NEW ORLEANS - It was a day of big catches, long runs and bone-crunching hits as the Tulane University football team went full pads in the morning and donned helmets, shoulder pads and shorts in the afternoon in a two-a-day practice Monday at the Westfeldt Practice Facility.

The Green Wave were originally slated to hold their first two double sessions of fall camp last week, but inclement weather cause by the landfall of Tropical Depression 5 forced the Tulane staff to shuffle the schedule a bit. While the first two-a-day practice came last Thursday at an off-campus indoor facility, Monday's double session was outside in the heat.

Even though the learning process is still going on as the Green Wave make their shift to a three-wideout offense and continue fine-tuning its Steve Stanard-run 4-2-5 defense, Tulane head coach Bob Toledo was once again pleased with the progress his team made during its time on the field.

"What we do is we learn from some of the mistakes made in the morning," Toledo said of the Green Wave's two-a-day practice routine. "Our players then meet after lunch, come back out here and execute the things they did poorly. We're also adding things and we'll continue to do that for the next week before we get into game-planning.

"For the most part, they're grasping the concepts of what we're trying to do. What we do during in spring bal l and in fall camp is try to give them a lot of offense and a lot of defense so they've got something to draw from as the season goes on. When we start game-planning, obviously we won't do all the things we're doing right now. We'll cut it back and we'll do the things in a game that hopefully work against the opponent."

The day got off to a quick start as Toledo called for a "sudden change" drill in which the offense takes control of the ball at the opponents' 25-yard line. Junior running back Albert Williams got the ball down to the seven yard line with four straight runs totaling 18 yards but the defense stiffened and forced a 24-yard field goal attempt, which redshirt-freshman Ryan Rome sent between the uprights.

From there, the Green Wave went through a "coming out" drill where the offense took over the ball at its own one yard line. Playing in the shadow of their own endzone, the Tulane offense got at least three yards three times, but the defense held for gains of two-or-fewer yards on four occasions, including a safety by senior defensive tackle Oscar Ponce de Leon.

Toledo once again spent extended time focusing on special teams and sandwiched a pair of kickoff sessions around a 15-minute break in the action. The Green Wave also held an array of other drills before wrapping the morning with another round of field goal sessions where Rome was good on 4-fo-6 tries - including a pair of 49-yarders - and true freshman Cairo Santos went 4-of-5 with a long of 49 as well.

With fatigue and the heat becoming a factor in the afternoon, the post-lunch session was a little slower but more deliberate as the coaching staff worked on implementing new plays and formations on both sides of the ball. Once the squad went to full-team workouts, however, the adrenalin got going and that resulted in several big plays.

Williams ripped off an 80-yard scoring run from scrimmage, and one play later, sophomore quarterback Ryan Griffin found fellow second-year teammate Ryan Grant down the seam for an 80-yard touchdown strike.

Toledo had the team conclude the day with a two-minute drill and the defense took its turn on center stage as senior safety Alex Wacha leveled fifth-year wideout Casey Robottom following a short completion over the middle, sophomore corner Alex Lauricella picked off a pass that deflected off a receiver, and true freshman linebacker Zach Davis timed an outside blitz perfectly for a sack.

The play of the day, however, came on the second-to-last snap as quarterback-turned-receiver Joe Kemp made a one-handed grab of a Kevin Moore pass for a 21-yard gain which put the offense inside the 10-yard line.

The Green Wave return to the practice field on Tuesday, Aug. 17, with a single practice slated to begin at 8:50 a.m. Tulane opens the 2010 season on Thursday, Sept. 2, when they play host to Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome.

Season tickets for the upcoming season remain on sale through the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office. Season ticket prices are $199 for sideline seats, $99 for adult endzone and $65 for youth endzone. In addition, fans can purchase a Family 4 Pack (2 adult, 2 youth) for $250, as well as an opportunity to pick any two games for $60. Single game tickets are also available.

For more information or to purchase tickets please call the Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE, log onto the internet at TulaneGreenWave.com, or show up in person at the ticket office located inside the James W. Wilson Jr. Center on Ben Weiner Drive.