McCleskey is aboard

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winwave
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It's official:

https://www.nola.com/tulane/2019/01/tul ... state.html

This is a really good pick up. Looking forward to seeing him play.


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Eaglewave
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Glad it’s official. This offense has the chance to be very explosive this season.
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golfnut69
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Montano has also registered
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DfromCT
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Maybe it's my typical off-season optimism, but I think we can be really good in 2019. We'll have weapons and an experienced line on offense; the D, which was young last year, needs to fill some shoes in the secondary but will be a year older up front. Our QB has never been through Spring practice or summer camp with this coaching staff. If he can improve his completion percentage to the 65% range, while continuing to protect the ball, we're going to be tough to beat. For the first time in a number of years I'm really excited to think we could sniff the top 25.
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Bicoastalwave
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DfromCT wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:35 am Maybe it's my typical off-season optimism, but I think we can be really good in 2019. We'll have weapons and an experienced line on offense; the D, which was young last year, needs to fill some shoes in the secondary but will be a year older up front. Our QB has never been through Spring practice or summer camp with this coaching staff. If he can improve his completion percentage to the 65% range, while continuing to protect the ball, we're going to be tough to beat. For the first time in a number of years I'm really excited to think we could sniff the top 25.
Agree. Maybe it is post season optimism, but hey that’s what online message boards are for. We have so many playmakers returning and a new OC who can only be better then Ruse & who has a stated desire to play fast and line up RB’s & te’s and throw to them in space . . . Something we have dreamed of since fritz arrived. Mcclesky is a strict upgrade over encalade, with mooney a year stronger/faster/wiser. . . Same can be said for amari/bradwell/dauphine.

7-8 wins against a challenging schedule is a fair expectation. But I do believe we could get to 9–10 wins depending on our offense coordinator. I hope the hype is real, because even marginal improvements all around in our offense will have us compete for the AAC west. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us shock Auburn or UCF and suddenly see some fans return uptown.

Here is my question & fun excercise- I hadn’t thought about us cracking the top 25. . . What is the scenario for us to do so during the season and what is the scenario for us to end the season in the Top 25?

Auburn/UCF/Army will all start in the top 25 and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Houston climb into the top 25 as well. It’s also possible for Memphis to sneak into the top 25 for a week or two.

Say you win 1 of the 3 games against auburn/Ucf/army and you lose another to Memphis at their place. Is that 9-3 enough to put us in the top 25 ?
Last edited by Bicoastalwave on Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Alex Atkins had often said that if he had his choice, no O lineman would see the field before redshirt sophomore year and that he was really high on some of the OL that have been redshirted and gaining strength the last 2 years. We are kind of getting to that point where we see what we have.
DfromCT
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Bicoastalwave: I think for us to get votes we're going to have to beat one of UCF/Auburn/Army and be very competitive in the other two games. To finish the season in the top 25 we would need to win the division outright and be competitive in the conference championship game.

I would like to think that 7 wins is our floor for 2019. To get ranked and be relevant we probably need 9 or 10 wins before a bowl game. 10-3 would have us playing a decent bowl.
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Bicoastalwave
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DfromCT wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:44 am Bicoastalwave: I think for us to get votes we're going to have to beat one of UCF/Auburn/Army and be very competitive in the other two games. To finish the season in the top 25 we would need to win the division outright and be competitive in the conference championship game.

I would like to think that 7 wins is our floor for 2019. To get ranked and be relevant we probably need 9 or 10 wins before a bowl game. 10-3 would have us playing a decent bowl.

It will be interesting to see what the dates are on our conference play. Of course starting the year 3-0 with wins against Auburn & Army would definetly have us in the top 25. . . And in the 15-20 range. It would be too much fun to have a packed & rocking Yulman and to start with renewed arguments about when to expand seating capacity and add another deck.

I don’t care if we’re jumping the gun- what a wonderful conversation to have. It’s so strange to be hopeful and optimistic about a Tulane football season.
DfromCT
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We play Army the first weekend in October (and I'll be there, what a great time of year to go to beautiful West Point!) so I would think that's our fifth game unless we have an early bye week. But you're right, if we're undefeated and have wins against both Auburn and Army, we'd be in the top 20.

