The Olive And Blue Manifesto

A Tulane sports blog

[coachrivero]

Fire David Harris

Welcome Tulane Green Wave fans! Today I will be talking about Tulane Athletic Director David Harris and why he needs to be fired. We are past the stage of memes and general disenchantment. Tulane athletics overall have regressed underneath David Harris’s leadership and little effort has been made to induce positive change. Tulane is a Division 1 University, not a country club. If Harris is not fired soon Tulane athletics will stagnate. David Harris must be dismissed and a competent AD who is better qualified for the job should take his place.

This article will be broken down in sections covering various programs and aspects of the athletic director job: by different sports and categories:

Football

Football ops building has no progress. The term ops building is used loosely because it’s just a glorified title 9 compliance facility in the first place. Kurt Hester talked about how it’s not really for football awhile back before he passed, and as well talked about the many facility upgrades they need/needed. The bubble was delivered late and over budget with major mistakes. No transparency was given about CFP windfall or increased season ticket prices. Seats in the glazer club that sell for thousands are peeling and sun damaged. The video board constantly breaks. We have still seen little active initiative from the department to get the city and metro area (including northshore) to come to games or become fans.

David Harris employed the services of a search firm for 8 days to “find” an internal candidate with a 14-30 FBS record who was fired from the University of Southern Mississippi 14 months prior, after the most successful run in the recent history of Tulane football

The optics of the poorly run football search aside. The continued scoreboard malfunctions are embarrassing and unacceptable for a national research university. This is some low level Mickey Mouse stuff. If you can’t handle something as basic as that which the vast majority of Division 1 (FBS and FCS) schools are able to, you have no business holding a leadership position at Tulane

For those who may be wondering, David Harris had very little involvement with the hiring of Jon Sumrall

Men’s Basketball

Athletic Director David Harris has displayed a wanton disregard for the state of Tulane men’s basketball. To put it frankly, he acts like it is not his job to deal with Tulane hoops.

The Green Wave has steadily declined in basketball under David Harris’s leadership and 8 year coach Ron Hunter, who has no real postseason appearances at Tulane. The Green Wave went from NET 138, to NET 151, to a NET of 207!

Tulane men’s basketball has finished with a losing record and in the bottom half of the one bid American conference 2 of 3 seasons. Ron Hunter is a cool 47-47 as head coach of Tulane during David Harris’ tenure uptown.

Harris is perfectly fine with mediocrity in Tulane men’s basketball, a major revenue sport. Tulane being the 207th team in the country is A-OK with David Harris as long as his paycheck keeps coming in.

Tulane Green Wave fans are some of the most loyal in the country and have been demanding a change in leadership all 3 of David Harris’s years uptown. What does he do? Leaks the buyout to deflect blame and give a failing coach an 8th year instead of problem solving to change the course of Tulane basketball

In the middle of this season Tulane was connected to a federal point shaving scandal involving a former Green Wave basketball player and Mr. Harris didn’t see the need to even address it until days later. That’s how little he thinks of our basketball program

Tulane university should not tolerate such a poor product and an athletic director who refuses to come up with any creative solution besides ignore the problem.

Season ticket holders are fed up with the dismal product on the court. Fogelman arena remains vacant for nearly every home game. It’s beyond time to address the men’s basketball program and make a concerted effort to improve much like Green Wave football. Tulane is reportedly top 3 in the American in men’s basketball spending and NIL. There is no reason why we cannot compete

Tulane university. Send David Harris packing and hire an athletic director who will take the time out of his busy schedule to help facilitate the rebuilding effort in men’s basketball

Baseball

I’m not going to blame David Harris for Green Wave baseball. The program was bad when he got here, it is still bad. It will continue to be bad until Tulane University supports the program with adequate scholarship help and hires a legitimate Division 1 Baseball coaching staff.

Little emphasis is put on Tulane baseball, and unfortunately that is the correct decision even as popular as it has been historically. College baseball is a nonrevenue sport. However, David Harris still somehow managed to mess up. Extending Jay Uhlman and his staff was a bad decision. Uhlman had zero leverage and nobody was coming for him.

This move has sandbagged Tulane into poor baseball long term. This makes it difficult if the school wants to improve the product and make use of the wasted real estate where Turchin Stadium now sits. What if the next Athletic Director wants to bring in his own coach and win over the fanbase?

Ultimately this is not a crucial mishap, but a self inflicted wound nonetheless. There was cover to hand down a bad extension after the conference tournament runs. However, baseball is important to Green Wave fans and a program where we have excelled. The product remains mediocre.

Women’s basketball

AD Harris hired Ashley Langford, a Tulane alum from the golden age of Lisa Stockton, to succeed Coach Stockton when she retired.

Coach Langford immediately led off her Tulane head coaching career as a nuisance going viral with an unnecessary political statement. Then of course followed with poor basketball.

Coach Ashley Langford’s records are as follows

Year 1: 12-20 (3-15 AC)

Year 2: 17-13 (9-8 AC)

Year 3: 11-20 (6-12 AC)

Admittedly I don’t follow women’s basketball closely. I have been told the program is adequately resourced. I have also been told this was a tough year with a variety of key injuries. The women’s coach leaves much to be desired it appears and needs improvement.

Northern Iowa complaints

This isn’t relevant to Tulane matters but I should have noticed UNI Panther fans were running victory laps after we poached David Harris. That wasn’t a good sign. I want to shine a spotlight on those mishaps out of respect for their fans. This is what they had to say:

Note: The University of Northern Iowa athletics were flagged Yellow in an internal audit. Read here: https://www.northerniowan.com/17475/showcase/board-of-regents-meets-in-cedar-falls/

Board of Regents meets in Cedar Falls

Projects and budgeting for the future of UNI Last week, the Iowa Board of Regents met and approved the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations reque

“Thank you for getting rid of him for us. Has set our athletic department back a decade”

“3 different athletic programs (football, wrestling, and soccer) all had to fundraise 100% on their own to improve their facilities slightly. Dannen was SIGNIFICANTLY better”

“He sucks at fundraising, set a 5 year plan in motion 7 years ago and has accomplished virtually nothing on that plan. Most of which that did get accomplished was fundraised totally by the coaches, not the AD. Our historic 100 year old wrestling facility got condemned due to lack of standard maintenance, currently our top 15 wrestling program is without a permanent home as a result. Our football program a decade ago was at the top of the conference in budget; are now at the bottom. Attendance numbers for football are through the floor”

“Didn't fundraise, cut budgets instead. Wasn't on speaking terms with 5 of our 6 core coaches by the end. Starved football to the point of non-competitiveness. Continually lied about facilities being 'close'.”

“Never heard him say anything and just sat at games and scowled like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world”

“Meanwhile getting our historic wrestling facility condemned with no clear alternative even in the plans, and didn't have the balls to actually tell our wrestling coach. He had to hear it from our MBB and VB coach.”

“He has literally zero fundraising skills. Our fanbase has experienced it. Our UNI Dome renovation got pulled from the athletic department and put into the Our Tomorrow general school campaign because it went so poorly. The football practice facility , the soccer locker rooms, and upgraded mats for wrestling those coaches all had to fundraise 100% themselves because he could not get the job done. Our basketball practice facility that was promised as part of a 5 year plan 7 years ago are no longer in the plans.”

Tulane issues

On the home front, many of our own have had issues dealing with AD David Harris. These are some of their testimonies

In January, Mr Harris refused to resolve an eligibility issue and NIL dispute for Zach Billings. His mother:

Season ticket holder who goes by the Twitter X username “Distraction University” expresses frustration with David Harris’s athletic department trying to take his parking pass away

Tulane season ticket holder “Tulane Talk” asks for answers why David Harris raised his ticket prices

Tulane season ticket holder “Ginz” shares similar concerns with his season ticket prices. Harris does not answer

His tickets were raise 20% in one year and 50% over the previous 2 years. Similar fans share problems with transparency from David Harris

Through my research I found that the majority of Tulane fans both online and those I have met in person dislike the AD for these reasons. He is not transparent and is not who we need in charge to lead this great University both athletically and in academic excellence.

Tulane student athletes and fans deserved a new men’s basketball coach after a heartbreaking season and embarrassing point shaving scandal. This level of federal crime has torn apart the men’s basketball program in the past.

Sadly, David Harris ignored these pleas in favor of bringing back Ron Hunter because he would rather not figure out the buyout situation.

Tulane Green Wave fans across the nation are hoping that football continues to be a shining star but that has also been put in jeopardy due to AD Harris’s incompetence

Only The Audacious

Tulane strives for excellence in the classroom, in medical research, law, and many other academic endeavors. Why would they settle for less on the field?

What kind of example does David Harris set for the student body? Taking a shortcut with the men’s basketball program

Many of them are future business owners. Would they keep an employee who has accomplished nothing in their organization for 8 years? Hell no, they would fire them.

Apply the same standard of excellence to your athletics department. Stop tolerating people who settle for less, like David Harris.

How could you trust someone who should have fired Ron Hunter the last 3 years to uphold Tulane’s model of academic excellence when they can’t uphold themselves to be excellent?

Only the Audacious. I challenge you to be audacious and fire David Harris.

If you want to be REALLY audacious, fire Jay Uhlman too because he sucks

Seriously I know you guys only care about money. David Harris is going to cost you a lot more money than you’re saving on him, because he is inept and doesn’t do anything.

Tulane University of Louisiana. You have a golden opportunity to cut bait now. We WILL need a new basketball coach before the end of time. Perhaps a football coach if Will Hall has learned nothing from USM.

We all love you and don’t want to see you fail. Please fire David Harris. Thank you. Roll Wave 🌊

[coachrivero]

Tulane Basketball Search

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” - James A. Baldwin

It is happening. In a time of global upheaval and shifting political landscapes, the most impactful world event is right here in New Orleans. The Ron Hunter era at Tulane is coming to an end.

Let’s begin with a recap of Ron Hunter’s career. He was hired to Tulane from Georgia State in March of 2019 following the termination of Mike Dunleavy Sr. after just 3 seasons. Prior to Tulane, Coach Hunter had taken 2 schools to the NCAA tournament. One appearance with IUPUI in 2003. Hunter also led Georgia State to the NCAAT 3 times (2015, 2018, 2019.) He is most known for his legendary upset of 3 seed Baylor in 2015 “Falling off the stool.” This remains to this day a legendary moment in March Madness.

Unfortunately, Ron Hunter could bring none of the madness with him to Tulane. He did, however, raise the floor for Green Wave hoops somewhat. His first 3 seasons uptown saw gradual improvement from Dunleavy’s disastrous 4 win campaign. Tulane finished 12th, 10th, and 5th in the American Conference respectively. This may read like state-approved Tulane propaganda. I don’t have any lifetime extension paperwork, but trending in a positive direction works for a lifeless program like Tulane.

Year 4 was easily Ron Hunter’s best season, going 20-11 with a 3rd place finish in the American. Truthfully it wasn’t that good. Schedule was ass and didn’t even make the NIT. The AC still had Cincinnati and Houston though, so finishing 3rd was a decent sign of progress. I don’t agree with extending Hunter after that, it really fucked us the following season when he should have been fired. That’s Tulane for you. Bunch of self serving dicks who hand down contract extensions for doing nothing. Thanks Troy Dannen

The 2023-24 season would have gotten Hunter fired at the vast majority of Division 1 schools. The narrative at the time was David Harris was new and didn’t want to “rock the boat” or whatever. “Tulane didn’t want to eat the buyout” blah blah blah. Little did we know that’s basically just who David Harris is. He isn’t known for doing much. We’ve already covered the Harris thing, and that will most likely sort itself out if Tulane football declines. The school should have found the buyout money. You’re a national university, figure it out.

The previous season wasn’t really notable. Ron Hunter kept the team playing hard and competitive at least. I didn’t see enough with 17-15 and a 200+ NET to justify saving his job after the disastrous Kevin Cross parlay season where they tanked for 2 months straight. That’s just a testament to how little Tulane university cares about its basketball program. Finishing a little above .500 and going to some obscure non-NCAA sponsored tournament in Las Vegas is considered successful. They did have a good showing in the American conference tournament and got hosed by the refs against Memphis. Would have 100% beaten UAB and I would definitely take a fraudulent auto-bid just to experience the NCAA tournament. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be. We just get more of the same which is nothing. Always bet on nothing. Unless your name is Kevin Cross then you bet on the other team.

This brings us to the present. Really just more ass basketball and blowout losses to our dad UNO (who will be mentioned later.) Losing the team once gets you fired most places. Losing the team twice in 3 years gets you fired from Tulane. You can’t really hold a leadership position for 7 years while your organization fails to get any better. That’s my main gripe with Hunter. I think he was the right hire for the time, he seems amicable and I truly believe he tried at Tulane. He was just given way too much time. You need to move on at some point. We have reached that point.

Tulane has options, depending on how much emphasis is put on the search. I don’t pretend to know much about the inner workings of Tulane. I would imagine many people were not pleased with the football search and outcome. Theoretically David Harris’s seat should feel a bit toasty. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially with administrators and corporate suits. Sometimes a little heat brings out the best in people. Same could be applied to the Tulane administration and tenured board members with unlimited job security. That’s an entirely different topic. The topic for today is Tulane basketball candidates, so let’s get to it

Scott Cross (Troy)

Okay this would be an insane pull. Logic dictates that he could probably do better than Tulane. Also remember how grossly overpaid Ron Hunter was ($1.5 million?). Think of Jon Sumrall. He could have easily stayed at Troy for another year or 2 and taken that path to the big time job he desired. Money talks though.

Cross is still fairly young (51) and doesn’t quite have the skins on the wall to go straight to an elite job. He may not see Tulane as an upgrade over Troy. Fair because we are ass. The school would need to overpay him. The upside is he’s turned a poor Troy program into a winner, a rebuild which is arguably just as tough as Tulane would be. He has 2 NCAA tournament appearances, one with UT Arlington and another last year with Troy. Several NIT appearances including making the quarterfinals with UTA.

