I finally got the list I goofed on getting before the season opener. Tulane is not going to have many players at the Nicholls game, with mostly repeats from the first two games, including Na'eem Offord, a cornerback from Parker, Alabama who is a top 20 player in the country for the 2025 class and is Makhi Hughes' brother. Tulane offered him before any other school.

The St. Aug-Karr game is as the same time as Tulane-Nicholls, so no one from either school will be at Tulane.

Anyway, here is the South Alabama list three weeks late:


Already committed to Tulane

CB Armani Cargo


2024 RECRUITS

Trey Furey, a kicker from Belle Chasse

Eric Tarrent, a CB from Birmingham (Ala.) Parker who is not in the Rivals database but is in 247Sports.


2025 RECRUITS
1) Na 'Eem Offord, a 4-star CB from Parker, Ala who is ranked No. 6 at his position and No. 17 overall

2) Harlem Berry, RB, St. Martin's (top prospect in the state and ranked No 34 nationally by Rivals) (offered by Tulane)

3) Jaylon Coleman, a WR from Vandebilt Catholic in Houma who is the No. 10 prospect in LA and the No. 6 all-purpose back in the country (offered by Tulane)

4) Joshua Lewis, a DE from Gonzalez (offered by Tulane)

5) Reshad Sterling, a Lutcher product whom Tulane sees at the dog spot (formerly joker). (offered by Tulane)

6) Jhase Thomas, an ATH from Destrehan (offered by Tulane)

7) Bernard Parker, a DB from Philadelphia, Miss.

8) Carmaro Mayo, a 3-star CB from Bossier City who already has committed to La Tech.

9) Dante Core, a CB from Fort Walton Beach

10) Davian Jackson, a WR from New Iberia (Westgate High)

11) Demarcus Gant, a CB from Donaldsonville (Ascension Catholic)

12) DK Mays, a DE from Baton Rouge Central

13) Ja'Kylon Thomas, an ATH from Breaux Bridge

14) Jamin Brown, an OL from Southside in Alabama

15) JT Lindsey, a RB from Alexandria

16) Malik Myles, a RB from Houma (Bourgeois)


2026 RECRUITS

1) Keisean Henderson, an ATH from Legacy School of Sports Sciences in Texas whom Tulane is recruiting as a QB. He is 4 stars and ranked No. 57 overall nationally

2) Mike Brown, a WR from Legacy School of Sports Sciences in Texas. He is Reggie Brown's younger brother and Tulane already has offered him.

--both of these guys are coached by Michael Bishop, whom Fritz coached at Blinn College before he became a Heisman runner-up at Kansas State.

Sorry for not having an update yesterday, but the combination of some classwork issues for my son and an interview with deaf Tulane player Kam Hamilton at 2:30 p.m. that had to be specically arranged for an upcoming feature ate into my day. The news today is Michael Pratt will start against Nicholls on Saturday. He has done a heck of a lot more in practice this week than the past two weeks.

“He’s healthy,” Fritz said. “He feels good. He’s had a great week of practice. I waited until after today and just got done talking to him. He feels 100 percent confident, so we’re going with him. We could have rolled the dice and maybe played him last week, but he just wasn’t quite there. We’ve got a lot of football left to play. He feels good.”

Fritz simply is not into the belief of protecting players from future injury if they are healthy enough to be effective. Conventional wisdom was Pratt would be held out until the AAC opener against UAB on Sept. 30, but Fritz said earlier this week he hoped Pratt would be able to play versus Nicholls and the decision would be based on how he looked in practice. There's certainly nothing wrong with his arm or ability to step into throws, as he was zinging passes out of uniform a couple of hours before the Southern Miss game, but the key was whether or not he could protect himself properly, and Fritz feels he can.

In other news, Phat Watts quit the team on Monday. I was surprised he returned for a final year without the presence of twin brother Duece, who just was signed to the practice squad of the Pittsburgh Steelers after signing originally with Green Bay as an undrafted free agent before being released. Phat Watts had some good moments, catching 17 passes for 217 yards in 2020 and 18 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns in 2021, but the quality of Tulane's receiving corps has improved this year and he was not getting any playing time as he recovered from a torn ACL he sustained after two games a year ago.

I am putting that Kam Hamilton feature on hold because he showed up for practice today in a walking boot. Strangely, after I interviewed him yesterday (he was born 90-percent deaf and has accommodations as a result in the classroom with a note-taker and a machine that translates speech into words), he felt some pain in his leg last night and will not play Saturday. It does not look like the injury will be long term, but he was pretty unhappy sitting on the bench. Pratt took the time to come up and talk to him to see how he was doing (you have to stand right in front of him so he can read your lips).

On the day I published a story in The Advocate about Tulane's incredible depth on the defensive line, the Wave is a little thin on the interior. Noah Taliancich has been out with an injury and should be back soon, but he will not play Saturday, either. Isaiah Boyd, who probably would not be in the mix anyway, also is out. Elijah Champaign, who has played sparingly in his career, likely will be the fourth guy up front when Patrick Jenkins needs a rest. Eric Hicks and Adonis Friloux have the nose tackle spot covered.

Fritz said yesterday Will Karoll would be the starting punter for the second straight week. Casey Glover has no issue. Karoll simply won the job, and after a lousy punt in his first attempt against Southern Miss, he did a nice job on the next three.

What follows are quotes from Fritz today and yesterday plus yesterday's interviews with Darius Hodges and Adonis Friloux.

FRITZ

On depth past the guys I wrote about in feature (the top eight on the D-line):

"Michael Lunz played against Southern Miss. Matthew Fobbs-White might play a little bit this week. We've just got good depth up there. We've got a couple of guys on the third team for us that might have started a couple years ago."

On if they have to treat Hamilton differently because of his deafness:

"Really not much. I just got done talking to him about a couple of things now. As long as you're looking at him, he can read lips perfectly and is a really smart kid, so not much."

On Will Karoll:

"He'll punt this week. He won the job. (His punts go) high and far. He's got a quick get-off and just has done a really good job with consistency during practices."

On Monroe going against old team:

"He really has a good relationship with them. His brother's a coach and coach Rebowe and him are still close. It's different, but I think he'll understand that this is a game."

On Kam Hamilton injury:

"It's kind of a weird deal. He was really all right and then last night he said his foot was hurting him. He's a good kid."


DARIUS HODGES

On guys shuttling in and out:

"It’s a tremendous change of what we’re used to, having multiple groups that can produce at the same type of level and hold the same standard that the first group plays with. Things like that keeps the defense going, keeps the team going and keeps the momentum going because you have fresh guys rolling in and out."

On starting this week:

"It feels good but I really don’t pride myself about starting the game. We’re all one group. We hold each other to the same standard. The same thing that Devean does is the standard we hold the whole group with."

On Kam Hamilton:

"Kam is amazing. He’s like a little brother to me. I keep him under my wing and teach him everything that I have learned from my years in college and make sure I always pump his tires because I understand how it is to be a young producing player like that and make sure I’m the big brother he needs to keep thriving while I’m hear with him."

On hearing not affecting him:

"He’s pretty intelligent. The hearing impaired thing is something he’s probably been dealing with since he was a kid and doesn’t really affect him that much."

On quality of D-line:

"We haven’t seen our peak because we have things we can fix and get better with. The climb that we’re on as a D-line is great as far as how much we produce and how much we keep the momentum on defense going and how many guys we have just on the defensive line period, so we’re heading in the right direction."

On three running backs stuffed:

"That speaks volumes on how coach Wood and Coach Chatman and coach Ross are coaching. The whole defensive staff that we have, coach CY is great, coach Greene is great, coach JJ is great. We have a great staff and the culture we play with is tough football. Our defense is stern. There’s not much we want to give up, and that’s a credit to coach Wood and how intelligent he is."

On D being better than last year:

"I wouldn’t want to compare the two, but it has a lot of upside to it. Me learning this new defense is good."

On comfort factor:

"We are getting more comfortable with it as we keep going week by week. There’s more pressure and different ways to send pressure. Schematically it’s an attack defense. Last year I wouldn’t say we played a passive defense but we kept everything in front of us."

On fun style:

"It’s fun to play that way. It’s fun to see my teammates make plays and get hyped up for making those type of plays. I understand from making those type of plays in my lifetime, so with me giving out great energy and great love when they make plays is my justice to them as my teammates."


