Tulane got its butt kicked Saturday night, but it did not look like it would be that way for a majority of the first half. There are always a couple of moments that turn a game like that, and here's how this one got out of hand.

When Tulane scored to cut the gap to 13-10, it actually had outgained Memphis 171-96 and had allowed 11 rushing yards on four attempts. The Tigers were ahead because of a terrific one-handed interception, one bad play by Tulane on first-and-goal and some clutch fourth-down conversions. Nothing at that point indicated the game was about to get away from the Wave.

Here's how it got away:

1) Tulane had called a timeout to organize the defense on a Memphis third-and-16 from its own 45 after a false start penalty and a fumble when QB Brady White tried to take the ball back from running back Kenneth Gainwell. The Tigers were not looking crisp on that possession, but White then hit receiver Antonio Gibson for an easy 21-yard gain that turned the tide. Chase Kuerschen looked lost in zone coverage there. Gibson did not run a nifty pattern. He just curled inside, and Kuerschen overran the play. I can't figure out what he saw there, but that's a play that absolutely has to be made, and he did not even close to making it.

2) Tulane, which had played OK defensively to that point despite giving up TDs on the first two drives, began to relent. Malik Lawal got blocked on the next play, Will Harrper looped himself out of the picture and Cameron Sample, lining up against the center, got blocked as Gainwell scooted for 18 yards through the right side of the offensive line.

3) With Memphis facing second-and-23 after an offensive pass interference flag, the tackling problems that would plague Tulane began in earnest. Gainwell should have been stopped for a 1-yard gain, but he took Kuerschen and cornerback Thakarius Keyes for a ride, picking up five more yards. He was simply more physical than either of them on that down, turning a third-and-22 prayer into a slightly more manageable third-and-17.

4) Kuerschen did not really do anything wrong on the third-and-17 conversion. It was a perfect pass by White and a great catch by TE Joey Magnifico on the sideline at the 1. Kuerschen has major issues in pass coverage, but even an outstanding safety would have had a hard time stopping that one. Credit to Memphis there.

5) After an illegal shift moved the ball back to the 6 and Memphis gained 3 yards on the next play, the Tigers scored easily on a shovel pass to Magnifico, and Tulane simply could not fight off blocks. Jeffery Johnson, who was essentially useless while playing on a bum ankle, was manhandled, and so were De'Andre Williams and Sample. What was supposed to be the strength of the defense got dominated on that play, giving Magnifico an easy lane to the end zone.

6) Down 20-10, Tulane just needed to answer with a score, but on third-and-7 from midfield, Justin McMillan threw three yards behind Jaetavian Toles, who was open for a first down on a slant against soft coverage. McMillan got pressure on the play and was hit after he released the ball, but that's a throw he has to make. It would have been a first down inside the Memphis 40. Instead, it was punt time.

7) Facing third-and-4 at its 16, Memphis converted on an impossible catch of a bad throw by Damonte Coxie. He was open on the sideline, but White threw low, and even though Larry Brooks committed uncalled interference, Coxie reached out with one hand, cradled the ball just before it hit the ground and brought it into his body. Incredible, incredible catch, so instead of punting, Memphis had a first down against an increasingly frustrated defense.

8) Half-hearted tackling struck again when Keyes diagnosed a reverse to Gainwell, met him head on and let him surge forward for another five yards to pick up a first down. Willie Fritz reacted with frustration on the sideline. This was another case of the Memphis player wanting it more than the Tulane defender. Then, on second-and-10 from the Memphis 49, P.J. Hall diagnosed a wide receiver screen but missed the tackle, giving Gibson a 5-yard gain and a more manageable third down (not that third-and-long had been an issue for the Tigers).

9) Tulane appeared confused on the next snap, a third-and-5, with Hall gesticulating right before the snap, moving into position and letting wide receiver Calvin Austin blow right by him. White threw a perfect strike, so it would not have mattered what Hall did after Austin got by him, but he did not appear to go full speed trying to catch him, basically conceding that he had been beaten for a touchdown.

That was the game. Tulane trailed 27-10 and was reeling defensively. When McMillan threw an awful telegraphed pass for Amare Jones that was intercepted easily on Tulane's next down, the rout was on.

The most important game of the season to date takes place this Saturday at Navy. Tulane, a 3 1/2-point underdog, must beat Navy to maintain realistic hopes of representing the AAC West in the league title game. Sure, Memphis won with three losses last year, but Tulane would be dead in the tiebreakers with a second division loss, so even that option likely would be unavailable.

Nope. Tulane has to beat Navy, and we will learn a lot about this team and whether or not it can flush a bad performance or let it linger.

