For the folks who aren't on Twitter, I thought I'd share some of the recruiting developments that have happened over the past few days.

WR Harvey Broussard has committed to MEMPHIS, so that one looks like it's no longer happening.
RB/S Caleb Komolafe is probably an 80-90% commit for Northwestern after a visit this past weekend. He'll announce later today.

Committed DB's Josh Moore and Jahiem Johnson will be in town for an OV this weekend, as will target Edge Matthew Fobbs-White (hopefully Guerry posts a full list when available).

In home visits made are a mix of committed guys and targets:
Coach Naghavi visited with OT Noah Gardner
Coach Nagle visited with TE Josh Goines
Coach Robertson visited with DE/Edge Ashley Williams (trying hard to flip him from Auburn)
Coach Sherman was in Ohio for RB Trey Cornist (former GT commit; he visited ECU this past weekend)
Coach Mac was out in California for QB Israel Carter (current Arizona State commit)
Coach Mutz was visiting with LB Dickson Agu
Coach Fritz was visiting with Dutchtown G Ethan Fields (longtime Wave target committed to now-coachless Purdue; Purdue's engineering program will make it hard to flip him, IMO).

It's good to see the coaches firming up things with our commits while still swinging for the fences with some guys.

Uh, this ain't good...but if other programs are after your coach you must be successful. Thoughts?

I will put quotes up tomorrow, but I'm going to bed tonight after an exhausting but exhilarating year.

This game reminded me of one I covered back in 1991, my first year as a sporstswriter after graduating from Florida. The Gatos, who had never won an official SEC championship, just needed to beat Kentucky to get the first and jumped out to a 28-3 lead before Kentucky, which was using a backup quarterback, rallied to close the gap to 28-26 and put a huge scare into Florida. The Gators scored a touchdown quickly to regain control and finished the season 10-1.

Today, Tulane was ahead of UCF 24-7, facing a backup quarterback and totally dominating when Will Wallace's fumble at the UCF 2 changed everything for a while. Tulane started playing tight and suddenly it became a 31-28 game. But Michael Pratt hit Jha'Quan Jackson on a key third-and-8 and then found Shae Wyatt all alone for a 60-yard touchdown, and Tulane was in control from there.

When you want a win so incredibly badly, there always are going to be some moments of consternation.

Tulane overcame its own fears and finished off UCF, capping an 11-2 year when it looked like a championship team all the way.

I still have not transcribed the quotes from last night and will do so tomorow, but I attended Tulane's bowl announcement gathering (players and media only) at the Glazer Club, and we talked to five players plus Fritz.

Michael Pratt showed up in a boot, but that's no cause for concern. I wrote nothing about it at the time, but he was very gimpy in practice last Tuesday. When they then closed the Wednesday and Thursday practices. I wondered if his status was a concern but I found out from reliable sources he would be OK for the game. I do believe that's why he did not run much last night, but he had the best passing game of his career by far and has really become an elite quarterback. With a month to get ready for the Cotton Bowl, he will be healthier there than he was last night.

FRITZ

On initial reaction to bowl matchup:

"Well, we're just so proud to be in the game. It's a huge deal for our university and football program. I'm really happy for the student-athletes. They've earned this. They deserve it, and they are going to have a lot of fun."

On if it was fun to see it pop up on screen:

"Yeah, it was neat. It was neat to see it. It's great to be talked about on a national stage, so that's really neat."

On what win over USC would mean for the program:

"Well, playing in a New Year's Six bowl is huge, but obviously you want to go in to compete and test yourself against a team that year in and year out is competing for national titles, so it's a huge challenge for us. We're looking forward to it."

On bowl practice schedule:

"We are going to do a little bit this week, not too much because most of the coaches are going to be gone recruiting, but we'll have some captain's practices. We'll lift and do running really for the next two weeks. Then we'll start after that. I think we're going to get three practices in here in town, take a little break for Christmas and then come back and have seven practices. I think we're coming back on the 26th. We go to Texas on the 27th."

On if he anticipates anyone opting out of bowl game:

"I'd be shocked (if anyone opted out). I'd be very surprised."

On how the Gatorade bath felt:

"It was cold. Cold. It was good. Fun."

MICHAEL PRATT

On what Cotton Bowl says about direction of program:

"Oh, it's big time. The culture that coach Fritz has implemented here, the senior leadership and just the way the guys have stepped up, and like I talked about all year, a lot of younger guys have stepped up into those roles as well, and being able to follow behind guys like Tyjae Spears, Nick Anderson, Dorian Williams, Sincere Haynesworth and Joey Claybrook, there's a lot to learn from that. There's definitely a bright future for this team."

On knowing it was USC:

"Yeah, we knew. We wanted to play the best opponent we can."

On chance to have biggest turnaround in terms of wins in college football history from one year to next:

"Absolutely. We just have to take it week by week and continue the preparation like we've been doing all year and everything will work out."

On what win over USC would mean:

"I think the adversity we've gone through throughout since I've been here, my first year was the COVID year, so that was a weird year. Last year with the hurricane, everything was really down. No matter the circumstance, the team morale, leaderships and accountability, if you're prepared for it, you are going to put yourself in a situation to be successful."

NICK ANDERSON

On meaning of playing in Cotton Bowl against USC:

'Just overall it means a lot. Like I said last night, to do this for the alums and to do this for the university on such a big stage and having a historic season and playing in a New Year's Six bowl and going to win the New Year's Six bowl is just phenomenal and something I look forward to."