I couldn’t find much about the schematics but just glancing at box scores his teams actually rebound and defense. Cross is the only head coach with a winning record in UT Arlington history. You want someone who’s reasonably attainable and can change the culture at Tulane. Scott Cross is your man.

Casey Alexander (Belmont)

This is a solid coach who should be within Tulane’s grasp. Dude just wins. Since his 2016-17 season at Lipscomb, Casey Alexander has won at least 20 games every season. NCAA tournaments are a metric I am using in evaluating these coaches and Alexander has 2. One with Lipscomb in 2018 and another with Belmont in 2020 (Sadly this tournament was cancelled but we are still giving him credit). NIT runner up in 2019 is nice. Remember when the NIT was actually a viable consolation tournament and wasn’t total ass?

Keep in mind Tulane isn’t the most attractive job so we probably aren’t hiring the next Coach K. I think Casey Alexander is solid though. He runs a fun scheme predicated on ball movement, tempo, and shot selection. He values assists over isolation basketball and his defense is built around switching and communication. This would be a nice change of pace over crappy zone defense that any retard who watches a 5 minute YouTube video knows how to break.

Casey Alexander is a name to watch and should certainly be on the shortlist. Give him a call

Carlin Hartman (Florida - assistant)

I know what you’re thinking. He’s not coming here. Carlin Hartman would be better off staying at Florida with Todd Golden and getting a better head coaching opportunity down the road.

I’m here to tell you that not everyone is a mangina like Blake Baker who turns down their Alma mater to work underneath the devil reincarnated. Now, Todd Golden is probably not the devil (as far as I’m aware) and you are probably right. However, he makes the short list.

Sometimes the best opportunity is right now. Without any head coaching experience, there is a chance he could take the job. Not a great chance, but you need to call anyway. Hartman is a fan favorite from his Perry Clark posse days as an elite forward. He was here for the golden age of Tulane hoops. I fully believe he could get Fogleman rocking again like it once was when I was 2 years old and pooping my pants.

Time may pass, but some things stay the same. First, I’m still pooping my pants. Secondly, Carlin Hartman is a great basketball coach. He is a huge reason why Florida is as good as they are. He’s a tireless recruiter and players love him. Make the call. He’ll probably hang up, but make the call anyway

Russell Turner (UC Irvine)

I wanted to make this list my own instead of just copying @DegenAtLawEsq word for word. Degen is a trusted source of everything Tulane and a friend of the page. Initially I was going to say Joe Pasternack (Metairie native who is also solid.) Let me turn your attention to Russell Turner

Tulane must go big with the basketball hire. They swung for the fences with Ron although it didn’t pan out. I would recommend they keep trying. No need to… scale everything back and go into a shell. No idea why any school coming off a CFP berth would do that.

Russell Turner absolutely slaps. He has eleven 20+ win seasons in his 16 full seasons at UC Irvine. Including winning 30+ games twice. 3 NCAA tournament appearances (RIP 2020). 4 NIT’s. He’s been at UCI for almost 2 decades so maybe he just never wants to leave, but this is a person of interest on my hot board.

Turner runs a great defensive scheme too, with emphasis on (you guessed it) rebounding. This is a key aspect of basketball and something we should try to do if we have any chance of doing anything. Would be a tough pull of course, but USF got the Paul Wall looking guy from Arkansas State and he’s pretty good. We’re gonna have to break someone’s heart.

Stacy Hollowell (UNO)

If you can’t beat em hire em. This could be a reasonable sell to Fitts, Harris, and the carpetbaggers in Gibson Hall. The 20 minute drive across town may take a little longer than walking down the hallway to promote McCallum or R.J. Hunter, but we can afford Hollowell and he will accept if offered.

While we’re at it, just buy UNO from LSU and take their athletic director, baseball coach, and Master P. Not interested in getting our asses kicked by a bunch of poors wearing Purple and Gold colors. Experienced that plenty of times.

Jokes aside I like Stacy Hollowell. He runs a fast paced offense and he’s done a decent job with that program. They’ve improved drastically from last year coming off the brink of financial ruin. Plus they just kick our ass

Hollowell was really good at Loyola too. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to give this a try. He could be successful with more NIL and resources at his disposal. Worst case scenario we don’t accomplish anything ever

[coachrivero]

Spring Cleaning - Tulane Basketball talk & more

What’s up Green Wave fans! Spring has returned to Louisiana. This means temperatures are rising, flowers are in bloom, the smell of crawfish fills the air, and of course, spectators around the country will be filling out their March Madness brackets. This legendary single elimination winner-takes-all tournament has been Tulane-free since 1995

Getting to the point, we all know what needs to happen with Tulane basketball. It’s not some great mystery. I don’t think Agatha Christie is going to write a book about it. You the reader most likely already know Ron Hunter needs to get fired or announce his retirement. This isn’t groundbreaking information.

Anyone who has been following Tulane recently is likely aware that David Harris also needs to get fired. The languid, rarely seen AD already wasn’t popular with Tulane fans and benefactors. This has escalated from “Harris is boring and puts me to sleep” to “Holy crap this dude is going to ruin all of Tulane’s progress if they don’t get rid of him” over just a few months.

In this article I am going to outline why Ron Hunter and David Harris need to go.

Fire Ron Hunter:

Ron Hunter has been the Tulane men’s basketball coach for 7 years and the program hasn’t improved from his first season. Simply put, it is time to move on. Hunter was a solid hire on paper and he’s been somewhat better than his predecessors. Unfortunately that is a low bar since those coaches were Ed Conroy and Mike Dunleavy. The bar needs to be raised in basketball, much like it has for Green Wave football

I would not say the poor state of Tulane basketball is entirely the fault of Ron Hunter. The product has been bad for over 30 years and counting. However, we have a large enough sample size now to reasonably conclude that Hunterball has a defined ceiling. To create interest within the Tulane community and student body, to take hoops where it needs to go, a change of leadership is overdue.

Ron Hunter is a .500 basketball coach with 2 winning seasons in 7 years and one postseason appearance, the non-NCAA affiliated College Basketball Crown. That gets you fired at any Division 1 basketball school besides Tulane. It would be appropriate for Tulane to stop treating men’s basketball like an intramural sport and make this necessary coaching change. Should be a no-brainer and happen within 24 hours of the Wave getting eliminated from the American conference basketball tournament.

Fire David Harris:

Tulane has become popular because they are a fun brand, defying the expectations people have for a small school and using its unique branding to appeal to casual fans. David Harris isn’t unique or fun, and can’t even appeal to longtime, large donors. He is the antithesis of everything that makes the school popular with people not directly affiliated with Tulane. Which is the whole point of spending money for a small school like Tulane. David Harris is not just unable to grow the fanbase, but his actions to this point have seemed to shrink the current fanbase.

Perhaps “David Harris is not fun or interesting” isn’t a strong case to terminate. How about.. botching the football search and failing monstrously at the most important duty of your job, hiring a fired Sun Belt coach to replace Jon Sumrall after Tulane’s most dominant run in school history. Raising season ticket prices without explaining how that money is being used to improve anything. Many of those seats are occupied by prominent donors which Tulane depends on. How about being completely opaque on fundraising details and unavailable to loyal Green Wave supporters. Dead silent on major issues like revenue sharing and conference realignment. Zero progress on updating facilities to become Title IX complaint. Refusal to address men’s basketball. Not to mention his women’s basketball hire was awful and the program continues to circle the drain.

I would like to know what the numbers for athlete GPA and service hours are. Because that’s basically all the admin talked about as his accomplishments when he was first hired. If Harris can’t even manage that successfully then he’s doing even less than nothing

Gibson Hall/ Communication

What is the point of this? You may be asking. Everyone knows the AD is a joke and Ron Hunter should have been fired 3 years ago.

I believe it’s important to raise awareness with the end of basketball season around the corner. There is no guarantee David Harris addresses men’s basketball, even after everything that has happened with the losing, point shaving, disinterest among fans and students. Good chance Harris gives basketball fans the middle finger and hands down a contract extension.

We must also remember that David Harris wasn’t accidentally hired over 30 other applicants. Ron Hunter also hasn’t hung out here for almost a decade by accident. Gibson Hall and the board continue to be an obstacle for Tulane athletics. I don’t think this will change until the Cotton Bowl generation rises to power

The Cone of Silence isn’t just a meme. It is alive and well unfortunately. Football is 43-13 the last 4 seasons. What is the point of being silent?

That is the Tulane method, which David Harris was hired to implement. Although he hasn’t been here long, I consider Harris part of the Tulane old guard. (Scott Cowen, Rick Dickson, etc.) This is traditional Tulane. Always excuses what we can’t afford, what we’re unable to accomplish, etc. We’ll never get in the Power 4 or enjoy long term success until the old guard is gone and Cone of Silence is removed.

I am not the first person nor will I be the last to suggest that Tulane needs to be more transparent. They do a lackluster job advertising the school, athletics, and getting the message out. There are plenty of positives selling points with Tulane. Academic reputation, location, football, etc. They just need talented, ambitious people to deliver the message.

What needs to happen: Make communication a priority and develop an aggressive marketing strategy to sell your product.

Whether it is fundraising, selling tickets, providing financial updates to key boosters, firing Ron Hunter, or whatever Tulane needs to do. Tulane must do a better job of communicating. This is so important in the age of social media and instant information.

Conclusion

Truth be told I’m tired of constantly melting down about Tulane basketball. I honestly think the AD enjoys tuning fans out and putting notifications on silent after 38 point losses.

It doesn’t have to be like this either. Tulane football was once a meme and laughingstock before they transformed the identity of the program

All it takes is 1 good coach to change the perception and raise the standard of what Tulane basketball is. Once upon a time 7-5 was considered to be a standout season for Tulane football. Now it would be viewed as an unacceptable failure

I have no idea who Tulane could even get, but they first need to fire Ron Hunter. Something they have been unwilling to do thus far. Of course if they can actually do that, I think Carlin Hartman would be a slam dunk if Tulane could land him.

If Hartman pulls a Blake Baker or Tulane is unable to seal the deal for whatever reason, there are other good options with just a little bit of research and preparation…

Scott Cross, Takayo Siddle, Joe Pasternack, etc are still all out there. The problem is we first have to make a coaching change and even if we do that, our AD is still David Harris

[coachrivero]

Tulane Football. Bye Week Edition. What we’ve learned

2025 has proven to be an interesting year for Tulane. It’s been fun… in fact, too much fun at times. Yet here we are more than halfway through the season with all our dreams still alive. Now is a great time to take a deep breath and recap what we’ve learned so far.

Jake Retzlaff is the real deal

Tulane added some big pieces this offseason. Santana Hopper, Harvey Dyson, Omari Hayes, Maurice Turner, Jordan Norman, just to name a few. None have been more impactful than our starting Quarterback Jake Retzlaff. He is, without a doubt, the heart and soul of this team. He has poise in clutch situations which not everyone possesses. Jake Retzlaff has led Tulane to 2 come-from-behind victories which is 2 more than his predecessor Darian Mensah has in his college career.

Jake Retzlaff is the kind dual threat QB that can carry a college team. I don’t think Tulane’s roster is bad by any stretch, but I shudder to think about where we would be without him. If the BYU stuff didn’t go down and Retzlaff didn’t fall into Tulane’s lap, we could possibly be around .500 right now. Maybe Brendan Sullivan would have been a solid starter if he didn’t get hurt in fall camp. Maybe Jon Sumrall would have hit the portal for another QB. Fact of the matter is we got extremely lucky with Jake Retzaff and are fortunate to have him.

Jake Retzlaff 2025 season stats

Not gaudy numbers but it gets the job done. Retzlaff spreads the ball around to a variety of receivers. His 6 touchdowns have each come to different players: Shazz Preston, Bryce Bohanon, Justyn Reid, Johnny Pascuzzi, Javin Gordon, Zycarl Lewis Jr. (Brendan Sullivan tossed a garbage time TD at Ole Miss to Anthony LaRod Stephens-Howling).

In addition to obviously being Tulane’s leading passer, Jake Retzlaff is Tulane’s leading rusher. He has outgained the Wave’s leading RB Javin Gordon by nearly 200 yards. His 6.4 YPC leads the team and his 69 yard rushing TD against Northwestern is Tulane’s longest play from scrimmage this year. Jake has a knack for moving the chains with his legs. His 48 points scored are second only to the GOAT Patrick Durkin (61)

I could go on and on but it’s clear that Jake Retzlaff is what makes Tulane go this year. Dude is a straight up mensch. Inshallah

Tulane’s Body of Work

How could we talk about the season without… talking about the season. Tulane’s record to this point is a cool 6-1 (3-0 AC). We can bitch about certain things as fans do, like the penalties and Red Zone offense. One thing I will NEVER bitch about is Tulane being 6-1 and unbeaten in conference. I have seen way too much Green Wave football to complain about winning. Even though Tulane goes through lackluster stretches where they look like ass, they have won the games they were supposed to win. Nothing wrong with that.

2025 began with a methodical ass kicking of Northwestern. Tulane was favored to win that game and won it. Covered the spread (even with 1,000 dropped passes). Pretty solid win against a team who’s proven to be competitive. They should have just let us wear white jerseys. Didn’t help their cause anyway.

South Alabama was a nostalgic throwback to the 2023 season. Don’t want to talk about it. We won. 1-0 baby just win no matter what?

Duke was the most complete game Tulane has played this season. It was one of my favorite regular season games ever. The crowd was intense and involved (which doesn’t happen here too often), the team played up to superior talent. Yes Duke is better than us talent wise. We had to play a perfect game and get some breaks to win (Duke special teams LOL). I poo poo on Jon Sumrall’s coaching sometimes. He’s a rising name in the field but still young and has much to learn. That was easily his best coaching performance.

