Defense shines in Tulane practice

• Advocate news services
• Published: Apr 11, 2008 - UPDATED: 7:06 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The Tulane defense had several sacks, interceptions and timely pass break-ups, and continued to display improvement under first-year defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert as the Green Wave reached the one-third mark of spring practice today at the Westfeldt Practice Facility on Thursday.

For the second straight day, Tulane got ample cloud cover as strong winds swept through the 24-period practice and kept the sunlight at a premium. The Green Wave completed its 10th practice of the spring and has just five remaining.

Tulane will take today off and return to the gridiron on Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m.

Tulane’s defense made plays all afternoon. As the team opened the team passing drill, junior cornerback Josh Lumar picked off the first pass attempt from redshirt freshman Kevin Moore, and junior David Skehan, who is making the move to linebacker from safety this spring, came up with an interception of his own off a throw from junior Scott Elliott.

Freshman quarterback Joe Kemp found sophomore receiver Jeremy Williams on a quick route and Williams turned the play into a 30-yard gain.

Several plays later Kemp’s pass over the middle was intercepted by freshman safety Dominique Dade.

In other drills, sophomore Troy Wilson, junior Charles Harris and freshman Devin Holland each came up with pass break-ups, while junior Reggie Scott registered a quarterback sack.

On offense, a pair of freshmen backs stood out, including Cody Blackwelder and J.T. McDonald, who each reeled off a pair of nice runs.

“We tried to tone down the tempo today. We were pretty physical yesterday and we wanted to work a little better together today. The offense seemed to take half the day off and the defense kept its paced and performed much better,” Tulane coach Bob Toledo said.

In Ruston, Karl Puljak, Taylor Mack, Jimmy Watson and Scott Boatright will serve as guest coaches on Saturday when Louisiana Tech hosts its annual T-Day Spring Game at Joe Aillet Stadium at 1 p.m.

Puljak and Mack are professors at Louisiana Tech. They will serve as guest faculty coaches.

Watson and Boatright are journalists and will serve as guest media coaches.