Tulane looked really, really good on offense for three possessions until the pick-six. It was all downhill from there, but we'll see what the Green Wave got out of this experience when it faces Army at home next Saturday.

WILLIE FRITZ

The running game was working really well on those first three series. What was happening there?

"We were reading it correctly, number one. It was inside zone and giving the ball quite a bit and had some nice seams. The few times that they did squeeze it pretty well, we pulled it (Brantley kept it) and had some success with the quarterback running the ball as well. It looked good early. They made some adjustments and started bringing some people in the second half--corner blitzes and having a few more people than we could account for at the point of attack."

The turning point was the interception return for a TD. How did the team handle that change in momentum?

"We didn't respond very well. It's a team (Oklahoma), they score so many darn points. They are so potent with the receivers and the running backs and obviously they have a potential Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. We weren't able to respond well to it. We went in (to halftime) down 28-14 and received the opening kick. We had a chance to get some things going on that first series (a deep ball that went off Darnell Mooney's hands inside the Oklahoma 20) and just never really got in step again offensively for the rest of the half."

Was Brantley injured or was it just wear and tear from the hits he took?

"He was cramping up and had a couple of series that he didn't play quite as well as he did early. We wanted to get Khalil (McClean) in there and give a chance to see what he could do. Johnathan could have gone back in later, but we decided to stay with Khalil."

What can you take from this game going down the road?

"Well, I think this could be a game in six or seven weeks that can kind of help you out a little bit. We played a quality opponent and we just have to keep battling and keep fighting. I thought we did a very good job of that in the first half, but there are ebbs and flows in the game. When things aren't going in a positive direction for you, you just have to keep playing, keep fighting. That's one of the things we are teaching our guys. We have a lot of guys that battled throughout the game. Dontrell Hilliard had a very good game. Terren Encalade really played tough throughout the game. I saw him three or four times get matched up with some of their DBs, and we won a lot of individual battles. I was very excited about that. I'm sure there are quite a few other guys who played well."

Mooney had that chance to haul in the long pass. How big a play would that have been?

"It would have been a big play. It would have given us the momentum. We just missed it by an inch."

The defensive line was thin with Quinlan Carroll's suspension and Larry Bryant not making the trip due to injury. Did guys wear down a little bit?

"You know, we're rolling a lot of guys in there, so we shouldn't be getting worn down. We have a lot of guys playing on the defensive line."

When Oklahoma started taking over, they were really getting pumped up and talking back to your players. Do you feel like the way you started, you really made them take notice?

"I'm not sure. They have great coaches. I'm sure they were working on what we do, offense, defense, kicking game. We executed well early. Just like when you play your opponent, the speed of the game is a little different early. I'm sure it was for them as well in the first quarter."

Will Jonathan Banks be available against Army?

"I just don't know. It's one of those deals we are going to have to look at and see if he's going to be able to go this week. We have a bye week after this weekend and he definitely would be ready to go after that."

And Rod Teamer?

"It's the same kind of situation."

How much did not having Teamer hurt you?

"He's a real good player, so obviously it would have helped us to be able to have him in there. We're not real deep at a few spots. When you lose quality players, that hurts you."

Let me preface my comments by saying I have not rewatched the game. These are just my observations after watching the game live yesterday.

1. Two missed tackles cost us big time. Lewis couldn't bring down the receiver for what would have been a 10 yard gain and it turned into a 79 yard TD. Franklin missed a tackle deep in our end that gave them a first down on our 1. Both just can't happen.

2. Our offensive game plan gave our team little chance to win. It was unimaginative and predictable. When Banks was in there I have no clue what we were trying to accomplish. We ran the ball up the middle over and over again. Navy has a suspect secondary and we never tested them. We never got our playmakers the ball in space. Hilliard has been turned into a fullback in this system because all he does is run dive plays up the middle. He has yet to get anything on the perimeter. Brantley gave us a little spark but the offense was about the same. If you can't throw the ball or you are unwilling to throw the ball then you need to commit to the Navy/Army type offense all the way. For all the talk about how we have gotten so much better pitching the ball we hardly ever run the option to the perimeter and when we do it is to the short side of the field. Honestly except for a few nice runs Brantley had yesterday Cuiellette could have run the offense that they ran yesterday with little noticeable difference. I think the play Banks got hurt on was the first time he ran the ball except for one QB draw. And can we please get that play out of our playbook. Unless we throw the ball effectively that play will never work.

3. The too many men on the field penalty was 100% on our head man. He is our special teams coach. That should never ever happen. While no one play costs you the game that play cost us a chance to be able to win the game.

4. Defensive front played great. DLine including the freshman and the LB's were stellar. Our secondary let us down with the missed tackles mentioned above and a bunch of busted coverages. They would have had more big chunk plays if their QB and receivers could have executed.

5. We need to get to a point with our special teams when making a PAT or punting the ball more than 35 yards isn't a big special teams play for us.

Tulsa World beat writer Eric Bailey answers five questions about Oklahoma. Check it out on the front page.

The point spread for the Tulane-Oklahoma game is actually lower than I expected. As always, the Tulane game counts double, the point spreads are from VegasInsider.com consensus and home teams are listed first.

Oklahoma (-34) Tulane
Memphis (+3) UCLA
Louisville (+3.5) Clemson
Florida (-5) Tennessee
Southern Cal (-15.5) Texas
Mississippi State (+7) LSU
TCU (-19.5) SMU
Toledo (-9.5) Tulsa

On a busy week, I finally finished watching the Navy game I taped. I won't get that opportunity with Oklahoma, but that should be the last game not on regular television.

Here are some thoughts on the Navy game:

1) Of Tulane's 60 snaps, 17 out of the first 27 and 31 overall were inside running plays. That seems awfully high, but there were five consecutive inside zone handoffs on the long touchdown drive in the second half. Those were successful. Many others were not. The offensive line play has to get better.

2) I underrated Dontrell Hilliard's performance watching the game live. I still would like to see him break some big runs because it's hard for Tulane to sustain drives consistently, but he repeatedly turned tiny creases into positive plays. That's his strength-vision and nice wiggles. He got the fourth down when Tulane gambled deep in its own territory on individual effort, and that play probably kept the Wave from losing by double digits. Sherman Badie had two excellent runs in a row in the first half, but he's more hit or miss than Hilliard.

3) The holding call on McLeod that sabotaged Tulane's last drive was the right call, clearly. He got beat right away and tackled the guy to keep him from sacking Brantley. But the earlier holding call on McLeon on a running play was a complete joke. He physically manhandled his guy with textbook execution. If they are going to call holding on that, they need to throw a flag on every single play.

4) John Leglue got beaten badly the time Brantley was sacked. When I asked Fritz this week about why Leglue had switched to right tackle and McLeod switched to left tackle late in the game and in practice this week, saying it was a matter of creating better depth. I'm no offensive line expert, but it may be a performance-based decision. It will be interesting to see what happens against Oklahoma.

5) Badie is Tulane's best kickoff returner, but he has to stop going sideways at the beginning of the return. He got away with it early, outracing everyone to the sideline before getting past the 30, but he got tackled inside the 10 on Navy's kickoff that led to the safety on the bad snap. I've watched a ton of football in my life, and just about every good kickoff starts with the returner running straight ahead and then making his cut.

6) That was one awesome play by Darnell Mooney on his 24-yard reception. He showed terrific strength, as CBS Sports analyst Randy Cross pointed out, to break a tackle on the sideline, and his spin move to avoid another tackle was sweet. I really like his potential to be an excellent complement to Terren Encalade.

7) When he ran the option, Brantley made the right decision every time except for once, when he pitched to Badie despite having poor spacing with one defender there. If he had faked the pitch, I bet he would have made the guy miss and gotten some positive yardage. The pitch had no chance, stringing Badie out toward the sideline with nowhere to go.

8) The blocking on the failed fourth-down run by Darius Bradwell in the fourth quarter was a disaster, reminiscent of the CJ era. McLeod went inside and downfield and really touched no one until it was too late. Corey Dublin, who otherwise has been Tulane's best offensive lineman for the first two games, got stood up. And tight end Charles Jones, who was supposed to have the kick-out block, missed his guy entirely. Bradwell had no chance.

9) Although it was a crucial play in the game, the snap that turned into a safety does not concern me. Clearly there was miscommunication between Junior Diaz and Brantley, but Diaz is a good snapper who likely will not repeat that mistake all year. I see that as a total outlier. It's just unfortunate for Tulane it happened when and where it did.