I do not expect Jeffery Johnson to start Saturday. He just did not appear to be on balance with his bad ankle against Memphis, and you cannot be effective against Navy without being on balance. I see Davon Wright starting with the usual suspects and plenty of rotations inside to keep guys fresh, including Jeffery Johnson. Malik Lawal was in the rotation today along with Alfred Thomas, who likely will play this week after missing several games. Cam Sample is capable of playing inside and outside like he did against Memphis, but depth on the outside is limited. Carlos Hatcher did not practice today and likely will be unavailable, leaving Patrick Johnson, Wright, Sample and Mike HInton as potential outside guys. Freshman Eric Hicks got some reps today, but I'm not sure he's ready against an opponent like Navy.

Navy is throwing better this year, averaging eight passes a game and completing five as compared to four out of 10 last year. Tulane cannot afford to completely sell out to stop the run this time because the Midshipmen, who hurt the Green Wave with big pass plays the past two years with inferior passing attacks to this one, certainly will do it again if given the opportunity.

Navy's defense is significantly better than in the last couple of years, but this will be a game where Tulane's offense needs to play mistake-free. With Justin McMillan excelling as a runner, the Wave can move the chains if it does not shoot itself in the foot, which would allow the defense to stay reasonably fresh.

Corey Dauphine and Darius Bradwell were in uniform today but I did not see either of them get reps in the last half-hour. Stephon Huderson did not practice at all. A guy who did get reps was Tyjae Spears, and if either Bradwell or Dauphine cannot play Saturday, I think Spears should get an opportunity. Insiders believe he has the best potential of all the backs, which is saying a ton, and if he can help Tulane win, there's no sense worrying about redshirting him. That's a luxury, not a necessity. He already is listed as having played in three games (though I'm not sure he played against Houston), so he can play in at least one more and still be redshirted anyway. Anyone with the potential to hit a home run play needs to play because Tulane needs that quick-strike ability.

I will have Fritz's quotes later today when Tulane transcribes them. Amare Jones, Jalen McCleskey and Patrick Johnson spoke. McMillan was not made available.

JONES

Were you shocked by what happened Saturday?

"Yeah, it kind of caught everybody off guard. Going into the game, the way we practiced all week, we were real up tempo and we were real confident, and then after that it kind of just, I'm not going to say it went away but that game did shock us for sure."

You tweeted afterward, "sorry, Green Wave fans." How disappointed were you?

"I was real disappointed because we've been busting our tails off working real hard and coming with a bond. To lose like that on a big stage, it hurts. When you see the guys are busting their butts off and we're not getting rewarded for it, it just hurts."

If you beat Navy, you're still in good shape in the West. If you lose, you're in a lot of trouble. How do you make sure you don't let that loss linger?

"Practice hard. You gotta just let it go and you've got to let it go off your back."

What did the coaches tell you after the game? Was it calm or upset?

"We've got a 24-hour rule which is basically you've got 24 hours to either be excited about your win or pout about your loss, but after that 24 hours is over you've got to let it go and move on to the next week. It was kind of calm. They (the coaches) didn't have really too much to say. They just beat us. There's not really too much to say."

Not having Bradwell and the losing Dauphine, how much did that affect what you wanted to do?

"Those are two big keys to our offense, so taking them out and trying to get everybody else in, they don't have the same experience, so when they get in, they are still learning and adjusting to the game tempo. It's a big difference."

You had been rushing the ball so well this year but got down early. How much did that change the complexion of the game?

"That changed it where we had to kind of change to an air raid and kind of try to beat them deep. I don't really have too much to say about that. They just flat-out beat us. That's it."

MCCLESKEY

What's your take on what happened last week?

"I mean, it's over now. We are on to Navy. We've been watching film on Navy, got our game plan ready for Navy. That's who we play this week and we want to be 1-0 this week against Navy."

You are an old soul in this game. What do you tell the younger guys?

"I mean, it hurts to get beat like that, but there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing you do this week is going to change what happened last week, so we just have to go out there and do what we know we can do against Navy, know the coaches have a good game plan together. We started on film yesterday and that's what we're focusing on right now. We're not worried about Memphis. We're just worried about Navy."

Is there an experience you had at your previous stop to say you played poorly this week but can bounce back the next week and play very well?

"Oh yeah, that's the great thing about college football is it's a season. One week is not necessarily going to define your whole season. You don't want to lose a game like that, but you know we have another week, we have another chance to play, and that's what we're going to go out there and do."

The offense had some success early but then not as much once you fell behind. What happened?