I have been told that Tulane played a game against Ole Miss but my memory escapes me.

Tulsa was about as ho-hum of a 31-14 win as you’ll see in football. Tulane’s defense was disruptive and allowed absolutely nothing except a couple big plays. The game was officiated by degenerate gamblers who had Tulsa +14. Our passing game took a step forward and Javin Gordon scored 3 TDs. Was a good win against one of the worst teams in the FBS.

East Carolina was when I started to consider pushing the panic button regarding our Red Zone offense. It was downright pitiful to advance to the Redzone 5 times in the first half and score 12 points. Thankfully our defense pitched a first half shutout. East Carolina came alive in the second half courtesy of Tulane repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot. However, when the chips were down Tulane stood tall and won the game. They displayed a ton of courage to gut out this unnecessarily close game.

Army games are always weird. We weren’t as bad in the Redzone (because we barely had the ball). I’m just thankful we got it done somehow. Tulane had 6 possessions (not counting the play to run out the half) and the Wave scored on 4/6 drives. My one criticism is Sullivan really needed to just fall forward and get a first on 4th and 2. Game has an entirely different dynamic if he does that. Alas, Tulane and Jake Retzlaff saved the day with 14 points in the last 2 minutes of regulation. Defense came up big forcing a 3 and out defending over 60 running plays too.

Here’s Tulane’s résumé if you’re into that sort of thing. Courtesy of @TheOffSeasonCFB

Tulane (6-1)

SOR #22

SOS #67

Rem SOS #77

FPI #55

SP+ #63

Massey #33

Wins vs. P4

vs. Northwestern, vs. Duke

Best win - vs (5-2) Northwestern

Northwestern - SOR #34, SOS #43, FPI #57, SP+ #62, Massey #43

Tulane’s best football may be yet to come

Raw stats are a poor way to measure a football team’s performance and are only useful in petty online arguments. This is the case with Tulane anyhow. If you are a stat nerd and pour over the different variables, you may ask yourself how is Tulane winning football games? The answer, my friend, is that they score more points than the other team.

Tulane has the 59th ranked offense and the 90th ranked defense. 73rd Passing Offense. Rushing offense is 46th. 51st scoring defense. 84th scoring offense. 67th passing efficiency defense. 94th rushing defense. 105th 3rd down defense. Penalties per game 118th. The average score of a Tulane game is 26-22

So what does the Wave do well? They just score more points than their opponents and Jake Retzlaff bails them out in close games. That is pretty much it. The special teams have been better this year but statistically they aren’t great either besides Field Goal kicking. Tulane is 47th in Net Punting. 91st Punt return defense. 76th kick return defense. 106th in punt returns. 45th in kick returns.

Patrick Durkin is tied for first in FG percentage! (14/14). I really should write a segment for my GOAT. He has improved tremendously from last year. Durkin is a surprise difference maker for this Tulane Green Wave football team. Respect to Special Teams Coach Johnathan Galante for fixing the kicking game. I will lock myself in my room and weep for days if he leaves.

Getting to the point - Tulane has gotten it done with grit and resolve so far this season but to win a conference championship they need to find another gear somehow. Got to put the pedal to the metal for 4 quarters of the football game. It comes down to execution. Tulane moves the ball well but stalls out in the Red Zone too much. The defense isn’t doing work statistically but they force turnovers (21st in turnover margin) and provide the Tulane offense favorable scoring opportunities.

The Red zone woes aren’t simply just bogging down and making stupid mistakes. Tulane isn’t running the ball at will like in the past. The Running back room perhaps isn’t as good as people thought. Their longest run is a 28 yarder by Zuberi Mobley followed by a 25 yard rush by Javon Gordon. The next longest run is 14 yards (Arnold Barnes). Suffice to say we don’t currently have a game breaker in that group. Hopefully Maurice Turner can be that guy as he continues to get healthy.

The Offensive Line has been pretty solid. They have only allowed 6 sacks this year which is good for 9th in the FBS. I’ve been pleased with this group which was a huge question mark entering this season. On the other side the D line and pass rushers really get after it. Santana Hooper, Harvey Dyson, and Jordan Norman have combined for 9 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss. The young DB’s Jaheim Johnson, Javion White, and Eziah Shine have 16 pass breakups. Jaheim Johnson has 2 interceptions while Javion white has 3. Thank you Preston Stone

I think the defense will continue to get better against American conference competition. They have some good tacklers in open space which you need in college football. Safeties Jack Tchienchou, Bailey Despanie, and Kevin Adams are very sturdy on the back end. Veteran group, especially Bailey Despanie who’s been at Tulane through 2 of my divorces. Hopefully we get Sam Howard back in the LB corps for Memphis at least. Chris Rodgers has been really good. Could go on name dropping players but Trevon McAlpine was a solid pickup for us. Really like the potential of this defensive unit.

Conclusion

This 2025 season we’ve had 6 happy football weekends and 1 unhappy football weekend I’m told. Pretty good for Tulane. Not to channel my inner Fletcher Mackel but we are a historically mediocre program, so this 4 year run we’re currently on isn’t to be taken for granted.

Hopefully Tulane kicks it up a notch and continues winning. If they don’t, we’ll lose a couple games and get to keep Jon Sumrall. Either way I’m happy.

The final stretch isn’t too daunting unless Tulane makes it daunting by committing a boat load of penalties and playing like Hamas militants in the Red Zone. The name of the game is score more points than the other team and Touchdowns are worth more points than Field Goals. Always remember that.

Memphis on the road will be a challenge albeit less scary after they dropped a game to downtrodden UAB. The next game, UTSA, shouldn’t be an issue. Key word there is “shouldn’t.” Temple is not the pushover people were expecting and it might be chilly in Philadelphia that time of year. I can’t for the life of me envision Tulane struggling whatsoever with FAU and Charlotte.

A 4th straight American Conference championship game is there for the taking. USF most likely awaits. The Bulls don’t seem to have any flaws with them right now. They are beating FBS opponents by an average of 24 points a game. Tulane will hopefully gel as a team before a showdown with them. If we don’t we’ll get our ass kicked in a 3rd straight title game and be the Buffalo Bills of the American conference.

That’s a problem for later though. Can’t assume Tulane makes it that far until Tulane makes it that far. Nothing is given, everything earned. Honestly, I am still so happy we even have championship aspirations. I haven’t forgotten losing by 30 in a cold empty Superdome on a regular basis. We’ve come a long way since then. Sit back and enjoy the ride. Thanks for reading. Roll Wave! 🌊

[coachrivero]

Tulane baseball state of the program. Where do we go from here?

Entering the 3rd season of the Jay Uhlman era brought increased expectations after incremental progress each of the last 2 years.

First, in 2023, a surprise trip to the Baton Rouge Regional. Courtesy of a dominant march through the AAC tournament and thrilling title game win against league power ECU. Tulane’s postseason run however was short lived. The Wave was overmatched as one of the worst teams in the NCAA tournament field. The 4 seed Greenies went 2 and BBQ. Losing to host LSU in a 120 pitch complete game by generational talent Paul Skenes, then eliminated in a rain delayed contest by 3 seed Sam Houston State. A dismal 15-39 season in which Tulane set a school record for highest team ERA (7.08) prompted many to ask why former interim Jay Uhlman was promoted in the first place. Despite the struggles, the team did remain focused and clinched the Wave’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2016. Tulane’s final record was 19-42. The improbable, torrid run through Clearwater still remains one of my favorite Green Wave sports memories.

Uhlman’s 2024 season saw improvement from year 1. Tulane finished 31-24 (15-12) and clinched the 3 seed in the AAC tournament. Uhlman’s crew engineered another impressive run tearing through Clearwater, a clean 4-0 ending with a victory against scrappy Wichita State in the AAC championship. Jackson Linn’s monstrous 2 out walk off HR sent the Wave to the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year. The Wave was selected for the Corvallis regional as a 4 seed. The Wave once again quickly found themselves in the losers bracket with a loss to host Oregon State. What followed was the first NCAA tournament win since 2016, eliminating local rival Nicholls State behind a spectacular performance from Friday night starter Luc Fladda. The run ended with a convincing loss against 2 seed UC Irvine, who had easily swept Tulane in Turchin Stadium back in nonconference play.

2025 was a letdown in my opinion. A scaled back schedule contained no power conference competition. The team ERA ballooned from 5.37 to 6.40 (over an entire point). Home runs went down from 91 to 51. Which is probably a casualty of losing your best power hitters (Banks, Marget, Tuft). Jackson Linn who was so clutch late in 2024 mysteriously disappeared. There were a few bright spots however. Michael Lombardi was one of the best closers in the country (2.14 ERA with 11 saves). Jason Wachs and Tanner Chun emerged as solid freshmen hitters. Conner Rasmussen and Matthias Hass provided reliable production in the middle of the lineup. Defensively the Wave was much better than last year. Outside of that, the season was very forgettable. Going 33-25 (13-14) against the 104th SOS (196 nonconference SOS). Even with modest expectations we should be better. Despite that Uhlman concocted another evil magical run to the AAC tournament championship. This time the Wave unfortunately lost to ECU and found themselves sitting at home for NCAA Regional play.

Provide More Scholarships

When senior Tulane infielder Gavin Schulz was asked what the school can do to help its baseball program, his answer was succinct: “Provide more scholarships”

If the House v. NCAA settlement passes in July as expected, over 100 NCAA rules will change, including roster limits. Schools will be permitted to provide full scholarships to every player on a declared roster. Simply put, roster limits are increasing and scholarships limits are being eliminated. Baseball roster limits will be increased to 34 and the previous 11.7 scholarship limit goes bye bye.

Tulane university is reportedly planning on increasing scholarships from that 11.7 baseline to about 20. Combined with 5 or so legislative scholarships that we usually get, this would give Wave baseball a chance to compete in this brave new world.

If this doesn’t happen, everything else is a non starter. Go ahead and stop reading now. None of this matters. Just check out every year when football season ends and go find something else to occupy your time. Seriously, we could hire the second coming of Rick Jones. It wouldn’t matter with such a huge financial disadvantage. Tulane tuition is around 100K now.

If Tulane doesn’t want the optics of blowing money on baseball, just put them on hefty merit/ academic scholarships. The school is already known for being liberal with financial aid. Reminder that these aren’t NIL mercenaries like football and basketball. Most baseball players aren’t playing musical chairs with 4 different schools and bag hunting every year. You’re just adding more students.

NCAA baseball is a sport where the little guy still stands a chance to compete. Tulane has a proud history of winning on the baseball diamond. The program boasts 23 regional appearances, 3 super regionals, and 2 trips to the College World Series.

There may not be a huge financial boon like there is with major college football, but Tulane fans/ alumni/ boosters want to see the glory days return. Athletics are also the front porch of your university. The exposure of a legitimate successful program helps your visibility. The cost of adding more athletic scholarships is negligible to a national university like Tulane. I don’t see why they wouldn’t follow through with doing this..if they care about athletics even a little bit.

Coaching

Like most Tulane baseball followers, I have mixed feelings about Jay Uhlman. Some will say he’s a good coach. Others might say he’s a baseball terrorist. The reality is probably somewhere in between.

There are pros and cons. I’ll start with the positives. Uhlman is respected in the College Baseball community. He seems to get the most out of his players, even if the talent is somewhat limited. Not to harp on the previous segment too much but there’s not much leeway spreading 11.7 scholarships over 30 something players. Recruiting is not great but it is fair. He is liked by his players, is a good leader and ambassador for Tulane university. We could definitely do worse in my opinion.

Recruiting/ evaluation of the pitching staff however was bad this year. Jay Uhlman and his trusty sidekick, pitching coach Anthony Izzio, whiffed on every new transfer pitcher this season. When the majority of the staff cannot throw strikes and is virtually unusable, that falls on recruiting/ coaching. Need to evaluate and develop pitchers to build adequate depth.

Not all of the pitching staff was terrible. Michael Lombardi is a stud. Montiel and Benbrook got better. However, most of the pitching staff was bad and had control issues. Tulane hit 89 batsmen, which technically is an improvement over last season (97 hit batsmen). They were 122nd in WHIP and 146th in Walks allowed per 9 innings this year. They actually struck out a fair amount of batters. 22nd in strikeouts per 9 innings and 79th in strikeout to walk ratio (2.10). Team ERA was 6.40 (179th in NCAA)

Tulane only had 2 starting pitchers plus a TBA every Sunday. Granted, not a lot of college teams are loaded with pitching depth, but ours is razor thin. Not a winning recipe when you regularly have to score double digit runs to win games.

The biggest singular issue I have with Coach Uhlman is his unwillingness to make any changes with his staff. Not saying loyalty is a bad character trait, but when your pitching coach sets the record for 2/3 of the highest team ERA’s in school history.. it’s probably time to hire a new pitching coach.

For example, Willie Fritz fired his OC and good friend Doug Ruse after clinching our first bowl in nearly a decade. Why would he do that? Tulane had their best season in a while. He made that change because the offense was ass.

Offensively Tulane was basically average in everything besides hitting doubles. The Wave was 156th in scoring (6.7 runs a game) out of 299 D1 teams. The Greenies were 116th in OBP (.390) 131st in Runs (387) and 73rd in Walks (287). Positive things, we’ve seen this offense explode and carry Tulane to the NCAA tournament. Would like to see more consistency, but hitting coach Justin Bridgman seems okay.