10) My opinion on the defense's performance has not changed. With the exception of Donnie Lewis' missed tackle and the early touchdown run right up the gut, the defense was outstanding. These guys were disciplined, prepared incredibly well and made plays all over the field. I don't know how good Navy will be this year, but I'm doubling down on my prediction that no AAC opponent will hold the Midshipmen under 200 yards rushing with the possible exception of Houston. A lot of different guys made plays on defense, which bodes well for the rest of the year.

11) I know it's not his primary responsibility, but Braynon Edwards failed to make a tackle again. He did not have any when he played against Navy last year, either. He gives Tulane depth and can hold his position, but at some point you've got to be able to finish a play. Sean Wilson, who plays nose, had four tackles. Cameron Sample had two.

I am very optimistic about the defense the rest of the way. The offense remains a work in progress, with major questions about the line's ability to open holes and the passing game in general. I'm not expecting much from the offense against Oklahoma--let's see if they can prove me wrong--but the Army game in two weeks will be very telling. Whether it is Banks or Brantley, Tulane needs to pile up a lot of yards on an FBS opponent sooner rather than later.

One quick note before starting: look for the return of Engaging The Enemy tomorrow. Tulsa World beat writer Eric Bailey and I exchanged five questions last night and this morning, and I am waiting for his answers. I also will publish a film study from the Navy game before I fly to Oklahoma tomorrow.

Willie Fritz confirmed the obvious after practice this morning: Johnathan Brantley will start at quarterback against Oklahoma. Brantley took all the first-team reps this week, with freshman Khlali McClain operating the second-team offense, but Fritz refused to file Jonathan Banks.

"Brantley’s going to get the start,” Fritz said. “Banks is coming along. We’re going to see how he is on Saturday warm-ups and see how much he’ll play.”

McClain did not look good throwing today. He bounced a short pass on one play and then threw well wide of a receiver on the next play. He has a ton of potential, but he's not ready to play against a team like Oklahoma, so Brantley needs to stay healthy unless Fritz is right about Banks possibly being able to play.

“We can run as much (of the offense) with (Brantley) as we can with Banks,” Fritz said. “The problem last week wasn’t his knowledge. He just didn’t get a chance to rep (Navy) in practice.”

Brantley professed confidence, admitting he was light years ahead of where he was at this time last year, when he also started.

“I feel comfortable,” he said. “I know all my reads and the plays in and out.”

As expected, Fritz also named Merek Glover as his kicker. Glover, a walk-on sophomore, won a competition earlier this week when my sources say Coby Neenan continued to struggle. After watching Neenan miss his third extra point in two weeks--for persective, Andrew DiRocco missed four in three years--Fritz had to make a change.

In a rare move, the coaches stopped the offense's work against the scout-team defense today to let Glover attempt a 28-yard field goal. He hit it strong, but it was only few yards inside the left upright. Any kick will be an adventure Saturday, but they needed to give someone else a chance.

“He’s done a nice job,” Fritz said. “We opened up the competition this week, and he won it.”

Rod Teamer did not practice again today, so look for Chase Kuerschen to get his first career start. You can check out my Q&A with him on the post I made yesterday. He admitted he was better against the run than the pass but added he was getting a lot of work this week, and I saw him make nice plays in coverage in preseason camp. He has a knack for the ball.

“He’s a really smart player and played well last week,” Fritz said. “We’re fortunate he got an opportunity to play quite a bit, so he’s got a game under the belt.”

John Leglue continued to work at right tackle while Keyshawn McLeod worked at left tackle today. Fritz said it was simply a move to create depth in case one of them got hurt, allowing the other to move over easily, but since they used that lineup in the fourth quarter against Navy, I expect it to happen at the start against Oklahoma. We'll see.

The rest of the depth chart up front had the usual suspects. The second-team offensive lien had Tyler Johnson at left tackle, Leeward Brown at left guard, Hunter Knighton at center, Dominique Briggs at right guard (they don't have a fourth guard they are comfortable with, so he worked the first and second team) and Joey Claybrook at right tackle.

NOTES

--Kendall Ardoin missed practice again today with an illness. I'm not sure who the backup tight will be because Ardoin and Charles Jones were the only two that played against Navy. Andrew Hicks is the best guess. Will Wallace was not on the travel roster for the Navy game. If they need a blocker, John Washington could fill the role.

--Walk-one wide receiver Brian Newman, who was slated for playing time, is done for the year with that preseason knee injury he sustained. He said yesterday he tore an ACL and his meniscus and would be out eight months. Tulane is still looking for a functional third receiver to complement Terren Encalade and Darnell Mooney. Chris Johnson has one catch for 5 yards. None of the others candidates have any, with Jabril Clewis continuing to struggle as he did in the preseason.

---A Cleveland Browns scout was at practice. He was watching the defense, presumably Parry Nickerson and Ade Aruna, although Sean Wilson said Tuesday he thought all three starting defensive linemen (he clearly agrees with those of you who call it a three-man front) (him, Aruna and Eldrick Washington) would play in the NFL.

---Quinlan Caroll will miss the first half of the Oklahoma game due to his targeting ejection against Navy. That means Larry Bryant, if they go with a rush end/OLB, or Peter Woullard, if they go with a more traditional end, will start. Carroll continued to get reps with the first-team defense in practice this week.

--Travis Tucker was on the exercise bike along with Corey Dauphine when I got there today. I'm not sure what his injury is, but he looked OK walking around. He is not slated to play this year anyway.

Hey Guys: Just something to possibly keep an eye on - Louisiana Tech commit Brodrick Calhoun said that Tulane has started communicating with him a bit more. Even though he's been committed to the Bulldogs since the spring, he's told me that he still wants to enjoy his recruitment and could find himself on campus for a game and/or visit this season. STORY LINK

Thanks for having a look!

I talked to Parry Nickerson, Donnie Lewis and Chase Kuerschen today after practice, largely about the matchup with Oklahoma's lethal passing attack. Here's what they had to say:

NICKERSON

You've talked about having the best secondary in the AAC and one of the best in the country. How excited are you about the opportunity to face Oklahoma?

"It's a great opportunity, but we are still going to play our game. We're not going to let anything distract us."

Football Focus came out with a stat that opponents completed a lower percentage of their passes against you than any other returning cornerback in the country. How much pride do you take in that?

"That's a great statistic. I heard of it before. I just want to continue to get better, stay healthy and keep playing lights out."

What makes Baker Mayfield so special?

"He's an NFL-caliber type quarterback, but everybody's human at the end of the day. Proper preparation leads to a good performance. I feel like we have a great chance to show why we are the best secondary in the nation."

How many passes have been completed against you in the first two games?

"I'm not sure about that, but I'm pretty sure I did a good job so far."

It's a huge stadium. How much are you looking forward to that atmosphere?

"It sounds like a great environment to play in front of. I can't wait."

LEWIS

Oklahoma has torched some very good secondaries, but how much are you looking forward to this challenge?

"I'm really looking forward to it. We have a great opportunity to come out and show how good corners that we have and how good of a secondary that we have as a whole. We are just going to come out and play our ball."

What makes Mayfield special?

"He's a great quarterback with a great arm. He has a good bit of time in the pocket but he also can throw well on the run. We've just got to play our game."

What happened on the missed tackle that led to Navy's 79-yard touchdown?

"As a cornerback. you've got to have amnesia. Sometimes you wrap a little high when you should wrap low. That's all that happened right there."

How much do you guys pride yourselves on your tackling overall?

Every day we tackle, tackle, tackle no matter whether we're playing an option team or a spread team. We work on tackling every single day. We take pride in our tackling and our swarming to the ball. If we do happen to miss a tackle, we swarm to the ball, so we are all right there."

You came close to winning but didn't get it done. What is the level of this team's confidence?

"Coaches preach about controlling what you can control. We have to control our composure. The game is over now. It's in the past. All we can do is learn from it."

Do you feel like Oklahoma will be surprised by the Tulane DBs?

"I don't know how they look at us, but like I told you, we're coming to play our game and we're not backing down. We're going to run our defense."

What are your thoughts on playing in an 85,000-seat stadium?

"I'm going to be excited. It will be the largest crowd I've played in since I've been in college, so I'm ready for the atmosphere."

KUERSCHEN

You've had a good start to your career. Most players struggle with the transition to college from high school, but not you. What's been working well?