"I just feel like we could only pull one card. We had to come from behind, and they knew that just running the ball like that wasn't going be what brought us back. They knew we were going to have to pass the ball, and when you get into where you have to do one thing to try to come back, it gets hard. We understand that, but we still have to execute. We still went out there and fought even though we made some mistakes. We just have to move on from that and learn from the film. That's all you can do."

PATRICK JOHNSON

You couldn't get the same pressure against Brady White as you did last year. What was the difference?

"We came in with a game plan and our focus was to get the pressure on the quarterback and make him make plays. He played great. They had a good scheme. It was a good team. They just outplayed us and outcoached us, but hopefully we can get them back next year, though."

They had to work hard early for their points, but then it got easier. Were people a little shell shocked?

"We put ourselves in a lot of good positions to make plays. For us, we had a few busts, but when you're in a position to make a play, you've just got to finish. I feel like they just made plays. Everything was kind of going for them, their way. They are a good team. They won fair and square. We just have to bounce back and focus on this week coming up."

How do you make sure you don't let that loss linger?

"Oh yeah, you can't dwell on the past. Like Amare said, we have 24 hours to either be excited about our win or pout about it. Everybody did their own thing. I'm looking forward to Navy just like everybody else on this team. We're focused on a 5-1 Navy team, good team, very physical."

How frustrating is it to not be able to get off the field?

"It was really frustrating. It's happened before. We had them in third-and-long twice and a fourth down on that first drive and they still ended up getting points out of it. It is frustrating. Our one job is to get off that field and put our offense back on so they can make plays. We just have to keep going on our business and just keep getting better."

Did you expect Gainwell to have that kind of an impact?

"Oh yeah, most definitely. That's the guy we keyed on probably the most. We knew he was a good player. We knew all about him. Like I said, we were in good position to make plays. but he was a good athlete. He did his job. We're all Division I athletes and players make plays, and that's what he did a good job of."

When you play a team like Army or Navy, how important are those third-down situations?

"With Navy, it doesn't start with third down. It starts with first down. You've got to get them behind the chains. That's the game plan. We've got to have the long fourth downs because that's when they bring out the punt team. If it's fourth-and-3 or shorter, they more likely are going to go for it, so you basically have to have your mindset to play all four downs."

You've had success against Army and Navy. What about that style do you enjoy facing?

"We're a physical team. I'm going to say our D-line is the best position on the field. That's just because I'm part of it, but I feel like our whole defense is great. We play physical football here and I feel like we just match up well versus Navy and them and go in with some great calls and the coaches do a great job of getting us ready."

How much did playing Army already help you in preparation for Navy?

"It's very similar. They are both physical teams. You just have to be good with your eyes and reads. It starts with practice. We have to have a perfect practice every day or at least try, and then it kind of translates over to the field."

Nothing I can say that you don't already know, other than Fritz believes Corey Dauphine will be fine and could have gone back in tonight. Here are the quotes from Willie Fritz, Chase Kuerschen and Darnell Mooney:

FRITZ

"You know, there wasn't a whole lot of good to take out of it. I thought they did a good job in the kicking game. I thought they played well offensively and they played well defensively. I thought we were ready to play. That's my job as the head coach to get us ready to play, and obviously we weren't."

How taken aback were you by what happened tonight?

"It was disappointing. I told the kids in there I didn't see it coming. There was a point in there we were kind of going back and forth a little bit and we didn't get a couple of breaks early. But when you play a team like that and you're covering them and they're getting the catch. Heck, early in the game we had a third down and long incomplete (pass) and we get a hands to the face (on linebacker Marvin Moody) and they get a touchdown. We just didn't start very well, and they just kind of steam-rolled from there. You gotta fight through that adversity."

They converted a ton of third downs and two fourth downs early and then it got a lot easier for them. How tough was it for the defense to not be able to get off the field?

"When you get a chance to get off the field against an offense like this, you gotta get off the field, whether it's three and out or four and out. There were just too many times we didn't."

What about offensively? It seemed like that was tough sledding, too.

"They did a great job blitzing. They ran some corner blitzes and four to a side and then we got behind and threw it a little bit more than we normally would. They just did a nice job pressuring."

Even when Kenneth Gainwell was corralled, the defense could not get him down.

"We didn't tackle very well. It will be interesting to see, but this appears to be the worst game that we've tackled. The three things I talked about at halftime were No. 1, our kickoff coverage needs to do a better job, No. 2 offensively we got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and No. 3 we gotta tackle. There weren't all these elaborate things we needed to do, but we didn't get any better at it."

You sacked Brady White seven times last year and zero times tonight. How big a factor was that?