ADONIS FRILOUX

On shuttle run:

"That helps a lot. It gives a lot of time for each of us to get a break and just to gather ourselves and get ready to go back out there and eat. We’ve got a bunch of waves of good guys coming in, so we’re going to eat and it doesn’t really matter which group is out there."

On coming back from injury:

"That was definitely the most adversity I ever had to go through in football. It taught me a lot as a man and about myself. I’m not going to say it was the worst thing that could happen because I’m also grateful for it and learned a lot about myself, but I was able to be more of a student of the game and coach my teammates up and I’m just glad to back and I’m feeling better than ever."

Hardest part:

"The hardest part of rehab was not playing football because I’d been playing since I was like 5 years old. Just being off for that whole year and not being able to go out there and hit somebody and play the game I love, that took a toll on me, but I was able to get through it all thanks to God."

Wiping off rust:

"I definitely had to wipe off some rust. It’s been a little minute, but thanks to the person I was doing rehab with, Alyssa Turner, she was the old trainer here, she helped me through it and got me back."

On totally back:

"I definitely feel like I’m getting back to myself and getting a groove back. I just have to keep making more strides in practice and keep going hard."

On Kam Hamilton:

"With Kam, we just have a mutual understanding with each other because we’re so tight. When we tell him something, he’s able to hear it like this. With other people it may be more difficult for him, but to us he hears real good."

On Hamilton’s game:

"He’s a dog. He goes out there and puts his all on the field. Even though he can’t hear, I bet you he’ll sack the quarterbacks."

There was a lot of agreement on the picks this week with mixed results. I continue to languish near the bottom, and i'll be irritated by the Georgia Tech-Ole Miss game for a while. It looked like I had locked up a backdoor cover when Georgia Tech scored with a little more than a minute left, but that's never the case against a Lane Kiffin team. Instead of taking knees after recovering the onside kick, the Rebels scored on a 36-yard TD run to cover.

WEEK 3 RESULTS

7

wavetime

6

p8kpev
charlamange8
2DatWuzAGoodDay2
paliii
ForeverTU

5

MNAlum
chigoyboy
Guerry
Kettrade1

4

WaveON
LSU Law Greenie
roll wave
GretnaGreen
winwave
DrBox

3

tacklethemanwiththefootball


OVERALL STANDINGS

20

chigoyboy

18

charlamange8

17

p8kpev
2DatWuzAGoodDay2
Wavetime
Kettrade1

16

winwave
paliii
DrBox
ForeverTU

15

WaveON
MNAlum
LSU Law Greenie

14

roll wave

13

Guerry

12

tacklethemanwiththefootball

9

GretnaGreen

8

diverdo (missed 1 week)


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 16 of 17
Florida 5
Ole Miss 9
LSU 9
Syracuse 7
BYU 4
TCU 17
Missouri 1

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first, neutral games are designated as such and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com consensus, except for Tulane-Nicholls, which I came up with myself.

Tulane (-42) Nicholls State
LSU (-17.5) Arkansas
Notre Dame (+3) Ohio State
Alabama (-7) Ole Miss
Clemson (+2.5) Florida State
Oregon (-21) Colorado
Penn State (-14.5) Iowa
Missouri (-6) Memphis (St. Louis)

The will he or won't he play questions will continue this week about Michael Pratt, who definitely did more today than the previous two weeks in practice but is still working his way back from a knee injury. My best guess is Kai Horton will start for the third consecutive week against Nicholls because there is no assurance Pratt would not take another hit to his left knee that would put him in jeopardy for the start of conference games. Pratt has learned how to slide, but he is incapable of being truly conservative on the field, as his injury against South Alabama when the game was well out of reach showed once again. A younger quaeterback would need game reps to be at his best for bigger games, but Pratt does not. The goal should be for him to be ready for UAB, which may not put up much a fight after falling behind ULL 40-3 at home in the fourth quarter before scoring three meaningless touchdowns in the final five minutes to make the embarrassing lost look more respectable at 40-21 (The Blazers missed all three 2-point conversions).

Nicholls is coming in off an open date after losing to Sacramento State 38-24 and to TCU 41-6. The Colonels have hit the skids under ninth-year coach Tim Rebow recently, going 3-8 last year (with the three wins by a combined 9 points) and losing six times by 20-plus points. In 2018, a Tulane team inferior to this one beat a Nicholls team superior to this one 42-17, so this game could get ugly.

Freshman linebacker Makhai Williams, who figures to play along with the other young linebackers if this game goes as expected, made a nice interception in practice today, holding on to the ball despite colliding with another player right after grabbing it.

Redshirt sophomore Michael Lunz has joined the deep rotation at defensive end. I thought he was playing against Southern Miss because of the ejection of Devean Deal for targeting, but he actually got in the game during the first half before the third-quarter targeting call.

Darian Mensah showed his arm talent with a long completion to walk-on Reed Rutkowski on a flag pattern.

Tulane ranks ninth nationally in rushing defense, allowing 63.0 yards per game. Only five teams are holding opponents to a lower average per carry than Tulane is allowing (1.95).

Horton made the AAC weekly honor roll for his performance against Southern Miss, when he threw for two TDs and ran for a third.

Tulane has scored touchdowns on its first drive of all three games, going 38 in three plays against South Alabama after recovering a fumble, moving 75 yards in nine plays against Ole Miss to tie the score at 7 and cruising 75 yards in seven plays against Southern Miss. Michael Pratt and Kai Horton are 8 of 9 for 155 yards on those drives.

Fritz, Slade Nagle and Bailey Despanie talked after practice today.

FRITZ

"I'd love to get a big crowd out here. I know Nicholls is going to bring a lot of people. The last time we played them (2018), I bet you they brought 10,000 people here. We need to have a big crowd here, I have a lot of respect for coach Rebowe and their staff. Obviously I competed in that league (at Sam Houston State) for a long time (from 2010 to 2013) and it's a very tough league. We're very excited about the opportunity. For our game last week, we played really well defensively. I was impressed with the things we did schematically, but you know, schemes are very important, but tackling and leverage are much more important and we did an excellent job in both those areas and ran the ball effectively in the second half. Kai Horton went from week 1 to week 2 as a starter and played extremely well. I'm hoping Michael Pratt is going to be able to play this weekend. We'll know a little bit more throughout the course of the week. He's doing a heck of a lot more this week than he did last week, so we'll see where we are on Thursday."

On if there will be new rules in place for Pratt running when he returns:

"I don't know if he follows those rules all the time. He's a very competitive guy, and that's part of the reason why he's such a good quarterback. He's got great speed, can run, those kind of different things. You've just got to be smart when you're running. The play he got hurt on was a lateral play and he jumped and got off his feet. We talk all the time about seeing two defenders and trying to squeeze through the middle of them so you don't get solid shots and get out of bounds, but there are also some times when you have to get the first down and might have to be a little more aggressive, so we just continue to keep coaching him up on that."

On is there's anything else he can do to keep Pratt from putting himself in danger:

"That's about it. There are some times where the quarterback playing 11 on 11 football is important with the quarterback's running option. If he's not a running option at all, it makes it difficult to run the ball. That's why they (the Saints) put that No. 7 in last night (Taysom Hill), right? That's why he runs the ball, and he can throw it, too, so it makes it difficult to defend him. But we're obviously a better team when (Pratt) is healthy."

On what gives him confidence Pratt could return this week:

"Moving around good. I know a few of you might have been there for pre-game the other day, and he was moving good in pre-game but he hadn't done much during the week, so we were hesitant to do anything at that point in time, but he was moving around well. The big deal is changing direction. Straight line speed is important, but it's cutting off that injured leg."

On if Justin Ibieta is all the way back:

"Yes. He's really done a good job the last couple of weeks. I think he was having some difficulties throwing the ball during preseason camp, and for the last couple of weeks he's throwing well (this is exactly what I have observed, too)."

On curiosity to see what Ibieta can do:

"Oh, we would love for him to get an opportunity to get out there and play. We'd love that. He's a good player. Like I always tell these guys, sooner or later you'll get an opportunity, and are you ready when you get the opportunity. Some guys are. Some guys aren't. Justin's been putting in the time, working his tail off. He'll be ready when he gets that chance."

On so many D-linemen making plays:

"It's great. We've got nine guys who've started at least one game in their career. I think seven of them started more than 10 games in their career, so that's a lot of guys. A lot of experience. Early in the season our strength staff does a fabulous guys getting them in game shape, but it's still not the same thing when you get out there, so we rolled a lot of guys It's a lot easier when you have a lot of guys to roll that are quality players rather than just rolling a guy to give a guy a breather."

