1. It’s sure nice to win and break a five game losing streak, even if it was against one of the worst teams in NCAA football.
   
2. It was also nice to win on the road for the first time in a while and to beat Army who has clearly had our number for more than a decade.
3. Still, we’re a bad team. Beating an FCS squad and two of the “bottom feeders” in the G5 world is nothing to “crow” about.
4. Shudder. Could this mean that CJ gets another year? Could a win at SMU and a two game road winning streak warrant an extension? I woke up thinking about that. OK, not really, but it’s a disconcerting thought.
5. Good for Andrew DiRocco. Two clutch field goals including the game winner IS something to “crow” about. The kid is 7 for 7 this year and doing better than anyone, certainly me, expected. Bring in a solid strength coach and get his distance up to NCAA standard (at least 45 yards or so) and he could be an asset, not a liability. A “no option” zone (shouldn’t punt and can’t kick a field goal) between the 20 and 40 yard lines is too big.
6. What’s up with Tanner Lee? He was never particularly accurate, but most of his balls “looked pretty” (good spirals) until the past two weeks. Last week the rain was used as an excuse. Now, we’re hearing more and more about the broken finger. That sounds plausible, even probable, as a cause for the horrible passes. Hope it’s the case. That, at least, is correctable over time. Of course, that he’s playing ahead of our other three scholarship QB’s also says something bad.
7. Our offensive line outplayed Army’s defensive line. I don’t think that is necessarily a good thing, just my observation. We generally protected our QB on passes and blocked several plays pretty well. In fact, five of our 28 rushing attempts went for at least 10 yards. That’s pretty good. And our running backs average 5.0 yards per carry which is very good. The offensive line generally played well in my view.
8. Hilliard is the man! He had four of our five carries for at least ten yards. I thought two of those were well blocked and the others were all on Hilliard. He’s earned the starting job and the bulk of the carries.
9. Badie is being misused—badly. He had two rushes against Army both on pitches in which he was immediately surrounded going sideways by 3-4-5 defenders—NO Chance! If those are the only plays he knows or the only ones he’s used for, the defenders will ALWAYS be ready. We need to have some misdirection the other way to use him as a decoy or, better still, turn him into a full time “slot back.” He’s fast, elusive, and can catch the ball. Moreover, we don’t have anyone else who can do that job as well and with Hilliard getting most (should get even more) of the carries, he’s not needed at running back.
10. We started two tight ends in the game for the second time (Ardoin and Jones). The other time was against Navy. And we played two tight ends for much of the game. I suppose the reason was to get more blocking to support the run game. If so, we haven’t recruited the right guys. Our tight ends are more receivers than blockers. At least they are better receivers than blockers. Ardoin’s TD was a great individual effort, by the way. But, if we are going to use our tight ends primarily for blocking, we need to get at least one who is better suited to the task.
11. Veal is clearly our #1 target at wide receiver. In fact, Breaux only had one pass thrown his way until the final drive when he caught two. Veal was open a great deal also even though he only caught four passes. After having two open opportunities deep down field early (the horrible miss by Lee and the 90 yard TD), I don’t know why we didn’t continue to take occasional shots throughout the game. One thing that troubled me was that on his 90 yard TD, two Army DB’s seemed to be catching Veal. I know he doesn’t have “elite” speed, but that was disconcerting. Maybe they were faster than I'd given them credit for.
12. I thought he defensive interior line played very well; Smart, Redwine, and Wilson all had god games from my perspective and bottled-up the Army “inside” game completely. They were “spelled” only briefly by Calvin Thomas and Jason Stewart because both Eldrick Washington and Eric Bell did not play. Since Guerry reported no injuries on that front, I guess the latter two are simply no longer in the “mix” for time.
13. The rest of our defense did not fare as well in my opinion. Our defensive ends, linebackers, and defensive backs were out of position time and again on pitches to the outside. It wasn’t even that we missed a lot of tackles, but that we were not even in position to make “touches” until well down field. We also over-pursued or took bad angles on virtually every “trick” play Army ran. If Bob Toledo had the success with his “tricks” as Army did, he’d probably still be the coach (Ugh!!)
14. Nickerson is our only DB with BCS-level “cover skills” and he has been beaten badly several times this year. The rest simply are not doing the job. Lionel “Speedy” Washington may or may not be a great defensive coordinator (I think he’s pretty good), but I believe he is an outstanding coach of defensive backs. That ours are so bad at coverage suggests a lack of talent, not a lack of coaching.
15. After depending so much on freshmen last year, our “true freshman” class this year continues to provide virtually no help. Seven of the 15 are redshirting. Two of the eight who have played this year (Glenn and Shy) have now sat out the past two games. Are they injured? Hicks and Preston had no looks in their brief appearances at wide receiver and Block had one punt blocked and average 32.0 yards/punt on the other four. Teamer, Eugene, and Shenall, despite making some nice plays in other games, had a total of two tackles between them. That’s not a lot of contribution from the class that most people recognized as “sub-par” to start with. On other teams, more of these kids would have redshirted. And on a lot of them, never been signed.
16. Speaking of redshirts, I found it interesting that Sam Davis saw his first action of the year, making a tackle, and removing any chance of redshirting. Davis was the walk on who was a highlight of fall camp when he briefly worked out with the first team and coaches were marveling at his skills. Well, in game 10, he got to showcase them, at least fleetingly.
17. Poor snapping must be contagious. LeGlue, after doing a good job of snapping for a few weeks seems to be getting worse.
18. I don’t think conditioning was much of an issue in this game. Yes, Army controlled the clock and ran 68 plays to our 57, but they gained most of their yards (234 of 362) in the first half. They stopped themselves more often than not. Fumbles, even though they recovered them forced them into long yardage situations and “going for it” on fourth down four times; they only made one. Up until their last two drives, we held them in check throughout the 3rd and early 4th quarters. Of course, the 87 yard drive to tie the game was a complete breakdown of our defense.
19. Finally, our own game winning drive was a positive way to finish off the game. Some, including me, thought we should have been more aggressive, but it’s hard to argue with success. Lee was 3 for 4 on the drive for 30 yards and Hilliard ran three times for another 24. Thank heaven for DiRocco making the field goal.
20. Two games to go.

Roll Wave!!!

The first baseball game.

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com. Tulane has covered three games in a row, so there's that.

Army (-2.5) Tulane
Houston (-7) Memphis
South Florida (+2.5) Temple
Mississippi State (+8) Alabama
LSU (-7.5) Arkansas
Baylor (-2.5) Oklahoma
Stanford (-10) Oregon
Auburn (-1.5) Georgia

Even though he has not totally recovered from a sprained ankle, Tulane running back Lazedrick Thompson will play early against Army on Saturday to gauge his effectiveness.

It’s come to that for the Tulane offense. With nothing else working, the coaches might as well see if a gimpy power runner with three carries since September can help them end a five-game losing streak.

Among a multitude of issues, the Green Wave’s inability to pick up first downs on third-and-short probably is its most glaring offensively.

Thompson failed on the first third down of the season, getting surrounded in the backfield by Duke for a 2-yard loss that set the tone for Tulane’s terrible performance the rest of the way. When healthy, though, he remains the Wave’s best option in those situations—a 219-pound physical player with a straight-ahead style.

“When he’s not on the field, you have to call plays that Dontrell (Hilliard) and Sherman (Badie) are familiar with, and some of those plays are wide plays,” coach Curtis Johnson said. “ We just have to block it better and continue to run it and get those tough yards. That’s what we’ve had in the past with Orleans Darkwa and Lazedrick.”

That is the start of my Next Level story for The Advocate that will run as part of the Tulane-Army advance package tomorrow, but I will go into more detail here, listing every second- and third- and fourth-down situation the Wave has had with one or two yards to get the first down. The results, predictably, ain't pretty.

