Hall Ball - What to Expect from the Tulane Offense

A look back at our exclusive interview with Tulane football coach Will Hall

Will Hall Interview On the Tulane Offense | On SI Tulane - Doug Joubert

Shortly after Will Hall was introduced as the new head coach at Tulane, On SI Tulane had a chance to sit down to do a lengthy one-on-one interview before Spring camp ever opened.

As we approach the start of the Fall version of Hall Ball, we are looking back at that interview to give us a chance to see where we stood before any of us saw Hall's processes. We'll be re-releasing the videos over the next two weeks as the countdown to Fall Practice for Tulane football continues.

Today, what Will Hall's offense will look like. Though the transcript is below, this portion of the interview can be found on our YouTube channel.

What kind of interview process do you go through to find the kind of guy that you want to run your offense?

Number one, hiring Cody Kennedy as the offensive line coach was huge for me because Cody and I have a background of a lot of success going all the way back to Division II, then here the last time at Tulane. So getting him and the familiarity with me and how I think and the comfortability, that was the first step. Then after, I that wanted to hire an offensive coordinator that could be a leader of the offense, that could be a leader in front of the kids, that had a dynamic personality, that was a positive person who wanted to impact people in a positive way but then also was not married to a certain system, because I knew I wanted to run my system. I wanted somebody to help me run my system because with everything I have to do nowadays, I just can't do it all. But at the same time, to run the program and manage the game the way I believe I have to do it, I needed it to be my system and my terminology.

I interviewed a lot of people, made them teach. I love to hear people teach. The teaching method now and how people teach is so important, more so maybe than ever in the history of this game because you're playing a lot with first and second year players in your system. So, great teachers are paramount. So, I wanted to hear them teach and then I researched their personalities. Are they the type people that can get along with people? Are they the type people that understand they're a part of something bigger? Is their ego low but yet they can be driven? And Russ (Calloway) checked all the boxes. I mean, he's a guy that's been a coach's kid. He's seen it since he was a kid, just like me. His dad was a high level coach, offensive coordinator at Alabama, Georgia, head coach at UAB. He had been at Florida with some people I'm really close with. He had been at Sanford with some people I'm really close with, very, very successful there. And everybody just raved about the type of human he was. We interviewed twice. The first one, he knocked it out of the park. and then he came back the second time and talked more. I could tell he was intrigued with our system and how we do things. There was a lot of the ways we see the game alike and it's been awesome. It's been awesome so far. He's learning to complete my sentences [laughter] because that's what I need. I need somebody that can complete my sentences and take it and run. He will call the plays. It'll be a system much like Kirby Smart's defense at Georgia, Dan Lanning's defense at Oregon, Lane Kiffin's offense at LSU, Steve Sarkisian's offense at Texas. They've got people that call it and help them, but it's their system and the way they manage the game.

What is your style of offense? Is it similar to what we've seen already at Tulane?

It's similar to what you saw in 2019 and 2020 when I was here the last time. It's multiple personnel, a West Coast passing system that that has the ability to use tempo. We install everything with tempo. And if the (other team's) defensive coordinator can't handle tempo, then we're going to run a lot of tempo. You've seen us do that in our past when I was here. At the same time, we want to have the ability to be multiple and not do tempo. If the D-coordinator is good at handling that and doesn't handle shifts and motions well, you're going to see tight ends lined up all over the field, not just in the box. That'll be a little different than what we were doing here (before).

And you're going to see a position called Superback. It's a position that Amari Jones played the last time I was here. We've got two young men, Maurice Turner and Jaylin Lucas (who can fill that role). It's a slot receiver/hybrid running back position. For Saints fans, they'll know it as a Darren Sproles position, a Reggie Bush position, an Alvin Kamara-type position. So, we'll see those hybrid guys, the tight ends and those super backs, lined up in and out of the box. It allows us to be multiple, so the defense won't know what personnel grouping we're in, and we'll score a lot of points.

You know, I think in 2019, we had the second best offense in school history. We did that with Justin McMillan who was a dynamic runner with a strong arm. Then the next year we averaged 34-points a game,, I think, with Michael Pratt who was a true freshman, who was extremely cerebral, who was tough and accurate. So we'll build it around our quarterback, and we will be very multiple and highly efficient.

On Saturday, we ask Hall about the quarterback situation going into Spring ball and how he'll use tight ends in his offense.