On hot Saturday and constant shuffling:

"You're right, it was hot on Saturday, and the level of play didn't go down (when they shuffled linemen in and out). It's going to be hot this Saturday and probably the next one and start cooling down here in two or three weeks I guess, but yeah, it's a big advantage for us. We want to play a bunch of them. Keith Cooper's a really good defensive end, but Angelo Anderson's also a really good defensive end, so we're rolling those two guys and they're both very productive. Keith got a nice sack at the end of the game, our last defensive play, and part of that might have been because he was fresh."

On if better defensively this season than last season (they are, but Fritz cannot say that this early):

"Oh, it's really early in the season. We played well last week. We've played well so far. The thing I was really impressed with Saturday was tackling. Bailey Despanie played by far the best game he's played since he's been here. I don't know if our guys liked a lot, but I talked about we're a developmental program. We bring in guys we think can play Division I football and we do a good job of getting them better and better and better and better. Early in preseason camp I showed Cam Sample and Patrick Johnson playing against Ohio State's first-round draft picks on the offensive line when those guys were freshmen and 230 pounds. Both of them now, Cam plays a ton in the NFL and started one game and Patrick plays a ton. They got better and better and better. That's something I try to do. I'm an old Juco coach. Tackling and blocking can never be over-taught. We work on it like crazy. We tackled great last week."

On safeties playing well at what appeared to be most inexperienced position:

"You've got to be good schematically, there's no doubt about that. There's a lot of different ways to scheme it up. If it wasn't everybody would run the same thing--offense, defense, kicking game-but the tackling part is so important defensively and just playing with leverage. It seems like common sense, but a lot of people don't work on it."

On in-state matchup like Nicholls:

"They are very important. Like I said before, we do a lot of camps and we do them with Nicholls. They do a super job. We're on a lot of the same guys. There's a ton of guys playing for us that they recruited and a ton of guys playing for them that we recruited. It's important. There's a lot of great opportunities to play ball in the great state of Louisiana."

Prayers to his family.
A true gentlemen.

The offense was nonexistent in the first half after a quick touchdown. The running game was sluggish for three quarters. The defense made what could have been costly mistake by totally selling out against the run on fourth-and-2 and getting ridiiculously lucky when Frank Gore Jr., who has made some outstanding passes in the past, choked big time on what would have been a sure touchdown. Valentino Ambrosio missed one field goal and Willie Fritz made a curious decision (actually not curious because he was simply following his analytics service) to eschew a chip shot field goal for a fourth-down try that failed with a 7-0 lead. The limited use of Mahki Hughes seemed strange to me, too.

But if you think I'm going to go negative after this win, think again. I truly believe this Tulane team is considerably better than last year's despite not having Tyjae Spears. The defense is several notches better, and that was a pretty good defense last year. The receivers are exponentially better, and so is a healthy Michael Pratt. This was a team that if it had beaten Ole Miss, might have gotten into the college football playoff conversation down the road. All of this comes with the caveat that the season is only three games old. I have been certain of how good other college teams were in the past in September and been proven dead wrong in October. But I don't think I will be wrong this time as long as Pratt returns to 100 percent by the Memphis game. This in an incredibly well-conditioned, deep, talented team.

It will be fun finding out.

Willie Fritz, Kai Horton, Jha'Quan Jackson and Jarius Monroe talked after the game today.

FRITZ

"I thought it was great, complementary football. Sometimes we need the special teams to make a play--great play by Lawrence Keys downing the ball on the 1-yard line--so we did some good things in the kicking game, and then obviously the defense just played lights out. What a performance. Coach Wood and the defensive staff put together a tremendous game plan. We tackled really well. We didn't let people get behind us. They made some plays at times, but then they have to line up and do it again and they had a tough time doing it. In the second half when we needed some plays, the offense gave us some breathing room. Kai Horton did an excellent job of managing the clock in the fourth quarter. Our running game really came around late. A good game in all three phases."

On Horton having consistency issues but making big plays:

"There was only one time he took a sack when he could have thrown the ball away. Otherwise I thought he played pretty smart football. He was accurate. That was a really nice ball to Chris Brazzell for the touchdown. Coach Nagle did a good job play-calling offensively. He kind of had that play to Jha'Quan Jackson in his hip pocket. Good time to use it. I thought we were just going to get a first down out of it, but 'Quan broke a couple of tackles and scored the touchdown. Just a good overall win. I told the guys it's hard to win a game, and it really is. They worked 100 hours per person last week, and so did we. They practiced hard. We practiced hard. We're excited about the win."

On setting tone with three tackles for loss on running plays on USM's opening series:

"It makes it real tough (on opponents). One of the things I like that Shiel does is a lot of movement with our front. We've got some big, quick guys up there with Patrick Jenkins and Kam Hamilton and Eric Hicks and Keith Cooper. There's a bunch of guys. Angelo Anderson made some plays. Darius Hodges, so we've got big guys that can move. When they're slanting and angling, sometimes it's harder for them to pick everybody up, and that's when you get the minus plays."

On how close Pratt was to being ready to play:

"He was close. He came out today and looked pretty good during warm-ups. We got a long season. I think he'll be ready this upcoming week. We'll find out probably by Wednesday if that's the case, but we're hoping that he'll be ready to go."

On Jesus Machado:

"He's just a real smart player. He's really smart and he's a really good tackler. With him and Tyler Grubbs and Jared Small did some nice things, they did a couple of zone reads where the quarterback pulled it and Jared made a couple of plays on that. We've got good linebackers. Obviously those were probably the two best linebackers in the history of Tulane maybe that we lost, but we've got some good players at linebacker and they're just going to get better."

On Will Karoll punting instead of Casey Glover:

"We're going to have a lot of competition between him and Will Karoll. Will's been doing a good job, so we'll keep doing that."

On wide receivers:

"We've got good speed with Brazzell. Dontae Fleming's got great speed. Lawrence Keys, Jha'Quan Jackson, Yulkeith Brown, There's four four guys that are 10.6 100 meters or below, so we've got really good speed out on the perimeter and Kai was accurate on some balls. That was a tough catch Brazzell had in the end zone. It was a good catch for us."

On targeting ejection of Devean Deal:

"Well, I'll have to look at it, but any time you hit somebody with the crown of your helmet, everybody thinks it has to be shoulders and above, it can be any place. It can be your chest, stomach, whatever the case may be, and I think it kind of looked that way when I watched it on the big screen. Who knows?"

On Jha'Quan Jackson's significance to team:

"He's a savvy player. That was also a big play when he got run into on the punt return. That was a 15-yard return basically. You've got to have the guts of a burglar when you're back there. To return a punt and catch a punt when you're surrounded by people, he does an excellent job of that."

On what wins in terms of rivalry significance:

"We're just really excited about it. We're not going to play them for a few years. We like having it back here."

On cramping issues for Southern Miss while Tulane had none:

"Coach Hester and his staff do an excellent job of hydrating our guys all week and really last night and this morning. They were taking shots of some stuff that doesn't look like it tastes very good after they get done taking the shot. It kept us hydrated. It's very important."

I have confirmed 22 visitors today.

ALREADY COMMITTED

Armani Cargo,
Javion White
Geordan Guidry
Jayden Scott
Tyler Mercer
Traville FrederickJr.
Guiseann Mirtil
Joshua Jackson

PROSPECTS

Lennis Finister Jr, 4-star CB, Rummel
Katrevrick Banks, CB, Homer
Tristen Fortenberry, OT, Pascagoula
Ezomo Oratokhai, OT, Lake Travis (Texas)
Colin Brazzell, Midland Legacy (Texas)--brother of Chris Brazzell
Nate Sheppard, RB, Mandeville
Jacob Bradford, DB, Baton Rouge Catholic
Kylin Champagne, RB, Hattiesburg Oak Grove
Jhase Thomas, WR/DB, Destrehan
Jhalan Chapman, OL, Warren Easton

COMMITTED ELSWHERE

Christian Pritchett, S, St. Aug (Georgia Tech)
Tah'j Butler, LB, Karr (Georgia Tech)
Christopher Jones, Hartfield Academy (Hattiesburg) (Southern Miss)
Damion Miller, CB, Port Gibson (Southern Miss)
Elijah Baker (OG/C), Hattiesburg (Southern Miss)

I think I set a personal record for earliest arrival at a press box, getting here three hours at noon.