"Going back to high school, I played against some good competition there, so I feel like that somewhat prepared me for college, but really when I got here, coach (Jack) Curtis just started developing all of the freshmen from day one, not just me, and then I had Rod Teamer above me just mentoring me every day. I just tried to learn from him and correct me on everything, so that's been a huge help."

Coach Fritz praised your high school program ( Knoxville Catholic in Tennessee), saying it was obvious you had been coached well.

"It definitely helped me. I feel like our coaching staff in high school was not at the same level as far as intensity of this staff, but for a high school staff they were very intense. Practice was very high pace, so that got me prepared for the next level."

What are your best strengths?

"I feel like I did very well coming up on the run this past week against Navy. I'm maybe a step behind on my coverage skills right now, so I'm going to get some great work on that this week against Oklahoma."

How much are you looking forward to the Oklahoma game? With Teamer hurt, this could be your first career start.

"I couldn't be more excited. It's a huge opportunity to go out and show what I can do. It's going to be a lot of fun playing against the No. 2 team in the nation."

That's a heck of an initiation, going against the Heisman frontrunner. What do you need to do?

"I just need to do my assignments and what I've done in practice for the past three months. Mayfield makes plays with his legs and his arms, so we've just got to contain him and do what we're supposed to do."

What is the toughest aspect of their passing offense?

"Well they've obviously got great athletes. That's no secret, but they have some really unique route concepts that we're going to really focus on this week in practice. That's one thing we're kind of worried about. They've got a real big tight end who plays in the slot a lot, so that's something we're really keying on. They do some weird things with him. We've got to watch a lot of film and be prepared for all the weird stuff they are going to do."

Did you expect to move up the depth chart so quickly in the preseason? You were practicing with the 2s by the second week.

"I'm not sure exactly what I expected. When they recruited me, they said they needed help now and stuff like that, but you never know what's really happening when you're on the other side of recruiting. Once I got here, I just worked hard and am blessed with the opportunities that came to me."

In what figures to be a welcome change to many, look for Tulane to announce a change a placekicker some time this week. I should have caught this yesterday but I never looked at the depth chart buried in the back of the release they handed out after Willie Fritz' press conference. Walk-ons Merek Glover and Randy Harvey were listed as co-No. 1s with Neenan No. 3.

Operating in the dark, I asked to interview Coby Neenan after practice today for a story on his extra-point issues and the kicking game in general. He was not made available, and now I know why. I asked Fritz if Neenan would be the kicker against Oklahoma, and here was his response:

"We'll probably announce it here in the next day or two."

Fritz added Neenan had the same issue on his extra point miss against Navy as his two misses against Grambling. It's hard to believe any other kicker has missed three extra points already.

I would expect the new guy to be Glover, but that depends on how they kicked in a competition that occurred before I arrived at practice yesterday. Glover kicked off on Tulane's first two opportunities against Grambling before Zach Block took over, he was listed as the No. 2 kicker for the first two weeks and he was on the travel squad for the Navy game rather than Harvey.

Glover, from Long Island, joined the team during the year last year and is listed as a sophomore. I know nothing else about him. Harvey appeared to out-kick Neenan in the limited time I saw them in the spring, but his leg strength is an issue.

Fritz never seriously considered sending Neenan out for a 49-yard field that would have given Tulane a 24-23 lead in the fourth quarter against Navy, going for a fourth-and-5 that ended on an incomplete pass. No one who has watched Tulane's kicking game would second guess him on that one. The lack of a trustworthy kicker has a huge effect.

"It affects you, it really does," Fritz said. "That's a tough spot to put a guy in regardless. That's a long field goal and there was a little wind, and you don't know how many times you are going to get down there. We felt like our opportunity to get a first down was greater than our opportunity of having a (field goal) make."

In other practice news, Jonathan Banks threw early again today but did not get any team reps, so it's more and more apparent that Johnathan Brantley will start, although I don't expect an official statement about it from Fritz. That's not his style on injuries. Rod Teamer did not practice, either, but it was Taris Shenall instead of P.J. Hall alongside Chase Kuerschen in the 11-on-11 part of practice I watched. I'm sure all three of them will play a lot.

Second-string tight end Kendall Ardoin, who went to the locker room in the second half against Navy, left due to an illness rather than an injury. He has not practiced this week.

"He's been sick," Fritz said. "We're hoping that he got better today and is going to be able to go."

Fritz is optimistic Corey Dauphine will be back at practice in a few weeks.

"He's doing better," Fritz said. "I would think he'd be pretty close to full speed after the bye week."

Instead of doing scout team work, the starters practiced against the starters today and the backups worked against the backups, with some mixing and matching as the Wave continued to get ready for Oklahoma.

"It went all right," Fritz said with a more upbeat tone than the words indicated. "We did a little bit more good on good. There are some similarities with what they do and what we do, so we try to do that when we can. That way you don't have to draw up cards and we can call something similar to what we run defensively or offensively. It was good. The first part of the week we really front load everything with lifting and practice and then we taper off toward the end. You've got to be able to fight through it."

Fritz is excited about the opportunity to face Oklahoma, and he challenged his players Monday during a team meeting.

"One of the first things I told our guys was how many guys think they can play in the NFL," he said. "A bunch of dudes raised their hand. I said all right, show it here Saturday. I know they are one of the top teams in the country and are going to have a bunch of guys drafted. Show it here. The scouts coming in to Tulane to look at guys are going to look at the Oklahoma game."

Tulane's secondary members talked about wanting to be one of the best defensive back groups in the country in the preseason. This is a chance for them to back up that bold talk.

"We've got some good corners," Fritz said. "There's always a game within a game, and one of the neat things is their guys play in a lot of the kicking game, too. Shoot, let's see what you do. Compete against them in all facets."

Fritz also praised the linebackers. Rae Juan Marbley, Luke Jackson and Zach Harris, the guys who play by far the most, have combined for 34 tackles, with Marbley leading the team at 13, Jackson tied for second at 11 and Harris right behind with 10. Jackson has a team-best 2.5 sacks as well.

"They've done a nice job, they really have," Fritz said. "They've done a good job of understanding what we're doing. They are smart players, they don't make very many mistakes, they do their job and they make plays when they're there."

Upon further review, I am backtracking on my statement about Donnie Lewis a couple of days ago. I stand by the part about him playing well for the most part this year, but he definitely had to make that tackle on the 79-yard touchdown. He told me today he tried to wrap up too high and should have tackled him lower.

As usual, Willie Fritz was vague about the injury status of quarterback Jonathan Banks on Tuesday, not wanting Oklahoma to know Tulane's plans early in the week. He said they hoped Banks would be able to play Saturday. Banks participated in individual drills today in full uniform but did not get any work against the scout-team defense, taking mental reps rather than physical ones. The exact nature of his injury remains unclear, but he was in a lot of pain after falling on the football while being tackled in the second quarter at Navy, and it may be a rib injury.

"We're hoping he's going to be ready this weekend," Fritz said. "He got hit and he landed on the ball. We think he's going to be fine."

Jonathan Brantley and true freshman Khalil McClain were the No. 1 and 2 quarterbacks today, and that likely will be the pecking order on Saturday. Unless Banks is close to 100 percent, I see no reason to play him against the Sooners. Let him rest and see if he can be ready for what would be a must-win game against Army the following Saturday at Yulman Stadium.

Safety Rod Teamer and tight end Kendall Ardoin also missed practice, Teamer had a boot on his left leg. The last time I saw Ardoin, he was being escorted to the locker room in the second half against Navy with an unspecified injury. Since this was the Tuesday press conference and Fritz does not like to talk about injuries, I did not ask about Ardoin, but I did ask about Teamer, a team leader who made a really nice play on his 52-yard touchdown return of a fumble against Navy. It's not easy to reach down and pick up the ball cleanly near a crowd, but he did it, pivoted and was off to the races.

If Teamer is healthy Saturday, I think he could make a 10-point difference in the final margin.

"We're hoping he's going to be able to go," Fritz said. "He's got a sore foot."

If you didn't catch my story for The Advocate on the AAC admitting its officials botched the call on Navy's last punt, missing an illegal-procedure penalty on a player who was not set at the snap after shifting, here it is.

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orle...cle_7f12cbd6-9741-11e7-a338-8bf631c4abc3.html

Fritz elaborated on the statement he released yesterday through Tulane's athletic department:

"Our officials do a great job, but that was a tough play," he said. "Number one, I didn't feel like the officials gave us enough time to match. Number two, there was a big-time illegal procedure on the play that should have been called a hundred times out of a hundred. Three, they declined the penalty, they moved the sticks and then they came back and changed it. It took a couple of minutes to figure out where the chains were. I had some tough plays in the game, and they had a tough play on that one. Overall, though, they do an excellent job. It's unfortunate. We still would have to drive the ball and score and all those other things, but I wish we would have had the opportunity."