"They did a good job. I thought we had a good game plan, and maybe too much of it was from last year. They saw a way to change up a little bit from what they did last year."

How do you keep these guys from letting this one linger?

"Oh, we've just got to move on. We have to learn from this. Last year at this time we were 2-5, so we're 5-2 right now and there's a lot of football out there to play. We've got to lick our wounds and come back to work and see what we need to improve on. Navy's not going to take what we did on this film and do it against us. They are a totally different animal, but we are going to see a lot of what these guys did against us defensively next week."

What is Corey Dauphine's status with his wrist?

"I think he's going to be OK. He might have been able to go. I didn't play him."

Justin McMillan threw a couple of interceptions in the first half. Do you feel like the whole team lost a little composure after getting behind.

"Yeah, we got behind and that's when you've got to really lock in and do your one-eleventh and not try to do too much. There were a whole lot of guys who didn't play well and a whole lot of guys who didn't coach well, myself included."

How curious are you to see how this team can respond because it's been a long time since you lost like this?

"It's humbling, there's no doubt about that. We have to bounce back. This is part of it. Fortunately I've had a couple of games like this. You've just got to bounce back and fight through it. That's all I know to do. There's nothing else you can do about it. When we get done watching the tape on Monday, we'll flush it down the toilet and move on."

Playing the No. 2 team in the nation according to USA Today, Deerfield Beach QB Michael Pratt hooked up with Miami commitment Xavier Restriepo for a 54-yard touchdown to give Deerfield Beach (Fla.) a 7-0 lead over St. Thomas Aquinas in the first half. He then threw a pick six that gave Aquinas the lead for good in a 28-7 loss. Deerfield Beach is 5-3 but should go deep into the state playoffs in its classification. Its five wins are by the composite score of 250-6.

Justin Ibieta led Country Day to 33 points but it was not enough as West St. John scored a late touchdown with a 2-point conversion to win 42-35. Country Day's defense has struggled against the better teams on the schedule, but Ibieta has put up big numbers when his line was not overwhelmed like it was against De La Salle and Neman.

Reggie Neely has 20 catches for 341 yards and four TDs on the year for Briarcrest Christian (Tenn), which is 8-0. His team is averaging 37 points per game.

Angelo Anderson was part of a typical dominating defensive night for John Curtis, which beat Jesuit 35-14 at Yulman Stadium. According to MaxPreps, he has a team-high 47 tackles and 14 tackles for loss.

I will post more info when I come across it.

I attended the first half of the open scrimmage Ron Hunter conducted at Devlin. He said this is the first time in his coaching career he has conducted an open practice.

I'm not going to make iron-clad judgments off off one half of one scrimmage--I left at that point to head to the football game--but I will post several observations tomorrow morning.

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

Memphis (-4.5) Tulane
SMU (-7.5) Temple
Penn State (-9) Michigan
Mississippi State (+19.5) LSU
South Carolina (+5.5) Florida
Oklahoma State (-3.5) Baylor
Washington (+3) Oregon
Utah (-13.5) Arizona State

Running back Darius Bradwell did not practice today, watching the latter part of the workout rrom a training able, and Willie Fritz said he definitely would not play against Memphis. Look for Bradwell to return next Saturday at Navy.

Malik Lawal got reps at rush end and linebacker today. Obviously Justin McMillan, Jalen McCleskey, Christian Montano and Ben Knutson have gotten the bulk of attention a key grad transfers, but Lawal, who played at Arizona State last year, is becoming very important in his own right. He's versatile and talented, and with Juan Monjarres unavailable for the rest of the year, his ability to rush the passer will be important.

Lawal is seventh on the team in tackles with 19 despite starting only one game, and he has a sack, the same number as Monjarrres. Look for him to register at least one more against Memphis. Monjarres wreaked havoc on Memphis in the second half last year at Yulman Stadium.

"He's doing a good job," Fritz said. "There are a lot of places we can play him at. He can play joker, he can play inside linebacker, he does some good things for us on special teams. He will help us. He's another guy that's an edge rusher. Juan did a very good job of that."

Jeffery Johnson likely will start at nose tackle this week after missing a game-and-a-half with an ankle injury. He worked with the first team today along with the usual suspects, and although he is 100 percent healthy, he is closer than he was last week.

The guys getting reps behind Cam Sample and Patrick Johnson on the outside were Davon Wright, another versatile player, and Lawal, along with Mike Hinton and Carlos Hatcher. Look for all of them to play Saturday. The Wave is more limited inside behind the starters, but Hinton, Eric Hicks and Wright shared the reps today. Alfred Thomas, who will be a game-time decision, had his helmet on but did not get any reps in the last 40 minutes.