Blake Gunter made the trip but not Josh Goines at tight end. My guy Garrett Mmahat made the trip. I am not normally a believer in walk-on practice stars being good enough to get real game action (witness Rishi Rattan, who also made the travel roster), but I actually believe Mmahat could make an impact if he got the chance. It's not a position of need, though, so I do not expect it to happen.

All three of the freshmen linebackers are here. Tulane used only three linebacker last week, but if this game is not close at the end, look for those guys to get some action.

The other non-kicker walk-ons here are linebacker Austin Sybrandt, center Ethan Marcus and wide receiver Luke Besh.

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first and point spreads come from VegasInsider.com consensus. This is a weak slate of games nationally.

Southern Miss (+12.5) Tulane
Florida (+6.5) Tennessee
Ole Miss (-18.5) Georgia Tech
Mississippi State (+9.5) LSU
Purdue (+2.5) Syracuse
Arkansas (-8) BYU
Houston (+7.5) TCU
Missouri (+4) Kansas State

My memory may be failing me, but I believe we had a perfect week for the first time in the 12-plus years I have been running this weekly contest. Chigoyboy went 8-0, coming out on the right side of close calls with Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Iowa and winning the other five comfortably. Congrats, chigoyboy.

On the other side of the coin we have GretnaGreen, who may have become the first person to get zero points in a week. I'm not as confident about that one, but I don't recall it.

WEEK 2 RESULTS

9

chigoyboy

8

charlamange8

6

p8kpev

5

LSU Law Greenie
roll wave
2DatWuzAGoodBoy2
paliii
DrBox
ForeverTU
4

WaveON
MNAlum
tacklethemanwiththefootball
winwave
Kettrade1

3

diverdo
Guerry
Wavetime

0

GretnaGreen


OVERALL STANDINGS

15

chigoyboy

12

charlamange8
winwave
DrBox
Kettrade1

11

WaveON
p8kpev
LSU Law Greenie
2DatWuzAGoodBoy2

10

MNAlum
roll wave
Wavetime
paliii
ForeverTU

9

tacklethemanwiththefootball

8

diverdo
Guerry

5

GretnaGreen


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Ole Miss 3 of 18
Notre Dame 16
Miami 9
Texas 4
Colorado 14
Iowa 11
Oklahoma 11
Florida State 11

I am hearing Fox8 obtained the IRS filing records through their investigative news reporter, and that's out of my league.

Fritz in 2022: $2.79 million

Dannen in 2022: $1.12 million

Hunter in 2022: $1.06 million

Salaries

Willie Fritz was non-committal on Michael Pratt's status for the Southern Miss game today after practice. I see no reason to play him, but I would assume Pratt desperately wants to play after having one of his worst games against his former coach and the guy who recruited him to Tulane, Will Hall, a year ago, and would love to exact revenge just because of his competitiveness. The question is how to protect his knee from taking another hit, and I don't see how that's possible. With a quality backup in Kai Horton, it makes more sense to rest Pratt unless the staff truly believes he gives Tulane the best chance to be at its best despite any limitations. His passes were very crisp today in limited reps.

As long as Tulane's defensive line plays to the standard of the first two weeks, this should be a comfortable victory, but you never know how a group in college football is going to perform. If Southern Miss has success on the ground against a previously impenetrable unit, it could get interesting. It's really hard to get a read on what Will Hall has this year after a blowout of overmatched Alcorn State and a demolition at the hands of overwhelming Florida State.

FRITZ

On if it will be game-time decision with Pratt:

"We did quite a bit of stuff yesterday, so we backed off and didn't really do much today. Tomorrow we won't do much either. He's feeling better. He looks good throwing the ball. You might be right."

On running back rotation and Iverson Celestine not playing against Ole Miss:

"We're going to try to get him in there. Committee. We are going to play a bunch of guys. Heck, it might be halfway through the year before (they determine) these two guys are going to play the majority of the snaps."

On who will start at running back:

"To be honest with you, I'm not sure. I've got to see what the first play is."

On linebacker rotation (Jesus Machado, Tyler Grubbs and Jared Small rotated with no one else playing against Ole Miss):

"We are going to keep going with the three 'backer rotation. Jesus is our swing guy. He's playing both spots, and the other two are just playing one spot."

On not giving up big runs:

"Leverage. There's three types of leverage. Over the top, which really pertains to pass defense, outside-in and inside-out, so you have to understand if the ball is declared on this shoulder (left), t's got to stay on this shoulder. If the ball is declared on this shoulder (right), it's got to stay on this shoulder. If the ball crosses your face, there's big plays, so we work on that and work on it and work on it, watch videotape on it. Our coaches can't stand me harping on it. I talk it about all day, every day, but that's the key. Playing with leverage is almost as important as the tackle itself. That gets you in position, tracking that near hip and not letting the ball cross your face gets you in position to make the tackle. Then you've got to make the tackle."

On if he's had decision comparable to Pratt decision in past:

"Yeah. We've had it a bunch. I didn't play a kid who was runner-up for the Heisman a couple a games. I didn't play Michael Bishop at Blinn when he got banged up (Bishop was Heisman runner-up at Kansas State in 1998 to Ricky Williams) and we had to make a decision."

On sour taste from Southern Miss game last year and opportunity for revenge:

"You know, I don't get into all that stuff really. I want to win them all, so we're going to prepare and play. We just want to play our best. Last year we did not play very well. We were minus-3 turnover-takeaway, played awful in the kicking game. Last week we did some good things but you are always looking for that elusive perfect game. It's out there some place, but we gotta come as close as we can to achieving it."

On what makes Will Hall challenging to go against:

"Always a good coach, smart, he's had a lot of head coaching experience. He's a coach's kid and been around the game all his life. He would probably say it before I would, but more importantly he's got good coaches and good players. That helps out a bunch."

On fans going to Hattiesburg:

"Come on out. It's a nice, close trip. Let's travel. Let's get over there, be loud and proud and wearing green."


SHIEL WOOD

On key to Tulane's good run defense:

"Our players are fitting the defense pretty well in the run game and making plays. We've got some talented guys that are physical at the point of attack that are strong making contact with the ball carrier. They are able to play technique and beat blocks, and we're really doing a good job of working with the front and getting them to understand how to fit stuff. Our linebackers are seeing their fits really well as far as gap schemes, zones and all those kinds of things. They're working really hard in practice every day to be good at stopping the run and hopefully getting teams off schedule a little bit."

On Judkins longest run being 12 yards:

"Any time you're playing a really good back like the one we're playing this week and like the ones we're playing this week coming up, Frank Gore and a stable full of guys that are good, it says a lot about hats swarming to the ball. Sometimes you're not going to do everything right, but guys are working hard to get off blocks in their gaps and then chase the football, keep everything bottled up and setting good edges on the perimeter, so if somebody doesn't do a great job of fitting everything perfect, the bigger runs are still contained."

On importance of stopping run:

"It used to be maybe stopping the run was more like a yardage deal. Now it's maybe yards per run because some teams maybe don't run it as often as they used to in years past, but when they're running it, if you can get them to 3 or less on a run from an average standpoint, you're doing a good job, and that does make a difference in getting teams off schedule in the downs or if it's second down and you hold them, you've got a little bit longer third down, so it's really a big deal in how it sets up the rest of the downs that follow"

On whether run defense under him is different than Tulane's in the past:

"A lot of the things that we're doing really well are the things that coach Fritz has always been big on--leveraging the ball, not letting the ball cross your face, different types of tackles that we identify. We drill those types of tackles. Coach Christian-Young, our safeties coach, does a tackling presentation to spearhead that. The kids are buying in, so it's a combination of maybe some of the things I've done in the past and the great fundamental approach that coach Fritz has, that coach Christian-Young has done a great job of implementing this year, has all come together to give us these two first two ball games pretty good run defense."

On depth up front helping against run:

"We've got a really quality line in general. We're rolling a two-deep in these games, so really eight guys rolling. Those guys have all come in, and it's just a testament to the roster we've put together with coach Fritz spearheading that and identifying some young men that are big, physical, strong, talented and work really hard and are doing a great job buying into to everything that we're doing."

KEITH COOPER

On being good against the run:

"We just really emphasize stopping the run. The D-line likes getting after the quarterback for passing, so we emphasize to stop the run first so we can call hog and rush the passer. It's really stopping the run so we can get to that pass rush.'

On stopping Judkins:

"We really just focused on how the O-linemen played and shutting down the O-linemen and seeing that they run very much tempo. They were getting tired with the heat outside. We were just basically trying to be better than the O-linemen and work them so they stopped running the ball and we were able to make those plays coming off those blocks."