DUKE

Third-and-1: NO (handoff to Thompson loses 2 yards)

Second-and-2: YES (Badie gains 8 yards)

Fourth-and-2: NO (Lee incomplete pass for Veal)

Third-and-1: YES (Hilliard rush for 4 yards)

Third-and-2: NO (Lee pass incomplete for Encalade)

GEORGIA TECH

Third-and-1: YES (Hilliard run for 6 yards)

Third-and-1: YES (Thompson run for 1 yard)

Second-and-2: YES (Lee complete to Badie for 5 yards)

Second-and-1: NO (Hilliard loses 1 yard)

Third-and-2: YES (Thompson run for 5 yards)

MAINE

Third-and-2: YES (Lee complete to Veal for 3 yards)

Third-and-1: YES (Thompson run for 3 yards)

Third-and-goal at 1: YES (Thompson run for TD)

Second-and-1: YES (Rounds run for 4 yards)

(Thompson got hurt during the Maine game and has barely played since then, getting three carries. At that point, Tulane was 10 for 14 on short-yardage situations overall and 7 for 9 on third-an-short. Since then, the story has been vastly different)

UCF

Third-and-1: NO (Badie stuffed for no gain)

First-and-goal at 2: NO (Kelley stuffed for no gain)

Second-and-goal at 2: YES (TD pass to Ardoin)

Second-and-1: YES (Hilliard run for 9 yards)

Second-and-2: YES (Kelly run for 3 yards)

Third-and-2: NO (Hilliard loses a yard)

Third-and-1: NO (Rounds stuffed for no gain)

Third-and-1: NO (Rounds stuffed for no gain)

TEMPLE

Second-and-goal at 2: NO (botched lateral loses 8 yards)

Third-and-1: NO (Powell no gain)

HOUSTON

Second-and-2: NO (Kelley loses a yard)

Third-and-2: YES (Joseph pass to Breaux for 51 yards)

NAVY

Second-and-1: NO (false start penalty on Veal)

Second-and-1: YES (Lee pass to Badie for 2 yards)

Fourth-and-1: NO (Hillard stuffed for no gain)

Third-and-1: NO (Lee fumbles on failed sneak)

MEMPHIS

Second-and-2: YES (Joseph pass to Rounds for 2 yards)

First-and-goal at 2: NO (Kelley loses 1 yard)

Third-and-2: NO (Hanson false start penalty)

Second-and-2: YES (Hilliard gains 2 yards)

Third-and-2: NO (Hilliard loses 1 yard)

Second-and-2: NO (Joseph loses 2 yards)

Third-and-2: NO (Hilliard stuffed for no gain)

Third-and-1: YES (Kelley rushes for 2 yards)

Third-and-1: YES (Hilliard rushes for 2 yards)

UCONN

Third-and-2: NO (Badie loses 3 yards)

Third-and-2: YES (Lee pass to Dace for 4 yards)

Second-and-1: NO (Hilliard loses 1 yard)

Third-and-2: NO (Lee sacked for 8-yard loss)

ANALYSIS

First off, the point here is not that Tulane's season would have been significantly different if Thompson had remained healthy. The overwhelming amount of evidence says it would have been inconsequential.

The real point is how horrible Tulane has been in short-yardage situations during its five-game skid. It is 7 for 21 in that span when needing two yards or less. That's abjectly awful.

And since Thompson went out, Tulane is 2 for 14 when trying to run for the first down on third-and-2 or third-and-1 or fourth-and-1. The two successes came on a meaningless final possession against Memphis when Tulane was not even trying to score in a 41-13 loss. That is absurd.

It's interesting that the one time Tulane tried something radical on third-and-short, albeit at a meaningless time during its 42-7 loss to Houston, Joseph completed a 51-yard pass.

It was a rough week collectively, but Dr.Box continued his second-half surge by missing only one game and winwave had his third excellent performance in four weeks. Hard to believe that Tulane has covered three consecutive weeks.

8

Dr.Box

7

winwave

6

Charlamange

5

Guerry
wavetime

4

nyoscar
jjstock2005
Rcnut

3

WaveOn

2

kettrade1
MNAlum
p8pkev

1

LSU Law Greenie
Golfer81

OVERALL STANDINGS

Guerry 47.5
winwave 46.5
DrBox 46.5
wavetime 42.5
Rcnut 42.5
MNAlum 40.5
kettrade1 38.5
jjstock2005 36.5
WaveON 35.5
nyoscar 33.5
LSU Law Greenie 32.5
Golfer81 31.5

And the other pickers

Dew99 26.5 (missed 4 weeks)
p8kpev 24.5 (missed 2 weeks)
Charlmange8 24.5 (missed 5 weeks)

WEEK 9 GAME BY GAME RESULTS

Tulane 9 out of 14
Alabama 7
Oklahoma State 3
FSU 6
Arkansas 7
Navy 2
Cincinnati 6
North Carolina 5

Louisiana is a great football recruiting ground. By most accounts, it provides more players to the NFL per capita than any other state. Each year roughly 100 high school players from the state sign “grants-in-aid” to play football in the FBS and a similar number sign to play in the FCS. Other than California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio, no other state provides as many players to the college ranks. That’s not ”per capita;” that’s total players.

I’ve followed Tulane recruiting closely for about 40 years and very closely for about the past dozen or so. When Curtis Johnson came on board, he made a very public pledge to turn Louisiana into the “State of Tulane.” Starting with those players he recruited and signed after Toledo left, I believe he has signed 59 players from Louisiana of his 75 “signees” (79%). This year may come in a little below that but the year is not done. Comparing the Tulane roster today, with 66 players from Louisiana, Toledo, in his last year (2011), only had 37. Scelfo, in his last year (2006), had 61. So, in truth, Johnson doesn’t have that many more players from Louisiana than Chris Scelfo had at the end. That’s surprising, at least to me.

For the past few years, with CJ’s emphasis on “in state” players, I have really concentrated on Louisiana recruiting. And, for my own interest, for the past three years I have ranked the recruits in the state based on a consensus of the various recruiting sites, lists posted by newspapers, magazines, and other websites, as well as a subjective rating I gave players based on HUDL/YOUTUBE highlight videos I reviewed. I don’t pretend that my ratings are any better than anyone else’s but I am comfortable that they are a reasonable portrait of where “in state” recruits were ranked at the time of signing (give or take).

Recognizing that roughly 100 players from Louisiana are signing “grants-in-aids” to play football in the FBS each year, I have ranked players from #1 to as many as #800 or more each year. Yes, there are that many recruits in various data bases and on HUDL. I have generally thought the “top 40” were the players we really needed to improve but have adjusted that to the “top 50” (roughly half of those signed) as time has gone by. Getting players from the “second 50” is not the way to become an “above average” team. The “top 50” tend to go to P5 schools and, as you get closer to #100, you start seeing a “crossover” between FBS and FCS caliber recruits. A roster full of players in the 75 or so range probably means a squad of “average” G5 talent, unless it is supplemented by above average signees from “out of state.”

Anyway, in 2013, we signed six players in “my Top 50:” Santa Marina (19), Badie (33), Chris Taylor (38), Ed Williams (41), Tanner Lee (44) and Eric Bell (47). For interest, two of our better players as it turns out, Tanzel Smart (54) and Nickerson (58), were next in line. I personally had both rated a little higher and Eric Bell and Tanner Lee a little lower, but those are the numbers I came up with on the consensus. Our average rank was #66, a little above average for a G5 recruit by my calculations.

In 2014, we dropped down to only four in my top 50: Marbley (26), Cuiellette (40), Veal (41) and Hilliard (43). Ardoin, who is running 3rd string as we speak, I had next at #52, but the overall average only dropped to #70.3 in my ranking of Louisiana recruits, essentially average, or slightly above, for a G5 school

Last year (2015), we didn’t have anyone in the top 50. Ricky Preston who signed just before the season started was #57 and Nigel Anderson (#62) were the only other ones in my top 70. Our overall ranking dropped to 81.0 on average among Louisiana signees. That’s slightly below average for G5 recruiting.

This year (2016) the recruiting year has almost four months to go so any data I have is incomplete. But, at this point, LaFrance would be our only “top 50” recruit by my methodology at #44. Price and Rainey would be in the mid-50’s, with the rest generally in the 70’s or below, some significantly below.

So, from my perspective, CJ ‘s recruiting of Louisiana is not getting better; it’s getting worse.

Despite that, I believe CJ and staff are identifying the best players. We offer close to 100 kids each year from Louisiana, including almost all of the “top 50” by my calculus. In fact, Tulane has been offering at least 45 of them annually. We’re simply not getting them. Something like 90% of “top 50” players are signing with P5 schools, a challenge I described previously. More and more of the “big guys” are making inroads in Louisiana. Times have changed, and not for the good from a Wave perspective. With only average coaching, we cannot expect to compete very well in the best G5 conference if we’re getting average or below average G5 talent. And, with the coaching we have, finishing near the bottom of our conference is understandable. Understandable, but sad. Next: what the recruiting services say.

