The Tulane offense will feature a “super back” this season under Will Hall, which will bring hybrid versatility with the slot-running back role.
New Orleans, La. – The Tulane Green Wave carried on their work of “mock week” ahead of the official game prep for the season opener and are starting to settle into a rhythm in the absence of the quarterback competition.
Zeon Chriss-Gremillion had quite a bit more command on Wednesday than in previous weeks, really showing off a connection with Anthony Brown-Stephens who he hit for at least one touchdown during the practice session.
Someone Chriss-Gremillion also connected with heavily was “Super back” Jaylin Lucas out of the slot.
It’s a position that Will Hall’s offenses are known for dating back to his time at West Alabama, but also his time as the offensive coordinator for the Green Wave back in 2020, where that was a focal point of Tulane’s offense with Amare Jones.
As he described post practice Wednesday, a super back is part wide receiver, part running back, but isn’t fully either position, clearly leaning on a versatile archetype.
While he isn’t fully designated as either position, they have to be able to do everything that both a slot and a running back does and must know the system quite intricately to perform the role within it.
Through fall camp and heading into game prep week, Jaylin Lucas has primarily been the super back followed by Maurice Turner. Jake Randle from the local Newman High School is third string on the depth chart.
They also might line up at quarterback. Now, that was predicated on injuries at quarterback back when Hall ran something similar with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, but it’s also something we’ve seen heavily at Tulane in the wildcat package.
Something the depth chart also features is two tight end designations at F and Y. In essence, your “Y” TE is in the traditional role lining up in-line while the “F” TE is definitely more of a flex type you can move across the line of scrimmage and get some real catches out of.
Those type of hybrid roles will allow Hall to line up guys in the box, out the box, and not entirely tip the hand of what position each player is technically playing on that snap.
It might not be too often that we see two tight end sets, but having the personnel to run it will make it harder for defenses to figure things out.
That element of surprise will be a major factor in the first few weeks of the season with an offense who didn’t have a named quarterback until this past Monday.