On confidence run defense is a winning formula:

"Very confident. I like how the defense played. We played phenomenal. We just have to finish the game. That's all."

On depth:

"That's pretty good. We can get O-linemen tired because we are about two or three deep, so while they are in that run drive we can rotate once or twice if we don't get that stop, so basically our depth is really helping us right now."

On bouncing back from loss:

"You know our mentality--1-0 every day, every week, every game, so that's kind of how we bounce back. We have a 24-hour rule. OK, that game is over, next game, 1-0 next day. That's the mentality."

On USM backs:

"They are a good bunch. Like I said, what we did last game, we just have to dominate up front and stop the run like that.'"

Willie Fritz confirmed what was pretty much already known today--Corey Platt is done for the season after tearing his Achilles in the opener against South Florida. Platt already has had surgery and should be ready for next year, but we'll have to wait and see. Achilles injuries are probably the single worst in terms of recovery time.

Michael Pratt did less today than he did yesterday, but it does not mean he will not play against Southern Miss. I can write he did less because Fritz said as much when I talked to him on the record after practice, but his original comment yesterday was Thursday and Friday would be the real determining factors. My two cents: Kai Horton should start against Southern Miss because the risk of Pratt getting hurt again would be real. But Fritz is going to do what he thinks is best for the team and Pratt and everyone, and if Pratt shows he is ready, he will play. Fritz made the exact point Tuesday that the key was Pratt being able to protect himself. This game is worrisome because Southern Miss played extremely well last year against Tulane and it will be the Wave's first road game with a mostly new staff and a bunch of first-year starters on defense. Will Hall will have his team very ready to play after they were humiliated by FSU. It may be a matter of Tulane overwhelming the Golden Eagles with talent and discipline, but it is still too early in the season to know for sure.

One thing I do know: Cornerback Lance Robinson is a different player this year. He had another interception against the scout-team offense in practice today and just has a nose for the football he did not exhibit in the past. Although the secondary had some shaky moments against Ole Miss--particularly on the opening possession--I am higher on it now than I was at the beginning of the year. The unproven safeties have held up pretty well, and aside from a couple of penalties against South Alabama, Pedescleaux has looked good at nickel. Robinson, Jarius Monroe and A.J. Hampton are rotating in the two cornerback spots and all playing well.

Justin Ibieta threw a couple of nice deep balls in team drills today, completing one to Shaadie Clayton-Johnson on a designated fourth-and-3 and another to Phat Watts on a designated fourth-and-9. Watts has hardly played at wide receiver, if all all, through two games, but I think he still has a chance to make an impact before the year is over as he comes back from the torn ACL he suffered last year. In between those two long completions, Despanie broke up a designated fourth-and-6 pass.

The extra offensive lineman today for the scout team was defensive tackle Elijah Champaigne.

Shadre Hurst is getting some reps with the first-team offensive line. The coaches would be comfortable with him playing at either guard spot, but there just hasn't been room for him with Josh Remetich and Prince Pines starting.

There were scouts from the Jets, Chargers and one other NFL team (no identification) at practice today. More scouts have attended Tulane's practices this year than any other under Fritz.

I have not been able to get any confirmation on the talked-about blow-up between Will Hall and Frank Gore, Jr. on the sideline against FSU, but Hall was asked about Gore's status on the Sun Belt teleconferencre Monday and had this to say: "The game was over, and a lot of guys didn’t get as many snaps in the second half." Would he hide any issue? Of course he would. But I'm just reporting what he said. He did have a blow-up with Amare Jones during a Tulane practice in 2020. Jones walked out of the stadium before a teammate convinced him to come back. so I was not surprised he did not end up at Southern Miss when he entered the transfer portal before the end of that season. Hall coaches his guys hard. But as big as this game is for Southern Miss, I would be surprised if Gore does not get a lot more touches than in the first two games. He's talented.

Here were Hall's other quotes on the teleconference (I asked the questions about Billy Wiles and recovering from the FSU loss)

WILL HALL

opening statement:

"We had a six-hour bus ride, playing the best team in the country or one of them, a team that’s certainly got a chance to win the national title, and they played really well. We didn’t play so well early. We had some costly penalties with some of our young guys in a great environment, but credit Florida State. They’re unbelievable. It was a mismatch in every way, and we’re glad to get through it and excited about getting back into our domain.

“We have a big game this week versus Tulane. Great team. They’ve won 10 of their last 12. They beat a really good South Alabama team in week 1 and they had Ole Miss beaten this past week with their backup quarterback. Really well coached team that represented the Group of Five in the big bowl games last year, so a tremendous challenge for us. I think we’ve got a good team, I really do. We were outmatched this past week, but there’s a lot of people who are going to be outmatched versus those guys, so getting back home and getting back in our group of five element, we’re excited about it and looking forward to this week."

On Tulane differences from last year:

"They’ve got a new defensive coordinator and I have a lot of respect for him. He came from Troy this past year. They still operate out of a three-man front like they did last year, but Willie Fritz’s handprints are all over that program. They are going to find a way to run the ball and be efficient in the passing game, they are going to play hard in the kicking game and they are going to play really sound defense, leverage the ball and tackle. Very similar template to building a program that we have. They play for each other and they play hard and I have a lot of respect for them."

On if any positive FSU game takeaways:

"Our young DBs really showed they could play. We hit hard and we have to correct some mistakes and move forward."

On Billy Wiles:

"We’re excited about Billy. We feel good about his game 1. He played like a tough guy against Florida in really adverse situations. He stood in the pocket. He never vacated the pocket versus the best defensive front he’ll ever go against. We battled up front and blocked them for as long as we could and really laid it on the line, but he never just ran out of the pocket like a lot of young quarterbacks do. He stayed in there, had great pocket movement and it’s a game he can build off of and learn from in a really hard situation to play quarterback."

On avoiding hangover effect from lopsided loss:

"We talk about it. We had a six-hour bus ride to get home to think about it and flush it. We washed it this morning and flushed it and hopefully we’re moving on. I hope it doesn’t have a lingering effect. It wasn’t fun to go through, but we got our check and we’ll move forward."

On importance of Tulane game:

"Huge game. Thirty-three games have been played. We’re 24-9. They had won the last two before we won the last one. We don’t play again until 26, so whoever wins this game is going to have this bell for a while, and it means a lot to so many people and our fan base, so we want to represent our fans and our former great players the right way by winning it, so it means a whole lot to our program and a whole lot to theirs. It’s a great rivalry game. I think Willie would tell you and I would say from a conference standpoint, you’ve got to move on whether you win this game or you lose it because you get into conference play the next week, and that’s what matters the most, but this game means so much to so many people and it certainly matters to us."


WILLIE FRITZ

On playing first road game:

"One of the things we try to do is make our road game like a home game. We're not able to because of the hotel we're staying at and where we're eating, but we try to make the road game's schedule and itenerary almost exactly like the home game, so not much difference."

On run D being similar or different in approach from last year with new defensive coordinator:

"There are some differences. There are some distinct differences. There are some similarities. You've got odd and even (fronts). You might call something a little bit different than what you called it last year, but there are some noticeable differences and there are some things that are very similar."

On why so good against the run:

"I just think we do a pretty good job with leverage. It's one of the things we really stress as a coaching staff. Other than first series, we tackled pretty well. The other part that's so important is just get lined up and be gap solid. Everybody's got to execute the call. If one guy screws up executing the call, now you might have two gaps open side by side, and that's a recipe for disaster. That's the other important part of it."

On Pratt:

"He did a little more today and did some good stuff. We worked him quite a bit yesterday, so we backed off a little bit today. We'll see how he is tomorrow. We're going to wait and be smart with it, but if he can go, we're not going to have him standing over there next to me."

On Corey Platt:

"He's out for the season. He's already had surgery (Achilles tendon repair).

It is not clear whether or not Michael Pratt will play against Southern Miss, but he definitely is closer than he was last week, when his past history of playing without practicing at all fooled me into thinking he could do it again (when I posted here I would be surprised if he did not play well, I meant it. I was very wrong in that assessment) and left the coaches hopeful until Thursday and Friday he would be able to play. He took some team drill and individual drill work today--something he never did last week--and Willie Fritz said they would know by Thursday or Friday whether or not he would be ready to play.