On direction of program after making first major bowl since 1939 season:

"Most definitely it just shows the upward trend that we're heading in. Last night AAC champions, and now the fact we're going to play in a big-time bowl game, we've got a good opportunity to go out there and get a W. It just shows what coach Fritz has brought to this program and the culture that we are starting to establish and have established at Tulane."

On if he has watched USC:

"I watched USC on the Pac-12 championship game Friday night. They have a lot of weapons on offense. Caleb Williams is really their go-to guy. He gets everything going. We played against him some last year (at Oklahoma). He didn't get a lot of plays against us, but we did have a chance to play against him some last year. He took over the position at OU and had a phenomenal season. He's a dynamic athlete and I'm ready to play against him."

On the opportunity:

"It can really show that we're one of the top programs in the country. Going out there in Dallas and being able to stop such a high explosive offense which really has been doing well this year behind Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams. so it's going to be interesting. We've played against Lincoln Riley before, so we do have the experience under our belt and I'm excited for it."

On USC being national brand and the chance for a showcase:

"It's just amazing. It just shows another reason why the college football playoff extending the playoff teams to 12 really makes a difference because it gives teams like Tulane and Group of Five teams the opportunity to go and play against the bigger schools and get the opportunity to showcase their talent, so us being able to go and play in a New Year's Six bowl against a worthy opponent in USC is phenomenal, being on that grand stage and being able to showcase our talent that we have down here at Tulane."

On motivation:

"Just overall 1-0. We're not done. We always said that we wanted to go play 14 games, and we got the opportunity to play 14. It's still the mantra. It's not over just because we won a conference championship. It's still 1-0."

On if playoff system had been fast-forwarded two years:

"That's what I was just telling Dorian. It's crazy if it was two years in advance, we'd have an opportunity to play for a national championship, which is something phenomenal. This just shows in two years how this is going to be a blessed opportunity for Group of Five teams to be able to go and compete on the big stage against Power Five teams."

On what he hurt last night:

"I got banged up a little bit on my shoulder, but I wasn't coming out of the game. I went to the sideline, got my range of motion back and I went right back in. I told the guys before the game there was no sitting out. That just shows the mentality of our team. We went out there and I put the team on my back last night. Everybody did a great job. A lot of guys played through injuries and bumps and bruises and we were able to get the win."

On handling trophy:

"Oh, yes. The trophy got a great tour of New Orleans last night."

On soaking in atmosphere with fans on field:

"Just overall being able to see the fans rush the field and seeing the score what it was and being AAC champs and the fireworks and the smiling faces, but not just me, but from my mom. I had to take a moment to say is this real. It just really was a testament to how good God is. To say that we went 2-10 last year to 11-2 now, playing in the Cotton Bowl, winning the AAC, it's truly a blessing. I was mesmerized."

On teammates saying he galvanized them to all this:

"It just shows my leadership. It shows the influence that I have on this team. I really can't take the credit. This is all God. I just put my faith in front of me, just followed the plan that God had for this team and everybody just dialed in. Nobody this year was selfish. I could have gone different places last year with the transfer portal, but I just knew the job wasn't done here at Tulane and I knew that God wanted me to come back to help be a vessel for this team, and it's just a blessing to see the miraculous things he's done for us this season and I'm excited to see what he does for us."

Thanks haven’t seen any comment on this.

Nobody knows yet.

Although all of the projections have Penn State, those projections are assuming Georgia will beat LSU in the SEC championship game, Clemson will beat North Carolina in the ACC championship game, TCU will beat Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game and USC will beat Utah in the Pac-12 championship game. With the exception of the AAC title game, if any of those games ends in an upset, the bowl lineup will be reshuffled.

Also, word came out today that the Rose Bowl is considering inviting Penn State instead of Ohio State because the Buckeyes have been to Pasadena twice in the last four years and their fans are not interested in the game after the crushing loss to Michigan.

Most likely, the Cotton Bowl will pit Tulane against the highest ranked team available after the other New Year's Six bowls are paired by the selection committee. The Rose Bowl gets a Pac-12-Big Ten matchup. The Sugar Bowl gets an SEC-Big 12 matchup and the Orange Bowl gets the ACC champion against either the Big Ten or the SEC. Right now that team is Penn State, but the final college football rankings might look different after the conference championship games are played. If Kansas State beats TCU and TCU falls out of the top four, The Tulane-UCF winner might play TCU. If Utah beats USC and USC falls out of the top four, the Tulane-UCF winner might play USC. If LSU beats Georgia and goes to the Sugar Bowl, Alabama or Tennessee could end up in the Cotton Bowl.

Who would you like to see Tulane play the most if it wins Saturday?

DrBox won the week outright and increased his lead on first place from one point to four points. That's called separation.

WEEK 12 STANDINGS

7

DrBox

6

chigoyboy
WaveON
Gretna Green
ny oscar
Guerry

5

wavetime
p8kpev
diverdo
tacklethemanwiththefootball

4

winwave
MNAlum
roll wave
LSU Law Greenie

3

Kettrade1
charlamange8


OVERALL STANDINGS

66.5

DrBox

62.5

ny oscar

61.5

winwave
WaveON
charlamange8

60.5

Gretna Green

59.5

Guerry

57.5

chigoyboy

56.5

MNAlum

55.5

diverdo (missed 1 week)
roll wave

51.5

wavetime (missed 1 week)

50.5

p8kpev

49.5

LSU Law Greenie (missed 1 week)

46

tacklethemanwiththefootball (missed 1 week)


42.5

pallii (missed 3 weeks)

38.5

Kettrade1


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 15 of 16
Michigan 6
Florida 7
Oregon State 6
TCU 9
Texas A&M 6
USC 5
Washington 10

We've never had a week 13 pick 'em before. Good times are here.