Chase Kuerschen, who was held out of the UConn game to let him rest, took his norrmal reps with the first unit at free safety. He had a rough time matching up with Memphis's speed at the skill positions two yeas ago as a true freshman two years ago.

Tulane did an excellent job last year of getting to QB Brady White (seven sacks) and guarding against Memphis' heavy use of screen passes. Coach Mike Norvell runs screens a lot and more effectively than almost anyone in the country.

"You just have to have somebody responsible for the back who has got to attack and step on toes," Fritz said. "He can't sit there and wait and wade though all the linemen. You've got to go right now, and if you'e playing zone, you've got to do a good job of attacking with leverage. Somebody's got to be an inside player and somebody's got to be an outside player. You have to watch for those big time."

Fritz expects the unexpected from Norvell, a top offensive mind who surrounds himself with good assistants. His last three offensive coordinators left for Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Auburn after one year, and of course he had Will Hall on his staff last year.

"He's going to have some new stuff early in the game and you got to withstand the onslaught initially," Fritz said. "If he feels good about what he's running, he'll keep coming back to it. Some guys don't do that. He does a nice job of that."

Handling freshman running back Kenneth Gainwell is a concern, too. He is fifth in the country with 121 yards per game and has 25 receptions.

"He can do everything," Fritz said. "He's great in space, has a good feel for the game, catches the ball well."

Tight end Joey Magnifico averages 22 yards on his 12 catches, giving the Tigers the deep threat you don't often see at that spot.

"You have to cover him," Fritz said. "When they throw it his way, he makes a lot of stuff happen." They've got great, talented skill kids and they are really big on the offensive line, too. Both their tackles are about 6-8."

It should be a fun game. If Tulane can pressure White, who is not very mobile, the Wave will be in good shape. If he has time to throw, it could be nail-biting night.

Tulane moved its practice to the Saints indoor facility today because of expected rain that this time did materialize, although the worst of it was over by what would have been the beginning of practice. I caught maybe the last five minutes, but Willie Fritz was open about the injuries some of his players have sustained recently.

Jamiran James and Juan Monjarres will miss the rest of the year with non-contact practice injuries they sustained last week. Fritz said he believed they happened Tuesday, which means I had three chances to notice and whiffed. As an excuse, I can point out that I was watching the offensive line almost exclusively last Wednesday in anticipation of my big feature on that group and Thursday I missed almost entirely when they moved it to the Saints facility. Still, that's something I should have noticed, and I didn't.

Monjarres could be a big loss. He has really come on lately, and none of his fellow backups are as good rushing the passer as he was. He had a huge game against Memphis last season. James was playing better recently, too, but he is more replaceable.

"Their injuries were two minutes apart in non-contact," Fritz said. "Hopefully we'll get Alfred Thomas back this week. Jeffery (Johnson) is full speed. You never want to see anybody get hurt, but we've got a couple of guys who were banged up a week ago back."

If Thomas can play, Tulane's depth chart at tackle will be Jeffery Johnson and De'Andre Williams starting with Davon Wright and Thomas backing them up. Michael HInton is in the picture, too.

Darius Bradwell may not be ready to play this week. He was in uniform for the end of today's practice but is not 100 percent after hurting his leg in the fourth quarter at Army and missing the UConn game. He is a valuable back, but with Tulane's depth, he would not be as valuable if he were gimpy. It could make more sense to hold him out until the Navy game, when Tulane really will want to control the ball.

"I think he's going to dress," Fritz said. "He was running around pretty good today."

Here is the rest of Fritz:

You mentioned earlier this year you specifically told coach Hall that the way Corey Dauphine practiced was not an indication of how well he plays in games and that he needed to stick with him. What is that about?

"It kind of takes him a little bit to get warmed up sometimes, especially at the beginning of practice" Fritz said. "When he's running around out there, you don't realize how fast he is, how quick he is, how decisive he is. When he gets in a game, like the run over by our sideline last week. He was bottled up inside, he bounced it outside, they regained leverage, he put his foot in the ground and all of a sudden you had a 14-yard play out of a loss. He definitely has another gear when you get in the games."

A lot of guys with track speed don't have football speed and football instincts. Is he just a football player?

"He really is. He's really fast, like Saturday when he had the long touchdown run. As soon as he got to the corner I said 'touchdown.' It looked like that guy might have had the angle, but they are not going to catch him. If a guy gets him, that guy is really fast, too. I think he's one of the fastest guys in college football."

How is his role evolving?