If Pratt cannot go, Kai Horton will get his second consecutive start. He had good and bad moments against Ole Miss but should be more comfortable if he gets his second straight start against a less talented team (Southern Miss) than Ole Miss. It's interesting. Horton blames himself for the game-turning interception when he and Lawrence Keys had a miscommunication on a route, with Keys going deep and Horton throwing an out pattern, but someone tweeted at me during the game that Fritz was interviewed by ESPN2 on the sideline and he said it was the receiver's fault. After the game, Fritz said he was not sure, and Horton insists it would have been a touchdown if he had made the right read.

Southern Miss is starting Billy Wiles at quarterback. Wiles, of course, was a Tulane commitment when Will Hall was offensive coordinator, but after Hall took the USM job, he ended up walking on at Clemson in 2021 and earning a scholarship with the Tigers in 2022 (but not playing). He transferred to Southern Miss in the offseason and won a battle for the starting job in preseason camp. Ty Keyes, Hall's other QB commitment for Tulane's 2021 class before he signed with Southern Miss to join Hall, no longer is on the team after playing in two games last year and getting hurt both times, including his sole play as a wildcat QB against Tulane. He now is the starting QB for East Mississippi Community College. To complete the circle, Horton would not be at Tulane if Hall had not left. The Wave pursued him after Keyes and Wiles dropped their commitments.

Strangely, Frank Gore Jr. has not been USM''s featured running back in the first two games. He has 17 carries for 60 yards while Rodriquez Clark, a Memphis transfer whom Tulane held to 28 yards on 11 carries in 2021, has 140 yards on 24 carries. He left Memphis at the beginning of last year before resurfacing at Southern MIss this year for his senior season. I cannot say I remember Clark from the 2021 game, which was Tyjae Spears' 200-yard-plus explosion night to end what otherwise was a miserable season for the Wave, which even lost that game.

Fritz, Horton, Jared Small and Lance Robinson talked after practice today.

FRITZ

"Good workout today. We beat the rain. We were a little worried about that, but everything worked out well. We're playing a real quality opponent this weekend. We've got a lot of respect for coach Hall and what he does and how he runs the program. We know we're going to have to play well this weekend. One of the things in football that's so important is moving on. If you can sit back and look at past successes or past failures, you're not going to be as good as you can possibly be in the present. We just move on to the next deal and we're excited about this opportunity Saturday."

On what he can say about Pratt:

"We're hoping he's going to be able to play this weekend. We'll find out this week if he's going to be able to play or not. He's doing more and more, looking better and better. Time is a good thing."

On what he did in practice today:

"He did a bunch of throwing, ran some unit, did some other things and did all his drill work. We'll just have to see when we get to Thursday, Friday if he can do the things he needs to do to protect himself. if he can, we'll play him. If he can't, we won't."

On not considering simply holding him out until conference play:

"No. If he's healthy to play, we are going to play him. I've heard people say, oh, he can just get rid of the ball quick and hand the ball off, well you're not running. most of your offense and what happens if a guy goes to block a guy to the right instead of the left and you have a guy coming in barreling in on him. He's got to be able to protect himself. That's an important part of it."

On slippery slope when injured player wants to play:

"Yeah, but that's my choice. I'm going to make the decision. He'd love to play. He's a competitive dude. It would have taken me about five seconds to talk him into playing last week. It wouldn't have taken much, but he was not ready to play. We saw that on Thursday and Friday."

On Horton's performance against Ole Miss:

"Kai did some really good things. It's always hard. It's kind of similar to his first start as a college football player, playing the No. 3 or 4-ranked team in the country when he had to come out here and play against Cincinnati. He did a lot of good things. Games are different than practice. We try to simulate game-like experiences in practice as much as you can, but it's not the same. You're not tackling. The speed of the game is that much faster, but Kai did some very good things."

On thoughts about Ole Miss game after reviewing the video:

"There were just some plays, some dropped balls, some missed tackles that were easy plays. We missed some receivers at times, missed some cuts at times, missed some assignments. It seemed like everybody had about one or maybe two, so we just have to clean that up. We didn't play our best game Saturday, but we were still in position to win the game if we had executed down the stretch. We've got to do a better job coming out of halftime. We didn't do a good job of that week 1 or week 2. We need to do a much better job coming out in the third quarter."

On second guessing onside kick:

"Oh yeah, if if it doesn't work, I second guess the crap out of it. With three minutes (the analytics chart said) it was kick deep, 2:50, it was onside kick, and we had 2:56 on the clock with two timeouts, so I went ahead and did it, and if we would have executed it, on outside guy thought he was going to get blocked and he didn't. If he had just sprinted, I think the ball would have hit him the chest. Yeah, it didn't work. I wish we hadn't done it."

On what he remembers the most from USM loss last year:

"We were minus-3 in turnover/takeaway. Hard to win at minus-3. That was a big part of the game. There was a pick-six in there. We started off well, but didn't play very good in the second half. You have a tough time winning with a minus-3 turnover/takeway."

On Frank Gore Jr.:

They've got two really good backs. I think another guy's actually their leading rusher right now, but Frank Gore Jr. has had an unbelievable career there at Southern Miss. A big part of their offense is running the ball. We just have to play with leverage and we have to tackle. We did a nice job of it last week. That was a back who's had a lot of jobs, and we did a good job of not letting the ball cross our face. Our missed tackles seemed to be more on receivers than it did on running backs."

On USM celebration after win last year and if he has conveyed to players how important Golden Eagles think this game is:

"Well, we think it's important, too. There's a lot of history involved in this game between Tulane and Southern Mississippi. I want to win every one of them, so this one is the next one. We want to play great this weekend. I don't think we've played great so far, and I'm always chasing that elusive perfect game. It's out there someplace and some day we're going to get it."

Tulane finished its major preparation for Ole Miss today with a toasty morning workout that ended at 10:34 am. and was focused heavily on special teams, as per the usual on Thursdays.

Redshirt freshman defensive back Kentrell Webb, who had not practiced all preseason, returned this week. His absence was not due to injury--I am not sure what the issue was--and he will be available Saturday. Webb ran with the first team at nickelback for part of spring drills but was second team by the end, and he worked primarily as a third-team safety today. His rust showed when he slipped in the end zone during a red zone drill, allowing Justin Ibieta to throw to a wide open Dontae Fleming for a touchdown. The second-team safeties were Darius Swanson and Shi'Keem Laister behind starters Bailey Despanie and DJ Douglas, who both played well against South Alabama at the position I had the most concern about entering the season. I am intrigued by both third teamers, though. Freshman Kevin Adams of Destrehan, who lined up alongside Webb and got some reps with the second unit, had a pick six yesterday and always seems to make plays in practice.

Mandel Eugene is getting most of the reps with the second unit on defense, but I do not anticipate him playing a lot Saturday. Fritz said yesterday he wanted to roll with a rotation of Jesus Machado, Tyler Grubbs and Jared Small, using a fourth guy only when absolutely necessary in the absence of Corey Platt.

Fritz remains involved in special teams even though he ceded the coordinator duties a year ago in a role now occupied by former Saints assistant Greg McMahon. Today, when a punt was blocked and no one sprinted to pick it up, he pointed out it landed behind the line of scrimmage and was able to be advanced by both teams, not just the defense, making it absolutely necessary to cover it up quickly on defense. When backup kickoff specialist Lucas Dunker sent one to the wrong side during a coverage/return instruction drill, Fritz lit into him for wasting the time of the other 21 players on the rep and made him repeat it.

I am looking for sophomore defensive tackle Kam Hamilton to have a big year. Legally deaf, he made a lot of noise against South Alabama and had an interception off a deflection in yesterday's practice. He can rush the passer, too. This defensive line is very good and will be even better with more production from rush ends (dogs in the new parlance) Devean Deal and Darius Hodges, neither of whom had big games Saturday.

With Sully Burns not practicing due to injury, Tulane has 14 offensive linemen--one shy of the number needed to have a first team, a second team and a scout team. As a result, freshman tight end Josh Goines lined up at left tackle today for the scout team.

Jarius Monroe enjoyed an offensive line drill where one of them used a spin move to mimic a pass rusher and the blocker had to stop him. When the drill was done, Monroe approached them and said he liked the spin moves. He's a walking, talking bundle of energy.

Four receivers had big games against South Alabama. Although I like Lawrence Keys the best, Jha'Quan Jackson, Dontae Fleming and Chris Brazzell came up huge. Maybe this week Yulkeith Brown, who was inconsistent in camp but had his moments, will join the party. My prediction that Alex Bauman would lead the team in catches is not off to a rip-roaring start, though. He lost yards on one catch and fumbled on his other one Saturday, although Cam Wire bailed him out with a nice strip that Rashad Green recovered. At least I did not write Bauman would lead the team in receiving yards. He netted zero Saturday.