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first, neutral site games are designated as such and point spreads come from VegasInsider.com consensus.

Tulane (-3.5) UCF
USC (-2.5) Utah (Las Vegas)
Toledo (-1.5) Ohio (Detroit)
TCU (-2.5) Kansas State (Arliington, Texas)
Boise State (-3.5) Fresno State
Georgia (-18.5) LSU (Atlanta)
Clemson (-7.5) North Carolina (Charlotte)
Michigan (-16.5) Purdue (Indianapolis

Tulane closed its Wednesday and Thursday practices to reporters, so I do not have any type of practice report from Wednesday., but Fritz, Lawrence Keys and Chris Hampton spoke afterward.

HAMPTON

On what happened on Plumlee's two big early runs in first meeting:

"We didn't fit it properly. We had a missed assignment on both of them. It was something we probably didn't practice enough, and they hit us on those. It was a good play call by them."

On Ole Miss controlling the line of scrimmage late:

"They are really good. They are big up front. They have a bunch of back who play. We played a lot of plays. We played too many plays in the game. It was over 90 snaps in the game. We didn't get off the field on third downs. In the fourth quarter we wore down, and they just leaned on us. We're not as big as they are, and they just wore us down and were able to control the line of scrimmage and put four-minute drives together."

On not being able to get off the field:

"We did not do a good job on third down at all last game, and they just prolonged some drives. We had a couple of penalties that made drives go longer. We jumped offside on the first third down of the game, so we have to do a much better job on third down, and that will help us on first and second down. We have to do a better job on first and second down to get them in third and long. They had a lot of third and manageables--third-and-1, 2, 3. Those are hard to stop with a team like that."

On Bowser:

"We have to do a good job of tackling. We have to try to make him stop his feet in the backfield and get some knock-back up front. We didn't do that and didn't have a good enough game plan to do it either just looking back on it. We have to get some penetration and make him stop his feet."

On relishing another opportunity to face UCF:

"Yeah, we are looking forward to the opportunity. I think they are the best team we have played this year, and I kind of thought that going into the game, that they were the best team we had played. Just watching them on tape from a talent standpoint and a schematic standpoint, they do a really good job. We are looking forward to the challenge. Any time a team does to you what they did the last time, you wish you get an opportunity to play them again, and we do."

On if he thinks Plumlee will play:

"Yeah I would think so. It's the conference championship. I'd assume he is going to play."

On preparing for two quarterbacks again:

"It was very similar to the last time we played them because Plumlee didn't play against Memphis before we played them. He had a concussion against Cincinnati, so we didn't know exactly if he was going to play. I expected him to play just like I do this time. It's two different guys. We have a game plan, and the good think is we played them three weeks ago. There's things we remember that they hurt us on we've got to correct. At this point of the season you kind of are who you are. We are who we are on defense and they are who they are on offense. We've got to go out and execute and get some negative plays and some takeaways, which we didn't do at all last game. They got some takeaways. We didn't, and that was the difference in the game."

On defensive depth:

"DJ has come on. Bailey Despanie made big plays against Kansas State. Jesus Machado and Corey Platt have made big plays. Everybody knows about our front-line guys, and even a guy like Jarius Monroe, who started the season as a backup and has started four or five games when Canady got hurt, he's played really well for us. It's part of what we do during fall camp and spring ball with the black jerseys--making everyone become a starter. When you go into a game, you are No. 1. There is no role where they put the second team in. You are a starter, so we have to do a good job of keeping the depth and keeping guys fresh, too, because they go fast. We have to rotate some guys in."

On tied for fifth in fewest plays allowed over 30 yards:

"Correct. And that's something we've tried to do a good job throughout the offseason and throughout the season of eliminating big plays, and that's what you really look at--the defenses that are really good, they don't give up the big plays. We haven't given up as many this year and every time we do, we highlight what happened and go over it in practice and make corrections, but that's been a big deal is not giving up big plays, and that's what we did last game against them is we gave up big plays. We can't do that."

On not being a cover zero guy:

"Not a cover zero guy. You know what, I have been before here. We did a lot of that in the past--cover zero, man--and we gave up some big plays. We had some good players, but we gave up some big plays and we kind of figured out let's go the other way. Don't give up the big plays. We don't get many negative plays. I wish we got more negative plays, but we don't. We haven't. We need to. It's a little bit of a happy medium, but we don't need to give up the big one at all."

If he saw this coming in August:

"Yes. I really did. I thought we had a really good team. In spring ball I thought we had a really good defense, but I thought that last spring, too, and we weren't, so I was like, is this real? Then in the summer I saw the way the guys were working. I saw this team is motivated, they are going to win. Usually you have to motivate guys. We didn't have to push them. They were self-motivated. I said we are going to have a good team. I figured if we have some confidence, that's a big part of football--having confidence--and then we started the season playing well and got some confidence. That's a big part of it. Our guys are playing with confidence. They believe in what they are doing. They believe in themselves. They understand what we are doing. We try to keep it simple enough where they can go out and execute and not confuse them. Sometimes the opponent knows what we're doing, but we we have to do a better job of executing than they do."

On teams needing to be patient against his defense:

"Correct, and they were patient. They ran the ball last time we played them and they were patient. They got some big runs on us. They can get explosive pass plays, too, off play-action pass. They are really good at it. It didn't happen the last game but they were able to run it and didn't have to. There are some things they didn't have to break out the last time. We couldn't stop some of the simple things they did, so they didn't have to go to plan B."