I don’t know who’s responsible for fielding but that improved a lot (47th in NCAA). Tulane was 4th in double plays! Turning 54 in 58 games. That’s a lot of Mandeville Seafood! The Green Wave doesn’t steal many bases and had a few issues on the base paths but I couldn’t find any measurable statistics on the latter. Tulane was 51st in errors per game (0.9)

I wouldn’t trip about losing any coaches, including Jay Uhlman. Given the choice I would prefer to keep him because I don’t have any faith in Tulane and David Harris. Kind of a devil you know verse devil you don’t know kind of thing. Plus the devil you know has shown the ability to win conference tournaments.. which is important in a 1-bid league. Biggest concern is Uhlman goes west and Tulane does their normal lazy bullshit; foregoing a search and promoting Anthony Izzio to extend the Jewett/ Uhlman era in perpetuity. Thomas Brittle has reportedly left the program. Seems likely Brennan Lambert will slide into an assistant role.

Attendance

When I was growing up.. on campus baseball at Tulane was a big deal. We were regularly top 20 in the NCAA in attendance. Everyone knows what a big issue parking can be (about to be a bigger issue with the IPF. Take that NIMBY’s!!!). Anyhow, it wasn’t uncommon to see cars lined up on the Claiborne median for weekend series. Even some of the midweek games were well attended.

Unfortunately, attendance has been declining for years during Tulane’s extended slide into mediocrity. Our reported average attendance was 1,437. If you can prove to me that 1,437 living breathing people attended any Tulane home game this year, you can punch me in the face. No flinching

In 2008, when the new Turchin stadium opened; Tulane was 14th in the NCAA in average home attendance (3600). We’ll look at that number and assume it was fudged a bit. Regardless, that’s nearly triple what Tulane is reporting now. For comparison, in 2016 Tulane was 31st in the NCAA for average home attendance (2,302). Following a long postseason drought before 2015 (in which Tulane was 36th with an average attendance of 1,951).

I just realized I can’t find where Tulane’s modern attendance ranks because the NCAA doesn’t do a good job of keeping records anymore. Honestly, They don’t do much of anything these days besides bend over for the SEC and BIG 10.

Case in point; win and they will come. The recipe for attracting fans to the games is scheduling interesting competition and winning those games. The attendance has been dwindling for decades but it will rise just the same if Tulane schedules better and starts clinching at large regionals again. Hosting every now and then wouldn’t hurt either. When the new GFATS was built, the former athletics administration hoped it would be an NCAA tournament site. It hasn’t been so far, need to change that.

For the record I’m not blaming the fans at all. The product has not been good like it should be, besides Clearwater. People aren’t going to show up when you basically don’t need to bother watching until the AAC tournament. Once again, need to somehow get those SEC/ power conference teams back on the schedule.

Conclusion

I love Tulane baseball. I’m proud of everything this program has accomplished. Sometimes I can be critical of the product, but it’s only because I know what Tulane is capable of. I’ve seen this team accomplish great things. Even in the modern lean years we have grown accustomed to, returning to the NCAA postseason was a welcome sight.

Tulane offers a great baseball tradition, outstanding academics, plus facilities, and a solid recruiting footprint. Combined with a decent amount of NIL which is all people seem to care about these days.

There’s no reason we should be getting BTA from UNO and other poverty programs. Sneaking into the NCAA field as a 4 seed is okay, but how about getting back to the Super Regionals? Hell, let’s get back to Omaha

Any endeavor in life worth pursuing should be done to the highest of your ability. My dad always said “Don’t do something just to do it.” He also said “Use your head for something other than a hat rack” and “You don’t have the sense God gave a dead billy goat”

We are in the middle of an inflection point for the future of Tulane University athletics. It’s uncertain what role baseball plays in that. Maybe school leadership doesn’t see the value in baseball investment, but I think they should.

Do it because it’s the right thing to do, and honestly, it’s not that hard to do. Just give them the damn financial aid. Hold the program to some standards with coaching and scheduling. You don’t need to blow millions of athletic capital that probably isn’t there, or should rightfully be going to football.

All I ask is the Tulane administration reevaluate how important baseball is to them and if they wish to field a nationally competitive program. Turchin stadium is arguably the best Gameday facility Tulane has relative to athletic peers in the sport. Don’t get me wrong, Football obviously has the best facility on campus, but before Yulman was built Greer Field at Turchin stadium was the crown jewel.

If baseball is so low on the priority list that it has become an afterthought, move the program off campus and use that valuable athletic estate for needed football infrastructure. College baseball is a nonrevenue sport for most schools. Not the end of the world if you don’t give a fuck about it.

For the sake of everyone who cares about this once proud program, I hope Tulane does give a fuck about Green Wave baseball. The sport is expensive anyway, so may as well give it some attention and try to grow the brand. College baseball popularity has exploded in recent years. Tulane can be in that picture, if they want to be. Thanks for reading. Roll Wave! 🌊

[coachrivero]

2025 Tulane Football Preview

2024 brought many changes to the Green Wave football program.

Following the departure of Willie Fritz, Tulane hired Jon Sumrall from Troy. Fresh off back to back Sun Belt titles, Sumrall was one of the biggest rising names in college football coaches. He was tasked with retooling Tulane’s roster and replacing many impact players, including superstar QB Michael Pratt. While most new coaching regimes are full-blown rebuilds nowadays with the instant eligibility transfer rules, Sumrall had a unique situation with a program already on the rise. Focusing largely on the transfer portal, he was able to add instant contributors while also retaining several key pieces of the puzzle.

The transfer portal is a double-edged sword in the Wild West era of college sports. Year 2 will be a similar rebuilding effort, with the roster getting raped and pillaged by portal departures. Most notably, former Tulane QB Darian Mensah who dipped for a bag after starting one year as a redshirt freshman. The Wave will also need to replace the production of starting RB Makhi Hughes and top redzone passing target Alex Bauman. There is also the task of replacing 1,000 yard WR Mario Williams who left for the NFL Draft.

The defense naturally has its share of defections as well. CB Rayshawn Pleasant showed promise in the kick return game (2 TDs), but unfortunately entered the spring portal. Talented DE Matthew Fobbs White (4 sacks) is gone. Surprisingly, veteran NT Adonis Friloux also appears to be leaving. Stout interior linemen Parker Peterson and star linebacker Jesus Machado (recovering from a terrible ACL injury the previous season) round out the list of major attritions. However, Tulane’s defense will remain deep and talented. Many expect this unit to be the strength of the team in 2025.

Through all the losses, additions, letdowns, surprises, we keep moving forward. This is still the golden age of Tulane football. The last 3 seasons we have seen the Green Wave reach the top of the mountain, or at least gotten pretty close. Given the dubious history of Tulane football, I will take that, and you should too. The future is uncertain with more roster holes to fill. Let’s take a premature look at what 2025 Tulane football could have in store.

QB Battle/ Recruiting

Needs: QB, WR, OL, CB

Much like last season, the biggest question mark for Tulane is starting QB.

To address this need, Jon Sumrall added 3 main transfer portal targets: TJ Finley, Kadin Semonza, and Donovan Leary. Finley is obviously out of the picture at this time. Turns out buying a stolen car off Facebook Marketplace then blocking a driveway with your stolen vehicle isn’t a great idea. It’s unclear exactly how this will be resolved, but it will assuredly be a lengthy legal process. Unfortunately you can write him off. That leaves Semonza and Leary as the main contenders, unless there is another freshman all-American hiding on the scout team, or the very likely scenario another transfer QB is acquired.

Kadin Semonza is an interesting prospect. He played well in 2024 at Ball State, earning MAC freshman of the year honors. He will often scramble and improvise. Not sure if this is because Ball State’s OL is ass, but he fits the mold of modern college QB with his mobility and throwing on the run. He also struggled with accuracy at times, throwing 10 INTs and posting a QBR of 51.1 (83rd in FBS). He was inconsistent in spring ball at Tulane, but could be a product of learning a new system and building chemistry with a new team. Time will tell.

Donovan Leary has much less film, with only 5 collegiate pass attempts. The former Illinois QB was worth taking a flyer on though, getting high praise from the Illini staff. He is thoroughly in the mix for the job if he performs. However, since neither signal caller ran away with the job after the unfortunate dismissal of TJ Finley, we can expect Sumrall and Craddock will look to the transfer ranks to add another competitor in fall camp.

Portal QBs Brendan Sullivan and Dylan Rizk will be visiting Tulane in the near future. Both players showed some promise at their former schools. Sullivan has thrown for 1,778 yards and 13 TD’s at 2 BIG 10 schools (Northwestern and Iowa). Rizk threw for 904 yards as a freshman for UCF starting the second half of the 2024 season. He would be a tremendous addition to the QB room if he comes. Of course there are certainly other QB prospects who will get attention from Tulane since this is the most pressing need on the team.

I have been told to expect Tulane will add a couple more WR’s and some OL depth. The line was bad in the spring. It will happen when you are facing Tulane’s D line, but we need to get better up front on offense. We also need to add a CB. It’s not an ideal situation to build so much of your team on the fly but such is life in the poverty Group of 5. Thanks Herbert Longenecker, Scott Cowen, etc.

Team overview

Offense

QB question marks to the side. Tulane should have at least a decent offense. The RB room is very good with Duda Barnes, Maurice Turner, Jamauri McClure, Zuberi Mobley, and Javin Gordon. It’s a lot of mouths to feed but that’s a good problem to have. I would say this group is better than last year even after losing Makhi Hughes. If Tulane can cobble together a good OL combination, we can cook with controlling TOP and relying on a salty defense. We’ll see which WR’s can step up and stretch the field. It’s hard to predict right now who that will be because nobody was overly impressive in the spring. TE Anthony Miller is a name to watch in the passing game. Ty Thompson is currently ahead of schedule recovering from a knee injury and will hopefully be good to go in the fall.

WR is a guessing game as it stands right now. The only somewhat proven targets returning are Shazz Preston and Bryce Bohanon. The staff is pretty high on Jimmy Calloway from Louisville. Omari Hayes was good at Florida Atlantis. If Shaun Nicholas puts on some weight he has decent potential. Antwaun Parham was a highly rated recruit but not sure if he’s ready yet. We need Anthony Brown-Stephens to produce.

You thought I wouldn’t give the OL some love? Am I some non-ball knowing glazer? Well let’s show the left side some appreciation. LT Derrick Graham and LG Shadre Hurst are the returning starters of the group. Reese Baker and Elijah Baker should be in the mix for starting spots this fall. Jack Hollifield is the best OL signee in a while. Second team All Sun Belt in 2024. Pencil him in as starting center. Robbie Pizzolato was good at FCS Nicholls State. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Landry Cannon or talented newcomer John Bock compete for snaps as well. Need to add one preferably two more or our depth will be razor thin. OL get hurt a lot. It’s the nature of the beast. Don’t need a couple injuries to turn our front line into a turnstile.

Joe Craddock tends to tailor his offensive philosophy to the personnel he has. Right now we are built to control the game and establish the run, just like the good Lord intended.

Defense

Defensively Tulane has fewer questions. The front 7 is very talented. Newcomers Harvey Dyson, Mo Westmoreland, Dallas Winner Johnson, Santana Hopper, plus incoming freshmen Palanding Drammeh and Nik Alston have been impressive. To compliment an interior defense which was already good. Veteran Sam Howard is the leader of the LB core and one of the main leaders of the defense with Safety Slim Despanie (who has literally been here forever). KC Eziomume and Isaiah Wadsworth could be 2 of the best corners in the AAC. Kevin Adams has played well and will likely start. Javion White is a young corner who made some impressive plays down the stretch last year.

Tulane returns most of its leading tackles from 2024. This includes team leader in solo tackles Slim Despanie (41) linebacker Sam Howard who was second in total tackles (63) safeties Jack Tchienchou (50) and Kevin Adams (40). Promising young linebacker Dickson Agu registered 34 total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Kameron Hamilton has been fun to watch develop and became a force tallying 4.5 sacks and 6 TFLs. Gerrod Henderson is a player to watch who could take another step forward (3.0 sacks in 2024). Chris Rodgers became an important piece of the LB rotation and may have a bigger role this season.

If I missed anyone it wasn’t intentional. This group is big, physical, fast. Most of all.. deep. There is a reason they were top 25 in total defense last year. I think Tulane will be an elite defense this season.

There is another thing we don’t talk enough about. Tulane returns its entire coaching staff essentially. Can’t remember the last time that happened. So you have player turnover which is par for the course everywhere in this brave new world. The system and team culture remains

Special Teams

Who tampers for a punter? Does anyone know what loyalty is anymore?

Seriously though, nobody cares. Will Karroll was good but Johnathan Galante is one of the best special teams coaches in America. We just took Marshall’s old punter. Either Patrick Durkin or Cooper Helmke will be the place kicker.

Kick coverage will be good because we have a good ST coach and fast players with good lane integrity.

Zuberi Mobley, Bryce Bohanon, Jack Tchenchiou, and E’zaiah Shine are my guesses for potential kick returners but your guess is as good as mine in April

Prediction Time

9-5 (7-1 AAC)*

*Bowl loss to P4 school

Yes I know. Exact same record as year. With one notable exception - Conference champions.

Tulane hasn’t beaten a P4 opponent since the Cotton Bowl and I think that trend will continue. Northwestern is winnable but we needed an FCS tuneup in that spot breaking in a new offensive team. Tulane will murder South Alabama. Mensah leaving for Duke then playing a road game at his old team is a neat storyline, but the bad guy probably wins in this movie. He’s going to shit on us while his dumbass agent watches with counterfeit designer clothes on. Ole Miss is obviously an extremely hard game.

