On March 1, Tulsa Football begins spring practice and searches for a formula that will add up to more wins in 2019.
LINK: Spring practice preview
LINK: Spring practice preview
Tulsa Spring Football Preview
- Thread starter Chris Harmon
- Start date
Nice article Larry. Sometimes we lose sight that we were as close as we were, when we finish with the record we did.
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Let us not forget the back-ups. Jaxson Player will be bigger & stronger with experience (well, maybe not bigger but certainly stronger) this year. Flannery should be healthy and will help. Lamp, Wick & Pugh all got experience last year. I'm not concerned about our D-line starters or depth. TU Football:1st,last,always!
I'm concerned with the DLine because if a team can run on us successfully it's going to be a long year
I'm not Chris but if Monty's pattern follows we will see Keenen Johnson, Stokes, and Anderson in 3WR sets and add Stewart as the 4th. I think Stewart should be the man ahead of Anderson though with 3 WRs. He showed a lot last year, has good hands, goes up and gets the ball and runs pretty clean routes. There were many times last season that I thought he should have been playing ahead of Hobbs.
Problem with Monty's MO in WRs is that it doesn't give any of the young guys, FR and RS-FR, any hope of being on the field outside of a down here or there, or late game garbage time. I remember we were all pretty high on some of the incoming WRs last year, and this year we seem to have a couple of difference makers coming in. I am wondering if Monty knew he didn't have the QB in place last year to do what he wanted so he RS'd all of the FR skill kids where he could.
Sorry, I had answered over in the Spring Practice thread in the Alley. Top four returning receivers are Stokes, Johnson, Anderson and Stewart. Then Sam Crawford. Spring will allow some others to make their case.
Just hope that game time circumstances permit us to give any young WR's (or any other position player who shows in spring or fall camp) a chance to play under the "4-game freebie" rule. As Bla said, Monty didn't use hardly anyone for any length of game time under this new rule last year.
Did he even use one player for any freebie time?
Couldn't quite understand why he used it so infrequently if ever. You would think he would have used it a little more liberally in the second half of the season. Did his loyalty to upper classmen get in the way?
TieNeal Martin played in all 12 games
Cullen Wick played in all 12 games
Jabari James played in 3 games
Grant Sawyer played in 12 games
Davis Brin played in 1 games
Jaxson Player played in 10 games
TK Wilkerson played in 3 games
DNP
James Palmer (injured).
Brandon Johnson
Justin Wright
Kendarin Ray
Imee Cooksey
Anthony Goodlow
Marquez Perez
Stats were not available for the OLs.
Looks to me like if you could play, you could play. If you couldn’t, you sit until you mature. Nothing wrong with that attutude, especially when you are losing every game and theres no chance in blowouts to play young players late.
Cullen Wick played in all 12 games
Jabari James played in 3 games
Grant Sawyer played in 12 games
Davis Brin played in 1 games
Jaxson Player played in 10 games
TK Wilkerson played in 3 games
DNP
James Palmer (injured).
Brandon Johnson
Justin Wright
Kendarin Ray
Imee Cooksey
Anthony Goodlow
Marquez Perez
Stats were not available for the OLs.
Looks to me like if you could play, you could play. If you couldn’t, you sit until you mature. Nothing wrong with that attutude, especially when you are losing every game and theres no chance in blowouts to play young players late.
Justin Wright played in four games and got his redshirt. Goodlow played in two. Brandon Johnson played in all 12. James Palmer played in 4. The other three did not play.
Interesting. I’m not doubting you. How do you play in that many games and not register a single stat?
Talking about Brandon Johnson? Not sure where you’re getting your stats but on the TU website it says he played in 12 games, started 1, and had 9 tackles. Justin Wright played in 4 games with 1 tackle. Wright played mainly special teams and then played some behind Cooper, especially in the game where Cooper got hurt and came out for a drive or two (I think Houston). Palmer & Goodlow also played special teams but did not record any tackles so I’d assume they were on return teams.
He's going to coach receivers at Rockwall-Heath in Texas under head coach Mike Spradlin.
TK played out of necessity that game as everyone else was banged up.
My point on the WRs is that Monty seems to play guys out of loyalty and due to seniority. We don't really ever get to see if any of the younger guys have a better set of skills in actual game situations because they don't get to play. After watching Javon play against Temple, I wondered why he hasn't been used more in short yardage or on change ups as he seemed to get to the edge a little quicker and then turn it up field with success. He was also a load to try and tackle.
This. I get that the offense requires proper pre-snap recognition by nearly every player to understand what their responsibilities are beyond knowing what play is actually being run, and it takes a couple of years to build that into minds so that the knowledge isn’t lost 2 plays after a concussion, but if you can’t beat anyone but UCONN, at a certain point, you just quote Joel Goodson every now and then and say “What the eff”. He didn’t get his egg back until that attitude surfaced. We ain’t getting ours back either without the same
There's some irony here. For 2+ years we've wondered why President hasn't been used as a receiver as a way to get him on the field.....and now he's going to be coaching WR's in HS. Go figure!
Sorry...I didn't see this until now...yesterday was a busy day at my house outside. I don't believe the scrimmage was open to the public.
I think one thing that a lot of people tend to forget about are the “other duties as assigned” of skill position players.
Justin Hobbs was definitely frustrating at times but one thing that made him an extremely valuable piece to keep on the field at all times was his run blocking. In Monty’s offense, you don’t get on the field if you aren’t able to block. It’s really that simple.
Javon Thomas is a perfect example of this. Yeah he’s a physical load that was hard to stop at times but you’re not valuable to the team if the defense knows you’re a blocking weakness. We saw late in the Houston game that he’s just not quite there yet on blocking, which is why he’s the third string running back and not ahead of Brooks or Taylor (who are both ferocious blockers regardless of size discrepancy).
And because we require our WRs to block more often than other schemes, we narrow the recruiting pool by requiring players of certain sizes at two of three spots, then tell those guys they really shouldn’t sign with SMU or Ark State who will target them 6 to 8 times a game and instead sit on the bench 1 to 3 years, then bash their head a dozen times a game and maybe catch two or three balls. Gus was very clear in his book about how easy it was to attract the best athletes into his program, even in high school, because his offensive philosophy ensured that every wide out got consistent looks from the day they set foot on campus. We are doing the opposite.
I’m tired of hearing that the facilities are solely to blame, which granted it’s a big piece, but it’s not the only reason the talent at wide out has gone over a cliff. The offense we run is a huge part of it.
That’s certainly one argument. The other argument is LSU with Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry et. all. Those guys were never the Michael Crabtree’s of college football. But they were highly coveted in the NFL because they were taught the full game in college.
Keyarris Garrett had one of the single best seasons of any wide receiver in college football history in Monty’s offense in 2015. The only Tulsa player that ever had more receiving yards in a season is Howard Twilley. The only other two Tulsa players in CFB’s list of Top 100 receiving seasons are Chris Penn & Dan Bitson.
Tulsa had two 1,000 yard rushers and still managed to find 1,000+ yards for Keevan Lucas & Josh Atkinson in 2016 in Monty’s offense. I know you hate Coach Monty but don’t tell me it’s not possible to spread the ball around and get touches.
This is the same offense that it has been. There hasn’t been some huge philosophical shift like there was with the defensive structure. The offense is running variations of the same plays it has for the last four years. I don’t think it’ll take long this spring or in the fall to understand that sometimes you just need those last couple pieces to click for something special to happen.
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