On if plan changes if Keene is the QB:

"Not a ton because they don't change a whole lot. He probably throws a little bit more and Plumlee runs it a little bit more, but they still run the same offense. Keene has run the ball some and Plumlee still throws. it really doesn't change (the game plan)."

Tulane cannot bring in recruits for visits because it is a conference championship game and it is not allowed to provide tickets due to an NCAA rule.

There might be a few recruits who buy their own tickets, but not many if any.

about to be 2-0 on Saturday. What a turn of events since the weekend!

Funny how overnight the salary on Fritz’s Wikipedia page went from $2.2M to $2.5M.

Hmmm…..

Although Willie Fritz said in interviews they used a faster player a little bit as the scout-team QB to prepare the defense for John Rhys Plumlee's speed today, it was regular scout-team QB Kevin McMahat when I was watching. Then again, the Wave may not have to face Plumlee, who is battling a recurring hamstring problem, or at least may not have to face a full-strength Plumlee, who caused the defense a world of hurt in the first quarter of the Knights' 38-31 win at Yulman Stadium on Nov. 12.

Practice today looked like any other practice. Fritz and the four team captains spoke.

FRITZ

"We did a great job in the kicking game, both covering kicks and also with returns.. We did a good job with starting field position. We do a little stat called hidden yardage. I think it was 156 hidden yards to our advantage."

"I am very excited about this game. Our focus is to go 1-0. This was something we talked about at the beginning of the year, and it's come to fruition. Hosting the AAC championship here at Yulman Stadium in front of a packed house, sellout crowd. We're really pumped about that."

On how rematch affects dynamic of this game:

"I've obviously watched a whole bunch of the last game we played against them here a few weeks ago. They are going to do some new stuff and we are going to do some new stuff. There were some things that obviously they had a lot of success with, mainly the quarterback run. We need to do a much better job in that area and defensively do a good job of causing some havoc plays in the backfield. We're really watching everything about the first game, but I'm sure there's going to be some wrinkles we didn't see. We'll find out who's going to play quarterback. We might find that out on the first series. Plumlee did an excellent job against us but he went out of the (USF) game and didn't play much in the second half. The other kid started against us last year and won the game. He's got 12 starts to his credit, so it's not like it wi's a novice quarterback. It will be a challenge to see which one will play because they do run a little bit different offense with each guy."

On it being fifth time in six weeks they've had to prepare for two quarterbacks:

"Well, it's happened a bunch. This day and age, with everybody running the quarterback it happens more than it did 20 years ago. But you have to do it. The difference is back in the old days you had that film and it was all offense, defense and kicking game and you had to watch all that. What you do now is pull up every play that Mikey Keene's been in and every play that Plumlee's been in and you kind of see the diference between run/pass and what type of pass. You have people that work on the next game the week before, so you kind of formulate agame plan quickly."

On if he had used a fast guy as scout-team QB:

"We are doing that a little bit this week. He's pretty fast. I think he had 170 (rushing) yards against USF at halftime. He's got great speed, good movement and he's a big guy. You're not going to bring him down with an arm tackle. On the zone read, he'll pull the ball and you think you've got it played and he out-leverages you. He did that against us a few times. So, yeah, it's going to be a different offense depending on who the quarterback is, no question."

On hard to prepare for:

"It is because of the speed. You try to simulate it as much as you can during practice, but they work on pulling the ball and running or coming downhill on either speed sweep power or zone and their version of the triple option, which he also does a bunch. They've got a dive play, the quarterback play and he throws it out there to the receiver, so you've got to stay hard-man focus a little bit longer against these guys than you do against most teams."

On sold-out game:

"It's huge. Normally I talk to y'all and am trying to get some more people here to the game. I've done radio quite a bit here the last couple of days, and I'm like, hey, you can watch it on ABC at 3 o'clock. The tickets are all sold out. I've got all sorts of people calling me. I'm like I've got 16 of them and these are going to family. We put a lot of hard work into this program, and there are guys who are very proud of where we're at right now. I think of a guy like Nico Marley, Tanzel Smart, Rod Teamer. Last week we were playing Cincinnati and Cam Sample was on the sideline and just going crazy the whole ball game. I had to tell him you were going to get hurt and I'm going to get in trouble with the head coach of the Bengals. Then a couple days later I'm watching him play on TV. We really had a good three-year stretch there where we played in bowl games. It had never happened before in the history of Tulane, but we could have done some more those seasons. We had some tough losses. And then everybody knows about last year. The guys had this goal in mind, and it's special. Everybody's locked in and every week we're going 1-0. That's what we're all talking about."

On where season ranks in his coaching career:

"Very high. It really does. I've never had it happen like this before from one year to the next. I talked about it the other day when someone asked me, what was the first thing about last season, was it Ida, was it all the COVID protocol we were having to follow. We were still getting tested three times a week and we had guys that missed games because their temperature was high and things like that. But the toughest thing for us was Pratt got hurt in the first game and had surgery after the season. He hardly was able to practice throughout the year. There were weeks he didn't practice, and Justin Ibieta tears his labrum in week 2. And my third-team quarterback has a big dislocation of his finger on his throwing hand. He couldn't throw the ball. There were a bunch of weeks where we had a graduate assistant as our quarterback. He had to do all the throwing for us because we didn't have any healthy bodies to throw the ball. He couldn't throw very good. He was a fourth-team quarterback at a Division II school, so that was probably the toughest thing. You know how important that position is, and we've been healthy at that spot. We had the injury to ibieta earlier in the year, but knock on wood, no others."