Thanks to some exemplary decision making by the 1960’s Tulane administration, we don’t play in a real conference. The P4 games technically don’t make or break the season. The Tulane Green Wave are the betting favorites in the AAC. That is because they are the best football team in the AAC. I think the Wave will cruise through the conference portion of the schedule once again. I figure we drop one of the road games to UTSA or Memphis. Both are interchangeable IMO. I picked Memphis because UTSA sucks on defense and the Liberty Bowl is typically a house of horrors for us. Final stretch is laughably bad. Would’ve been nice to have that last year…

The schedule is set up nicely to make another run at the AAC title. The tougher conference games are staggered in the early to middle part of the season. That means even though Jon Sumrall will be talking to other schools later in the season, we should dog walk these teams anyway. Last year’s coaching carousel was the weakest of all time with the fewest firings ever. The openings will be better this time so Sumrall is 100% gone IMO. Hopefully we don’t have players tank again like Mensah did or we actually could lose to FAU and Charlotte

If Jon Sumrall leaves some indelible mark on this program. Whether it’s winning the AAC, dragging Duke around Yulman stadium, upsetting Ole Miss on the road, etc. I will write him the best recommendation letter for Kentucky, Auburn, or anywhere he wants to go. Personally I really want to beat Northwestern. Tired of the stigma that we are small time. Like it or not, teams like Tulane are judged by their performance in those games more so than others.

Anyhow, the main reason for the 9 win 5 loss prediction isn’t that I think Tulane is bad. I think they will be good. It’s just hard to imagine getting back to that elite 2022 level while being stripped for parts constantly. You can recruit and develop a legitimate FBS starting QB. Then they bolt to another school who didn’t develop them and you are back at square one. It’s good for the players and I understand where they are coming from somewhat. It’s not good for Tulane or the fans of Tulane. I would hope college football can get it under control with contracts, buyout language, or something. Make commitments carry some weight even if it’s just 2 years.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. These are just the musings of a bored fan in April. Nothing is set in stone until the fall when the bullets start flying. I’m excited to see what roster moves will be made and how Tulane looks heading into this season. See you in the fall! Roll Wave! 🌊

[coachrivero]

How can Tulane improve basketball?

Fire Ron Hunter. Take the program seriously and hire a young innovative coach

We know that simply isn’t going to happen, at least not this cycle. To be honest I’m not really frustrated that Hunter will back next season, like I was this time last year. I was flabbergasted when Tulane didn’t fire him last March following an extended tank in year 5. But here he is, unfired, most of that team is gone and he was awarded a clean slate to rebuild in year 6.

24/25 started off bad like you would realistically expect with a coach you should’ve fired and a ragtag roster of freshmen and transfers. Then Tulane got into AAC play and started winning a few games. Granted the AAC is weak as fuck. If you take out Memphis it is essentially the Southland. However, Tulane did start playing complimentary basketball and stopped losing Quad 4 games. The Green Wave finished with a Division 1 record of 17-14 (12-6 AAC).

Was Tulane good? No. We were definitely Quad 4 merchants. Went 12-2 in Quad 4 and 5-4 in Quad 3. Tulane had zero good wins in the eyes of the NCAA. 0-3 against Quad 1 and 0-5 against Quad 2

Using both the eye test and the analytics that the NCAA considers gospel, Tulane is a flawed basketball team. The NET is 145 which is slap in the middle of Division 1 basketball. They do play hard though and became fun to watch later in the year. I actually enjoyed watching them. Rarely have I seen a Green Wave basketball team compete like they did. That should at least count for something

To conclude the introductory portion I can at least rationalize bringing Hunter back for the final year of his contract given the moderate improvement of the team.

Now how does Tulane improve its program?

Cheat the Metrics

The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) is the primary metric used by the NCAA to sort Division 1 basketball teams.

The NET is different from RPI which only factors 3 components, your winning percentage, your opponent’s winning percentage, and the winning percentage of everyone your opponents play.

The NET uses

- [ ] Game results

- [ ] Strength of schedule

- [ ] Game location

- [ ] Net offensive and defensive efficiency

- [ ] Quality of wins and losses

Basically, the most important thing the NET looks at is playing tough competition, especially on the road and neutral locations. It’s better for your resume to play SEC teams at their place and lose than play Quad 4 teams and win. Hunter is scared to play good teams on the road nonconference and get boat raced, but it’s more palatable in the eyes of the NCAA than playing cupcakes. We also have a bad habit of losing buy games so best to limit them as much as you can.

A quick breakdown of the Quadrant system:

* Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75

* Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135

* Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240

* Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

Non Division 1 games are rightfully not recognized by the NCAA. The fans love beating Dillard University by 40, but it does absolutely nothing for your NET rating, so there’s no point to even play these games. It’s a waste of time

Admittedly it will be difficult for Tulane to get many Quad 1 games on the schedule, because these are likely serious programs who care about their NET and want to make the NCAA tournament. Also, if you are playing Quad 3-4 games, you better bully the fuck out of these teams. The NCAA selection committee frowns upon Quad 3 and Quad 4 losses.

So this begs the question. How does Tulane cheat the NET? Simple. Look no further than the Mountain West, who has been farming NET to get fraudulent teams in the NCAA tournament for years.

Schedule as many good teams as you can. Doesn’t matter if you play them home, away, or on the moon. Quad 4 games offer little upside and high risk. So avoid scheduling Southland, SWAC, and crappy online schools who have poor NET ratings. If you can’t get marquee matchups against SEC teams, then get as many Quad 2 games as you can. Play good mid majors on the road, or average teams who farm their NET with power conference games.

Tulane needs to be smart with the way their build their nonconference schedule in 25/26. The American Conference doesn’t offer many Quad 1-2 opportunities besides Memphis. Lazy scheduling and padding the win column with non-D1 games serves no purpose but to get to Cancun as quickly as possible.

But you do have to win at least some of those games against good teams

Be good at Basketball

The most important thing to the NCAA is metrics. A distant second is actually being good at the sport

Player retention is critical. Gregg Glenn running it back is cool because having an athletic forward who can handle the ball is important in Ron Hunter’s offense. The most important would be Rowan Brumbaugh, one of the best Green Wave point guards in recent memory. Defections will obviously happen, but I would make it a priority to retain him. The best way to construct a basketball roster is around great guard play.

Clearly Brumbaugh is the wildcard. If he bolts the team will assuredly be worse. Tulane might as well fire Ron Hunter at that point, like any other D1 program would have done on March 15th, 2024 at 8 in the morning

More production we should try to return. Asher Woods, Percy Daniels, and Mari Jordan. All of these players developed as the season progressed. Kaleb Banks and Kam Williams would be nice but I don’t see them returning. Banks likely has his destination lined up and Williams hired an agent so you know he’s about to pull a Mensah. In this day and age I wouldn’t be surprised with any defections including the aforementioned group. We’ll probably lose more players than we’re comfortable with. Hopefully not a mass exodus

The transfer portal works both ways also. We need to add talent. Contrary to the belief of the philistines in Tulane’s basketball fanbase, our 145 NET Crown Royal tournament team wasn’t that good. Tulane is unlikely to sign elite players out of high school due to the program being ass. Our bread and butter will be transfer recruiting. Perhaps we can entice some portal players over here for a slightly larger bag than they were making.

There are quite a few holes in this roster. I wouldn’t grade any specific needs over other ones because we could use good basketball players. Plain and simple. I would like to see Tulane add a wing who can shoot at least. Guard depth would be nice so we could hopefully run combo guard sets with Brumbaugh. Memphis killed the AAC with guard play behind foul merchant PJ Haggerty despite sleepwalking through conference. Another role player big doesn’t seem too much to ask for. We struggle in the paint defensively against teams with legit college bigs

You can recruit good players, but you also have to coach them up. Ron Hunter’s coaching performance in American Conference play was decent at times with the limitations of this team. I wouldn’t say great because the only “good” win was UAB at home. But he actually made some adjustments and got this team to defend and rebound. Hunter teams usually play zero defense and treat rebounding like a federal crime, so this was good to see.

Maybe I have become the very thing I hate. Maybe I am a glazer. Lifetime contract loading? 🔥

Invest in the program

Capital investment in Tulane Basketball is unlikely to happen. I can list several things more likely to happen, like me being elected the next Pope, or getting a lap dance from Kendall Jenner

I’m sure Tulane could invest in hoops. I just don’t expect them to randomly wake up one morning and pour resources into a sport they’ve been neglecting for the last 30 years

I should probably also not expect Ron Hunter to randomly wake up and say “Hey! I want a competitive schedule to help our NET rating!” Or Tulane players to say “Hey! I want to pass on a bigger payday and greater stage to help uplift this dormant program!”

Perhaps this is a fool’s errand, but investing in getting better is the best way to… get better. Memphis is good because they invest 3 times more than most other mid majors. Tulane is a place where success typically has to come first before investment (see football). So invest in a better basketball coach when Ron Hunter retires or gets fired next season.

The basketball arena is an interesting subject. It does provide a good home court advantage on the rare occasion it is packed. However, it is hella outdated and nowhere near standard should Tulane miraculously catch a break in conference realignment. Hold on I just got a snap from Kendall Jenner.

I can beat this dead horse until it’s barely recognizable that it was a horse to begin with. Bottom line is we need some kind of breakthrough to get the University, community, and students interested in Tulane hoops.

I always tell people this. You can’t make Tulane care, but if you care about Tulane sports give to NIL. Whether you give a little or a lot, anything helps the greenies win. Fear the Wave Collective works tirelessly to aid Tulane coaches in acquiring and retaining talent. I’m not the biggest glazer of Tulane. In fact I hate quite often, but I will glaze these dudes. Arata, Ordeneaux, and Comarda are the real deal.

It’s hard to make the NCAA tournament. To us it seems like a pipe dream, having not gone in 30 years and counting. I’m here to tell you it can be done. 64 teams do it every year. Some with less resources than us.

If Tulane aspires to do more with less, it would easily be an improvement over doing absolutely nothing. The only thing I can think of besides a complete overhaul of infrastructure (grabs nightstick again) is a young energetic head coach who will come here and absolutely kill it.

Carlin Hartman would be our basketball Jon Sumrall. Slam dunk hire that everyone wants. There are others too. Pick the best mid major coach and pay him a million dollars annually like Ron Hunter makes and they’re probably coming. Some suggestions: Robert Jones, Matt Langel, Bucky McMillan, Takayo Siddle.

Some form of institutional commitment would be nice. Always being cheap and taking the easy way out gets you 0 NCAA tournaments in 30 years.

Conclusion

Tulane fandom is not easy. That’s part of the allure why I continue to pull for the Olive and Blue despite having no real connection to the school. I would be a sidewalk LSU fan like everyone else if it wasn’t for my dad.

We all remember how hopeless Green Wave football was until it wasn’t. That’s what make winning here so special. Why we will talk about the Cotton Bowl for the rest of our lives. Because it happened and it was awesome. Despite how incredibly unlikely it was.

College Basketball, especially March Madness, is a big deal. It’s a huge stage for exposure and to uplift the profile of the school. Basketball is just a child’s game in which participants put an orange ball through a hoop. Sports are unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but they are the most visible aspect of your university.

Specifically, if Tulane aspires to join a P4 conference and be associated with greater academic and athletic peers. Men’s basketball is the next thing to fix.

For now, we exist in purgatory. An irrelevant program who was only good in the 90’s playing a bunch of NAIA’s and junior colleges in front of 300 people.

Putting down the nightstick covered in the now emulsified horse remains. We are playing in a postseason for the first time since 2014 (CBI).

This upstart consolation tournament is not an accomplishment but I’m not going to downplay it either. It’s Tulane playing basketball after the season ends which typically never happens.

You may say “hang the banner” (I’m sure we will) but I will be watching. Interested to see how Tulane does against a bunch of down-bad big conference teams.

I hope this isn’t the pinnacle. The basketball standards are too low. Personally I would consider qualifying for March Madness 30% of the time (3 out of every 10 years) with a floor of NIT/ Crown/ (whatever shitty consolation tournament) most years a good baseline for success. Going to the tournament every few years or so but at least being decent most of the time.

Essentially I think seasons like the one we just had should be the floor and not contract extension worthy

If Tulane football can do it why not basketball?

Thanks for reading. Roll Wave! 🌊

[coachrivero]

Tulane season recap/ bye week

Oooh we are (almost) halfway there

Here we are… Man time sure does fly since those agonizing summer months counting down T minus how many weekends until we get football back. It’s nice to once again be in the thick of things. I know this is where everyone expected us to be but still I remember the days when Tulane would normally be eliminated from contending for anything at this point. I’m glad things are different now. May Tulane be relevant forever. From this day until the end of days.

When the season started it looked like the Wave didn’t miss a beat from last year’s Cotton Bowl team. South Alabama is no USC (and has definitely lost some luster recently) but they are solid enough that many were picking them to win the Sun Belt, and some people including Scott Van Pelt picked to beat us. That obviously didn’t happen as Tulane brought the fireworks in a 20 point rout that really wasn’t that close. Michael Pratt was sensational, shredding USA’s secondary completing 14-15 passes for 294 yards and 4 touchdowns, with the only blemish a dropped pass that should have been another touchdown. Tulane’s defense was incredible as well stifling one of the better offenses in the FBS allowing only 17 points and forcing 5 turnovers. We were firing on all cylinders… but sometimes in life adversity will happen. Late in the 4th quarter while Tulane was in the process of salting the game away, Pratt suffered a left knee injury. This big win came at a steep price of losing the services of our superstar QB (also lost emerging star LB Corey Platt to an Achilles injury earlier in the game). A lot of speculation can go into the why was Michael Pratt in there and the what ifs, the play-calling, and so forth. I won’t really get into that. It just sucks to have lost Pratt right before the biggest home game in 40 years and the toughest game on the schedule where we couldn’t afford to lose him.

