The Tulane Green Wave football team will get their first glimpse at the physicality of the team on Thursday in full pads.
The Tulane Green Wave football team will kick off their third spring camp practice on Thursday, finally hitting with full pads, and it’ll be interesting to see if the same energy and juice that was apparent through the first two days translates into the more physical practice session. As head coach Will Hall said, it’s quite easy to convince yourself of someone’s traits when they aren’t in pads, but it’s not a fruitless exercise. You can still gauge athleticism, and who is starting to learn schemes and pick up the system quicker than others. But will that athleticism marry up well with physicality? That’ll be illuminated by the first day in pads.
Former Green Wave football teams have been tough and physical. If this year’s squad hopes to emulate that, then they’ll need to show those traits off early in March when the going is still easy. Especially with the elimination of the second transfer portal window, it’s important to keep that same urgency up and not let things turn into complacency knowing their roster spot is set and will be there come August. That’s easier to cover up in spiders and shells. But pads will illuminate the ones who want to rise to the top.
There’s a decent amount of turnover on the defensive side of the ball, and it’ll be helpful to know who the real hard hitters are, who demands that effort and toughness from those around them just as much as within themselves. A big player loss for Tulane is linebacker Sam Howard, who leaves an incredibly massive leadership crater and was one of those players who just genuinely loved hitting and tackling and playing pure, fundamental football at its core.
If you’re looking for energy, there isn’t much further to look than new defensive coordinator Tayler Polk, who arguably runs faster than some of the guys on the team, and definitely hits an impressive step count traversing around the practice field. That’ll be exciting to watch and see if that personality is infused on that side of the ball when they can really start to hit people.
It’ll give a bit better glimpse of some of those positions near-impossible to evaluate without pads, like running backs and the trenches on each side. The defensive line had so much turnover in the portal while the offensive line is a bit more stable, but each line of scrimmage will be the end-all-be-all of that side of the ball’s success. Thursday will give a great glimpse at that ceiling.