On what past experience is he drawing on for championship game against opponent he already has faced:

"You know, I've played the same team probably quite a few times in my career. Certainly junior college and Division II a little bit and 1-AA a little bit in the playoffs. You work year-round on your opponent. We don't all of a sudden, oh, we just got done versus Cincinnati, who are we playing, let's get going. You work on. I have about four days we devote to each opponent during the summer. It was a lot more difficult when it was me and two other guys. We don't have the size staff like some other programs, but we got enough where we can put together a good game plan."

On how special it has been for him personally:

"Really special. It really has been. It's something we've been working on year-round. I'm just really happy for everybody involved in the program and all the students. They have jumped on it more and we've had great student support this season. I was a little worried that Thursday night game when I came out for warm-ups and I walked in and we had about 500 kids out there, and when I came out for the game we had 2 or 3,000. So they've jumped on board. This has always been the goal. We were kind of close there for a couple of years to winning nine or 10 games, but we didn't finish the games like we needed to like last week. I'm very proud of where we are now."

On what he said to players about Georgia Tech situation and not being a distraction:

"If y'all watched practice today, it looked like a regular practice the whole time."

On if he intends to be the head coach at Tulane next year:

"Yes I do. Yes I do. I talked about that yesterday. I had four or five different deals yesterday and it always came up. We're locked in and focused on 1-0 and winning this game. It's a big game this week."

On players goals not changing regardless of his future:

"Well, we've got a really close bunch. We just want to do the same thing that we've done every week. We have to do a great job of preparation, and I think we've done an excellent job of preparation so far, but that's not going to be known until game time Saturday. That's what our focus is about and is what my focus is about."

On if he has changed perception of program nationally:

"I hope so. It's alway interesting and I've made this point before, but when I come in, and I don't carry my phone around like some people do 24-7. I don't need to have that pacifier next to me, but when I come in off of a game, I'll get my phone and look at it and see how many text messages I have, and I had 190-something after the Cincinnati game. Then after I'd get done with those, I'd turn it off for a while and then I'd get 70. Then I'd turn it off for a while and I'd get 90. Just a lot of people who were interested, a lot of former players from a lot of different spots and then obviously Tulane people who were excited about where we're at. I said it when I first got here. Tulane has had some great teams and they've had some great players. It just hasn't been done consistently, and that's our goal."

To update some who may not have seen previous messages, it looks like our big recruiting push is going to culminate the weekend of December 16-18. The significance of this is that it's the final weekend before early signing day, so it's a great chance to make a sales pitch to these dudes.

So far both AJ Thomas (Indiana commit) and Dickson Agu (our commit) are scheduled to visit.

I'm eager to see whether the staff can entice Ayden Greene (WR) and Brady Drogosh (QB) - both Cincinnati commits - to come for a visit, as well. Greene is a high 3 star who we offered much earlier in the process, whereas Drogosh is a 4 star - both were offered today, and both would be HUGE gets in areas of need for this class.

Needless to say, between these offers and some to dudes in the portal (mostly FCS and below, that I've seen), Tulane is still being aggressive to fill the '23's.

Some people on the various message boards look at Ed Daniels as a New Orleans sports savant. Although some of his postulates are revealing regarding Tulane sports, he is no friend of Tulane. His mission in life is to waste the states’ money on UNO football. A irrelevant Tulane will help his life’s mission. His boyfriend Ken Trahan is on the same mission, but does not believe he has to denigrate Tulane football to accomplish their goal. Daniels’ posts this week on CCS show his true colors. He is a devil in sheep’s clothing.

Don’t get me wrong he is a good reporter and has revealed to us (at nausea) some of our institutional shortcomings, he is a rat.

For football games at Yulman, where is the visitors locker room?

Eddie Price, Mewelde Moore, Matt Forte and Tajae Spears!!!!!

Multiple people are now reporting Ga Tech hiring their interim HC as full time HC

He was asked four times about the Georgia Tech situation. Predictably, there was no real answer, but anyone who thought he might not be coaching Tulane Saturday was sorely mistaken. If he has made up his mind to take the Georgia Tech job, the announcement will come Sunday after Tulane beats UCF a day earlier. And no, of course I'm not 100-percent certain Tulane will win. But I'd put it at about 75 percent.

"We're very excited. I apologize. I just walked off the practice field a couple moments ago. We're really proud of the season that we've had so far. It's great to be able to host the game here in New Orleans, obviously playing a fantastic opponent in UCF. I've got a ton of respect for coach Malzahn and what he's done at every place he's been. I've followed his career. He's an old high school coach and I'm kind of an old Juco coach, and he does it the right way and there's a lot of core principles we both share as far as how you're supposed to run a program and play a game, but it's great for our student-athletes to be involved in a game like this and we're proud to be one of the representatives in the American in the conference championship game."

Of if he can address reports out of Atlanta about his interest in Georgia Tech job and if he has addressed it with the team:

"I talked to the team about that. Obviously the initial report gets more traction than the secondary report. I'm the head football coach at Tulane. I'm extremely proud to be the head football coach at Tulane, and we're looking forward to the game on Saturday. That's why I told our guys when I visited with them this morning. I don't want to talk about those kind of things. I want to talk about the game."