"The thing I like about what we're doing with him is coach Hall's just getting him more involved every week in the offense, throwing him the ball, pass pro besides running the ball inside, outside. He's a tougher inside runner, too. We talk all the time about seeing two guys and splitting two guys, so no guy gets a head-on hit on you and only gets a glancing blow. He really does an excellent job of accelerating through. Maybe you made the tackle, but he fell forward three yards."

You had 300 rushing and passing yards against UConn.

"That's tough to do. That's the balance you like to have. That was excellent. It's hard to do when you have a bunch of guys, but our game plan and execution and the play-calling, we got a lot of guys involved early and often, and you've got to do that because we have a lot of playmakers. We've got playmakers on the perimeter and playmakers in the backfield. It's easy to get the quarterback involved, but we got the receivers and the tight ends and the running backs involved."

Opening Statement:

“Excited about the game last week. I thought we played really well. Sometimes you play tough games like that, you are favored and wondering how your guys are going to come out. We prepared well, we prepared all week. We came out on Saturday and executed, I thought we played great on defensive, we held them on 238 yards and probably a large part of that was in the fourth quarter, that they got. Then offensively, it was 630 some odd yards, which is outstanding. It is hard to do that on air because its 630 yards, we executed really well offensively. I thought the kicking game was great. We were able to play 79 guys, which I think is a ton to participate. The guys did what we were hoping they were going to do, which is coming out and dominating our opponent. Then on Monday, we turned the page, watched the video tape and moved on to a great Memphis team. I have a lot of respect for Mike Norvell and what he has done up there in Memphis. They are a very explosive offense, a lot of similarities between what we do. Will Hall was on their staff last season, he has put his own signature on what we are doing, but there are some similarities. They are playing very well on defense this season. They really do a good job taking the ball away. They are one of the top kicking games in the nation, I think they are ranked fourth in the country overall in special teams. It is going to be a big challenge for us on Saturday at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. We are looking forward to the challenge.”


On Will Hall working for Memphis…

Yes, he worked last year for Memphis. He knows some, but with their defensive staff, they have a new defensive coordinator. He was not there for spring ball with them. There are also some things they know about what we are doing because he was already doing a lot of those things before he went from Memphis. I am sure he has taken some things too because Mike is a very innovative offensive coordinator. There are some similarities.”


On the win against Memphis last season…
I do not think it really carries over. This is 2019 Memphis. There are a lot of different players that will be playing the game. We are playing at their place instead of the friendly confines. I do not think there is a lot of carry over. Obviously, we are looking at the tape, but really not looking at what they are doing defensively. They have changed quite a bit in that regard. There are some things we are looking at offensively. And they are different in the kicking game, they have a new special teams coordinator.”


On strength of the American Conference this year…

“As I have had said many times before, I think we are a part of the Power-6. I think this is a great conference. I do not know if there is any play between the AAC and the group of five, I know the record was 26-1 going into last weekend. The AAC playing the other members of the so-called group of five dominating those other conferences. I think the only loss was Buffalo beat Temple a few weeks back. Every other game has been a win by the AAC, so I think it is a really, really tough league. It is a hard division that we are in. Everybody is pretty darn good. You better buckle up for every game.”


On being close to Top 25…

“I think our guys know that and it is a step in the right direction for sure. A few years ago, no one would have thought it would occur. We are proud of that. We have a lot of goals we want to accomplish. A big thing for us is, I tell my guys, my number one NFL team is the Saints everybody knows that, but I have a buddy who goes into the Patriots and they have one side of their building that says rule number one is that the team comes first. We talk about that all the time. Rule number two is ignore the noise. I told our guys, we are finally getting a little noise, but ignore it. Sometimes the noise is negative and sometimes it is positive, but just ignore it and get after the task at hand, which is Memphis this week. We will play the very best we can possibly play. That is how I think you have to approach it. I was talking to Andy [Staples] a little while ago and saying that last night I get back home around 8 or 8:30 and I am watching the TV and my wife wanted to watch last week’s game, and I said no we are going to watch Temple versus Memphis. I had that game recorded and I wanted to hear the TV commentary, I have already watched the copy I have here, so you have to lock in if you want to have the chance to beat these really quality football teams.”


On focusing on each game instead of big picture…

“I think it starts with everybody in the program, the coaches, the managers, the trainers, the strength and conditioning staff, the video people. If the players are not buying it, it is not going to happen. Our guys have done a nice job of locking it in and getting focused. I told them at the beginning of last week, we are going to be favored this game by quite a bit, but who cares it does not matter. We are still going to go out get better and prepare to the best of our ability to play our best game. I think we came pretty close to doing that last week. We played well in all three phases. I thought it was one of the more physical games that we played. I thought we were very physical in that ball game, so I am proud of them. Sometimes, people in general might slack off in those situations, our guys did not, they played really hard. That is what you should do, you are only guaranteed twelve opportunities, after the ball game I told them that we are halfway done with those games we are guaranteed to play. These guys work 365 days of the year for these twelve opportunities and they have to put everything into that they can.”