I firmly believe we will beat Army this weekend. I wouldn’t put a lot of money on that prediction because I still have my doubts and history is not on our side. Since the turn of the century, we’re 4-7 against Army including losing in the last two meetings 41-23 and 45-6 prior to CJ taking over. Moreover, we’re 3-19 on the road in the CJ era with only one win outside of Louisiana. That was the 31-24 upset last year against Houston. So, are we that much better than those teams? Well, the short answer is “no.”

Army is 9th in the nation in rushing, averaging 257.4 yards per game and #125 in passing, averaging 70.4 yards a game. Their total yards (average of 327.9 per game) is #119. Comparatively, Tulane is #123 in total yards with 286.6 per game. On defense, Army allows 228.3 yards per game (#72) passing and 15.1 yards per game (#55) for a rank of #58 in total defense (385.4 yards per game.) Allowing 403.2 yards per game, Tulane is ranked #72. But the difference in schedules is stark. Army has played Fordham and Bucknell of the FCS (losing to Fordham) and Eastern Michigan, arguably the weakest team in the MAC conference. Five of their losses (Fordham, UCONN, Wake Forest, Penn State, and Rice) were by a total of 23 points with a lost to Air Force (by 17) and Duke (by 41) the other two. Except for the Duke game, they’ve been in every contest. But neither team has been good on offense and both have been pretty good on defense. That would seem to bode for a low scoring contest.

But Army is very one-dimensional. Based on the Navy game, I believe we can slow down or stop their running game. Their two QB’s, Bradshaw and Schurr have rushed 208 times for 780 yards between them this year, 3.75 yards/carry- not great. Their six primary running backs have carried the ball 235 times for 1482 yards (6.3 yards per carry), which is pretty great. This would suggest we must force the QB’s to run, not hand off. Solid line play and good pursuit will be important. In the air, they’ve only complete about 40% of their passes. The problem there is that when they throw, they throw long, with an average completion of 22 yards per catch. None of their receivers have caught more than seven passes on the year with Poe, Bell and Walker accounting for 15 of their 29 completions on the season. But those three have averaged over 27 yards per reception and scored all six TD’s through the air. We simply can’t be lulled into allowing huge gains from their passing attack. The other concern on our defense is the depth in the interior line. Last week, Redwine, Bell, Thomas, and Washington sat out for various reasons. Only Smart, Wilson, and Jason Stewart played according to the official site with Smart and Wilson playing almost every down. We may need more bodies against Army.

As the statistics show, Army has been pretty good on defense themselves, though against weak competition. Their best defensive performance was against Penn State when they only allowed 256 yards. Both UCONN and Duke racked up over 400 yards so they’re not invincible by any means. And there, of course, is the rub. Can we move the ball against them? I think so. They’ve got 49 tackles for losses this year but I don’t see them bringing enough pressure, even against our line, to force the horrible turnovers that have plagued us. At least that’s my hope.

The general population and Las Vegas have made Army a slight favorite at home. We’ll have to wait and see who is right. I think we need to start fast if we’re to win.

I had my worst week, making the race closer. Most people did well including Charlamange8, who entered for only the third time and got seven of eight games right. So did Rcnut.

8

Rcnut
Charlamange8

6

nyoscar
winwave
wavetime
DrBox

5

LSU Law Greenie
MNAlum
jjstock2005
WaveON
kettrade1

4

Guerry
Golfer81
DrBox

OVERALL STANDINGS

Guerry 42.5
winwave 39.5
MNAlum 38.5
Rcnut 38.5
wavetime 37.5
DrBox 36.5
kettrade1 36.5
WaveOn 32.5
jjstock2005 32.5
LSU Law Greenie 31.5
Golfer81 30.5
nyoscar 29.5

And the pickers who have missed multiple weeks

Dew99 26.5
p8kpev 22.5
Charlamange 18.5

Week 8 game-by-game results

Tulane 6 out of 13
Temple 4
Florida 11
Houston 9
Ole Miss 9
Washington State 5
Navy 11
Tulsa 12

I'm hearing Scott Sidwell has emerged as the frontrunner, and as others have posted, they want the AD in place sooner than later.

Sidwell, of course, is the AD at San Francicso after spending time at Syracuse and Tulane (200-05) as an associate AD. He played baseball for two years with the Wave and was an assistant under Rick Jones for two years after that.

I'll post more info as it comes.

With the recent de-commitment by Darius May and the previous “parting of the ways” of one-time commits Sci Martin, Jamal Crawford, Tyarise Stevenson, and Kwanzi Jackson, our 2016 recruiting class is really “up in the air,” before even considering the rumors that several other recruits may be “wavering.” And, if CJ is given his “walking papers” at the end of the season, we could have more. Heck, if he doesn’t, we may get more than that. But this is not new. Over the past few years, Tulane has had a number of committed recruits eventually sign elsewhere. I recently looked into how they are doing. As a group, to this point, I think it’s fair to say, we didn’t miss much with losing these guys.

In 2013, three commitments, Corey Smith, Lyn Clark, and Antonio McGhee opted out of their “Greenie commitments” and went somewhere else.

Corey Smith is a defensive lineman, who is now 6’6” and weight 290#. He got into some kind of conflict with CJ on his official visit (presumably a policy that would not let a commitment visit other schools once they took their “official” visit to Tulane, but who knows?) and eventually signed with Arizona State. After a redshirt year, he played in one game as a redshirt freshman in 2014. Now, as redshirt sophomore, he has played briefly in four of the nine games with zero tackles. He hasn’t played in four weeks. With his size, he might have been able to help the Wave, but he’s apparently not good enough to contribute anything at Arizona State.

Lyn Clark is a linebacker (6’2”, 230#), who, when he committed to Tulane, was very vocal in his efforts to recruit others to the Wave. Something happened on his official visit that caused him to decommit and sign with Louisville. It may have been the same issue as that with Smith (above). He left the Louisville program prior to the 2014 season, after redshirting his freshman year. He then signed on with Northwest Louisiana. He was a back-up linebacker at NWLA in 2014, playing in all 12 games and making 30 tackles. He has made 28 tackles in NWLA’s first nine games this season, playing in seven.

Antonio McGhee is a defensive tackle (6’1”, 280#) who now plays for McNeese State after originally committing to Tulane. If I recall, his girlfriend went to McNeese, which drove his decision, but that may not be correct. He played in ten games for McNeese as a true freshman, making 13 tackles. Last year, he appeared in eight games, starting three, but only had four tackles for the entire year. So far this year, he’s made18 tackles in nine games of which he played in seven.

In 2014, we lost five players to other schools after their commitment to Tulane.

Jorge Powell was rated the #2 kicker in the country in some quarters when he decommitted from Tulane to gain “preferred walk on” status at Penn State. He then switched to walk on at Florida. He redshirted his first year and has shared duty on kicks this year, though he apparently has now been “beaten out.” While kicking, he made two of three field goal attempts (22 and 31 yards) and missed a 34 yarder. He kicked off 18 times with six touchbacks and one out of bounds for a 62.4 yard average., along with numerous other “walk on” kickers and punters. He didn’t make the final roster that year or since. I have no idea what became of him. His replacement for the Wave was DiRocco.

Freddie Booth-Lloyd was a highly regarded commitment to Tulane as a defensive tackle when he decommitted and signed with Temple. He’s now listed at 6’1” and 315# following his redshirt year in 2014. He’s played a very limited role through Temple’s nine games making six tackles.

Tommy Boynton is a 6’4” 300# offensive tackle who was originally committed to Tulane. After backing out of our offer, he eventually signed with Georgia Southern. He played in seven games and lettered as a true freshman. This year he is a starter at right tackle and is listed at 6’4” 300#. I don’t know if he would have contributed on our offensive line, but it’s so bad, he might have.

Darian Dailey was a very fast (4.38) defensive back out of Manatee High School in Florida when he committed to Tulane, got “better offers,” and signed with Rutgers. There, he redshirted as a freshman. He was playing with the first team in the Spring of 2015 but was kicked off the team after being arrested for armed robbery in May 2015. I haven’t found a resolution to his case.

Deondre Skinner is another interesting case. He was a highly regarded tight end recruit who originally signed with Houston in 2013. But he had his scholarship revoked for “off field” legal problems, which have been discussed at length on this and other Tulane sites. He flirted with Tulane for the next year and a half and evidently signed with the Wave, and was ready to join the team in 2014. Just before the school year started, he enrolled at McNeese State where he played sparingly in eight games as a freshman last year and caught one pass for eight yards. Through nine games this year, he’s caught 5 passes for 58 yards.

