Energy and depth have defined Tulane Green Wave football's spring under coach Will Hall.
New Orleans, LA – One of the biggest things that has stuck out from a Will Hall-led Tulane Green Wave football team is the speed and intensity of each practice throughout spring ball. It’s atypical in today’s age of college football to see that level of hitting during practice. But it certainly makes guys rise to the occasion, or to falter. Hall takes a page from the old school Alabama, Georgia practice model in that regard, explaining to reporters post practice who have noticed the physicality throughout spring camp.
When Hall was the head coach at West Alabama, that was about a 45-minute drive from where Coach Saban was building the Crimson Tide program. Hall models his practice from those observations. However, it’s not something every program has the luxury to do, and it requires something that often has a much greater discrepancy at the Group of Five level: depth. This team has considerable depth, something that has stuck out amidst the absences of key players like Jack Tchienchou and Jamauri McClure.
What that’s also done is force guys to step up as both players and leaders. You might not have known what the second-string safety had in him, or one of the new incoming running backs, if those guys were taking all the reps. You might not have known that one of those players was an excellent leader.
But it’s impressive to hear a head coach speak about enough depth to run practices at full speed, especially when looking in comparison to last season that had a lot more turnover ahead of the spring window and there were struggles the year prior to field a depth chart past the starting offensive line. This season, quite frankly, two running backs could sustain season-ending injuries, and the team would be fine between McClure, Maurice Turner, Jayline Lucas, DJ Dugar, and Johnnie Daniels.
There’s a balance of wanting to stay healthy, and the Green Wave have done a pretty good job of that with just two practices left, or one and the upcoming spring game this Saturday. But despite a few players going down with some bumps, nothing has changed in terms of full pads and full hitting more often than not. It’s, for a lack of a better term, been exciting to watch. The energy is palpable.
Energy only goes so far. But something former coach Jon Sumrall was known for was his infusion of “juice” into the Tulane football program. And Hall is taking that and running with it in his own way.