Tulane TE Will Wallace Prepared to Take Next Step to NFL Level
No one covers the blocking tight end.
It’s a saying that holds true just about every time these players find their way to the end zone and is an element of the position that Tulane’s Will Wallace refers to as his M.O. There’s no question that his efforts at the line played a role in Tulane achieving a high level of success on a historic 2022 season in which the Green Wave were impressive both on the run and the pass in an opened up offense.
But as he prepares to go on to the next level, departing from a team that just completed the most remarkable turnaround in college football history, he’s confident in his abilities outside of pure blocking alone.
““I think that’s my specialty…. But this past season, I was doing a lot of different things,” Wallace said.
“From early on in the year to the end of the year as our team evolved and got an identity. But really that’s just doing whatever’s asked upon me, whether that’s to be an every down guy that’s playing predominantly a lot in the run game or the passing game, as somebody who needs to steal the edge so we can go play-action deep, or someone who is simply go one-on-one with a defensive end to create a mismatch for the run game. And also someone who can block in space and has good vertical speed.”
And having a strong skillset with a lot of different things in it is imperative for the way modern NFL offenses utilize the tight end position. That’s something the Natchez, Mississippi native keeps in mind and is ready for.
“I think it’s a really fun position now,” Wallace said. “You might be blocking for two seconds and then the next half second, you’re running down the sideline trying to score a touchdown and you’re blocking defensive backs to nose tackles, doing things on on trap plays, so, there’s a lot of things that get asked out of you now in modern offenses. I think you really have to be a versatile player to excel.”
Wallace has spent a lot of time this offseason training to perfect these things and will continue to do so ahead of the draft with a handful of key areas he’s looking to tweak.
“I think I need to work on my feet more, getting my second step into the ground more on my blocks and some things with the releases in the pass game. A lot of fine-tuning on things you might be able to get away with in college that you won’t be able to get away with in the NFL.”
While there are plenty of positives to be found in what Wallace brings to the table on the field, prides himself just as much on the intangibles and the type of teammate he is as a player who was named a team captain during his five years in New Orleans.
“I’m someone who is going to show up every day,” Wallace said. “Be accountable, be the same person and not someone who is ever going to be a problem within an organization. I’m there for my teammates no matter what. I have very good game awareness, the ball’s inj the ground… knowing where the ball is at without seeing the ball. Just after playing for so long, it’s experience and being in-game savvy, I guess you could say”
While moving on from Tulane is bittersweet for Wallace, there’s a lot of excitement and appreciation for both the future and what he’s leaving behind.
“Tulane means everything to me. It’s small in Uptown. Everybody knows everybody and the tradition that runs here goes back into the early 1900s, a lot of tradition. A lot of people here care about football. Tulane used to be in the SEC and has more SEC championships than some SEC teams.
“Tulane means the world to a lot of people and to get Tulane back on the national stage just means everything to me as a place that gave me an opportunity.”