In 2015, we lost only one to a decommitment.

Kendall Bussey is a running back and wasTulane’s first commitment in 2015. He first switched to Nebraska and then Texas A&M after flirting with Tennessee for a while. He has not played so far this year for the Aggies and will likely redshirt.

Only time will tell if any of these guys or those who “backed out” this year will become the players we thought they would be on recruiting them. So far the results suggest otherwise.

Roll Wave!!!

As always, the Tulane game counts double, the home team is listed first and all point spreads come from VegasInsider.com consensus.

Tulane (+6) Connecticut
Alabama (-6.5) LSU
Oklahoma State (+5) TCU
Clemson (-12) FSU
Ole Miss (-11) Arkansas
Memphis (-7.5) Navy
Houston (-8) Cincinnati
North Carolina (-8) Duke

When Curtis Johnson was hired as Tulane’s head football coach, many fans were disappointed. By most accounts, he was not a first, second, or third choice, possibly not even the fifth choice that many believe he was. Regardless, he was chosen. He had almost 30 years of experience coaching football in high school, college, and the NFL. True, it was always as a position coach, specifically a wide receiver coach, and he had never been responsible for more than the 6-10 wide receivers under his tutelage. He wasn’t too young (Scelfo was 35 when he became head coach) nor too old (Toledo was 63), but a mature 51 years old. He probably had 15 or more years of coaching left in him and, like Scelfo, was from South Louisiana and, if successful, likely to stay. He’d also experienced success that no previous Tulane coach had seen. He had been a coach on an NCAA champion at Miami and an NFL Super Bowl Champion with the New Orleans Saints. He must know what it takes to be a winner. Right?

But his true strength, it was said, was recruiting. At San Diego State, he brought in Marshall Faulk. Alone among his other offers, S.D. State offered Faulk the opportunity to play running back. Others wanted him to be a defensive back. Did Johnson recognize the future all-pro potential of Faulk at RB? Maybe. Or maybe, he and the head coach thought it was the only way to sign an obviously terrific athlete, whatever the position. Regardless, it was a great call and the beginning of Johnson’s reputation as a recruiter. At Miami, he recruited numerous all Americans and future all-pros. Of course, Miami was the most powerful college team in the nation, annually competing for and sometimes winning the National Championship. Top players around the country wanted to play for “the U.” In Logic, there is something called a “Circular Reasoning Fallacy.” Did great players coming to Miami make Johnson a “great recruiter?” Or, was Johnson, a great recruiter, the reason great players chose to attend Miami? Who knows? Regardless, he certainly was successful in signing a lot of very good football players. The question was, “will his magic work at Tulane.” In Part II, I’ll discuss the recruiting landscape.

I don't believe in making concrete determinations after one viewing, but here are my initial impressions of the 10 Tulane scholarship basketball players who played against Loyola tonight. Kajon Mack has ankle and knee issues that could keep him out until the start of conference play or longer. Cameron Reynolds hurt the wrist on his opposite hand in a scrimmage Tulane played against another team recently and could be out three weeks. (the Wave is not allowed to publish or talk about the results of those scrimmages; they whipped Auburn in one last year). If Reynolds turns out to be sidelined for longer than that, it will be a big blow because Tulane has little depth in the backcourt.

1) Malik Morgan

He is a very good basketball player, probably the best on the team. That's the best way to describe him. He dominated the second half, finishing with 24 points, and twice had steals that he took in for dunks. He sees the floor well for a guy who's never played much point guard until now. His listed assist total of 1 was not accurate-he made several passes that led to baskets. But him playing point guard still is a concern. He will be Tulane's starting point guard, and he was careless with the ball when he got pressured. I'm not sure how well he will hold up against AAC competition at point guard, but he is extremely aggressively offensively, which Tulane needs desperately. The last two years, we watched the Wave dribble out most of the shot clock and then take a forced shot to beat the buzzer over and over. Morgan won't do that.

2) Lou Dabney

He shot 6 for 11, which is a heck of a lot better than his sub-40 shooting from last year. He says those low numbers came because he did not have enough help. It's definitely true he did not have enough help, but he also missed a lot of open shots last year. A lot. If he shoots better, he will be a big force because he is a good all-around player. He had five rebounds and three assists to go with his 16 points tonight, but some of his outside shots were ugly.

3) Dylan Osetkowski

He is in better shape and definitely has a high basketball I.Q, but he will encounter the same problem he faced last year in AAC action--he does not jump high enough to get his shot off against athletic defenses. He struggled finishing against Loyola, going 3 for 10 and getting at least one shot blocked. He did hit a 3 and could be good for about 1 per game from outside because he has nice touch. He also hit 6 of 7 free throws, a huge improvement from his numbers last year. I'm just not sure how he will score much in conference games.

4) Jernard Jarreu

He started with a beautiful reverse layup on the first possession but finished 3 of 9 for 7 points. He will start in the frontcourt along with Osetkowski and definitely is more accomplished than Tulane's big men in the past under Conroy. One big concern, though--he got gassed before the midpoint of the second half and never recovered. I mean, he was too tired to think. His three blocked shots give Tulane a dimension it totally lacked last year, when blocks were cause for stopping the game and taking pictures.

5) Melvin Frazier

He's an excellent athlete at small forward but quite frankly did not do a whole lot. Still very raw, he also may have put too much pressure on himself playing in front of his hometown crowd for this first time. In 27 minutes he took four shots, making two, and grabbed five rebounds. Of Tulane's five starters he contributed the least and did not come close to getting a dunk, which we've heard have been routine in practice. One things I liked was his free throw stroke. He hit 6 of 10, but his stroke is solid.

The dropoff from the starters to the bench was dramatic.

6) Von Julien

He's not ready yet. Oh, he's more ready than Keith Pinckney was at this stage last year, but he can't start at the point. He will back up Morgan. In 18 minutes, he went 1 for 4 with one assist and two turnovers. He definitely is a natural passer who will see the floor well when he gets a little experience, but he isn't there yet. He had three steals, another indication of Tulane's improved athletic ability from top to bottom.

7) Ryan Smith

Conroy talks him up every preseason, but he still has the same liability--no jumping ability whatsoever and none of the natural flair for the game that Osetkowski has. HIs numbers were good--8 points and eight rebounds--but he will be a minutes filler as the first big off the bench rather than a producer against real opponents.

8) Kain Harris

He had 4 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes but is not ready to contribute much. I will need to see more of him to get a better evaluation because he was not very noticeable when he was on the floor.

9) Blake Paul

Not yet. He made his only shot while playing seven minutes but is not confident enough to give Tulane quality minutes on the post at this point.

10) Taron Oliver

Nope. Not in shape, and he almost had an inbounds pass stolen because of a lazy effort, then tried to drive into the lane and make a soft runner that clanged off the rim.

With the two guys injured, Tulane is a nine-man team right now, with only seven capable of producing much of anything, and one of those seven is Smith. That's a problem. I'm not sure what Mack will contribute if and when he comes back, but Tulane really needs Cameron Reynolds to come back quickly. The depth in the backcourt is not there without him.

I'm not sure where the 3-point shooting will come from this year. Morgan went 1 for 5, and although he did a lot of things really well, his outside stroke was not one of them.

This team has a lot of work to do, particularly the talented freshman class, which was not ready for prime time tonight.

Guerry, are you hearing anything about CJ? I know it depends on the new AD, but any rumors? He has to go. Us few remaining diehards have had our fill.

So we learned that, at least according to the recruiting rankings, Tulane was on an equal footing with three of the teams in its October death march and a little behind Houston.

How does the Wave match up with UConn, the first non-top 25 caliber team it has faced in a month?

OFFENSE

QUARTERBACK

UConn: Bryant Shireffs, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3 who signed with NC State and transferred after one year. He had no other significant offers coming out of high school.

Tulane: Tanner Lee, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3

RUNNING BACK

UConn: Arkeel Newsome, a sophomore, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.6. He committed before his senior year.
: Ron Johnson, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

Tulane: Sherman Badie, a redshirt sophomore, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.
ontrell Hilliard, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.
:Rob Kelley, a senior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.
:Lazedrick Thompson, a redshirt junio, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

WIDE RECEIVER

UConn: Noel Thomas, a junior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5. He also had offers from Rutgers and Temple.
: Tyraiq Beals, a freshman, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

Tulane: Teddy Veal, a sophomore, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.6.
: Devon Breaux, a redshirt junior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.
: Rickey Preston, a true freshman, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4

TIGHT END

UConn: Alec Bloom, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.2.
: Tommy Myers, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

Tulane: Charles Jones, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.2,
: Trey Scott, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

LEFT TACKLE

UConn: Richard Levy, a redshirt junior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

Tulane: Arturo Uzdavinis, a redshirt senior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

LEFT GUARD

UConn: Tommy Hopkins, a redshirt sophomore, was a 3-star tackle rated 5.5. Only other offer wasBucknell.