On preparing for Plumlee:

"He's something else now. Coach has got some good schemes. A lot of times there are very similar quarterback run plays that you get, and he does something a little bit different with his quarterback. He showed how great of an athlete he was in our first game when he went out there as a receiver. He was an excellent receiver at Ole Miss as well before he transferred over to UCF. Great speed, good size and he probably doesn't get enough credit for his throwing ability. The other young man we played against a year ago, Mikey Keene, he is not as much a dual threat as Plumlee but he runs the ball effectively and really throws it, so two very effective quarterbacks."

On if coaching news is distraction in front of biggest game in Tulane history:

"Well, when you have success sometimes, this happens I guess. I don't know, but know, it's not (a distraction) in any way, shape or form. It's the benefit of having a lot of veteran leadership on our squad. I addressed it this morning and told them I'm all in and our goal is going 1-0 this week."

On where Tulane is now from where he started and is he proud of place Tulane occupies now:

"I'm very proud of where we're at right now. This is a hard game to get to. We played a tough schedule, and I'm extremely proud of where we are. There's a lot of great things to sell here at Tulane, and first and foremost is the opportunity to get a world class education. We talk about it all the time. Second, when you play in a great conference--I heard our commissioner talking about it a little while ago--and we feel like this is an awesome conference and you get to test yourself week in and week out and you get to do it in the city of New Orleans. We've felt like if we could get the right guys that shared our vision in what we're looking for with an opportunity to be successful. We had a lot of years in there where we were really close to having some big-time success and went to three bowl games in a row which hadn't been done here at Tulane in the history of our program. This year was a combination of really great leadership from our upperclassmen and guys that have played a lot of football here. Tulane and embracing what we're all about as far as our philosophy and how we like to do things here."

On season and beating Cincinnati on road:

"That was big-time for us. It's a tough place to play. They've got tremendous fan support, and our guys played really played well in all three phases. Offensively we had zero turnovers, ran the ball well and had big pass plays when we needed them. The same thing defensively. We needed to rise to the challenge and we did and did a good job in the kicking game giving ourselves good starting field position off of punt returns, kickoff returns, those things, so that's how you've got to play if you are going to have an opportunity to win at a place that's had 32 wins in a row, so we were very proud of that game and how the guys executed the game plan last Friday."

On his thoughts about rematch:

"Every game is unique. There will be some carryover because you can watch yourself on film playing them just a few weeks ago. But obviously they are very well coached and have a very big team on the offensive line and the defensive line. Excellent team speed, so we're going to have to play extremely well on Saturday. We know that."

On UCF having won line of scrimmage battle in first meeting:

"Obviously you want to win up front. In order to be successful on offense or defense, you've got to win up front, but they are not only big, they're talented. They can move. Sometimes you get real big guys and they're kind of stationary objects. These guys aren't. They've got very good movement."

On where things stand between him and Georgia Tech:

"I answered that question before. I don't want to get into someone else's business, and all our focus is on this game on Saturday."

On the hallmarks of a Fritz team:

"We talk about playing to win and part of that is winning the turnover-takeaway battle. That's big. In my career I think we've won 90 percent of our games when we're plus 1 or better, and I heard coach Malzahn talking about the run game because I do believe you've got to be able to run effectively to win championships. I'm ver involved in special teams here, I always have been every place I've ever been at. That's kind of the hidden yardage that sometimes you don't see on the stat page. We pride ourselves on playing disciplined and eliminating those pre- and post-snap penalties, so those are some of the things that we emphasize here at Tulane."

On energy at practice with opportunity to win championship:

"Awesome. We just had our first practice today and the guys are fired up. There's only two teams that are playing this weekend from the American, and we're one of them, so we're extremely excited about that."

On confirming or denying that Georgia Tech expressed interest in him or reached out to him:

"You know, I don't really take care of those things, so I don't really want to get into somebody else's business. i think I've answered the question a few times. I know you're doing your job, but I'm doing my job. That's getting our guys prepared and playing our tails off Saturday."

On one thing that needs to change from first meeting to this one to make difference in game:

"We have to do a better job with the quarterback run. You've got to play 11 on 11 football against Gus's team, and we've got to do a better job playing the quarterback. We didn't do a great job of that and we didn't play great offensively early in the game as well. We have to play consistently throughout all four quarters, so those are a couple of things."

Tulane has two official visitors, something the staff normally shies away from in season, and eight more visitors for the game. First, the official visitors, who would not be coming in if Tulane did not think it had a good shot at them.

1) Theorin Randle, a 3-star, 6-3, 265-pound DT from Pearland (Texas) Shadow Creek

Skinny: has been committed to Washington State since July. Also has offers from Air Force, Army and Memphis.

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2) Jean Claude Joseph, a 3-star, 5-1, 207-pound ILB from Covington (Ga) Eastside.

Skinny: Has been committed to Coastal Carolina since February. Has had offers from Michigan and Tennessee among others.

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Now, the game visitors, which includes three players who already committed--Destrehan guard Landry Cannon, Booker T. Washington RB Arnold Barnes and Whitehouse, Texas CB Jermod McCoy, who is listed as an athlete by Rivals but whom Tulane recruited as a cornerback.

1) Daniel Blood, a 3-star, 6-0, 175-pound WR from Destrehan

Skinny: Has offers from Louisiana Tech and Missouri. Committed to ULL for a time over the summer, although Rivals does not list it.

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2) Jahiem Johnson, a 3-star, 6-1, 175-pound ATH from Hammond

Skinny: Tulane is recruiting him as a DB. Has offers from Mississippi State, Nebraska, Memphis and Tulsa among others.