On the importance of this week’s game…

“I want all the games to be big. We want to always get out there. Something I say every Friday night is this is the biggest game in the world because we are playing in it so you guys put everything into you can with preparation and effort when we get out there. They all count as one, last week did not count a half and this week does not count as two, it counts as one. Each one of them counts. You have to put everything into it that you possibly can.”


On growing recognition in New Orleans…

“You know one night I was out on Bourbon Street and…that would have been a story there, but you get a little more. People are excited and that is good, but that is part of ignoring the noise too.”

Talked to Fritz today.

"Chris Joyce is not going to be able to play. He's ineligible. They do testing, the NCAA, with supplements. and he had an over-the-counter supplement he tested positive for. That's why it's so important for guys to check with us before they take anything."

Joyce is practicing with the scout team at receiver, where his speed and ability should help the defense prepare better. He is out for 12 months, so he will miss the first three games nex year. I was under the impression that since he played in four games this year, he would miss the first four games next year, but it's a one-year calendar issue rather than a game issue.

"He can help us all over the place," Fritz said. "Unfortunately it's a 365-day suspension, so he'll be out the first three games next year."

I will post the list of visitors for the UConn game shortly.

Darius Bradwell most likely will not play Saturday as he recovers from a leg injury he sustained in the fourth quarter at Army. Willie Fritz said they would see how he was today before making a final decision, but there's no reason on Earth to play him if he's not 100 percent, and he clearly is not 100 percent.

Fritz reiterated Jeffery Johnson would play. I'm not sure he will start because he received mostly second-team reps this week, but he may. Davon Wright and De'Andre Williams were the first-teamers this week, with Johnson getting limited reps alongside Jamiran James and Mike Hinton alternately.

Tulane practiced at the Saints indoor facility Thursday because they expected rain, but it did not show up until night-time.

"We thought it was going to rain, but It's going to be nice and cool on Saturday and we're always guaranteed a great practice out here. It was good to have."

Amare Jones is a stud. He made a catch in the corner of the end zone look easy during Wednesday's practice, grabbing the ball with his finger tips like they were glue. He did have a false start penalty yesterday, forcing them to redo a play, and he responded with a touchdown catch. Look for him to maybe have an even bigger role in the first half Saturday than he had against Army with Bradwell sidelined. It will be fun to see what he can do against UConn's D.

UConn's D is actually much improved from last year, when it was the worst in college football history, but the offense is not as good. Incredibly, the Huskies had a pair of 1000-yard runners in 2018 despite finishing 1-11. One of them is back but is averaging less than 4.0 yards per carry, and the Huskies have used three quarterbacks already, with none being effective.

Tulane has allowed only seven sacks this year, putting it on pace for about 16, down dramatically from 35 a year ago. The first was on an intentional grounding call against FIU that technically went down as a sack. Auburn and Missouri State did not register a sack. Houston had the first real sack of the year on the opening play and finished with four, but three of them were four four yards or less and Tulane scored touchdowns after two of them. Army had two, but one of them was on the butchered play I've still never seen when McMillan fumbled late in the fourth quarter. Will Hall says only three of the sacks can be traced to the offensive line.

Obviously, McMillan's alertness in the pocket compared to Jonathan Banks has been a huge difference, but the line is blocking better, too, both for the run and the pass. When is the last time you saw a quote like this one from a coach who faced Tulane?

"They blocked us and kept us blocked," Army coach Jeff Monken said. "They whipped blocks on defense and made tackles. That's is. That's what made the difference. They just out-physicaled us."



"

He tweeted the news today. He was Tulane's first commitment, in May, and I wrote a commitment story on him.

https://n.rivals.com/news/commitment-no-1-170

Usually these are mutual agreement deals.

The Iowa-Penn State spread was settled on a missed 2-point conversion in the final seconds. The Florida-LSU game was settled by the 2 yards the Gators could not pick up for a consolation TD after having first-and-goal at the 2. The latter one cost me a perfect week by a half-point.

