Tulane Camp Update: Fritz discusses depth at quarterback, linebacker, secondary as season approaches

Tulane practiced Thursday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

With over 20 practices total under their wings, the Green Wave are going over all possible scenarios to prepare for the upcoming season, according to head coach Willie Fritz.

“We went over some things today that might never occur in a season, one situation which I’ve never done,” Fritz said. “You just work on all the ‘what ifs’ right now when you have extra time until you get our there with real, live football. You’re always wanting to see what you’ve got.”

While Keon Howard is the starting quarterback, freshmen Mike Pratt and Justin Ibieta are positioned behind Howard.

“I have a lot of confidence in Mike,” Fritz said. “He played high level football in Florida. He was here in the spring with us. I’ve been very impressed with the progress that Justin Ibieta has shown, too. The thing with Keon is he understands exactly what we’re doing. He’s got a lot of experience in the college game. If we have to go to quarterback two or quarterback three, I would feel good about it.”

While everyone views the defensive line as the strength of the Tulane defense, if not the entire team, Fritz likes the makeup of the rest of his defensive unit as well.

“We feel like we’ve got pretty good depth every place,” Fritz said. “We’ve got a few guys banged up on the defensive line but I think they’re going to get healthy and ready to go. I feel like we’ve got good depth at linebacker. We’ve got four guys that I think are quality starters in the AAC with Kevin Henry, Marvin Moody, Dorian Williams and Nick Anderson. I’ve really good great confidence in all four of those guys.”

The same is true in the deep.

We feel like we’ve got good depth in the secondary. We’ve got three corners for sure that we feel like can play a high level of Division I football. There’s three or four safeties at those three spots we feel really good about. Ajani Kerr is a super addition for us. He can do it all. He can play corner if we needed him to play corner. We’re playing him mostly at nickel right now but he can also play strong and free (safety).

We’ve got Larry Brooks and Chase Kuerschen back in there. Those guys are almost coaches playing strong and free safety. Cornelius Dyson, the kid from Kentwood, is going to be a big-time player. He’s got everything you’re looking for as far as his makeup, how serious he takes practice and he’s 6-1, 200 pounds and can fly. I think K.D. Hall is going to play for us at corner.”

With the season drawing nearer, Fritz is focused on having his players sharp for opening day in three weeks.

“The big part right now is making sure the guys aren’t stale when we get into that game on Saturday, Sept. 12 and given the time off and shorten the length of practice,” Fritz said. “Normally, we’re going two hours and 15 minutes. We’ve cut it back. Our longest practice is two hours now. Today, I think we went an hour and 45 (minutes). We’re cutting it back and making sure we’re staying sharp. We just don’t want to overdo it and dull the blade at all.”

Tulane will have Friday off before having a type of scrimmage Saturday at 10 a.m.