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3) Elijah Davis, a 2-star, 5-10, 206-pound RB from Riverside Academy

Skinny: Has been a commitment to ULL since join, also has an offer from Vanderbilt.

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4) Ryan Robinson, a 3-star, 6-0, 170-pound CB from Karr

Skinny: Has offers from Arkansas, Oregon, FSU and Auburn among others. Tulane still is trying to break through with a commitment from a Karr prospect.

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5) Blake Baker, a 6-5, 195-pound QB from Houston Cy Ranch who is not in the Rivals database but is listed by 247 Sports with no stars.

Skinny: 247 Sports lists only an offer from something called Houston Christian for Baker, but he was a first-team All-6A selection in his district last year. His team is 6-2 this season and he averaged 318 passing yards in the four games MaxPreps has stats for. Tulane needs a quarterback in this class and may be kicking the tires here. but this staff already has shown a keen eye for QB prospects.

Although I vastly underestimated this team before the year, I knew the moment Tyjae Spears caught the walk-off TD pass in overtime against Houston that Tulane could be in this position.. I picked the Wave to win 11 of its 12 games this year in my weekly breakdowns for The Advocate, with K State the exception, and I almost nailed the final score today, going with 27-20. If the Wave had gotten one of the three or four borderline calls in the fourth quarter instead of losing them all, it might have happened.

Regardless, what a response to the adversity of giving up back-to-back 14-play touchdown drives and falling behind for the first time past the midpoint of the fourth quarter! A four-play, 75-yard TD drive is what championship teams do. I will be picking Tulane to beat UCF next week, too. I've learned over the years that when teams are basically even, the loser of the first game has a huge advantage in the rematch. When one team is significantly better than the other, the rule does not apply., but that is not the case here. The team that wins the first time makes very few adjustments. The team that loses makes a lot of adjustemnts.

Fritz, Dorian Williams and Tyjae Spears talked after the game. Not sure why they did not bring Pratt, and Duece Watts was supposed to come but didn't.

FRITZ

"Big win for us obvious.Really fired up. Proud of the guys. We fought through quite a bit of adversity during the game. They've won 32 in a row here, is that correct? Coach Fickell and his staff do a fabulous job. They were playing with their backup quarterback, who really gave us fits today. He did a good job running the ball. It's hard to tackle him. Offense, defense, special teams all did some really good things, and we had to play this way in order to win at their place. Obviously a huge drive there. They scored to go up 24-20 and we went down the field. Michael was really sharp on that drive. Then Tyjae, they do a great job, one of the best defenses in the country, and I told him we were going to ride him and we did. He had a fabulous game. Just a big win for the Green Wave. I imagine one of the biggest ones they've had in this program history, so I'm just proud of the guys and the adversity they fought through."

On trusting the defense when Spears took wildcat snap on third-and-9 late instead of trying for the first time with pass:

"Time was kind of on our side at that point. They were going to have to go 80 (actually not true; they only needed a field goal to tie). We one-stepped it (the punt) because they do a good job of pressuring punts, and he (Casey Glover) really hit. He hit it about 50-something yards, but we felt like if we made them go 80 and did a good job, then we knew they had to throw the ball. We did a good job of pressuring them that last series. They almost hit one over the middle and DJ Douglas made a big play and knocked it down."

On Pratt hitting pass plays on decisive drive he did not connect on early in game:

"We just didn't do a great job of protection early on. We had longer developing routes. The first time we ran it, Duece was wide open on a post. The second time we ran it, Shae (Wyatt) was open on the play he caught it on (to set up the touchdown on the next play for the winning score). He just had some pressure in his face, but boy, I'll tell you, he threw some nice balls there on the last drive. Big time for us."

On if Cincinnati did anything different than he expected defensively:

"They did the same things they've been doing. They have one of the top defenses in the country. They really do a nice job getting in and out of odd and even fronts. They tackle well. They get on the perimeter and play a bunch of press/man on you. They have big kids. They are big insides. I think zero (Ivan Pace) is one of the top defensive players in our conference, so they didn't really do anything that we hadn't prepared for."

On Ambrosio 47-yard field goal right before halftime:

"Huge. That was big. That was a huge field goal for us. We were kind of in no-man's land right there and a big kick by Valentino."

On special teams:

"We had a nice little return at the end of the game. We did a nice job with our two returners. Their punter really does an excellent job of seeing where the return man is and punting it the opposite direction, so we put two guys back there so we'd have a chance to catch it. We almost got them on the first one but pulled out a little bit early on the double team to our boundary where we ran Jha'Quan away and he punted it to us and we got out a little too early (with Lawrence Keys catching it). We still had a nice return with it, but the thing they've done an excellent job with their punt team is punting the ball and getting rolls. He punts it away and it's a 35-yard punt that turns into a 52-yard punt. It gets a big roll there. Coach Discher and all the special teams coaches did an excellent job."

On game sort of playing out like expected:

"Yeah, I thought it might be like this. No one had scored a lot of points on these guys all season. They have a really good defense. I think we've got a really good defense, and we did a good job of ball security. We had the ball 34 minutes and they had it 26 minutes, so we had it over half-a-quarter longer than they did. As I've said before, you play great defense when you're on offense, so good execution there at the end. We did a nice job milking the clock. It was just all three phases played well. I don't know if we played great, but we played good in all three phases and it was enough to beat a quality team like Cincinnati."

