The Tulane Green Wave defense took over at spring practice, winning key drills as Will Hall introduced new perimeter leverage concepts.
New Orleans, LA – The Tulane Green Wave football team is midway through spring practice, and there’s plenty for head coach Will Hall to evaluate. It was a physical practice, one that saw the defense pull away a little for the first time in camp, with a focus on leverage drills that were new to the team on Thursday. The new perimeter leverage drills were something that Hall credits to former special teams coordinator Greg McMahon and his philosophy.
“Something that I think the great Greg McMahon brought to this place was you own your leverage,” Hall explained. “There's two things you can choose, your effort and your leverage.”
It feels like the sense of competition is heightening for these guys as positional battles have taken form and you can feel more urgency from the players. The drill highlighted that. Hall sees leverage as a choice, much like effort and attitude, and it’s something emphasized in every room. It’s a point of emphasis that matters to Hall, and so they work to drill it daily, celebrate when it’s good, and address it when it’s not – much like effort and attitude.
The effort was there, but the execution wasn’t as much, with Hall calling it a “sloppy” day overall with unclean football on both sides. Now, some of that comes with guys slotting into new positions that they don’t normally play as the coaching staff works to try things out and see how guys respond to things. But to this point in camp, the offense has held command, and it was time for the defense to have a day. They certainly won the second-and-long drill, with Hall thinking the offense maybe got one first down out of six tries. They kept the offense out of the end zone on three drives. The individual efforts stuck out. Warren Roberts had his most noticeable day in a Green Wave uniform. Linebacker Chris Rogers made an elite, big time play on outside zone.
That’s usually how past spring camps have gone, something Hall pointed to as a longtime strength at Tulane. This year’s unit has a younger defensive line, but one that’s progressing, backed up by experienced linebackers and what Hall calls a “deep DB room.” That was certainly highlighted at Thursday’s practice, with some young guns making solid individual plays. Hall also expects the returns of safety Jack Tchienchou and defensive lineman Gerrod Henderson to be significant for the unit.
The offense had the lead for the first half of spring camp. The defense made their case at the midway point. In the back half of camp, it’s time for those sides to sharpen their identities.