Sean Wilson and Keyshawn McLeod, who both were injured against Navy but returned later, are healthy. Wilson admitted he went numb after receiving a cut block, but he got better quickly and played well after re-entering the game. Fritz praised his performance, with Tulane limiting Navy to less than 200 rushing yards.

"He played great," he said. "He is really playing at a higher level. He's put on about 20 pounds and gotten much, much stronger. He did a good job on the line of scrimmage. He really played well."

Chase Kuerschen practiced alongside P.J. Hall at safety today with the first-team defense. I did not ask, but it appears that Taris Shenall will be benched after blowing a coverage early in the first quarter against Navy.

Corey Dauphine has shed his knee brace and was playing catch with a trainer when I arrived. Later, he got on the exercise bike. I will ask Fritz about his practice status tomorrow, but he clearly is making progress after suffering preseason knee injury. The more he practices down the road, the better, because he will be counted on as one of the feature backs next season and does not want to get rusty.

Tough loss. Willie Fritz has dropped two games in his career when his team was plus-two or better in turnover margin, and both of them were against Navy the last two years. His decision to try to run the punt return team on the field at the end was a huge mistake, but really this game was lost because of the Wave's placekicking situation. He did not even think about trying a 48-yard field goal that could have put Tulane ahead late, going for it on fourth-and-5, because he knew the chance of making the kick was very low. Tulane does not have enough margin for error to be that bad at making field goals.

This was a game past Tulane teams would have lost 44-13 after all the adversity (injuries, bad luck and self-inflicted), so the way the team fought back was encouraging. The defense, which held Navy to its second-lowest yardage total in 17 AAC regular season games (Tulane also is No. 1 on that list from its last visit to Annapolis), will be good all year. But they have to start winning games like this, and the offense has to get better.

Here is what everyone said after the game:

WILLIE FRITZ

You had your defense on the field for fourth-and-6 and then tried to run the punt return team when Navy brought its punt team on. What happened there?

"It was a bad job by me. We were waiting for them (the officials) to allow us to match and they didn't allow us to match. We ran out there on the field and boy, they went quick. It was a timeout situation and we hustled out on the field. We should have just kept the defense out there on the field. MIscommunication."

And then what happened with Navy declining the penalty and then accepting the penalty?

"I don't know. It took forever. They accepted it for us to have the ball there, and all of a sudden they changed it and then they couldn't spot it and mark it. The play before, too, with the timeout we weren't quite sure if it was a long one or a short one. We didn't get a communication on that as well, but we should have just kept the defense out there."

What positives can you take out of this game considering the way you handled adversity and put yourself in position to win?

"Well, there's a lot of good things. We took a lot of chances and we converted on some fourth-and-shorts. We had to kind of get ourselves back in the game and we did with a few conversions. We'd have liked to have had an opportunity to see if we could go 80 yards in two minutes rather than giving up the first down.It would have been tough, but we would have liked to have had the opportunity. I thought our guys really fought back. I'm proud of the guys and their effort."

What is Banks' status?

"I'm not 100-percent sure, but he's going to be OK."

How would you assess Johnathan Banks' play?

"Johnathan came out and played really well. He really did a good job coming in with a tough situation. He did a lot of good things."

Coby Neenan missed another extra point, and then you went for two in an unconventional spot the next time you scored. What was the thought process?

"We have to make those (kicks) obviously. We went for 2 just to give our guys an opportunity to know whether we needed to score a touchdown or win with an extra point. Analytically, it was not a game we wanted to go to overtime, and it would have been nice to have a chance to kick a field goal for the win. We just didn't get it done."

How significant was the holding call on Keyshawn McLeod?

"Yeah, that was a tough one. We were driving the ball pretty well and it put us in first-and-20. That hurt us. Hindsight's 20-20, but I would have liked to have continued running the ball there and see if they could stop us."

Brantley said he made a bad read on the fourth-down pass that got batted down. What happened there?

"It was a slant and he went to that side. I think he wishes he would have gone to the other side of the field. It was a nice slant route. The linebacker dropped into the slant area and made the play."

This is the second straight year you've won the turnover battle by two and lost to Navy. How frustrating is that?

"Well, they've got a culture of winning, and we've got to get that same thing going. There's a lot of close plays. A fumble in the end zone, it would have been great if we would have recovered that ball, but give them the credit. They did a good job."

Do you have an update on Rod Teamer, who limped off the field in the third quarter.?

"I don't know. I think he's going to be all right. I hadn't really gotten a report yet."

ADE ARUNA

How tough is it to come out with a loss when you played this hard?

'It was pretty tough. We didn't play as well as we wanted to play. We played hard out there, but we needed to come out with more big plays and have more three-and-outs."

You overcame injuries and gave yourself a shot at the end. Is that encouraging?

"To me, it's next man up. That's our mentality. Coach has been saying that since he got here. When somebody goes down, somebody has to step in. That's no excuse for us to lose this game."

After some big plays early, you guys handled their running attack. How did you feel about that part of the game?

"We feel pretty good about that. We knew they were going to come out with a bunch of tricks, so we weren't surprised. We were ready for what they did."

RAE JUAN MARBLEY

How would you assess the play of the defense?

"The defense played a really good game. I'm proud of the way we all played. We knew we had to come out this game and be really physical and really nasty and gritty, and I feel my guys did a good job of doing that. We had a real good scheme this week going against those guys. We executed our scheme pretty good."

What does it say that you fought back after Navy's 16-0 spurt when everything appeared to be going wrong?

"We just know in life and anything in football, you have adversities, so we just have to keep plugging and those guys are going to come in and play different spots when those guys go down. We have to make sure we band together and are communicating with them and everybody is on the same page with the same goal."

What happened on the fumble you caused that Rod Teamer returned for a touchdown?

"It was just making a play. I'm trying to rally for my guys and do as much as I can. The ball just popped out. I hit the quarterback and I heard the crowd and I looked down the field and Rod was running with the ball. I was like, go, go, go. It was a pretty exciting feeling."

How frustrating was the penalty and the first down at the end?

"I feel like you can't really narrow the game down to one single play. There were certain plays we could have made better tackles or the offensive line could have made better blocks. It's everything in general just coming together that gave us the outcome of the game. We definitely have some things to go back and work on."

What were your impressions of Johnathan Brantley?

"He's capable of doing those things. He's a very smart guy. Sometimes I go talk to him and ask him what they are doing on offense just to pick his brain and stuff like that. He's capable of making those plays."

You have come close before. What will it take to win this type of game in the future?

"You've got to just finish. You can't just single out one play. Every play you've got to make sure you're executing. Little things add up. You can't build a house with one big thing. It's one brick here, one brick there, so we have to make sure we're doing all those things to go in the right direction."

You were really stuffing their running game at the end. What adjustments did you make?

"We just knew we had to pick up our play. Coach always tells us during the week the more physical team wins, and we came out and had to be more physical."

JOHNATHAN BRANTLEY

What were your thoughts when Jonathan Banks went down?

"I was surprised but I had to be ready. My job as a backup was to step in if he goes down. I was ready."

You had a huge run right off the bat that set up your own TD. How much did that help you get comfortable?

"it did give me a comfort level to just get into the game. That's all."

What happened on the fourth-down pass that got batted down?

"That's all on me. It was a bad read. Just a bad read. I thought he was blitzing. I was throwing to (Terren) Encalade. I thought the backer was blitzing and he ended up dropping, so it was a bad read."

You fought back but couldn't get the win. How tough is that?

"Extremely tough. It comes down to the small mistakes in close games. They made less mistakes than us."

The penalty and the fourth-down conversion kept you from getting a final chance. How frustrating was that?

"Very frustrating. It's just frustrating not to have the ball in my hands on the last play to try to win for my team. So that was pretty frustrating."

Tulane covered easily again, and all 20 of us had the Wave beating the point spread. The other games were a mixed bag, with USC and Georgia having few backers.