It turns out Tulane really is a damn good football team. We lost Tyjae Spears and a lot from last year, plus we haven’t been playing as well as we could have, but we do have a solid nucleus of talented players and great coaches. The Ole Miss game was a loss. I’m not going to spin it into a moral victory, but I was encouraged with how we competed with them. We have the horses to play with one of the better teams in the SEC even without our senior NFL prospect Quarterback. It was unfortunate to squander that opportunity to get a statement win but it wasn’t the most disappointing thing I’ve ever seen as a Tulane fan. I was just eager to kick the shit out of Southern Miss and get the bell back, and so was Tulane. Not much to be said except we scored 3 Touchdowns and USM kicked one field goal. Nice relaxing game for Southern Miss’s band the Pride of Mississippi. They didn’t have to play the fight song except for a couple of times when the team ran out on the field and the Alma mater at the end. Do kind of feel bad for Will Hall though, he’s a good dude. He recruited Pratt and was a big part of changing the culture here and helping Tulane turn things around. I think he’s trying but the USM job is a lot tougher nowadays than people realize. Good news is they can’t afford to fire him so he’s at least got another season.

FCS Nicholls State was kind of blah. It wasn’t the best performance but we did win and got to ease Michael Pratt back into things. Kai Horton did OK filling in for Pratt IMO, but the drop off there is significant. I would have liked to see more development with Cobra Kai being in this system for 3 years but he’s been serviceable and I am thankful for his victories over Houston last year and of course the mustard buzzards this year. Game ball definitely goes to the defense for carrying us. Few college football teams have a better 1-2 combination of cover corners than Jairius Monroe and Lance Robinson. There are so many good players in this defense I could go on forever naming them all. I check under my bed at night for Patrick Jenkins because he is a monster. Devean Deal is also a force. Jesus Machado is Dorian Williams 2.0 a tackling machine. I hope Grubbs is healthy going forward. Despanie is so good and Jared Small has been a pleasant surprise in the LB group. If I missed anyone it’s because again there’s an abundance of talent in this unit. Defensively Tulane is a problem.

UAB at first glance was disappointing being in a dogfight with a 1-3 football team, but I like the resolve of this group. After falling into a 20-7 hole, Tulane outscored the upset-minded visitors 28-3 to go 1-0 in the American Conference. The first half reminded me a lot of my younger days as a Tulane football fan. Losing at home to a CUSA team… terrible officiating… my dad yelling at opposing fans. The only thing that was missing was being in a 65 degree climate-controlled indoor stadium with 1,000 people in attendance. Turns out this is not 2010, we were not in the Dome, and Tulane did not fold in the football game. I do give UAB credit they had the perfect game plan, they utilized quick passes and had some success moving the ball. However, Tulane put the clamps on in the second half, with Makhi Hughes further separating himself as RB1. I like that Duda Barnes still returned to the football game even after a costly fumble. It shows the staff has faith in him choosing not to cast him down into the Iverson Celestine fumblitis gallows. Michael Pratt threw an absolute dime to Lawrence Keys on 4th and 9 for a 32 yard touchdown to put the game on ice with 47 seconds. That was *chefs kiss* very nice. It was cool to see the reappearance of Alex Bauman who hadn’t really been featured since the ending of the Cotton Bowl. I need to also give Jaquan Jackson and Chris Brazzell the credit they deserve for being so dependable in the passing game. Adding speed threat Yulkeith Brown to the mix as well should help open up the offense too.

In conclusion, we are right where we need to be. We beat the teams we were favored against and dropped the one game that ultimately doesn’t hurt us that much (except for dropping like 30 spots out of the top 25). LSU can basically give up 1,000 yards of offense to Old Piss and still be ranked but what the fuck ever. Anyhow, I think Tulane might have lost a bit of its edge from last year. Part of this is natural regression that was honestly to be expected after the best season in school history (or second best depending on your personal preference), and Pratt not being 100% healthy. It’s also very possible that the best is yet to come. Make no mistake though it is still AAC Championship and New Year’s 6 or bust.  The recipe is still there: Explosive offense, salty defense, and very solid dependable special teams. Truthfully, the special teams are the unsung heroes of Tulane. We are one of the most efficient College football programs in terms of special teams and it shows up on Saturdays. We don’t talk about them enough, but they will be critical for our chances to win at Memphis. That… and not fumbling the ball.

Anyhow, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed. I think the bye week came at the perfect time. Get everyone healthy with all team goals still very much attainable. I’m ready to kick back and enjoy my stress free football weekend!

Roll Wave! 🌊

[coachrivero]

Tulane Houston postmortem - rest of the season outlook

I normally write a blog about Tulane every week, but due to personal commitments I had to skip this game and focus my time on other endeavors. I’m kind of glad that I did.. I was feeling somewhat good about our chances and probably would have picked a Tulane victory. This was a defense we pushed around last year for 3 quarters plus had 3 complete games of 2020 college football experience to 0 for the Houston Cougars. It turns out none of that matters and UH is head and shoulders a better football team than Tulane. So much better in fact that they can cough up the football 5 times and it did not hurt them at all in the football game. All the warm and fuzzy feelings from the instant classic of last year’s meeting were put to rest as the Cougars rolled the Wave 49-31 in front of a socially distanced crowd of masked Houston fans. Standard procedure for attending sporting events in pre-election America. Unless your mayor is a fucking barnacle head and wont even allow the bare minimum sparse crowds that South Alabama, Houston, and USM can have. No matter, let’s talk about Tulane football and the pro’s and con’s of this program.

It’s really not all that bad. Not too long ago we were one of the worst programs in America. Right now we are average at best, or more accurately, slightly below average for an FBS program. Far from contending for a conference championship in a pretty good league... but also a far cry from the rubbish that Bob Toledo and Curtis Johnson put on the field. I’ll give Willie Fritz credit, we do resemble a division 1 football team. We are still overwhelmed by the speed of the better teams in our conference and struggle against most teams with a semblance of a rushing defense. Houston had an excellent game plan on both sides of the ball, stop the run first and foremost, and on offense spread the ball around to their athletes and attack our weaknesses at the safety position. As the game wore on Tulane’s defense became tired chasing around Houston’s playmakers and the Cougars began to run the ball effectively. SMU will watch this film and do the exact same thing. Unless the tackling improves tenfold and Tulane can generate a pass rush, expect a similar result or possibly even worse. It also would help to have better kick coverage.... The SMU Mustangs don’t usually play great defense but have been known to look like the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers when playing Tulane. This is a team Willie Fritz has never beaten and each loss has been more frustrating than the last. Until I see a breakthrough I’m just going to assume we’re coming out of this game 2-3. Also there is a number next to their name which pretty much guarantees we won’t beat them... even though garbage programs like Tulsa somehow find a way to beat a few ranked teams this century.

If my blog comes across as a lot of complaining, I didn’t mean for it to sound that way. Willie Fritz’s Tulane teams have steadily improved each year since he arrived in New Orleans. I guess one season of regression would be natural, but it’s still very disappointing to go backwards instead of forward. I think Tulane will get it together just probably not this week. At this point I hope we can squeak out 5 wins so it won’t set us back in recruiting too bad and we have an offseason to develop Michael Pratt and give a go at this (being good at football) thing next season. I would say we’re dropping the next two (SMU and UCF), then Temple is a toss up (we don’t really know how good or bad they are yet). ECU might be worse than Southern Miss, this is the only game remaining I’m confident we will win. Army is a toss up just because of the style of offense they play, if Tulane puts on the chin straps and plays physical disciplined football we have a chance. If we play soft and “tackle” like we did against Houston or the second half against Navy then we have no chance. Tulsa is a toss up because they’re a little better than they have been but we still match up decently against them. Memphis is pretty much an automatic loss like always. Maybe we’ll play them in a tropical depression and they’ll show up to Yulman wearing zebra helmets and play the softest defense of all time, one can only hope.

We’ll (hopefully) win the ECU game and win a toss up or two. Winning all 3 toss ups would be an extraordinary feat for this football team and I would be very amazed. if they could win one of the un-winnable games against SMU, UCF, or Memphis then I will rejoice and with my next blog suggest a 15 year extension for Willie Fritz. No one on the remaining schedule sans ECU is as bad as Southern Miss, South Alabama, or Navy (who beat us).... so going 3-8 is definitely a possibility. I don’t think we lose out. Tulane will score more points than someone even if they miraculously drop the East Carolina game. Whatever happens I just hope Tulane plays hard for 4 quarters in every game and protects Michael Pratt as best as they can. Tackling a few people would be nice too....

Roll Wave! 🌊

[coachrivero]

Southern Miss recap/ bye week thoughts

That was much better

As painful and embarrassing as the previous week was, this game was a huge step in the right direction. The coaching was 100 times better and so was the effort. I bitched a lot last week and dumped on Tulane, which a lot of people did (especially gamblers) but right now I have no complaints. Southern Miss has obviously fallen on hard times and this is not the USM from the 90’s or mid 2000’s... but any time you can go on the road and win by 42 points that’s a damn good performance. This still feels kind of weird to me, Southern Miss was always the game you could just assume Tulane was going to lose by 30. Now in the span of 9 months we smacked them in a bowl game 30-13 and just obliterated them in Hattiesburg 66-24. I guess this is what they call the “new normal.” Let’s break down what we have learned.

What a player Michael Pratt is. If you don’t follow Tulane, you would have never known that was a true freshman playing in his first college game. While his numbers weren’t insane (8-18/ 142 yds/ 2 TD’s), he did not turn it over, showed his athleticism running the ball (7 carries/ 40 yards/ 1 TD) and performed well enough overall to earn the starting Quarterback job. I was really impressed with Pratt’s poise and toughness, the kid has almost a Joe Burrow-like quality to him. He took some shots from USM defenders from the pass rush or running the ball, and he got back up and made plays. The completion percentage would have been better if not for a few bad drops from his WR’s, but that’s something that should improve with more reps in practice as they get on the same page. I’m really excited to see how Pratt can grow in this offense as he continues to learn and improve.

A balanced Tulane offense with good Quarterback play could give teams some problems. They have so many talented running backs to account for, and the threat of the forward pass is only going to help open those running lanes. I really hope Tyjae Spears is going to be okay... we should find out the extent of his injury some time this week. The good news is even if he’s out for some time the RB corps is still loaded. Cam Carrol and Amare Jones could start for a lot of college teams. Now I don’t mean to overrate Tulane just because of one big win over a struggling USM team, but when the pieces come together this offense is one of the most explosive in college football. Now let’s review the defense.

The secondary still gives me some worries. They were torched in the early going, although got better as the game went on. Much like the Armed Forces Bowl, Jack Abraham lit them on fire in the first quarter (and actually a little bit into the second quarter). From then on the defense played extremely well. We need guys like Kevaris Hall to step up like he did against Southern Miss. As good as the offense can be, it’s tough to imagine us keeping pace with the the UCF’s, SMU’s, and Memphis’s of the world unless we can tighten up the pass defense. When the defensive line controls the LOS and can be disruptive (like they were against USM) it helps out the corners and safeties a lot. Cam Sample and Patrick Johnson are serious talents and when they can dictate the game it can be hell on opposing QB’s. I also give the linebackers a lot of credit for making good reads. Hopefully the defense can become a strength again like they were two years ago, but I’ll be happy if they can just be good enough to keep us in games.

We as fans tend to dwell on losses a little too much sometimes and put too much stock in wins. Tulane football hasn’t always given me a lot to be excited about, so I think it’s important to savor the wins when we do get them. Going 7-6 two years in a row shouldn’t be the golden standard for any football program but it sure as hell beats 2-10 and getting ass-blasted by ULM and Rice. Right now we are 2-1 and in decent shape. Would love to have the Navy game back but it is what it is and they did rebound in a big way. A meltdown like that would have destroyed a lot of teams’ seasons *cough Houston cough* who by the way we play in a couple of weeks and I’m fairly certain they have an axe to grind against us. I’ll worry about UH and the possibility of them avenging their horrific loss to us later on. Right now I’m just going to enjoy the fact that we killed Southern Miss twice in a row and have found a starting Quarterback. Life is pretty good. See y’all next week!

Roll Wave 🌊

[coachrivero]

Navy Post Mortem/ Southern Miss Preview

That was tough man.... I’ve seen Tulane play some bad football over the years... but the Navy game truly raised the bar. When you blow a 24 point lead and play that poorly, there’s plenty of blame to go around. It starts with the coaching staff. The playcalling in the second half made me long for the days of Bob Toledo. The one person I don’t blame is Keon Howard. He’s an exceptional young man and I wish him all the success in the world, but he shouldn’t be starting at the FBS level. Willie Fritz has done a lot of good things for Tulane football, but to be this bad at the QB position in year 5 is mind blowing. It is what it is though... until Tulane gets a Quarterback and learns how to play 4 quarters of football, this is who we are. I thought we were beyond stuff like this but apparently not. Moving on....

The good news (and potentially bad news) is that there are more football games to be played. Each one is an opportunity to get better. Although any talks of a conference championship can be dismissed as noise right now, gutting out 6 wins and a 3rd straight bowl would still be nice for this program. Lose to Southern Miss and you can dismiss that notion as well. I have lots of respect for USM and how they have run their program over the years, but they currently have some problems. Since starting 7-3 (6-1 CUSA) a year ago, the Golden Eagles are on a 5 game losing streak and none of them have been close except for a one point loss against a covid depleted Louisiana Tech team last weekend. The Armed Forces Bowl was obviously one of those losses and we saw first hand the issues with USM’s secondary and offensive line play. Make no mistake though, the Eagles have the Tulane game circled on their calendar. Revenge is a powerful motivator for a group of young people and the embarrassing 30-13 loss to the Green Wave is still fresh on their minds. On the flip side, Southern Miss hasn’t gotten any better since then and Tulane still dog walked them despite sleepwalking the entire first quarter. I think it’s safe to say USM is in rebuilding mode. Southern Miss has the youngest coach in the FBS in interim HC Scotty Walden (30) and he seems to be pumping some energy into their program following the resignation of Jay Hopson. Just like with any rebuild, coach Walden is trying to do things his way and get the players to buy in to his philosophy. USM is looking to get back on track and fortunately for them, Tulane is a team people get back on track against. Let’s look at a more in depth look at this matchup:

This game will be won or lost in the trenches. If Tulane can be disruptive up front and pressure USM QB (and former TU commit) Jack Abraham it will be a long day for the Golden Eagles. If USM can block somebody (something they haven’t done lately) and allow Abraham to dissect Tulane’s defense, it will be a long day for the Green Wave. USM has some talented WR’s including NFL prospect and NCAA Receiving yards leader Tim Jones. Jack Abraham is a good player but he also throws a lot of picks, which would be much appreciated for a struggling Tulane secondary. On the other side Southern Miss will be selling out to stop the run. I would like to assume that the Wave will be running the ball... but keep in mind the Tulane coaches are a bunch of stupid dicks that went pass happy with a 24 point lead and a QB that couldn’t complete a forward pass. That being said the defensive front for USM has been underwhelming and stopping Amare Jones, Tyjae Spears, and Cam Carroll could be tough for this group. By virtue of basically only having True freshmen and a bunch of walk-ons in the QB room, (former USM QB) Keon Howard will probably start for the Wave this weekend. If for whatever reason Tulane offensive coordinator Will Hall is reading this blog, please just run Flexbone the entire game and give the offense zero passing attempts. Someday you’ll get that SEC job and make assloads of money but until then please stop auditioning for better jobs and just help us win. In the even that Jack Abraham shreds Tulane’s defense and they fall behind, it could be ugly watching the Wave offense play catch-up.

