and he does a lot of stuff on his own, like watching videos. He wants to continue to grow, and each day I see him taking steps to get better.
RJ: There are a lot of individual positions that have room to improve after last season, but what’s the area of offense or defense that you’ve seen the most improvement in this spring?
BT: Our red zone offense and defense have improved a lot. We’ve emphasized it quite a bit. That’s something that I’m hoping has improved. We haven’t done a lot of goal line work because you bang a lot of bodies, and I don’t want to get anyone nicked up. I think our kicking game has improved too. We’ve got a coordinator in Doug Lichtenberger who has put it all together, and I think we’ll have better athletes playing those positions this year, particularly when the freshmen come. We have six linebackers and four safeties, so that’s ten guys that can contribute. Special teams is all about athleticism.