WEEK 2 RESULTS

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buck2481
Kettrade1
Guerry Smith
WaveON

6

St Amant Wave
Gretna Green
p8kpev
DrBox
Wavetime

5

bbos1025
paliii
LSU Law Greenie
Golfer81
winwave
charlamange8

4

MNAlum
mono41

3

Harahan Wave
diverdo
highwave

GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 20 out of 20
Oklahoma 8
Southern Cal 6
Clemson 13
Georgia 5
Nebraska 8
Houston 12
Tulsa 15

OVERALL STANDINGS

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p8kpev
Guerry Smith

13

buck2481
Kettrade1
WaveON

12

charlamange8
diverdo
St Amant Wave
DrBox

11

winwave
LSU Law Greenie
paliii
Wavetime
mono41

10

Gretna Green
bbos1025

9

Golfer81

8

Harahan Wave
MNAlum
highwave

This is an incredibly long story in the Baltimore Post. By modern newspaper standards, I get plenty of space to write my daily stories on Tulane in The Advocate, but the Navy story here is more than 1,600 words, nearly twice as long as my Saturday previews, which are usually the longest stories I write.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ac-cs-navy-offense-report-card-20170907-story.html

Let's see if we can match our success as a group from week 1. As always, home teams are listed first, the Tulane me counts double and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com.

Navy (-13) Tulane
Ohio State (-7.5) Oklahoma
Southern Cal (-6.5) Stanford
Clemson (-5.5) Auburn
Notre Dame (-4.5) Georgia
Oregon (-14) Nebraska
Arizona (+1.5) Houston
Tulsa (-15) Louisiana-Lafayette

247 sports has posted a "Team Talent Ranking" based on the cumulative 247 rankings of the entire roster, including how many 3*, 4* and 5* recruits each program has...you can find it here.

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite

Now of course once kids get on campus you can throw recruiting rankings out the window, but for comparison's sake it's a fun exercise. Of note are some of the teams ranked below us:

#54 UCF (1-5*, 4-4*, 60-3*)
#57 UofH (2-5*, 3-4*, 52-3*)
#59 USF (1-4*, 66-3*)
#69 Memphis (1-4*, 49-3*)
#71 Boise St (2-4*, 54-3*)
#72 Cincy (1-4*, 58-3*)
#73 SMU (2-4*, 44-3*)
#74 ECU (3-4*, 37-3*)
#76 Temple (3-4*, 33-3*)
#80 Tulsa (33-3*)
#81 Uconn (1-4*, 33-3*)
#85 Tulane (1-4*, 22-3*) of note our 4* is Corey Dauphine, but J. Banks was a 4* coming out of HS
#86 la tech (29-3*)
#87 usm (27-3*)
#91 NAVY (21-3*)
#96 geo southern (25-3*)
#106 FIU (12-3*)
#112 ul-l (15-3*)
#133 ARMY (1-3*)

Some interesting takeaways...on paper we are more talented than Army and Navy, but both teams won 8 or more games last season while we lost 8. Uconn is more talented, on paper, but we kicked the poop out of them last season. Big Bad Boise st is below 4 AAC teams in talent, but do we think those 4 teams (UCF, UH, USF and Memphis) could beat Boise? Houston, which is one of the most talented outfits in the conference lost to SMU & Navy last season and were 1 yard shy of losing to Tulsa. Talent matters, but coaching scheme is the great equalizer.

Guerry gave us lots of reports in the spring about our defense working with 3 man front. Fritz down played it in interviews but last night we played exclusively in a 3-3-5 look. Carroll who many thought would be a DE was clearly playing a LB position along with Jackson and Marbley. Carroll was 25 yards down field on one play covering a back running a wheel route. We usually rushed 4 but the 4th rusher varied and came from different spots.

Braynon Edwards has lost a ton of weight. He is still big but looks to be functional

Because I had gotten behind on my Advocate writing (all Saturday copy is due around noon on Thursday), I arrived at practice late today and saw only about 20 minutes. It appears that Tulane is almost totally healthy heading into the Navy game. Although Parry Nickerson did not participate in the part I saw, it probably was due to the normal rest he gets to safeguard his knee. Willie Fritz said the Green Wave had no significant new injuries. The only two players who normally would be on the travel roster but aren't are Robert Kennedy, who is rehabbing after offseason knee surgery, and walk-on wide receiver Brian Newman, who sustained a leg injury near the end of preseason camp.

"We're in pretty good shape," Fritz said. "You'd like to have everybody ready to go, but that's part of football, it's part of sports. We did a nice job with staying out of harm's way (against Grambling)."

Fritz was not thrilled with Wednesday's workout, which took place in ideal, unseasonably mild weather at Yulman Stadium.

"We had an excellent practice yesterday," he said. "Today's was OK. We have to do a better job of locking in all the time. Like I tell the guys all the time, we've got a lot of tough guys but we need more of them. Mentally tough, physically tough. It's hard to be elite. It's hard to win every one of these games. It's hard to be all in, and that's what we're striving for. We're getting more guys on that side. We need everybody, though."

"I feel pretty good," Fritz said. "One of the things I just got done talking to them about is we really try to frontload things at the beginning of the week and do a lot of work, then we taper off. One of the things to our advantage is we practice in the morning, so we really have another six or eight hours of recovery time compared to other people and maybe even a little more than that. We've got 54 hours to do a good job of hydrating, do a good job of eating properly, do a good job of staying off our feet, do a good job of sleeping, recovering, studying our playbooks, videotape, rehabbing, treatment. All those things are very important to playing the best you can on Saturday."

Tulane prides itself on its sure tackling under Fritz, who stresses proper technique and practices proper technique more than any college coach I've ever covered. That's even more important against Navy, which thrives on teams missing tackles as they wear down physically and mentally against the relentless triple option.

"It's big time," Fritz said. "You start getting people coming at you and you start body blocking and all that other kind of crap, you've got to tackle and use your arms. Offense blocks, defense tackles, and that requires you to use your arms and wrap up and get them down and play with leverage. There's not going to be a whole lot of cutbacks in this game. These guys are either straight ahead or they are running laterally. We've got to do a great job of what I call near-hip track team. Once the ball declares itself near hip, I'm tracking the heck out of it and I'm going to tackle the man. So yeah, tackling's big time."

Tre Jackson worked with the first-team defense instead of Nickerson at the end of practice, so Jackson would be Tulane's No. 3 cornerback. I expect Peter Woullard to be more heavily involved at end because his skill set fits Navy's approach, but other than, the personnel won't change much against Navy.

Fritz clearly is relishing the opportunity playing Navy affords to gauge his program's progress this early in his second season. I'm going to look stupid if Tulane gets whipped Saturday because I've been treating it as a toss-up game in my coverage for The Advocate, but I really believe that is the case. I think the coaches do, too, although they're not going to say that.

Navy ranked 123rd out of 128 FBS teams in pass defense efficiency last year and gave up touchdown passes of 95 and 62 yards to FAU last week. Navy ranked dead last in third-down conversion defense last year (and first in third-down conversion offense, a strange double that probably never has happened before). And Tulane finally has a quarterback and scheme that can take advantage of those weaknesses.

The history is still daunting. Navy is 39-10 at home under Ken Niumatalolo, and Tulane is 10-43 on the road in the same span. The Wave is 4-14 in league openers since Tommy Bowden left.

Those are numbers Fritz will change, but will it happen this year? We'll find out Saturday.

"This is a great test for us," Fritz said. I'm glad we had a game to get prepared and work the kinks out. This is a great opportunity. I'm really excited about it and know our guys are, too."

Willie Fritz confirmed after practice today that redshirt freshman Coby Neenan would remain Tulane's placekicker for the pivotal game at Navy Saturday.

The Green Wave, which lost to the Midshipmen 21-14 last year in part because of a crucial missed field goal by the since-departed Andrew DiRocco, had more kicking woes when Neenan missed back-to-back extra points in the second half against Grambling.

"It just was not attention to detail," Fritz said. "It was his mechanics. HIs plant foot was a little too close and he was hanging back there a little bit too long, so we made some minor modifications. He's very talented. We've just got to get him to execute and do it in the games."

With little margin for error, Neenan has to get that issue fixed Saturday. Navy is beatable as Tulane seeks only its second 2-0 start since the perfect season of 1998 (2002 was the other) and third since the Larry Smith era began in 1976. Chew on that for a second and you can see why it is so important for the Wave to win and start changing the losing culture that has pervaded the program for a very long time.

The coaches were on the players hard in this morning's workout at Yulman Stadium, which was supposed to be moved to the Saints indoor facility due to bad weather reports on Tuesday night but was moved back to campus when the rain chance went from 60 percent to zero percent. The yelling and criticizing was an indication the coaches don't want the players to get complacent after the Grambling win, which sounds ridiculous but was an absolute fact in the past every time Tulane won a game. It's a matter of when, not if, Fritz and his staff change that attitude, but it would be nice to see it happen Saturday.