Tulane: Colton Hanson, a redshirt junior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

CENTER

UConn: Brencan Vechery, a redshirt sophomore, was in the Rivals database but unrated.

Tulane: Nathan Shienle, a redshirt junior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

RIGHT GUARD

UConn: Tyler Samra, a senior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

Tulane: Chris Taylor, a junior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.6 and the No. 38 guard nationally.

RIGHT TACKLE

UConn: Andreas Knappe, a redshirt junior, was a native of Denmark who started playing football at age 18 and was not in the Rivals database. He has an offer from Southeastern LA.

Tulane: John Leglue, a redshirt freshman, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.2.
: Todd Jacquet, a redshirt junior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

ANALYSIS: UConn's weakness is its offensive line, and that is born out by the recruiting rankings. But the Huksies have considerably more 3-star guys at the skill positions than I expected, more than Memphis. That is either an indictment of the rankings or a salute to Memphis coach Justin Fuente or a combination of both. The Huskies base package has two starting tight ends, so this is another team that does not use spread principles. It also is another team ranked near the bottom of the league in offense.

DEFENSE

LEFT END

UConn: Kentony Adeyemi, a redshirt senior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5. Chose Conn over lesser programs.

Tulane: Royce LaFrance, a senior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

LEFT TACKLE

UConn: Foley Fatukasi, a redshirt sophomore, was a New York recruit who was not in the Rivals database.

Tulane: Tanzel Smart, a junior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

RIGHT TACKLE

UConn: Julian Campbell, a redshirt senior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

Tulane: Corey Redwine, a redshirt senior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.
: Sean Wilson, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

RIGHT END

UConn: Luke Carrezola, a sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.2.

Tulane: Ade Aruna, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

LINEBACKERS

UConn: Graham Stewart, a redshirt senior, was a 4-star recruit rated 5.8 who signed with Florida. He played as a true freshman for the Gators and scored a TD off a blocked punt in the bowl game v. Ohio State before returning to his home state of Connecticut.

Tulane: Nico Marley, a junior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.2.

UConn: Junior Joseph, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

Tulane: Eric Thomas, a junior was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

UConn: Marquise Vann, a redshirt senior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5. Had offers from Minnesota, Stanford.

Tulane: Jarrod Franklin, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

CORNERBACK

UConn: Jhavon Williams, a redshirt junior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.
: Jamar Summers, a sophomore, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

Tulane: Parry Nickerson, a redshirt sophomore, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.
: Taris Shenall, a freshman, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

STRONG SAFETY

UConn: Andrew Adams, a redshirt senior, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.4.

Tulane: Darion Monroe, a senior, was a 4-star recruit rated 5.8 and the No. 23 CB nationally.

FREE SAFETY

UConn: Obi Melifonwu, a redshirt junior, was a 3-star recruit rated 5.5.

Tulane: Roderic Teamer, a freshman, was a 2-star recruit rated 5.3.

ANALYSIS: UConn has five 3-star guys and one 4-star guy on defense, making it the highest rated unit in the AAC off the recruiting rankings. On the field, the Huskies have been pretty average, though they force a lot of turnovers. Tulane has two 3-star guys and a 4-star guy. UConn also is very experienced with five redshirt senior starters on defense and two redshirt juniors.

Tulane obviously has to win today. I rate the game a tossup with a slight edge to the Wave if its defense comes to play. UConn is not good enough on the offensive line to move the ball consistently against good defenses, so we'll find out exactly how Tulane's D stacks up today.

I'm doing a piece for The Advocate on Tulane's Katrina class, and I talked to Lester Ricard last night. He always speaks his mind, and he had some interesting things to say about how important it was that Tulane played a full schedule in 2005.

Ricard, formerly the head coach at St Martin's High in Metairie and now the offensive coordinator at Hahnville High, has a strong opinion about a lot of topics, and his thoughts on Rick Dickson won't sit well here, but I'm not going to edit our conversation.

The first 14 minutes of the interview were enlightening.

Obviously Tulane’s record was far worse than it would have been without Katrina, but what was the significance of playing that season for you?

“Well for me it was very inspirational in many ways. An inspiration in terms of I got a chance to play a sport I grew up loving to play, something my family and myself have put so much time and energy towards, and probably the second thing was just being out there with my teammates I loved dearly. Those guys are still close friends of mine. If someone would have told me that that would have been taken away from me, I would have had a tough time with that. Thirdly, playing for the University, man, and keeping Tulane relevant. It was our job to keep Tulane, not just the athletics but the rest of the university’s name afloat. We wanted to be that sounding board for Tulane University.”

How crazy was the experience, including playing in 11 stadiums in 11 games?

“Well, you could look at it one of two ways. You can look at it as being to more stadiums because I’m kind of a stadium connoisseur. But it was tough. Just the mental exhaustion. It was less about the body and more about the mind just being exhausted, not really understanding and knowing where we were going to play our next game. And probably more difficult for the coaches. You are talking about 17, 18, 19 20-year old kids and you’re trying to do crisis management with them all day long. It was just mentally exhausting more than it was physically, and it took a toll on us as the season went on.”

How soon did you realize the team was tapped out?

“It kind of started when we played at LSU against Southeastern for that Homecoming game. They brought us down here, we stayed at English Turn country club, so that was our first time really seeing the city. I remember on our way down from Ruston, we were kind of having a good time talking, and once we crossed over the spillway and got into Kenner, that’s when reality hit, like we could possibly not even come back to New Orleans again. That was something that no one really envisioned every happening. You come to Tulane for football, but you also come because you want to be a part of New Orleans, and the reality was that we probably could never come back to New Orleans.

“It’s always a blessing and a shock to see where the city is now. I distinctly remember coming over into Kenner, looking at Loyola Drive, thinking we’ll never be in New Orleans. Driving by the Superdome on our way to the West Bank, there was no way that the city could ever recover from it. And sure enough, it did. To see it now and all the things that have happened with Super Bowls and the NCAA tournament and those things, it’s been remarkable.”

What was the timeline like between Katrina and you guys ending up in Ruston?

“I’ll give you our route. We went to Jackson, Mississippi for about three or four days. We left the day before the storm hit. I actually remember we had food and were trying to stop somewhere where we could actually eat, and I remember us being in Hammond not really moving that fast and we couldn’t get off. I told Scelfo, I promise you I can call somebody and get us off in Amite. Sure enough, I called somebody and they had some state troopers meet us at the exit. We got our sandwiches.

We left Jackson because our resources had run dry. We went to Dallas, drove up I20, stayed there for like two weeks, and then we left there and went straight to Ruston.

I’ve heard stories, but what were the dorms like that you stayed at in Ruston?

“Rick Dickson did his best job of painting a picture of we were getting ready to go move to the Ritz-Carlton. It was way off of the Ritz-Carlton. We drove down from Dallas just to see the campus and see where our classes would be, then we got to the rooms where we could stay at, and I remember me and Matt Forte and Matt and Joe Traina turned on the water in one of the rooms, and it was like brown, maybe even black. I remember a big old rat ran across somebody’s foot when we got on the elevator.

“It was what it was, but I wouldn’t take it back. I grew as a man during that year. I really took some great steps.

“My dad actually during that season I was struggling really bad, probably after we had lost to Marshall. I was frustrated with the coaches, frustrated with the players, frustrated with myself, just frustrated with everything, the school, academics, all the way around.

“My dad told my mom, don’t wait up for me at night, I’m about to go for a little ride. He’d never done that before. My mom said she knew immediately he was coming to see me, and that’s what he did. He came and saw me that day. We went to Waffle House at like 1 in the morning, came back and he lay in the bed next to me, and I woke up the next morning and he was gone, but at that moment I needed it so badly because I was really losing it.”

Were those dorms that had already been closed or weren’t being used?