I was asked a week or two ago about starters on special teams. Monroe, Deal and Despanie are on the kickoff coverage unit, and there might be a couple more (I wrote down nine numbers). The others were Tahir Annoor, Eugene, Kiland Harrison, Darius Swanson and freshman DB Willam Reed along with Casey Glover.

Nick Anderson, who was released by the Saints and not added to the practice squad, has attended practice twice this week. I said hi but did not get a chance to ask him about his plans either time.

Tulane's schedule is not good and will hurt its chances to reach the NCAA tournament or the NIT if it is in range for either. I heard over the last month they had a particularly hard time getting to teams to play at Devlin, but playing road games against major conference or really good non-major major conference teams without a return visit--something Ron Hunter refuses to do--would have put this team in better position. Perry Clark's Tulane teams in 1996 and 1997 were left out of the NCAA tournament in large part because they played too many bottom feeders out of conference and it weighed down their RIP.

Dillard was the last addition and that game will not even count when the committees look at Tulane. There could be as many as five games against teams below 200 last year (at least four), and there are three games against teams that finished in the top 100 last year. There's no telling how Southern Conference champion Furman and Missouri Valley regular season champion Bradley will fare this year, but Furman has been rock solid for five years. Mississippi State made the NCAA tournament and should be even better this year. Winning at least two of those three would be essential considering the caliber of the non-conference schedule, and it might require all three.

The schedule (all games home unless noted)

1) Nov. 6 Nicholls State

--2022-23 NET ranking: 263 out 363 D1 teams

2) Nov. 9 Northwestern State

NET: 203

3) Nov. 17 Sacramento State

NET: 224

4) Nov. 20 Bradley (SoCal Challenge in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)

NET: 72

5) Nov. 22 California or UTEP (SoCal Challenge)

NET: 313/192

6) Nov. 29 Prairie View

NET: 278

7) Dec. 3 at Fordham

NET: 134

8) Dec. 9 Mississippi State in Atlanta at Holiday HoopsGiving

NET: 49

9) Dec. 14 Furman

NET: 88 (won first-round NCAA tournament game vs. Virginia)

10) Dec. 16 Southern

NET: 276

11) Dec.22 George Mason

NET: 139

12) Dec. 29 Dilliard

NET--not applicable because Dillard is an NAIA school

Tough loss. Tulane, for the most part, won the battle of the line of scrimmage and probably would have won outright if Michael Pratt had been able to play. The question now is how soon he will be back. It's no guarantee he will return for the Southern Miss game, and rumors were floated he had a meniscus issue that could keep him out a month.

WILLIE FRITZ

"We made some big mistakes. Didn't make plays when we needed to make them. Our kids fought their tails off and played extremely hard. The first series of the game we did an awful job tackling and playing with leverage, and then after that we did a pretty nice job with it. Big catches. For getting thrown in there and starting the game, Kai Horton did an excellent job, but when that kind of situation occurs, everybody's got to step their game up a little bit. I don't know if that was the case, coaches included. We'll look at the film. There were some guys that played extremely well."

On the Pratt decision:

“I’m not going to play anybody if I think they can hurt themselves further. He just isn’t quite ready. He wanted to play. That was my decision. I told him he wasn’t going to play this week. I think it was a smart decision."

On if anything changed during the week, since Tuesday:

"He just didn’t get better. I thought he was going to get healthier. He was better on Tuesday and Wednesday he got a tiny bit better and it just went that way the rest of the week. It looked promising early in the week, but it didn’t continue that way. We thought time was kind of on our side, but it didn’t help us”

On if this is a several weeks thing:

“I hope not. I hate to be vague, but I didn’t look like a head coach today, much less a doctor.”

On if he thought about kicking deep rather than trying onside kick late:

"Yeah, we did. It was right on the cusp. How far was that field goal? 56? Good job by the kid, but it was right on the cusp of kicking it deep."

On why he said he was not a good head coach today:

"That one right there, it wasn't a gut call. We used the book. I would have liked to have us kick it (deep) and see if we could have held them right there. They were having a tough time holding them a little bit. You've got to make decisions and you've got to make them quick."

On going for it on fourth down when Horton stepped out of bounds a yard shy of first instead of attempting tying 49-yard field goal:

"It would have been a low-50 (yarder), wouldn't it? We thought that would have been a little out of his range. He would have had to kick into the wind just slightly. We had a really good play call. I'll have to look at it again. I thought our back was open and got grabbed big time. We'll see. That was a huge call."

On what happened in the second half:

"There were some plays we needed to make and we just didn't quite do it. Obviously a good opponent. These guys are a good team, and when you play against a good team like that, you've got to play well."

On if plan was to run the ball that much:

"We were running pretty effectively. It felt like we had a lot of stuff really blocked right, and sometimes in the run game it takes a little while for guys to feel it a little bit. We run a lot of counter and stay behind that second puller. We were real close to having some big rips. We ran the ball pretty well."

On Mahki Hughes performance:

"He's doing a good job. He's a tough, hardnose guy. He tore his ACL last year before the first game and just went to work. We never heard him complain about everything. He came back and is doing a very good job."

On if game was there for the taking:

"That's why we're all so disappointed. We didn't play very well in the second half."

On Pratt's reaction:

"He did great. He's an outstanding leader for us. He wanted to play, and we're not going to do that here."

On what happened when Horton through an out ball and receiver ran deep on interception:

"I'm not quite sure."

On what it says about program to play right with Ole Miss:

"I told our guys, but I was pleased that they were very disappointed when we went in the locker room. Everybody was very disappointed, but when you play a team like that, you've got to play good, and we didn't play good the whole game. There were some spurts we played good and looked like we were handling it, but not enough to win the game."

On if they physically stood toe to toe with Ole Miss:

"I thought we matched up well with them. I didn't see a big difference in the lines as far as surge. We got some good surge sometimes and got some minus plays defensively with our line. There were some times they pushed us around, so it kind of went both ways."

On Horton's performance:

"He did a fantastic job. He got thrown in the fire there and did an excellent job."

On if analytics played into going for it on fourth down five times:

"Yeah, big time. It really does now. Obviously the more you're behind later in the game, the more it plays into it. There were a couple of them we needed to convert and we didn't quite get it, and we did convert a couple."

KAI HORTON

On when he knew he would be starting QB for game:

"I just came in the week staying prepared, staying ready. I come in every week like I'm starting, and then today I found out I was starting and tried to make the most of it. I just have to make some plays."

On what Pratt told him when they walking off the field:

"He just told me to keep my head up and I played my heart out. We just have to make some plays. He just told me to keep my head up and move on and get ready for next week."

On if game was there for the taking by making a few more plays at critical times:

"No doubt. I just have to make some throws, and if I make some throws when they should have been made, it could have been different for sure."

On if it was miscommunication on interception:

"No, that was my fault."

On tying it at 7 after Ole Miss scored opening TD:

"Just coming out, we knew what we had to do and we had kind of an idea of what they were going to be in and what they like to do and their tendencies, so we just trusted coach Nagle to get us in the right position and he did a great job scripting those plays. We just executed really well and scored the first drive."

On his fourth-down run that got overturned because he stepped out of bounds:

"Honestly I wasn't even watching it (the replay). I thought I had it. I thought I got the first down, and I was looking to see what our next play was and then they told us it was overturned. It was unfortunate. I've got to reach the ball out right there for the first down."

MAKHI HUGHES

On not going down on first contact:

"The running game was good. As a running back you can't let the first man get you down. Our coach (running backs coach Carter Sheridan) says you have to have the mindset of never letting one man get you down, always drive through and always get the first down."

On physicality:

"The O-line did good. I just know we can do more, but our O-line did really good in pass protection and run protection."

winwave and Kettrade1 got off to hot starts, missing only one game.