I'm much more hopeful and optimistic than a year ago. This despite not getting to the 7 wins that I predicted in 2018. I think a lot of it has to do with Fritz making a change at OC. And McCleskey joining the team, both the father and son. Now we need to land another quality QB with one of our last few available scholarships.
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winwave
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There's certainly good reason for optimism for next season. It's the fourth year for the staff so it's their team and their culture now.

We have our starting QB back. If Hall is as good as most of us think he will be we should see McMillan make a nice jump in production. He's have a host of good backs in Bradwell, Dauphine and Jones. It will really be interesting to see Hall take advantage of the talents Daupine and Jones offer. Mooney has really come on and should only continue to do so. McClesky is an excellent addition. With those two rolling we should see Toles and maybe Robertson prosper. Tyrick James at TE should benefit from our new OC also. The line lost three starters. Once Fisher was healthy he played well at LT. Briggs and Leglue at guard are both gone. McCloud and Johnson have started and are thus experienced but they were replaced for a reason.Montano is going to play center. Hopefully he'll be successful making the jump in competition like Fisher did. Dublin will go back to guard.

On D the line should only be better with experience. Harris is a loss at LB. He's been healthy the last couple of years and been really good for us. We'll have Graham and Moody and should be ok though we need some others to step up and give us depth there. We lose Lewis and Teamer on the back end. We have some good looking one's coming up that will hopefully seize the opportunities.

We still need a FG kicker. Wright is set at punter. Hopefully he can kick-off too with his strong leg. Jones gives us a real threat at returner.

Lots to look forward to in 2019.
BAYWAVE&Sophandros are SPINELESS COWARDS
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Small time facilities for small time programs
6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
DfromCT
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I hope Montano can make the jump as well. It's a bigger one than Fisher made as Montano is coming from FCS (and the Ivy League where there's no athletic scholarships.) Hopefully we will find a few O-linemen between the 2018 and 2019 classes that can step up and contribute, and be coached up by Hall and Kennedy. But we have weapons on O, and a D that should only get better.
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Ruski
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winwave wrote: Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:46 pm There's certainly good reason for optimism for next season. It's the fourth year for the staff so it's their team and their culture now.

We have our starting QB back. If Hall is as good as most of us think he will be we should see McMillan make a nice jump in production. He's have a host of good backs in Bradwell, Dauphine and Jones. It will really be interesting to see Hall take advantage of the talents Daupine and Jones offer. Mooney has really come on and should only continue to do so. McClesky is an excellent addition. With those two rolling we should see Toles and maybe Robertson prosper. Tyrick James at TE should benefit from our new OC also. The line lost three starters. Once Fisher was healthy he played well at LT. Briggs and Leglue at guard are both gone. McCloud and Johnson have started and are thus experienced but they were replaced for a reason.Montano is going to play center. Hopefully he'll be successful making the jump in competition like Fisher did. Dublin will go back to guard.

On D the line should only be better with experience. Harris is a loss at LB. He's been healthy the last couple of years and been really good for us. We'll have Graham and Moody and should be ok though we need some others to step up and give us depth there. We lose Lewis and Teamer on the back end. We have some good looking one's coming up that will hopefully seize the opportunities.

We still need a FG kicker. Wright is set at punter. Hopefully he can kick-off too with his strong leg. Jones gives us a real threat at returner.

Lots to look forward to in 2019.
You missed the biggest problem from last year that cost us 2/3 games.....
We have depth at QB with multiple D1 experienced guys that will have a whole Spring/Summer in the system!
winwave
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The biggest problem was an inept OC/QB coach. He's gone. Replaced by someone who understands modern offenses and can use the spring and summer to further develop the QB's we have.
BAYWAVE&Sophandros are SPINELESS COWARDS
YOU NEED LEVERAGE TO BE PROACTIVE!
Small time facilities for small time programs
6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
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