I have no idea what to expect on Saturday until that score board hits double zeros at the end of regulation. I’m hesitant to pick Tulane to win any games after that display on Saturday, but I know there’s some good players in that locker room. Potential does not win football games though. Scoring more points than the other team does. Southern Miss might be reeling but as bad as they have been, they can still complete forward passes and only blew a 17 point lead. That’s what we call progress. I never bet on football and wouldn’t touch this game with a 35 1/2 foot pole. Both teams are 0-2 against the spread and coming off crushing home losses. Tulane is usually pretty bad on the road though and I think Southern Miss will be looking to make a statement. USM wins outright and take the over

Tulane 27

USM 38

[coachrivero]

Tulane - Navy preview

What a time to be alive! Tulane is 1-0 and just played in probably the first instant classic in 2020 College Football, overcoming an 18 point deficit on the road to beat South Alabama. It wasn’t always pretty but we are not the program to nitpick about wins. The challenge now is to sustain the success and carry it over to the conference opener against Navy, who (no pun intended) will be ready for war. Tulane is currently favored by 7 and a half points.

My biggest mistake in my last column was whipping up the South Alabama preview before they played Southern Miss and I could see the team they had. I underestimated them and had no idea how much better they were than last season. This is not the case with Navy... I have seen them quite a bit over the years and they did not resemble what I expect from Navy Football in the BYU game. I watched them get throttled for about 3 and a half quarters before getting bored and playing video games. They looked like a bad FCS team. There’s a few factors to consider though:

- BYU is a serious program (they’re basically the only team in the west that’s playing).

- Navy elected not to do full contact or any tackling drills in practice (their biggest mistake).

- Malcolm Perry was the heart and soul of Navy Football and he is no longer walking through that door.

That’s pretty much it. Navy was not prepared for the football game and did not have the QB who turned a 3-9 team into an 11-2 team. It’s early but right now Navy looks closer to the 3-9 version than what we saw last year in Annapolis. It’s important to remember that Navy is a winning program, and good programs find a way to bounce back. Navy is an exceptional group of young men who serve a higher purpose and they should be more prepared for Tulane than they were for the season opener. The question is will it matter?

There’s a lot to like about what we saw from Tulane. The Wave looked like a good football team. They don’t make a lot of mistakes, they’re conditioned very well, the defense is aggressive, and the offense is explosive when all the pieces are clicking. They are certainly not invincible though. If the defensive front does not get pressure, the secondary tends to get exposed. This is part of life playing man defense. I will say that South Alabama has way better receivers than Navy does, but Tulane will still be looking to make life hard for Navy Quarterback Dalen Morris. Morris looks alone at the top of Navy’s depth chart as his biggest competitor Perry Olsen just entered the transfer portal. This game is important for Tulane QB Keon Howard as well. The Laurel, MS native will be looking to start out quicker than he did against South Alabama. Along with every facet of the game, Navy’s defensive secondary also gave them trouble. Tulane prefers to run but this will be a good opportunity to throw all over the football field. There will probably also be lanes to run too.

After watching both teams play I can’t envision Tulane is going to lose this game but I’m also smart enough to realize that Navy isn’t going to lay down and it is still the year 2020. In my mind (which is wrong all the time) I am seeing a future where Tulane beats Navy by a minimum of 10 points. If Tulane would have played Navy the opening game we would have also killed them by a lot of points. Navy should be much better after practicing (with full contact) for Tulane for 2 weeks, and always has been a tough game for Tulane. This year could be different... teams usually make the biggest improvement from Game 1 to Game 2 and Tulane looked to be in much better shape than Navy on both sides of the football. It’s quite possible that the Wave could roll the Midshipmen. Tyjae Spears, Amare Jones, and Cameron Carroll are a lot for Navy to keep up with, and Tulane‘s receivers should be improved from the opener. Tulane should also be better against the run than they were in the Navy Game last year, without the threat of Malcolm Perry. The Fullback Carothers is still there and Tulane will be looking to close up those holes he ran through last year.

Prediction: based off data available to me and watching both Navy and Tulane play football. I would take Tulane to cover the spread of 7.5 points and take the over.

Tulane 38

Navy 20

[coachrivero]

Tulane vs South Alabama

9/12/2020

6:00 PM CT

Hancock Whitney Bank Stadium

Mobile, AL

(If you just want the football analysis skip this part)

Well I guess it’s time to fire up the ole blog again. For those who don’t know, for almost a year I ran a somewhat popular Tulane fan page called Fifth Quarter Tulane. Recently during the “WeWantToPlay” movement, I made a few memes about covid and the Big10 that some people took offense to. I was confronted about them by the Fifth Quarter network, refused to take them down and resigned. I am sad that it’s over and I enjoyed covering the team I have loved since childhood, but I stand with my convictions. The page is now being run by a Tulane grad and former New Orleans sports journalist. I wish Fifth Quarter and LeeShan nothing but the best and I hope they continue to grow what I built. Now let’s talk some football.

The South Alabama Jaguars

Football, like all sports, is a contest of which team can score more points. The University of South Alabama football team is not very good at that. Last season the Jaguars ranked 121st in Scoring offense (18 ppg) while also being 88th in scoring defense (30 ppg). This was the recipe for a disastrous 2-10 (1-7) season. The defense obviously didn’t do great but South Alabama’s offense was downright miserable for an FBS team. The Jaguars struggled to move the ball with any consistency, finishing the 2019 season 113th in total offense (330 ypg) while only running 791 offensive plays all season. For comparison; Tulane (minus the extra game) ran 91 more offensive plays than South Alabama did. In the next paragraph we’ll break down the Jaguars offensive scheme and how it’s supposed to work.

South Alabama runs a version of the “Power Spread” which is intended to be a balanced offense that runs/passes based on personnel groupings and what the defense gives them. They utilize the same basic run plays of any shotgun team (counter, trap, zone split, belly, jet sweep) and also run some elements of the zone read option. The goal is to establish the run first which forces the defenses to ignore the Tight Ends thus setting up play action passes and RPO’s. The Jaguar passing attack is mostly simple reads, swings passes to the tailbacks and intermediate passing concepts. They run “Smash” patterns a lot which is when the outside WR runs a hitch and the Slot runs a corner route. This creates a high/low mismatch where the cornerback in the flat has to choose which level of the field to defend. South Alabama also runs verticals to split the safeties forcing them to read and react to different areas of the field. The Jaguars use a lot of pre snap motion to try to diagnose coverages and gain leverage with blocking. Now we get to the part why it didn’t work.

The Starting Quarterback, Cephus Johnson, was terrible. He completely 51% of his passes and threw only 5 touchdowns, while tossing 7 picks and promptly getting benched. His replacement Desmond Trotter was actually much better; throwing 8 touchdowns to 2 interceptions, leading the Jaguars to a season ending victory against eventual bowl winner Arkansas State. Anyhow, the inconsistent passing game hindered South Alabama’s ability to extend drives (30% on 3rd downs) or score points. Teams could key in on the running game, which contributed to South Alabama finishing 122nd in the nation for Red Zone offense. Combine that with having one of the worst kickers in the FBS (7 for 12) (58%) ... and the end result is averaging 18 points a game.

Not going to spend a lot of time on South Alabama’s defensive numbers or scheme. They ranked 79th in total defense, which is obviously below average for 130 FBS teams. When scouting a Tulane football opponent, one must always look at run defense. The Jaguars ranked 98th in Rushing Defense, allowing 192 ypg and almost 4 1/2 yards a carry. Methinks Amare Jones, Cam Carroll, Stephon Huderson, etc are gonna eat. At least they should.... unless South Alabama warped into some space/time continuum over the offseason and emerged as the 1985 Chicago Bears. Regardless, even if the rushing lanes aren’t there for some reason, South Alabama is also vulnerable through the air. A Jaguars secondary ranked 103rd in Passing Efficiency Defense presents a good opportunity for Keon Howard to shake the rust off after not starting a college game since his USM days.

Synopsis

Tulane’s motto throughout the offseason has been “Good to Great.” It is repeated in the weight room, on the practice field, in the classroom, and during basically anything that they do. Tulane is a good football program seeking to take the next step towards being great. A great team would take a 2 hour bus ride to Mobile and burn South Alabama’s stadium to the ground, salting the earth so they are unable to build another new stadium. I don’t see any reason why this shouldn’t happen... South Alabama is really bad and Fritz usually handles the bad teams. Plus Tulane should be pretty good, the recruiting has been getting better all the time and there are no glaring roster holes. How often in the last 30 years have you been able to say that? It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the FCS tune up game (or any game) on opening weekend... but it shouldn’t hurt us too bad and at least we aren’t the Big 10. Plus we get to simultaneously watch film on both South Alabama and USM on September 3rd.. Yee haw! Prediction time:

Tulane 39

South Alabama 17

[coachrivero]

Tulane football 2019 regular season recap

Hello football fans. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! As always thank you for your interest in this page.

2019 Tulane football will be remembered as a tale of two halves (of its season), racing out to a 5-1 start in its first 6 games then limping to a 1-5 finish in its last 6. In this segment we will look at Tulane's season as a whole and reflect on the things we learned. Let's go to the beginning, which is always a good place to start.

In the spring and summer there was something around Tulane's football program that hadn't been there in quite some time. Expectations. In the past expectations for Tulane were often very humble "I hope we can win 4 or 5 games" or "I hope we don't lose to everyone by 30." This year there were actual real life expectations for Green Wave football. Tulane was being picked near the top of the American Conference and was considered by some to be a dark horse to win the Western division. These high expectations were rightfully earned after going 5-3 in conference play and finishing in a 3 way tie for first in the AAC West last year. Tulane was also returning the deepest and most talented roster its had since probably 2002. You could feel the excitement around the program, could they live up to the hype?

The good times

Tulane's 42-14 thrashing of FIU in the season opener saw that hype increase tenfold. The win was impressive and also historically significant, snapping a 15 game losing streak for the Wave in FBS season openers. Even more impressive was new offensive coordinator Will Hall who revitalized a once stodgy and predictable offense. Justin McMillan and the Green Wave offense rolled up 545 yards on the Golden Panthers, including a whopping 350 on the ground. Tulane's defense was also dominant and looked just as salty and aggressive as it was the previous year. In hindsight nobody knew back then that FIU actually wasn't that good (yes I know they beat Miami U), but It was still a complete team win and a thorough beatdown of an FBS team. Next we have a road game against 5th ranked Auburn. As outmatched as the Wave was in this game, they played with a lot of heart to keep themselves in it longer than Auburn would have liked. In the end Auburn's superior talent won out as the Tigers defeated the Wave 24-6. I don't tout moral victories but nobody was too upset about this outcome. Tulane bounced back the next week with an easy win against FCS Missouri State. Missouri State is horrible (even for FCS standards) so we didn't learn much from this one. Now for the fun part, and easily the pinnacle of Tulane's 2019 season... the Houston game. Even if Tulane never wins another football game for the rest of my life I will always remember this one. Instant classics like 2019 Tulane vs Houston are why we love the game of football. In the second quarter it looked like Tulane was done. Houston had just went up 28-7 and the Cougar players were dancing on the sidelines and pointing at the scoreboard. We all know how the rest goes, Tulane dominated Houston the rest of the way scoring 24 unanswered points while allowing Houston just 3. A common misconception is that Amare Jone's 15 yard run on the trick play near the end of regulation was a "fake kneel down." There was nothing "kneel down" about it although it was deceptive and scheisty. It was really just a delayed misdirection jet sweep run out of a kneel down formation. Justin McMillan then completed a game winning 53 yard catch-and-run to Jalen McClesky with 3 seconds left and the rest is history. Uptown New Orleans was officially lit. Tulane then won convincingly on the road at Army in a game that wasn't as close as the final score indicated. They followed that up with a 49-7 thumping of weak sauce UConn to wrap up the first half of the season. Tulane was 5-1 and receiving top 25 votes. What a time to be alive!

ight imma head out

At this point the Tulane hype was close to reaching maximum overload. It seemed like the Wave couldn't be stopped. Then, on a partly cloudy October night in Memphis Tennessee, those top 25 dreams were laid to rest. As things turned out Tulane could be stopped. The Tigers didn't punt until late in the 3rd quarter and destroyed the Green Wave 47-17 in front of a national televised audience on ESPN2. There are talks amongst former players and people close to the program that something happened to the team after the Memphis game. Whether those rumors are true or not I don't know, but it certainly appeared to hurt their confidence. The important thing though for Tulane was to not let Memphis beat them twice. All of its goals were still intact with another big conference road game at vastly improved Navy. Unfortunately, the Memphis game did wind up carrying over into the first half against Navy. Tulane came out lethargic and spotted Navy 24 points before deciding to play football. The Wave mounted an incredible comeback but wound up losing anyway on a last second field goal. Okay so now Tulane is 5-3 and their conference championship hopes are hanging on by a thread. On to homecoming against Tulsa. This game was a lot of fun and was one of the most well attended Tulane home games I've ever been to. It wasn't perfect, but the Wave played well enough to get the win and secure bowl eligibility. It was a throwback to the good times earlier in the year, as this would mark the last time in the 2019 season that Tulane would score more points than the other team. All aboard the pain train. Now on tap is a road matchup in Philly against Temple. Tulane followed their season long trend of starting out flat on the road and dug themselves into a hole which they couldn't overcome. This is the most disappointing loss for me, even more so than Memphis. We were just beaten down by an incredible team in the Memphis game. Temple is good, but certainly not an incredible team by any standards. They shouldn't be able to push Tulane around on the line of scrimmage like they did, and despite that the Wave actually had a shot to force OT at the end. Overall though I felt like Temple was a weak performance. Next UCF comes to town fresh off a loss at Tulsa. Tulane of course lost, but I thought it was much a better effort than the previous week. The Wave actually could have won if they just played a little sharper and didn't give up as many big plays. Now for the grand finale! SMU has been taking Tulane's lunch money every year and this year was no different. This game was a throwback to the Bob Toledo days with special teams gaffes and questionable playcalling. Despite all of this it was still a close game until late in the 4th quarter thanks to some exceptional play by the defense. Tulane just failed to produce much and took another L to end the 2019 season with a 6-6 record after starting out 5-1.