8

winwave
Kettrade1

7

WaveON
Wavetime
DrBox

6

MNAlum
LSU Law Greenie
chigoyboy
2DatWuzAGoodBoy2

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p8kpev
roll wave
diverdo
tacklethemanwiththefootball
GretnaGreen
Guerry
paliii
ForeverTU

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charlamange8


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 18 of 18
Florida State 7
Houston 9
North Carolina 11
Washington 10
Duke 7
Colorado 11
East Carolina 14

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

Tulane (+7) Ole Miss
North Carolina State (+7.5) Notre Dame
Miami (+4.5) Texas A&M
Alabama (-7) Texas
Colorado (-2.5) Nebraska
Iowa State (+4) Iowa
Oklahoma (-15.5) SMU
Florida State (-31) Southern Miss

As expected, Tulane will be without a key player when it faces Ole Miss this Saturday. Corey Platt, who had a whopping 15 tackles in less than three full quarters before coming up lame after sacking South Alabama quarterback Carter Bradley for a 2-yard loss on fourth down with 1:41 left in the third quarter. Although Willie Fritz only would confirm Platt would be out Saturday, the injury had all the telltale signs of an Achilles tear when I watched the replay, which is exactly what fans have posted. He seemed OK at first, then went down to the ground like he had a cramp, but when he got up and was helped to the sideline, he started looking behind him like he had been kicked in the heel, which is what everyone who has had that injury has described it. He was on crutches today and will be a huge loss, having made nearly twice as many tackles as anyone else did for the full game. There's nothing wrong with Jesus Machado (eight tackles ,one for loss) and Tyler Grubbs, (five tackles), who will start, but is is unclear whether backups Jared Small and Mandel Eugene will be ready. The coaches have praised Small all preseason, but he had only one tackle Saturday and looked, well, small. Eugene is totally untested and was running third team before Platt's injury.

Everyone else on the depth chart should be ready to face Ole Miss. Michael Pratt, who limped through the end of the fourth quarter after having his left leg rolled up on by a tackler with about 5:30 left in the game, will play Saturday. He was not 100 percent Tuesday but is better off than he was at the same time last year with a painful heal injury before the AAC title game, and all he did that day was go 20 of 33 for 394 yards and four TDs before he rushed 19 yards for the final score in a 45-28 victory. Kai Horton will get ready just in case, but Pratt is a tough hombre.

Ole Miss, which beat Mercer 73-7, is favored by 7 in Tulane's first home game against an SEC opponent since facing the Rebels in the Superdome in 2012 and first home game against a ranked Power Five conference team since facing LSU in 2007. Tulane is 22nd in the coaches poll and 24th in the AP poll, while the Rebels are No. 20 in both. It is one of only two games this weekend between top-25 teams, with the other one No. 11 Texas at No. 4 Alabama.

Nick Anderson was at practice today. I shook his hand but did not get a chance to talk to him and ask what his plans are in terms of the NFL after being cut by the Saints and not added to their practice squad.

The day ended with an interception by safety Darius Swanson against the scout-team offense. It looked like Tulane had more good on good (Fritz's term for the first and second teams rather than a scout team) to get ready for Ole Miss.

Devean Deal, who turned 21 yesterday, continues to start in front of Darius Hodges. Deal had two tackles to Hodges' one against South Alabama, and both of them need to be more active against Ole Miss.

I requested Josh Remetich today because he was credited with the forced fumble that gave Tulane a first down after Alex Bauman fumbled on that crazy play in the fourth quarter, but if I had been able to watch the replay before interviews, I would have known it was Cam Wire with the strip before Remetich tackled the guy. Oh well.

WILLIE FRITZ

"Probably the best thing we did (against South Alabama) is we had the ball for 13 minutes and 42 seconds in the fourth quarter, and they had a minute and 18, so we dominated the fourth quarter and that's one of our goals every week. I don't know if I've ever had that big a discrepancy in time in the fourth quarter like that, so that was really good. Obviously Michael played really well-the conference player of the week--and towards the end of the game we ran the ball well. We did a good job with the offensive line getting a good push. Defensively we were very opportunistic--five takeaways, which is outstanding. Didn't give up very many big plays. We only had one play over 20 yards defensively (actually none, the longest went for exactly 20 yards) and then for the first game we always worry about special teams coming on and off the field, and we did a good job with substitution and understanding situations. We had a couple of milk (the clock) situations with our field goal team and they really executed that well, so for the first game there were a lot of things to be pleased with.

"Obviously we have a tough game this weekend. It's going to be a sellout here at Yulman Stadium. Ole Miss is a big, strong team, very tall and long, fast. Really took care of business last Saturday, so we are going to have to play a lot better than we did last Saturday."

On if he could say anything about Pratt's health:

"He's fine. I've got one guy, unfortunately Corey Platt is going to be out this weekend. We'll find out the extent. Otherwise all hands on deck."

On expected atmosphere:

"It's going to be great. It's going to be outstanding. I've gotten a ton of phone calls, and this might be good for me to say it right here--please quit calling me. Everybody keeps wanting tickets, and I say it's a sellout. Well all I need is one. It's a sellout. But all I need is one. It's a sellout. There aren't any more tickets. That's great. We're very excited about it, and so are the players."

On diference between Tulane now and when it faced Ole Miss two years ago:

"Oh, there are a lot of differences. That was probably one of the longest days of my life. We went there and I made a mistake bringing every single player on our team to the game. The locker room was about as big as this room (a small meeting room adjacent to the field at Yulman Stadium) right here, and I think we had a four-hour delay, something like that, so it was not very good on my part. I should have thought about that and not brought about 120 guys for a locker room that probably was made for about 50. It was pouring down and everything else and they were on fire. They got after us and did a good job, so hopefully a lot of difference."

On how team has improved since then:

"We had a tough time just getting lined up with the tempo and some things like that. We've worked on that a bunch. That's probably one thing. They have a different play-caller defensively and a new coordinator for special teams, so there are a lot of different philosophies than they're doing right now. When you're playing these games early in the season and you've got new people on the other side who are calling things, you've got to look at where they were at last year and the year before that and then also game 1."

On what he needs to see out of Pratt Saturday:

"It's making good decisions. That's always the key. There's so much on the quarterback. We've got to do a good job putting a game plan together. You want it to be complex but not too complex, and luckily he's a smart guy."

On Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart:

"He can run really well, too. At one point in time people would consider that style of offense to be a passing offense. I think they were third in the nation last year in rushing (averaging 256.6 yards), so they really run effectively, and the quarterback's a big part of that, and then he throws it great, too. They have a lot of experienced guys back there. The second-team guy is one of the top quarterbacks in the history of Oklahoma State, and the third-team guy is really good, too, so they've got some excellent depth there."

On wide receiver Tre Harris (La Tech transfer at Ole Miss):

"The one thing you want to try to do is stay over the top. There's three types of leverage--over the top, outside in and inside out--and the most important one is over-the-top leverage. We have to do a good job of playing with leverage and tackling. They are going to run the ball on us a bunch, and make them earn their yards throwing the ball. It's easier said than done."

On gauging Ole Miss off of win against Mercer team with tremendous talent gap:

"Oh, formations are formations and plays are plays. You compare it to what they did last year. Their defensive coordinator was at Alabama last year, and there are similarities between what they did last week and what he did when he was the defensive coordinator at Alabama. The special teams coordinator was at Kansas, Bowling Green and Arkansas State, so you look at those things in the summer and then you compare it what they do in week 1."

On extra chips in the hopper if beat an SEC team:

"Well of course there would be. It's a big game for us, but we want to win every week and be 1-0 every week. It's going to be tremendous challenge. We are going to have to play better than what we did last week. We really are."

On tackling issues against South Alabama being a first-game issue:

"I think part of it's first game. Leverage is part of first game. You think you've got the guy on your left shoulder, he crosses your face and that's when the big plays occur. A lot of that was week 1. You can't tackle as much as you'd like to in preseason camp. You gotta be smart with the drills that you do tackling, but it's hard to replicate the space in tackles. That's what you get better at as the season progresses."

On his running backs' performance in opener:

"In the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter, we really ran the ball well. Mahki Hughes had some excellent runs. Obviously that was a big fumble we had in there, but the guys ran pretty good. That's another thing. You do a lot of inside drill and a lot of team run and you do it in scrimmages, but it's a little bit different what you're looking at and where your path is when you're running the ball. Those guys have learned from week 1."

Good info from Ole Miss beat writer Michael Katz.

Engaging the Enemy

Did any recruits visit this past weekend? Any info on who might visit for the game against Ole Miss. Seems pretty quiet.

Roll Wave!!!!

Just wondering what you’ll think after today. All of the P5 to P5 movement is a bummer. The PAC 12 imploding happened so quickly. With FSU balking, the ACC could be next. And that could happen just as fast. Conference realignment, NIL, gambling, super conferences, and greed have cast a dark shadow over college football. Never imagined it would be like this.

Where does this leave Tulane? Nobody wants us and how long will we actually have this spot in the playoffs? Long-term winning may be mute. How do we fit?