“No, when we got up there, someone told me they were just preparing to close the dorm before we got there. They had a bunch of evacuees that stayed there with us. The first three floors were evacuees. I’m going to tell you, man, there would be days when we came back home and all of the stuff would be stolen out of our room. It was paranoid crazy all night long. We befriended a couple of people around there, but it was always you walked inside the dorm, people were playing cards and everybody was drinking. I hate to use the term, but it was Project Carruthers.

“Ultimately what it did was make sure that we stuck together and covered each other’s back if somebody was leaving. Watch my room and vice versa.”

Although Tulane's defense played well for two-and-a-half quarters, the last 20 minutes were concerning. And I don't mean quitting. I mean looking slow.

Yes, they probably wore down, but really good defenses don't get burned for long touchdowns on throwback screens. Memphis made the defense look slow on its last few drives, facing only one second down combined and no third downs on the two touchdown drives that extended the lead to 34-13.

What are your thoughts? Was it just a matter of the defense getting tired and frustrated?

I have a story on the front page.

For whatever reason, Tulane does not want this to get out, but Lee actually hurt his finger in the second quarter against Navy when his finger slammed into the helmet of a player after he released the ball. He relied on adrenaline to keep playing, and it may have affected his horrendous throw in the fourth quarter in the stretch of three straight turnovers that made the final score misleading.

Lee looked good today, throwing with zip on short and long passes, but finger fractures can be tough. It will be interesting to see how his hand reacts this week in practice.

Darion Monroe got hurt in practice today, but he should be fine. Richard Allen and Dedrick Shy did not practice, making Tulane thin at cornerback.

Lazedrick Thompson ran hard today. He had 73 yards on 12 carries against UConn and can give the Wave a terrific 1-2 punch with Dontrell Hilliard (hopefully the coaches finally realized to get the rock in Hilliard's hands a lot) if he stays healthy

Obviously, we were all thrilled by the two early touchdowns against Memphis and equally disappointed by the complete failure to move the ball after those two drives. What happened?

On our first possession, we drove 75 yards for a TD. We overcame a 10 yard holding penalty by Hanson and benefited by a 15 yard personal foul penalty and 11 yard interference penalty on Memphis. We made seven first downs and only made ten more the entire game. And, more important, we were 3 for 3 on third downs. Jordy passed to Hilliard for 14 on a 3rd and 9; Memphis got called for a personal foul on a 3rd and 7; and Jordy rushed for 7 on a 3rd and 6. But, surprising to me, we ran on 1st down all 8 times during the drive. And we gained only 8 net yards—1.0 yards/carry. Jordy going 4-4 for 36 yards was the key. Running the ball on first down didn’t work. In fact, but for the 8 yard run by Kelley on our 3rd play of the game (3rd different running back, BTW), we’d have gained zero net yards on 1st down runs during our longest and most successful drive of the year.

On our second drive, we kept the string alive by rushing on both 1st down plays- one for 2 yards and one for 43 yards and a TD. So, that was great. Sandwiched in between was the 35 yards Joseph to Veal pass. And those two drives marked the effective end of our offense.

Did we change after that? Did Memphis adapt and we didn’t? Well, for the rest of the game, we lined up 18 times with a first down. We rushed 13 times for 77 yards including a 22 yard run by Hilliard and a 20 yard scamper by Jordy. We also attempted five passes and completed one for 9 yards. As for the individual possessions:

On our 3rd possession, Badie ran for 8 in between two incompletions and a false start on Hanson—PUNT

On the 4th possession, Hilliard carried twice for a first down and after he an Kelley gained 8 yards in two carries, Hilliard was stopped for a one yard loss on the 3rd and 2—BAD SNAP ON PUNT

On the 5th possession, Jordy completed a 9 yard pass, was hit for a 2 yard loss, and threw another incompletion.—PUNT

On our 6th possession (1st of 2nd half), Hilliard ran for 22 on 1st down, ran again, this time for 1 yard, to start the next series, and Jordy threw incomplete to Jones and then complete to Jones for 8 yards.-- PUNT

On our 7th possession, Jordy threw two incomplete passes sandwiched around a 7 yard run by Rounds.- PUNT

On our 8th possession, Kelley and Hilliard each gained 4 rushing and then Hilliard, on 3rd and 2 was stopped for no gain. – PUNT

On our 9th possession, Jordy was sacked in the end zone for a safety on the first play.

On our 10th possession, Hilliard rushed for 4 and a 15 yard face mask penalty gave us a 1st down. Jordy then ran for 20 for a first down. Hilliard then ran for 2 and Jordy threw three straight incompletions to turn it over on downs.

On our 11th possession, Jordy passed six times, one complete for 18 yards and Rounds gained 3 yards on our one rushing play. We gained one 1st down – PUNT

On our 12th and final possession, we ran 11 plays and got two 1st downs. We had 8 rushes for 19 yards and were 2-3 for 25 yards passing as the clock hit “zero.”

After starting 5-5, Jordy went 5-19 the rest of the way. THAT was the big difference in our offense. If he'd have been 2-5 on our first two drives, we might not have scored then either.

Tanner Lee will start against UConn. I was not as impressed with his throwing today as I was yesterday. At one point during team drills, he missed three straight receivers, throwing high of Teddy Veal in the back of the end zone, wide of Devon Breaux in the middle of the end zone and failing to connect with a receiver again on the net play.

I did not see every throw, though, and the issue was not the way the ball was coming off his hand. He threw with his usual spiral, and CJ said he loved the way Lee practiced this week.

"He looks so much better," CJ said. He's been fantastic all week. He's his normal self, I would say, cool as usual. I tried to piss him off, but I couldn't."

For the first time in the CJ era, Tulane has gone two straight weeks without forcing a turnover. The Wave forced three in its ugly 12-3 victory over UConn last year and likely will need some takeaways to win Saturday as a 6-point underdog.

"We have to make this team one-dimensional like we did last year," CJ said. "And if we do that, that's when we get turnovers."

CJ expects a much better UConn team than the one Tulane beat 12-3 in its AAC home debut a year ago.

"They run better," he said. "The little back (Arkeel Newsome) is much better. The quarterback (Bryant Shirreffs) is much better than what he's been and their defense is overall better. They are leading the world in takeaways (actually tied for seventh nationally with 19).

Safety Darion Monroe is looking for a four-quarter effort this week after Tulane tailed off against Temple and Memphis and even a little bit against Navy.

"It's very important," he said. "We have to start the game off with high intensity, high energy, get up early and control the lead and control the game. We took from the last few weeks that we can play with anybody. We just have to learn how to finish. We were in those games for the first two-and-a-half quarters, they did some adjusting and we just lost focus."

Monroe definitely wants to see some turnovers.

Our defense is made for a lot of turnovers and getting the ball to our offense as much as possible," he said. If we can get them the ball, we can score."

Editorial comment: I'm quoting him accurately, but the idea that Tulane lost its last four games because it did not finish, of course, is inaccurate. I think Tulane should have beaten Navy, but the other three losses were about much more than finishing. The entire team imploded against Temple after controlling the line of scrimmage for most of the first half. Houston was a mismatch from the start. And Memphis controlled the action for the final three quarters on Saturday, with Tulane' uncharacteristic offensive success with Jordy Joseph disappearing after the first two series. If Paxton Lynch had been as sharp as he normally is, and his receivers had helped him out a little more, that would have been a 51-13 game.

I expect to see Lazedrick Thompson play Saturday, although it's not 100 percent certain. Dedrick Shy and Richard Allen are out, and Arturo Uzdavinis (to the chagrin of some here) is in.

Joseph is the backup to Lee. Powell is healthy this week but barely got any reps with the offense against the scout team defense or in team drills.

It was CJ's birthday today, and he turned 54. The players serenaded him with Happy Birthday at the end of practice.

"I wouldn't buy the album," he joked. "I may get the single, but not the album."

CJ also said he wanted his birthday to last three days so he could get the present he wanted most.

"I'm going to extend this to Saturday to (get the) win," he said.

We’ve had some kids commit to Tulane this year and then decommit. And there may be more, especially if CJ is given his “walking papers” at the end of (or during) the season. But this is not new. Over the past few years, Tulane has had a number of committed recruits eventually sign elsewhere. It happens everywhere. I recently looked into how they are doing. As a group, to this point, I think it’s fair to say, we didn’t miss much with losing these guys.

In 2013, three commitments, Corey Smith, Lyn Clark, and Antonio McGhee opted out of their “Greenie commitments” and went somewhere else. At the time, "Greenie Nation" thought highly of each of them.