What we learned

Tulane is building its program one brick at a time. While the direction in the second half of the season is concerning, I don't forsee a Charlie Strong USF-like collapse or anything. Willie Fritz has proven himself time and time again as a master program builder. It's kind of like playing NCAA football on the playstation and creating a coach to go to a small school and then you make them good. That's Willie Fritz. I think the late season AAC games will serve as a teaching point for this team that you have to play balls to the wall every week to win in this conference. The most important thing going forward of course is recruiting. Per 247, Tulane has the second highest rated recruiting class in the AAC. Last year it was ranked 8th and the year before that it was 4th, so the recruiting has definitely been good. Winning a bowl game is critical for the perception of the program and to keep our recruiting class in tact. Losing 6 out of the last 7 to finish with a losing record just wouldn't be a good look. While there is no such thing as tanking in college football, the bright side is we get to keep Fritz and we'll probably get a favorable bowl matchup against C-USA or the Sun Belt. All in all though, I would consider this season a success and something to build on moving forward. Roll Wave!

[coachrivero]

Tulane vs SMU - what’s at stake/ keys to the game -

Tulane (6-5, 3-4) at SMU (9-2, 5-2)

11/30/19 - 3:00 PM CT / Gerald J. Ford Stadium - Dallas, TX

TV: ESPNU

Radio: KTCK 1310 AM/96.7 FM

Here's what to watch for as Tulane (6-5, 3-4) visits SMU (9-2, 5-2) in an AAC Western division showdown and the season finale for both teams.

What's at stake for Tulane?

The Wave could clinch their second straight winning season, tangible progress for a program with only 7 winning seasons in the last 39 years. Tulane needs to win games like this to get the recognition that it wants so badly. A signature road victory against a team that spent much of the season in the top 20 is just what the doctor ordered. Even if they lose the Wave could still achieve a winning season by winning their bowl game, but why wait? There's no time like the present and this is a great opportunity to show people that Tulane is relevant again in major college football.

What's at stake for SMU?

The Mustangs were eliminated from the AAC title hunt and a potential NY6 bowl game with last weekend's loss at Navy, but that doesn't mean they have nothing to play for. A win over Tulane would give SMU their first 10 win season since 1984 and most likely would earn them a high profile bowl bid against a Power 5 opponent. Much like Tulane, SMU was once a struggling program that has seen its fortunes improve recently, but they are further along in the program-building process. SMU could gain a lot of momentum heading into next season by beating Tulane and winning their bowl game.

Keys to the game:

Road Warriors?

There are only 2 things in life that truly scare me:

1. The "flute lady" from It chapter 1 that comes out of the painting and tries to eat Stan's face. I almost soiled myself and couldn't sleep for like 3 days.

2. Tulane playing a football game on the road. Sometimes I wake up with night terrors and Tulane is playing at Memphis again.

You may think I'm making jokes, but Tulane really has been a nightmare on the road. Even in their lone road win at Army the Wave was not sharp, starting out slow and imploding at the end which almost let Army come back. Tulane has a habit of going through bad lapses on the road and SMU is the type of team that will make you pay dearly for it. It's time to change the narrative.

5 Headed Monster

Tulane does not have a 1,000 yard rusher in 2019, but that is not due to lack of success on the ground. The Wave have a stable of talented backs in Bradwell, Dauphine, Huderson, Jones, and Carroll, all of whom have unique running styles. The Wave has more depth than that even, I didn't include YG Booker and Tyjae Spears (although they probably will not burn Spears' redshirt for this game). Justin McMillan is always a threat to take off too of course. Add this all up and you have the nation's #13 Rushing offense (252 ypg), amassing 3,066 yards and 31 Touchdowns. This group will need to dominate and help Tulane control the game by keeping SMU's prolific offense off the field

Sack time!

Tulane went from 9th in the FBS in sacks (41) in 2018 to 109th in sacks (15) so far in 2019. That's a whopping 100 spots! I understand that last year they were amazing and it would be normal for there to be some regression, but I didn't think the pass rush would completely fall off a cliff like it has. Whatever the reason is, the Wave needs to fix it ASAP. Tulane plays a man coverage scheme that is predicated on its ability to pressure the Quarterback. The absence of a pass rush puts Tulane's Defensive Backs in a bad spot, technically speaking, to get burnt like some Popeye's Chicken. The Wave desperately needs its pass rushers to show up for this game. If they don’t, Shane Buechele will roast their secondary over an open fire. Let's hope they do!

Thanks for reading and Roll Wave!

[coachrivero]

SMU hatred week -

Check in here if your team has ever been screwed out of a victory and bowl eligibility at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. Now that all the Wave fans have checked in, let's have a common sense discussion about the American Conference football game this Saturday between the Tulane Green Wave and SMU Mustangs. Well... actually we'll get to that part later, first I need you to channel that SMU hate and let it flow through your body like the rivers of ancient Babylon.

I really hate SMU... like a lot. Their fight song is super annoying (especially if you give up lots of points and they play it constantly). Mustang fans eat caviar at their tailgates and put cauliflower in gumbo. Their school is best known for cheating so blatantly that the NCAA was forced to step in and shut down the football program. They have like 400 D1 transfers on their roster, and last but certainly not least, Craig James killed 5 hookers while at SMU.

If Tulane is going to avenge those fallen hookers and win this game, they will need to contain AAC leading passer Shane Buechele. The former Texas Longhorn QB has thrown for 3,446 yards and 30 touchdowns and leads the conference in nearly every passing category. His favorite target James Proche (member him.... 😔 ) leads the AAC with 13 receiving TD's and is second in receiving yards with 1,068. SMU is the number 1 passing attack in the conference (328 ypg), but can also be effective running the ball when it needs to be. Senior RB Xavier Jones has the most rushing touchdowns in the conference (13) and is second in rushing yards (1,124). Long story short SMU's offense is really good... like top 10 in the NCAA good. It's probably too much to ask of Tulane's defense to stop them, but maybe the Wave can slow them down. Tulane's defensive unit hasn't exactly set the world on fire this season, although statistically they aren't terrible. Out of 130 FBS teams the Wave ranks 51st in total defense and 55th in scoring defense. Despite getting burned in the secondary at times the Wave still ranks a respectable 39th in both passing efficiency defense and passing yards allowed (206.9 ypg). Okay... those figures may be a little skewed due to playing 2 service academies, but numbers don't lie! (although sometimes they can be misleading). Let's just throw out the Army/Navy games and assume Tulane is around the middle of the pack in passing defense. It doesn't greatly help our cause, but at least it gives us a fighting chance in this game. Playing SMU without a serviceable pass defense would give us about the same shot as hooker surviving in Craig James' room in 1982. One of the major keys to this game is forcing turnovers, which the Wave hasn't done all that well this year (13 turnovers gained, -3 margin). This starts with creating havoc up front and pressuring Shane Buechele. If the Wave allows him to stand comfortably in the pocket and go through his progressions against their man defense, they will suffer the same fate as those 5 hookers who lost their lives at the hands of Craig James.

SMU is essentially UCF with a better offense and a worse defense. The Mustangs aren't that good at all on defense really, but I guess you don't have to be when you're scoring 45 points a game. Let's look at the defensive numbers for SMU - Total Defense: 91st. Scoring Defense: 103rd (33 ppg). Rushing defense: 30th (124 ypg). Passing efficiency defense: 98th. Passing yards allowed: 124th (302 ypg). Once again it's hard to always trust numbers because of the fact SMU plays in so many shootouts, forcing their opponents to abandon the running game and throw downfield to try and keep up. Clearly the Mustangs are no defensive juggernaut though and Tulane should move the ball on them. The Wave boasts the nation's #27 offense (454 ypg) and the #13 rushing attack (252 ypg). The problem Iies in Tulane's tendency to come out flat on the road and dig themselves into a hole early. If the Wave falls behind and has to depend on its 95th ranked passing offense things could get ugly, like the decomposing remains of a hooker in Craig James' basement. Justin McMillan is a gamer and I have the utmost respect for him, but he is not Peyton Manning. His game is quick run/pass reads, dump offs to his backs, short to intermediate safe throws, and rolling out the pocket, not traditional pocket passing. McMillan has a few bad habits including not setting his feet and staring down his primary receiver. These two things will often lead to interceptions. Tulane absolutely cannot afford to waste possessions and give SMU any more of them. Hopefully the Wave can just run it down their throats and keep their explosive offense on the sidelines. Tulane's offense has cooled off slightly since the torrid pace in the first half of the season, but they seemed to regain some of their groove against a good UCF defense. I know the Wave has dropped 4 out of the last 5 games, but I was actually somewhat encouraged by their performance against the Knights. They seemed to play with a bit more energy and urgency than in previous weeks. It also showed me that Tulane does have the talent to compete with SMU, provided they come out of the locker room ready to play.

Most people aren't giving the Wave much of a chance in this game though, and let's be honest... it is not an ideal matchup for us. Tulane's defense really struggles against passing offenses and SMU is the Popeye's Chicken Sandwich of passing offenses. Anything can happen in college football though and you still actually have to play the game. Can we win? Yes. Like I said, Tulane has talent, winning this game is certainly not an impossible feat. Also keep in mind that SMU just got eliminated from AAC West contention and may be going through the motions. Will we win? Probably not. I really do hope we pull it off (obviously), but at this point in the season you are who you are. Tulane hasn't played a complete game on the road all season and I don't forsee that changing in game 12. If the Wave comes out lifeless against a team like SMU they could find themselves down 4 touchdowns before they put their chinstraps on. Prediction time:

Tulane 40

SMU 49

[coachrivero]

Tulane 31 UCF 34, Wave comeback falls short -

When these young men signed their letter of intent to play football for Tulane University, they chose a path that wasn’t easy. I appreciate the hard work they put in every day to get better. It’s a tall order to rebuild a program that has struggled for most of the last 20 years (and many years before that). In due time I believe Tulane will turn the corner. Right now Wave fans need to “trust the process.”

I’m not trying to go full Rick Dickson, you should never go full Rick Dickson, but I have faith in Tulane and in the future of this program. There isn’t that big of a disparity between UCF and Tulane anymore. I member when they came to the dome that one time and scored every time they touched the football. Tulane obviously has a much better roster these days, but there are going to be some highs and lows with this team. Justin McMillan said it best a few weeks ago, Tulane is still growing as a program and is learning how to match the intensity of the better teams in the American conference.

I had a bad feeling that UCF would walk into Yulman and boat race us, obviously that didn’t happen. UCF punched and Tulane punched back. In the end the 2-time defending AAC champions had just a little more punch than Tulane. Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other team, UCF is a really good football team and they made critical plays when it mattered. They are not invincible anymore though, the Knights made some mistakes that Tulane didn’t always capitalize on. They also had some really bad and inexplicable drops. The win was there for the taking and Tulane just couldn’t take it. The play of the Green Wave defense was actually encouraging despite their tendency to give up big plays at times. The pass rush was effective today after being MIA most of the year, the Wave was able to pressure UCF QB Dillon Gabriel and give themselves a chance in the game. I think the secondary showed some improvement as they were better in coverage today than last week. On offense Tulane moved the ball pretty well and didn’t turn it over, although McMillan struggled with his accuracy and had some passes sail on him. How about Corey Dauphine man? what a player. I’m gonna miss him next year, and also the physical running of Darius Bradwell. Those two really compliment each other well. Stephon Huderson’s kickoff return TD was really special and it gave Tulane life when it looked like UCF was putting the game away. That’s one thing I can say about this group, they never mail it in like Tulane teams of the past, the Wave plays hard to the very end. You can see that Tulane has talent and I think they’re close to being a contender in the conference. The recruiting has been good and I hope it will pay off in the coming years.

In conclusion, I’m not trying to feed you poop and call it strawberry shortcake. A loss is a loss. I’m not encouraged by losing this game, but I’m not really discouraged either. The season also isn’t over, there’s a still football game against SMU next week and a bowl game after that. These two games will be important for Tulane prove that it is heading in the right direction and the 5-1 start wasn’t just fools gold. Here’s hoping for a strong finish! Roll Wave!