Luke Jackson is coming of a heck of a first career start. In Tulane's 50th game since he arrived, he made the most of his start at weakside linebacker with four tackles and a 13-yard sack that took Grambling out of scoring position near the end of the first half. He made an immediate impact, running in untouched to harass QB DeVante Kincade into a desperate dump-off for no gain on the first play.

"He's real smart and he gives us a little size," Fritz said. "He's a calming influence. He doesn't ever get too high and he doesn't get too low. He doesn't say much, but the wheels are turning in his head all the time."

Jackson arrived at Tulane as a defensive end, shifted to linebacker after he lost 30 pounds and got down to 200 after chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer at the end of 2013, moved back to defensive end the following year and did not make an impact until the second half of 2016, when Fritz' staff began using him at linebacker again. He had 17 of his 20 tackles a year ago in the last six games, and he moved up to starting weakside 'backer this preseason when Zach Harris missed nearly three weeks due to a knee problem. Harris returned last week, but Jackson started against Grambling and acquitted himself well.

"He's made the adjustment great," Fritz said. "In the last fall we had a couple of games with some guys banged up, so we stuck him in there in practice and he did a good job. He did a real good job during the spring. He can play a lot of spots. He can put his hand on the ground. He can play defensive end. He can play an outside 'backer and he can play an inside 'backer."

Basically, Tulane has three inside linebackers it trusts now in Jackson, Harris and starting middle 'backer Rae Juan Marbley.

Asked about the offensive line, Fritz singled out freshman Corey Dublin for a solid performance against Grambling while questioning everyone else up front.

"For a first start as a true freshman, Corey Dublin played well," Fritz said. "The rest of them really had some good stuff they did and maybe some stuff they need to improve on. They weren't as smooth the whole game. it was a complex scheme they were running and it took us a little while to figure it out, and then some guys came in at the end of the game and did a nice job for us."

Fritz confirmed that Dominique Briggs would move back inside to right guard to accommodate the return of Keyhsawn McLeod, but he still is not set on each guy playing only one spot.

"He'll have to play both," Fritz said. "One of the things we're trying to do is create depth by having guys be able to play multiple positions."

Asked what quarterback Jonathan Banks needed to do against Navy, Fritz had a simple answer.

"The same thing he did last week," Fritz said. "He's got to do a great job of managing the game and playing sharp and crisp. A lot of things are flying out there, and we're going to start playing all better opponents, too."

Here's the list. All ratings, unless otherwise denoted, are from Rivals.

UNCOMMITTED (2018)

1) Jorien Vallien, WR, 6-2, 180, Alexandria High in Louisiana, 2 stars

Comment: Has offers from Arizona State, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Texas Tech among others.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/jorien-vallien-182075

2) Mike Williams, ATH, 6-2, 250, Dunham School in Baton Rouge, 3 stars as DE

Comment: Rated the 48th best player in the state by Rivals. Has offers from Alabama and LSU. Rated low for their norms but very high for Tulane's norms.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/mike-williams-182475

3) Devin Winters, DT, 6-2, 250, McDonogh 35, 2 stars

Comment: He has no stars from 247 Sports, which lists him at 6-4, 245, but his recruiting interest indicates he is underrated by the sites. Has offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Oregon State and Houston among others.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/devin-winters-110422

4) Brandon Davis, CB, 6-0, 165, John Curtis, 2 stars

Comment: Only FBS offers are from Colorado State, ULM and South Alabama.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/brandon-davis-186211

5) Joe Foucha, DB, 5-10, 194, McDonogh 35, 3 stars

Comment: Offers from LSU, Alabama, FSU and all kinds of powerhouse P5 programs. Rated 34th nationally at his position and 16th best overall prospect in Louisiana.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/joseph-foucha-20569

6) Lawrence Keys, WR, 5-11, 160, McDonogh 35, 3 stars

Comment: Rated the No. 18 overall prospect in Louisiana with reporters offers from P5 powers LSU, Georgia, Michigan and Oklahoma among others.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/lawrence-keys-69044

7) Jared Miles, WR, 6-1, 185, McDonogh 35, 3 stars

Comment: Rated the No. 52 overall prospect in Louisiana. P5 offers from Oregon State, TCU, Viriginia, West Virginia. AAC interest from Houston and SMU.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/jared-miles-14406

8) Taron Jones, RB, 5-11, 183, Mandeville, 2 stars

Comment: Only reported offer is from Kansas. Not as much info available on him as the other guys.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/taron-jones-185963

COMMITTED ELSEWHERE

1) Sheldon Jones, WR, 5-9, 156, Warren Easton, 3 stars

Comment: Committed to UTSA, rated the No. 25 prospect in Louisiana but has no offers from P5 schools. It seems reasonable he could flip if there is mutual interest.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/sheldon-jones-181021

2) Jammal Houston, WR, 6-2, 179, John Ehret, 3 stars

Comment: Committed to Colorado State, rated the No. 33 overall prospect in Louisiana. I'm not buying his prodigious list of offers from schools like LSU, Auburn and Tennessee.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/jammal-houston-181400

3) Quindell Johnson, S, 6-0, 185, Karr, 2 stars

Comment: Committed to Memphis, where he was recruited by former CJ assistant David Johnson. Also has offers from Purdue and Houston.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/quindell-johnson-206686

4) Damian Tate, CB, 5-10, 172, Warren Easton, 3 stars

Comment: Committed to McNeese State with an offer from Jackson State. Clearly, the reported offers don't match the rating.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/damien-tate-jr-95916

5) Roger McCreary, DB, 6-0, 190, Williamson High in Mobile, Ala., 2 stars

Comment: Committed to South Alabama, has an offer from UAB. Tulane has recruited well in Alabama and should have a decent chance of flipping him if the interest is there.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/roger-mccreary-185594

6) Jamall Hickbottom, LB, 6-2, 220, Williamson HIgh in Mobile, Ala, 2 stars

Comment: Also committed to South Alabama like his high school teammate. No other reported offers.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/jamall-hickbottom-185593

2019 PROSPECTS

Dunham cornerback Derek Stingley, who is the top prospect in Louisiana and the No. 18 prospect nationally, will be in the house, as well as teammate Makiya Tongue, a 3-star athlete and West Jefferson DB Greg Brooks, who has offers from Kansas and Louisiana Tech according to 247 Sports.

One other very familiar name will be there--2020 prospect Lynaris Elpheage of Carver. His dad of the same name was a terrific DB for Tulane who was instrumental in the Wave's 2002 Hawaii Bowl win against Hawaii.

ALREADY COMMITTED

1) Davon Wright
2) Josh Quiett
3) Jamiran James
4) Nik Hogan
5) Juan Monjarres

In the six years I've been running this contest, no one has ever had a perfect week. When Tennessee scored a touchdown to start the second OT last night, p8kpev was one stop away from that hallowed ground, but it was not to be. The Yellow Jackets scored, inexplicably went for 2 and lost by 1, covering the 4-point spread.

We had a good week as a group.

8

p8kpev

7

charlamange8
Guerry Smith
mono41
diverdo

6

St Amant Wave
LSU Law Greenie
paliii
Kettrade1
buck2481
DrBox
winwave
WaveON

5

highwave
Harahan Wave
bbos1025
Wavetime

4

MNAlum
Golfer81
GretnaGreen

Game-by-game statistics (how many contestants picked the winner)

Tulane 18 out of 20
LSU 16
Alabama 16
Michigan 16
Notre Dame 9
Virginia Tech 10
Texas A&M 9
Georgia Tech 4

Keyshawn McLeod practiced today, so on a weekend when key players were dropping left and right across the country, Tulane came out of its opening 43-14 win against Grambling as close to full strength as possible. McLeod will start at right offensive tackle for the Green Wave against Navy this Saturday, allowing Dominique Briggs to slide back to right guard and sending Leeward Brown to the bench.

Other than than that, there's not much to report from practice today. Willie Fritz' and his staff's attention to detail continues to be impressive. They had another tackling drill today, and the significance of that daily work has become evident. Tulane missed far fewer tackles a year ago than two years ago, and the starters missed few tackles against Grambling on Saturday. That will be a key element to slowing down Navy, which lives off of missed tackles as teams break down mentally and physically trying to defend the triple option.