Corey Smith is a defensive lineman, who is now 6’6” and weight 290#. He got into some kind of conflict with CJ on his official visit (presumably a policy that would not let a commitment visit other schools once they took their “official” visit to Tulane, but who knows?) and eventually signed with Arizona State. After a redshirt year, he played in one game as a redshirt freshman in 2014. Now, as redshirt sophomore, he has played briefly in four of the eight games with zero tackles. With his size, he might have been able to help the Wave, but he’s apparently not good enough to contribute much, if anything, at Arizona State.

Lyn Clark is a linebacker (6’2”, 230#), who, when he committed to Tulane, was very vocal in his efforts to recruit others to the Wave. Something happened on his official visit that caused him to decommit and sign with Louisville. It may have been the same issue as that with Smith (above). He left the Louisville program prior to the 2014 season, after redshirting his freshman year. He then signed on with Northwest Louisiana. He was a back-up linebacker at NWLA in 2014, playing in all 12 games and making 30 tackles. He has made 28 tackles in NWLA’s first eight games this season, playing in seven.

Antonio McGhee is a defensive tackle (6’1”, 280#) who now plays for McNeese State after originally committing to Tulane. If I recall, his girlfriend went to McNeese, which drove his decision, but that may not be correct. He played in ten games for McNeese as a true freshman, making 13 tackles. Last year, he appeared in eight games, starting three, but only had four tackles for the entire year. So far this year, he’s made fifteen tackles in eight games of which he played in six.

In 2014, we lost five players to other schools after their commitment to Tulane. Most looked like good additions to the team when initially committing.

Jorge Powell was rated the #2 kicker in the country in some quarters when he decommitted from Tulane to gain “preferred walk on” status at Penn State. He then changed his mind and “walked on” with Florida instead. He redshirted in 2014 and has split time in kicking duties this year. He has made 2- of 3 field goal attempts this year (22 and 31 yards), while missing from 36. He’s 10 for 11 on extra points and he’s also kicked off 18 times with 1 out of bounds and six touchbacks. His average kick has been 62.8 yards. I can’t say that he’s performed any better than DiRocco and his kickoffs haven’t been as good as Simms. At least, from a Florida perspective, he’s not “wasting” a scholarship.

Freddie Booth-Lloyd was a highly regarded commitment to Tulane as a defensive tackle when he decommitted and signed with Temple. He’s now listed at 6’1” and 315# following his redshirt year in 2014. In 2015, he's played a very limited role through Temple’s first eight games, making six tackles.

Tommy Boynton is a 6’4” 300# offensive tackle who was originally committed to Tulane. After backing out of our offer, he eventually signed with Georgia Southern. He played in seven games and lettered as a true freshman. This year he is a starter at right tackle and is listed at 6’4” 300#. I don’t know if he would have contributed on our offensive line, but it’s so bad, he might have.

Darian Dailey was a very fast (4.38) defensive back out of Manatee High School in Florida when he committed to Tulane, got “better offers,” and signed with Rutgers. There, he redshirted as a freshman. He was playing with the first team in the Spring of 2015 but kicked off the team after being arrested for Armed Robbery in May 2015. I haven’t found a resolution to his case.

Deondre Skinner is another interesting case. He was a highly regarded tight end recruit who originally signed with Houston in 2013. But he had his scholarship revoked for “off field” legal problems, which have been discussed at length on this and other Tulane sites. He flirted with Tulane for the next year and a half and evidently signed with the Wave, and was ready to join the team in 2014. Just before the school year started, he enrolled at McNeese State where he played sparingly in eight games as a freshman last year and caught one pass for eight yards. Through eight games this year, he’s caught five passes for 58 yards.

In 2015, we lost only one to a decommitment.

Kendall Bussey is a running back and wasTulane’s first commitment in 2015. He first switched to Nebraska and then Texas A&M after flirting with Tennessee for a while. He has not the Aggies so far this year and will likely redshirt.

And so it goes....

Roll Wave!!!!

Our opponents went 5-6 this week. Houston and Memphis remained undefeated, while Temple lost a close one to #8 ranked Notre Dame. The overall record of our opponents is now 52-46. Five teams are 35-4 between them and the other seven are 17-42. To the games:

Duke (6-2) lost to Miami (5-3), 30-27, on a last play, 75-yard kickoff return that featured eight laterals. Duke amassed an amazing 34 first downs in the game but only outgained “the Canes,” 434-391. Miami actually had the game well in hand with less than six minutes to go when they kicked a field goal to take a 24-12 lead only to have Duke storm back for two long TD drives to take the lead with six seconds to play. Then came the miracle finish.

Georgia Tech (3-6) lost to Virginia (3-5), 27-21, forcing the “Yellow Jackets” into a situation where they need to win their final three games to become “bowl eligible.” Georgia Tech actually led at the half, 14-10, but Virginia dominated the second half to take a 27-14 lead mid-way in the fourth quarter. Forced to pass, Georgia Tech then drove 95 yards for a TD that featured 105 yards passing. Penalties and a 4 yard loss on their only rushing attempt slowed the drive somewhat. When the “Jackets” recovered an “on side” kick, it looked like the game might be there’s. But, they were held on downs and the “Cavaliers” ran out the clock.

Maine (3-5) lost to Villanova (4-4), in another “who gives a crap” game between mid-ranked FCS teams.

Temple (7-1) lost to Notre Dame (7-1), 24-21, on a late Irish TD and last minute interception that sealed the “Owls” first loss of the season. Notre Dame outgained Temple, 467-295, but the game went back and forth until the final play.

Houston (8-0) “rocked” Vanderbilt (3-5) of the SEC, 34-0, in a totally dominating performance, which resulted in 371 yards of total offense to “Vandy’s” anemic 185. The Houston defense intercepted three passes while the offense didn’t turn the ball over.

UCF (0-9) was mauled by Cincinnati (5-3), 52-7 in the debut of interim UCF coach, Canny Barrett. The game was roughly as close as the score indicated as the Bearcats never punted while rolling up 726 yards while allowing 313.

Navy (6-1) beat South Florida (4-4), 29-17. After being held to their lowest rushing total of the year against Tulane, the “Middies” ran wild over USF with 428 yards rushing, as Keenan Reynolds scored two more TD’s to tie the all-time career record. Navy totally dominated time of possession, controlling the ball for over 39 minutes to become bowl eligible for the third year in a row and 12th time in the past 13 years. Very impressive!!

Memphis (8-0) overcame a stubborn early effort by Tulane (2-6) to win going away, 41-13.

Tulsa (4-4) beat SMU (1-7), 41-31, to keep their bowl hopes alive and to demolish any lingering hope retained by the “Ponies.” It was a good game in which Tulsa had the total yardage edge, 419-406, but won the turnover battle, 2-0, to seal the deal.

UCONN (4-5) beat East Carolina (4-5) 31-13, taking advantage of four interceptions and 95 yards of penalties from ECU. UCONN dominated time of possession 34-26 and yardage gained, 404-340. More impressively, they averaged 6.2 yards/play to the Pirate’s 4.9 yards/play.

Army (2-6) has a bye before playing their second biggest rival, Air Force, next week.

Final thoughts: The season is winding down and the Wave only have four games left barring a miracle four-game winning streak, no other eligible bowl teams competing for the last spots, and/or a willingness to overlook our five losses by 28 points or more. Our remaining foes are a combined 11-23.


Roll Wave!!!

Hertz established a few ground rules at the start of our interview, saying he would not discuss any particular candidate or reveal specifics about what went on last Friday in in the first search committee meeting to replace retiring AD Rick Dickson.

Still, he made some interesting points. Here is the full on-the-record conversation from our phone interview yesterday.

What is the time frame for selecting a new AD?

"Obviously all our deliberations have got to be confidential. The time frame is as expeditiously as possible, and so that's why we've gotten started so quickly after Rick's announcement. I can't tell you whether that means before the end of the calendar year or before the end of the school year or before the end of the month (laughs). When we find the right person, the search will be over. We are going to take whatever time it takes us to find the right person."

So there have been no parameters set as to when you have to get this done?

"That's right. We're going to try to move as quickly as we can, but we're not in control of everybody else's schedule and everybody else's needs and desires either. Our job is to find the best available person for the job, and if that takes us an extra three months to find that person, then so be it, and if we happen upon that person in the first three weeks, then that would be great, but we're going to take the time that's necessary to take."

What did you guys accomplish during the first meeting?