On going from 2-10 last year to 10-2 this year and what was the key factor in the reversal:

"Well, Pratt's healthy. We didn't talk about it a whole bunch last year but he got hurt on the last play of the first game and really was hurt the whole year, and our second-team guy went down. Heck, we went about three weeks where our G.A. was quarterbacking in 7-on-7 because nobody else could throw it. We didn't talk about that much. Michael had surgery after the season and he's in great shape right now, but that was probably the toughest thing we had to deal with other than having the dogs out in front of the hotel for a month."

On nobody blinking when fell behind;

"No they didn't. They did an excellent job. That was a big answer. Huge answer. I thought one time they jumped offsides on a huge play down there. Looked pretty significant. Maybe they didn't. I don't know. Yeah, that was a huge answer going down. Great job by the offense. We have to feed off each other. Like i say all the time, you never know the path to victory, so we work that stuff all the time. We have a fastball drill and do a lot of two-minute situations. I'm just happy the guys will be able to relax a little bit here the next couple of days and get back to work on Monday."

On making mental strides from last season:

"We've got a lot of veteran guys. I really think Kurt Hester has done an excellent job of helping to instill that. We compete a lot in practice. Our expectations are very high, and our guys adhere to our expectations. You can do everything you want, but you've got to have the Jimmies and Joes. We have some tough Jimmies and Joes."

On imagining could be at this moment when took the job:

"We hoped so. I'm an optimist. I feel like we could do that. It was tough. We've kind of been finding our way here these last couple of years recruiting. That's always your goal to win. We were so close. There were a couple years there we came really close to winning eight, nine or 10 games. We really did. The ball just didn't go our way."

On significance of winning 10 games for fourth time in history:

"It's hard to win 10 games. It really is, so yeah, that's very significant. We're really proud of that."

Obvious candidates are Spears, Pratt, Haynesworth, Williams and Anderson. You can throw in Jackson too on STs probably. He’d be a cinch if other two PR TDs we’re not called back.

Saturday is decider here but if Tulane wins (assuming voting is before CG to provide a level playing field for all) then any POY honors too? Maybe both Pratt and Williams?

I think Fritz is now a lock for AAC Coach of Year. Dykes has to be a lock for National COY but Fritz should get some recognition too

So happy to host the championship game, and with that in mind my questions seem trivial considering the magnitude of this event, but curiosity has gotten the better of me. A few of those trivial thoughts-

1. The additional week of practice must help teams get better.
2. I am happy we have one more day of rest than our anticipated match up with UCF.
3. Does a Tulane get to keep 100% of ticket sales.
4. Tulane contracts with Seduxo….or what ever the food provider maybe, but do we get a piece of the sales or do they keep 100%?

The fifth push of the year, which is a record for the nine or 10 years I've run the contest, has us back to decimals in the overall standings again. We are nicely spread out 1 point apart with 1 or 2 weeks remaining.

WEEK 11 RESULTS

6.5

winwave
Gretna Green
p8kpev
Guerry

5.5

MNAlum
Kettrade1
WaveON
ny oscar
charlamange8
diverdo
LSU Law Greenie

4.5

DrBox
wavetime
roll wave

3.5

tacklethemanwiththefootball

2.5

chigoyboy


OVERALL STANDINGS

59.5

DrBox

58.5

charlamange8

57.5

winwave

56.5

ny oscar

55.5

WaveON

54.5

Gretna Green

53.5

Guerry

52.5

MNAlum

51.5

chigoyboy
roll wave

50.5

diverdo (missed 1 week)

46.5

wavetime (missed 1 week)

45.5

p8kpev
LSU Law Greenie (missed 1 week)

42.5

paliii (missed 2 weeks)

41

tacklethemanwiththefootball (missed 1 week)

35.5

Kettrade1


GAME-BY GAME RESULTS

Tulane 14 of 16
Navy 11
Houston 5
Baylor 5
USC 8
Utah-Oregon push
LSU 11
Louisville 8

Dea Dea McDougle was not at practice this week and will not play Friday (I'll have more on him tomorrow), but other than, Tulane should be close to full strength against Cincinnati. McDougle is part of a deep receiving corps, with Lawerence Keys, Jha'Quan Jackson, Shae Wyatt, Duece Watts and tight end Tyrick James equally capable of having a big game. The Wave certainly did not miss McDougle against Memphis, and Keys has the same skill set, capable of running the jet sweeps and running routes out of motion. If Keys gets hurt, then the offense would be affected. The No. 6 receiver in practice Wednesday was Luke Besh, who was getting reps instead of Chris Brazzell and Jalen Rogers, who were healthy spectators. Fritz told me they would not hesitate playing Besh a little if necessary.

The player to watch carefully on defense is Nick Anderson, who hurt a finger against SMU. He played well after it happened, but sometimes those deals gets worse when the adrenaline goes away.

I really think Tulane is a better team than Cincinnati this year and will win tomorrow, but obviously it is no lock. The Bearcats have finished first the AAC in the recruiting rankings for three years running and, just like UCF, are bigger and faster than the Wave as a whole. They also have a terrific punter and kicker. I'm less concerned about the home-field advantage because Tulane is 4-0 on the road with tough wins at Kansas State and Houston and Cincinnati had to rally in the fourth quarter at Nippert Stadium to beat South Florida and East Carolina.

It is supposed to be 51 degrees at kickoff and cloudy with winds no higher than 10 miles per hour. That's as good as Tulane could hope for in late November, so weather should not be a factor.

Cincinnati has been vulnerable defensively to good running teams this year, losing to Arkansas and UCF and barely beating South Florida (before Bohanon went out) and East Carolina. If Tyjae Spears has room to run, I really like Tulane in this game.