In another example, a grad assistant worked with Darnell Mooney, Chris Johnson and Rocky Ferony on catching the ball when they otherwise would have had nothing to do during a kickoff drill. He bounced the ball to them on a short hop to test their reflexes and hand-eye coordination, threw high to them on purpose and threw low and away to them on purpose. The exercise took 10 minutes, but it is the type of thing that can determine the outcome of a game.

Other quick notes:

---Offensive line coach Alex Atkins, walking gingerly on a sore ankle today, joked that "I can't call y'all soft anymore."

---Miles Strickland was in full uniform. It's doubtful he will crack the running back rotation this week, but seeing him dressed was a rare sight.

---Tulane has five grad students this year, but none of them appear to be missing practice days like Josh Rounds and Lazedrick Thompson did last season. They are defensive end Quinlan Carroll, offensive tackle John Leglue, linebacker Luke Jackson, defensive end Ade Aruna and, of course, backup center Hunter Knighton.

--Today was a media crush by Tulane standards with four local TV stations on hand along with me and the new Nola.com guy, so I did not get any one-one-one time with Fritz. Here's what he had to say in the media session they conduct inside right next to the field in what has replaced the more formal news conference and luncheon that had taken place every year since I've been on the beat:

"We came out and played sharp (against Grambling) in all three phases. We started the second half off great with a great kick return and got a score to make it 31-0. We got a little bit sloppy at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. We had some young guys in there with the opportunity to play and show us what they can do, and some of them took advantage of it and some of them didn't. You go out and practice, you script everything and try to go through every situation and scenario that you can. There's no substitute for a real game. It's all full speed, and we learned a lot from the experience.

"Navy is a great program. Coach Ken (Niumatalolo) has done a phenomenal job. I've got a lot of respect for him and his staff. They do a super job of recruiting. That's really underrated for that program. They've got some good athletes and a lot of them. We know what we are going to get from them in the offense, defense, kicking game. They just do a great job of technique and fundamentals. We're just going to have to go up there and be really tough and play four quarters of football if not longer and have a tough mindset in order to win this game."

Can this be a statement win for this program?

"Every one we get right now is a statement win for us. We've got to get this thing turned around. Sometimes some of the coaches and players have a hard time keeping up with me, but I approach every game like it's the Super Bowl. It is because we're playing in the game. Our margin for error is very slim. We've got to do everything right, and if we do that, we've got a chance to win every game we play. Our job is to prepare them, and their job as a Division I player is to go out and play lights out on game day. We want to get this one just like we want to get every other one."

How much of their option is like 1970s option football, and how efficiently do they execute it?

"They do a great job. They've been running this offense. We watched Georgia Tech last night. Coach (Paul) Johnson was the head coach at Navy and coach Ken was one of his assistants. He took over, and it's a very similar type offense, both of them. We call it an under-center triple option. It has a lot of man-blocking principles rather than zone blocking principles like we do, so there are a lot of differences in what we do and they do in the fact that there is a dive player, a quarterback player and a pitch player who can run the ball on every play. It's a physical type offense. They come straight at you and sometimes they get big plays in the passing game. They are very efficient in the passing game. They don't throw for a lot of yards, but it's a high completion rate. It's a good offense. There's really on a few schools running it at a Division I level--Army, Navy, Air Force does a little bit of it and Georgia Tech. They've kind of got their own club. They've got their own cult."

How much does it help that you run something similar offensively?

"Really what we're doing is a lot different than what they're doing. It starts with the offensive line. The mesh point, there are a few similarities but not a whole lot. It's a little bit like (John Curtis') under-center split-back veer. When you run it from the gun, the mesh point and timing are totally different."

You brought Jonathan Banks here to win big games for you, and is a game like this the reason he is here?

"We're going to have to score some points. It's hard to beat these guys scoring one or two touchdowns. You've got to match them. They were number one in the nation in third-down conversions last year at 56 percent (actually 54.5) and the next closest was in the high 40s (actually 53.7 at Western Michigan; eight teams were above 50 percent). They are very good on fourth down and will go for them a lot, so we've got to match it. This is going to be a pretty quick game. This won't be a three-and-a-half hour game. Last year when they played Notre Dame, each team had six series (Notre Dame had six and Navy had seven). Most games you are going to play will have 12 or 13. Usually with our style it's 11. There's is probably eight or nine, so you've got to do a good job with ball security, a great job with takeaways and a good job of matching them moving the chains."

What can Banks do better?

"If you ask him, he's going to say passing (this was funny because it's true. Every time Banks talks, he emphasizes his passing ability and plays down his running skills). That's what he wants to do. He's like all quarterbacks. He'd like to throw it 50 times a game. The reason we recruited him is he's a dual-threat guy. He can throw it. We're starting to evolve our passing attack, which we need to. There are going to be some games where we'll have him thrown 30, and there are going to be some games where they are having a hard time slowing us down and we throw it 10. Each week you do it based on your opponent and what you're having success on and what you're not having success on."

You have a lot of veterans on defense who have faced this style of triple option a ton (Georgia Tech twice, Navy twice, Army once). How much can that help?

"It helps. To me it's a mindset. You've got to shift gears every week. Games are different. Teams to prepare for are different, but this one is way different. The attention to detail. Tennessee has a good team and they gave up over 500 rushing yards last night (against Georgia Tech). I'm sure they worked on it quite a bit. That was their opening game. It's a booger. We've just got to be on point every single play."

Their coach said he's surprised people don't talk about their quarterback more and they still talk about Keenan Reynolds. What are your thoughts on (Navy QB) Zach Abey, who had 232 rushing yards against Florida Atlantic?

"What happens is he's not real flashy. I don't know a whole lot about Keenan Reynolds, but I think he had some flash to him. This guy is big. If you don't get him between the clubs, he's not going down. You've got to physically tackle him every single time. I know we have a lot of respect for him. He puts his foot in the ground and gets vertical. Most of these guys have run that style of offense forever. I'm guessing he probably ran the under-center, triple-option type offense in high school."

Were you pleased with the maturity your guys showed to open the Grambling game?

"We did a great job in the first quarter coming out of the blocks. They had three or four pre-snap penalties early and we did a great job staying away from them. It got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter. I think we had eight penalties, and six of them were in the fourth quarter, so we need to clean that up. Navy is always the least penalized team in the country, so we have to do a good job of matching them in that area as well."

Fritz also mentioned the importance of being turnover free in the middle of an otherwise extraneous question and answer, referencing the costly fumble that cost Georgia Tech a win against Tennessee last night. Tulane was one of 28 teams that did not turn the ball over in its opener.

"The "Georgia Tech running back is wishing he had great ball security. The game would have been over if he hadn't gotten stripped. Somebody came up to his blind spot and stripped him. Most of our guys watch TV maybe too much, and they are going to see all that stuff happen. The game would have been over 30 minutes before."

This was a good win. Grambling will probably be one of the better FCS teams this year and we beat them convincingly. Overall, several FBS teams had much more trouble with lesser FCS opponents and despite an overall 42-4 record against FCS teams, four FBS teams actually lost led by Baylor’s upset at the hands of Liberty, 48-45. Howard, a 45 point underdog, beat UNLV 43-40; Tennessee State beat Georgia State 17-10; and James Madison humiliated our AAC rival and opponent this year, ECU, by a 34-14 score. Yes, beating Grambling was much better than the results inflicted on several of our peers.

Our future opponents faired pretty well going 8-3 with Tulsa, FIU, and ECU falling, while the rest were victorious, if not always impressively. Our next three opponents all looked good. For those thinking Navy will fall off at the QB slot, this past week might give one pause. Their “new” QB was only 3 for 10 passing for 110 yards, but he rushed 32 times for 235 yards (7.3 yds/carry). Of course, the opponent, FAU, is generally rated near the bottom of FBS schools, so who knows. Oklahoma looked like the top tier team they are. And Army mauled a mismatched Fordham, which doesn’t prove a lot other than, as we already knew, they can run the ball.

As for our game, itself, it’s hard to complain about a running attack that racked up 297 yards and three TD’s on 51 carries (5.8 yds/carry). But, 112 of those yards in 17 carries were accomplished by reserves, much of which were against Grambling reserves. That’s not to say those yards shouldn’t count, but they weren’t against the best competition. The 69 net yards contributed by Banks and Encalade’s 58 yard TD were also important to our overall numbers. Encalade’s speed surprised me. I thought their backs would run him down; didn’t happen. On the downside, Hilliard and Badie, our “bell-cow” backs gained 57 yards in 17 carries (3.35 yds/carry). Much of that was individual effort to turn no gains into 3-4 yards. Our run-blocking 1st team against 1st team was not that great. It will need to improve.