"Just organizationally we got everybody to understand what everybody's role was, what our search consultant's role was, what my role was and then how the process was going to proceed and that it would take a certain period of time where we were going to advertise, who we were going to call to get references and all those kinds of things and then how the search committee could access the information of people who had applied, sort of just the nuts and bolts, and then after what period of time did we think it would be appropriate to have a conference call to review all the candidates that have applied. Then after that, we would probably try to bring it down to some group, whether that was six people or 12 people, we didn't know. We would just see based on how everybody felt and then do face-to-face interviews. It would take probably a couple of days, and we tried to put some of those possible dates on the calendar. It was more organizational than anything else."

Will everyone on the committee interview all of the candidates? How is that process going to work?

"That would be the ideal situation, that the whole committee would interview all of what we would call the semifinalists. We are expecting an awful lot of people to be interested in the job. We're going to use our search consultant's expertise to help us narrow that group down to a dozen or less that would clearly separate themselves, and at that point, ideally we would have the entire search committee interview all of those folks. But it's pretty difficult to get everybody's schedule to lock in on the same days, but we'll do our best."

Roughly, what is the timetable for when you would start narrowing it down to interviews?

"My guess is that within a month we'd have a pretty good idea of people who would be interested in us and we would have contacted some people that we may want to find out if we could convince them to be interested in us. That's what the search consultant would do."

What do you see as your role the search committee leader?

"To talk to you guys. You'd be surprised about who calls about what, but also for me to deal with alums and fans and all that. One person should speak for the committee."

How important is this hire for the direction of the program?

"It's crucial. I think it's a crucial hire. We've done a lot to improve our facilities. We've done a lot around the fundraising side. We've got a whole Olympic Village still to finish raising money for that will handle all of our other sports. It should be the AD's job to hire the actually best coaches that we can find and the best administrators and the best support staff for our student-athletes. Culturally, when somebody's been there a long time like Rick has, there will always be a change, and we want to keep the good things that Rick established and improve on some of the other things that we have opportunities around."

How quickly would there be an assessment of the football and basketball programs in particularly?

"That would be up to the new AD, but what you'd hate to do is go out and hire a new coach for any sport and then bring in the AD. The new AD you would judge on who he or she hires and how well they do. I would think that would be backwards. Having the new AD (make the analysis) would make the most sense to me. The AD would evaluate all the programs on campus."

Without having viewed any practices or scrimmages, it’s hard to make anything of fall ball, let alone a three game series. Pitchers are, at most, facing half a lineup of eventual starters and hitters are, for over half of their at bats, seeing guys who won’t pitch much, if any, during the coming baseball season.

Still, I found some interesting statistics (to me at least) in the three box scores published on the official site. First, of course, Kaplan is out and apparently likely to miss the season. Coach Pierce kept Yandel and Gibbs out to preserve them after they threw a lot of innings last year between the Tulane season and their summer league play. And, J.P. France was kept out, I assume, to continue his rehabilitation. Four other roster players did not appear in any of the three games either: Bobby Moscow, a left-handed hitting freshman outfielder, Alex Galy, a RH hitting infielder, and a switch-hitting catcher, Garret Gray. The latter two are bother freshmen also. Chris Holstein, a transfer from Davidson, who is ineligible this year, also did not play.

Returning starters generally hit well in the series, but not universally so. Jackson Johnson (.364), Hunter Williams (.333), Stephen Alemais (.333), and Jake Rogers (.333) had good series. Hunter Hope (.231), Richard Carthon (.231), and Jake Willsey (.085) didn’t fare as well. Neither did Grant Brown (.200), who started early in the season last year but redshirted due to injuries. Willsey was the only one playing out of position, at shortstop, rather than his normal second base. And Hope, despite hitting a HR in the opening game, struck out at least twice in each contest and seven times total in 13 at bats. The opportunity for Matt Rowland at 3rd base seems pretty obvious. And Willsey, who has started 74 games over the past two years hitting .256 and .263, may not have much competition for his second base position despite his tough “series.” Between them, the other middle-infielders, Shea Pierce and Cade Edwards, went 1 for 19 (.053). But, who knows?

Sticking with the “everyday” players, the three transfers who many of us seem to think are most likely to contribute significantly this year, Jarret DeHart, Jeremy Montalbano, and Matt Rowland, all had pretty good series, hitting .273, .333, and .364 respectively. Two freshmen, who didn’t play that much in the “series” also looked good: Anthony Forte, a LH outfielder went 4-9, .444, and Grant Witherspoon, a LH OF/1B/pitcher, went 3-6, .500. The other two freshmen outfielders, Tyler Heinrichs (1-11, .091) and Luke Glancy (0-5, .000) had rough series. And, after Rogers and Montalbano, our two catchers, Cameron Burns (1-7, .143) and Matt Braud, who also played some third base (0-9, .000) didn’t show much at the plate. With Kaplan out, our only left handed hitters who played in the “series” were Jackson Johnson, Richard Carthon, Jarrett DeHart, Forte, and Witherspoon. That’s still more than in the past.

Going to the pitching staff, even with Yandel, Gibbs, and France on the sidelines, Coach Pierce took a look at 18 guys on the mound. The returning starters, Alex Massey, Corey Merrill, and Patrick Duester threw a combined 16 innings, allowed 13 hits, 5 earned runs, walked three, and struck out 19, for a 2.81 ERA. Returnees, Eric Steel (2.1 innings), Dan Rankin (2.0 innings), and Jordan Gross (3.0 innings) only allowed one run, but, between them, walked 8 in 7.1 innings—not good.

On the positive side, Sam Bjorgjeld, a redshirt sophomore, pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and three walks while fanning five. Last year, in six appearances, he allowed one earned run in 9.1 innings. But, like in this appearance, he was a little wild, walking five in those 9+ innings. Yet, as a left handed pitcher, his showing was encouraging. Another encouraging sign was Evan Rutter, the Rice transfer, who is a redshirt senior in his last season. He faced five batters over two appearances and struck out three of them without allowing a baserunner. Could he be a "set up" man, if not a "closer?"

Chris Oakley, the giant right hander, who has suffered control problems for the last few years, took the mound twice—one good, one bad. Overall, he threw 1.1 innings, allowed 2 hits, 1 earned run, and walked 2 while striking out one. (ERA of 6.75). If he can ever get over his control problems, he could be a big plus.

Alex Massey’s younger brother, Ross, a left handed pitcher, had a rough outing—4innings, 6 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, and no strikeouts for an ERA of 9.00. Other lefthanders given short stints on the mound included Jackson Johnson, Will Johnston, and Grant Witherspoon. Between them, they threw three shutout innings (1 each). Christian Coletti, another left hander and much-traveled senior, pitched 3.1 innings, allowed 4 hits, 4 earned runs, walked 3 and struck out one for a 10.80 ERA. Between Gross, Bjorgjeld and this group, we’ll need to find at least 2-3 consistent “arms” for the coming season. Last year, we only got about 25 innings out of left handed pitchers. That was only about 5% of our innings pitched. We need more than that to contend with all of the left handed hitters people throw up there.

Three others, all right handers, are also worthy of discussion. Brandon Issa, a redshirt freshman returns after not appearing last year. He threw three innings, allowed three hits, one earned run, and struck out two, while not walking anyone. And, our “kickoff specialist,” Trevor Simms, who apparently is being groomed as a possible closer, appeared in two games. In the first, he picked up a save with a perfect inning. In the second, he blew a two run lead by allowing three earned runs on five hits in two innings. According to Coach Pierce, those were the first runs he’s allowed all fall. So, that poor performance might be overlooked.

Finally, in a big surprise to me, senior back-up catcher, Cameron Burns, got a chance to “show his stuff” on the mound. He threw 4 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 0 walks while striking out 3. I have no idea if he’s been pitching during the fall, or if this was a “lark” for a fourth year guy who has served well. Interesting, nonetheless!

Of course, none of this has a lot of meaning. The data is too limited; the opposition was our own team; and the coach has much more information based on many days of watching these guys play and seeing how they perform against each other. Who played, where they played, and how much they played probably gives a better indicator of Coach Pierce’s current thinking than specifically how they played in this limited appearance.

Regardless, we’ve got a lot of guys back from a good team. If they can show marginal improvement and some of the new guys can provide additional “fire power” at bat and depth on the mound, we could have a special year. I don’t think hosting a regional and advancing to a super-regional is out of the question by any means. At that point, it’s anybody’s ball game.

Roll Wave!!!