Banks had a terrific debut as the Wave QB. 10 for 15, 185 yards and three TD’s passing was a great start. He missed on a couple of long passes, had at least one pass dropped (Clewis), and could have gotten much bigger numbers had the game been closer. As a runner, he may be our best at QB since at least Losman or Terrance Jones, and, though one game does not make a career, could be our best ever runner at the position. He’s big, strong, quick, and decisive. That’s a lot in one package and resulted in 69 yards rushing in 16 carries (79 yards in 15 carries if you delete the one ten yard sack). Again, a great start to his Tulane career.

It’s very early to judge our offensive line, especially in a game like this. Pass protection was generally OK, but Banks’ ability to scramble out of trouble helped a lot. Run blocking was only adequate when our 1st team faced their starters. Our backs make yards that are not there based on the blocking. Future opponents will be tougher.

Except for the 49 yard pass completion near the end of the first half, our defense was dominant while the starters were in, and against their starters. The long TD drive we allowed after going up 31-0 may have been due to a lack of continued intensity though even that depended on a couple of questionable calls by the referees. The long TD run at the beginning of the 4th quarter when we inserted an entire reserve unit suggests our depth (or at least experience) may not be what we like. On the other hand, those same reserves dominated the field in Grambling’s only other possession of the quarter.

Special teams on the whole were disappointing. Badie made a couple of nice kickoff returns which was the highlight. Despite Graff commenting on each punt as being “good,” Block’s longest was 37 yards and he averaged 36 yards on his three punts ( a pretty tight window), which is well below average. Punt coverage was fine but we lost containment a couple times on kickoff returns and had one long return negated by a penalty. That must be corrected soon. Neenan’s kicking was particularly bad. He had seven kick opportunities including a 35 yard extra point and a 21 yard field goal (both made) plus five other extra points of which he missed two. That’s REALLY bad. My guess is the kicking competition is wide open again.

I liked the fact that a lot of kids got into the game—66 according to the game’s box score. This included a number of walk-ons and eleven true freshmen. on scholarship. 12 true freshmen sat out either due to injury or the expectation of a redshirt. The next couple of games should tell us more about that. Best I can tell, of the kids listed on our current roster who are on scholarship, only six did not play who are not true freshmen: Dauphin, who is sitting out a transfer year; McLeod, Kennedy, and Strickland who are hurt, and Lofton and Jacob Robinson who may also be hurt, I don’t know.

I thought attendance was disappointing. The announced crowd of 15,940 appeared on TV to be a generous estimate. I wasn’t there but large swaths of near empty sections were visible at times. Of course, an FCS opponent, Decadence Weekend, and an LSU game only a few miles away could have kept attendance down. But potential excuses will be available every week. We need to string together a few wins to start filling up our little stadium.

Anyway. It’s a good start and a game we had to win to keep bowl prospects clearly in focus.

Roll Wave!!!

Hey Guys: Had a chance to check out Carlos Hatcher in Hebron's Week 1 game vs. Plano on Thursday night. Hebron lost a heartbreaker, but Hatcher really was the lead dog on defense during the first half. For a guy who is a little smaller than a lot of defensive ends, he played pretty strong and is a pretty tenacious player off the edge.

Thanks for having a look - hope you're having a nice weekend!

WILLIE FRITZ

Did the first half go about the way you would have drawn it up?

"Yeah, we did a good job with all three phases in the first half. We really controlled the clock. We didn't run the ball as effectively as I wanted to, but they have an unconventional defense. They stacked the box and we were able to throw effectively. For his first game, Jonathan Banks showed a lot of poise. He made some really good decisions and also you get a lot of one-on-one opportunities with the quarterback out on the perimeter, and there were three or four times they had it played fairly well and it still was a gain of five or six yards for us."

Banks' first run was for 21 yards. His first throw was a touchdown pass. Is that what you wanted to see?

"We've got to be multi-dimensional. If they really want to take away the run and pack the box in there, they can do it. It's kind of a bear front. They didn't have a middle close player, a free safety, which they'd done against quite a few people. They are a tough defense. They've stopped a lot of people. That's a very good defense. Their defensive coordinator does an excellent job, so I was pleased with our ability to throw while they were stymying us in the run game."

How impressed were you with the defensive front?

We played great early. We kind of ran out of gas at a couple of points. We kind of stopped rushing a little bit. The other thing, we worked as much as we could on rush lanes, attacking the quarterback with leverage. We knew that his escape path was always outside. Darned if we didn't lose contain probably about five or six times when we could have really stopped them dead in their tracks. The last touchdown, we put in our second group, and it was a pretty quick drive. They didn't play real well. As I told them in the locker room, everybody gets an opportunity to show what they can do at some point and time, and you've got to take advantage of it. Some guys are going to play more, and some guys that had been playing won't be playing. They didn't play quite as well as what they needed to, but it's great to have a win and also see a lot of things that you can improve on."

You talked a lot last year about missing opportunities for big plays on the option when it wasn't executed right. How nice was it to see the pitch to Encalade and the long touchdown run?

"That was really nice. One thing is Banks does a really nice job of pitching the ball. He's kind of natural at doing it. We finally came up with a scheme where we were going to outflank them a little with the long touchdown run by Encalade. It was a really nice fake and attacking the pitch key and pitching off of them by Jonathan."

How would you assess the offensive line play?

"There were some good things, but I was disappointed a little bit that our pass protection wasn't as firm as we needed it to be. We let some people go. Towards the end there we kind of wore them out. (Stephon) Huderson and (Darius) Bradwell came in and really played well. We were knocking them off the ball, and they still had all their 1s in the game. We were doing a good job with the down scheme and running a little counter scheme against them. We had some success with that."

Would you say the offensive line is the area where you need to make the most improvement going forward?

"Yeah, I think we're better up there. We've got more guys that can play. There are more creases and seams, but we have to be able to convert and get first downs and move the chains because this game coming up (against Navy), there might only be eight, nine, 10 possessions per team. You have to take advantage of every single one of them, so we have to match up with them at the very least."

What happened on the two consecutive extra point misses by Coby Neenan?

"It looked like a decent snap and a decent hold. I don't know if his plant foot was too close to the ball or he was out in front of it or his hips were turned, whatever the case may be. He looked good early, but those two extra points are disappointing. Those have to be automatic."

How big is the Navy game after your struggles in conference play last year?

"They're all big. This one's bigger because it is a conference game. It would be nice to be out there in front at 1-0. There's not a whole lot of conference games this upcoming weekend. They are going to be very disciplined. They are in midseason form the first day of preseason camp. They've been running that offense forever. We've spent a lot of time on them. We spent a lot of time this summer and spent a lot of time in preseason camp, so it's not like we haven't seen it yet. We're not going to be putting together a game plan tomorrow. You can't do that with that type of team, so it will be a fun week and a challenging week."

Although I am in the camp that Tulane will win comfortably, I don't think it's a 100-percent certainty as I may have a month ago.

This has nothing to do with what I've seen at practice--Tulane has concerns on the offensive line, but they won't come into play tonight--but on Grambling's strength. We can slough off Grambling's performance against Arizona last year all we want, but the fact is it was winning 21-3 at the half against a team that took Washington to overtime two weeks later. Arizona turned out terrible, with a pathetic defense, but part of it was that the Wildcats simply quit when the season went down the tubes. Early in the year, they still thought they had a chance to be good, and they clobbered Arizona State in the season finale when they cared for the first time in months.

Contrary to what has been posted on other message boards, Grambling actually was only up 14-3 when Kincade went down. His replacement promptly led the Tigers on a long touchdown drive before the half to make the score 21-3, but Grambling then turned the ball over six times in the second half. Without that absurd total, it might have won because Arizona was playing with its backup QB, too.

If Grambling is as good as it was last year--a big if since it lost all six of its defensive All-SWAC performers--and if Jonathan Banks is shaky in his first start--another big if considering the advantage Tulane has physically on Grambling--and if the Wave makes mistakes, this can be a close game.

I expect Tulane to play very well and win by something like 52-20 because Fritz is a very good coach. But the point spread is only about 19 points, which tells you that Grambling is not considered to be anything like a normal SWAC team and anything like Southern was just a year ago. James Madison won at SMU two years ago.

If Tulane plays poorly tonight, things could get interesting.