WEEK 6 RESULTS

8

ny oscar
MNAlum
winwave
Guerry

7

highwave

6

p8kpev
paliii
DrBox
wavetime

5

LSU Law Greenie
buck2481
chigoyboy
Harahan Wave
GretnaGreen
WaveON
ssscald/aa013289

4

Kettrade1
diverdo
Golfer81

3

St Amant Wave


OVERALL STANDINGS

40

MNAlum

38

p8kpev
Guerry

37

ny oscar
highwave

35

winwave

34

ssscald/aa013289
WaveON

33

DrBox
wavetime

32

LSU Law Greenie
chigoyboy

31

diverdo

30

Harahan Wave

29

Kettrade1
Golfer81
paliii

28

buck2481

27

GretnaGreen

25

charlamange8 (missed 1 week)

22

St Amant Wave

21

mono41 (missed 2 weeks)


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 15 of 20
Texas 11
LSU 6
USC 7
Navy 20
Temple 9
Alabama 15
Penn State 15

It's a long list:

ALREADY COMMITTED (9)

Angelo Anderson
Elijah Champaigne
Adam Chaney
Cornelius Dyson
Rashad Green
Justin Ibieta
Jake Levant
Duece Watts
Phat Watts

COMMITTED ELSEWHERE

1) Adonis Friloux, a 6-2, 270-pound 3-star DT from Hahnville High

Skinny: Committed to Houston in July, also has offers frrom Ole Miss and Memphis among others.

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2) Kyren Lacy, a 3-star, 6-3, 211-pound WR from Thibodaux

Skinny: Committed to ULL in June, also has an offer from Virginia.

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3) Mike Wright, a 3-star, 6-3, 185-pound QB from Woodward Academy in College Park, Ga.

Skinny: Committed to UCF in June, had offers from multiple P5 schools including Utah, Arkansas.

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4) Patrick Jenkins, a 3-star, 6-2, 270-pound DT from John Ehret

Skinny: No. 23 overall prospect in LA, No. 34 DT in the country. Big-time recruit with offer from LSU.

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UNCOMMITTED

1) Jarmone Sutherland, a 3-star, 5-11, 175-pound WR from Newman

Skinny: Has offers from South Alabama and Southern Miss and Tulane. Likely commit if room.

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2) Will Sheppard, a no-star, 6-3, 185-pound WR from Mandeville

Skinny: Has offers from Army, Air Force and some lesser FBS programs like Rice.

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3) Steve McBride, a no-star, 6-1, 165-pound WR from East Ascension HIgh (Gonzales)

Skinny: Has offers from Kansas, La Tech and ULM. Tulane is light on wideouts in this class.

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4) Cullan Ziegler, a no-star, 6-0, 159-pound CB from Lakeshore High in Mandeville

Skinny: No reported offers to this point.

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5) Darwin Davis, a no-star, 6-0, 165-pound WR from Thibodaux

Skinny: No reported offers to this point.

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2021 RECRUITS

Jordan White, OT, Gadsden High, Tallahassee (I've never heard of that school)
Jamarian Henderson, LB, McDonogh 35
Oden Pierce, LB, Mandeville
Jake Katona, DE, Oak Mountain, Ala.
Gabriel Carbajal, OT, Slidell
Bailey Despanie, FS, Carencro
Armonte Watkins, RB, Riverside Academy
Devon Manuel, OT, Beau Chene
Dylan Peterson, RB, Pelham, Ala.
David Hull, OL, South Doyle, Tenn.
Chris Williams, ATH, Wenonah, Ala.
Kenji Christian, RB, Pinson Valley, Ala.
Alan "Taco" Wright, ATH, Woodward Academy, Ga.
Marcus Williams, NB/LB, Hoover, Ala.
Kaleb Stokes, DT, Stanhope Elmore, Ala.
Devon Tott, QB, Mandeville
Elinus Noel III, DT, John Curtis
Ryan Rodriguez, OT, Columbus High, Fla.
Jamorian Jackson, RB, Livonia
Trey Washington, WR, Hewitt Trussville, Ala.
Kendric Rhymes, RB, Houston Heights, TX
Sam Reynolds, DB, Thompson, Ala.
Kenny Bannister, OL, Karr
Kaine Williams, S, John Ehret
Luke Alleman, QB, Thibodaux
Caleb Spann, ATH, John Curtis


2022 RECRUITS

Shone Washington, DT, Warren Easton
Javon Davis, WR, John Curtis

In the last couple of years the NCAA has made some decisions that have changed the landscape of college football. Setting up a transfer portal in which a student athlete can declare an intent to transfer and allowing other schools to contact (essentially recruit) him has given students a broad opportunity to assess their best options. The decision to allow graduates to transfer to another university without sitting out a year is another big deal. Because football players attend summer school each year, it is clearly possible to graduate in less than four years and even, like in the cases of Justin McMillan and Ben Knudsen, move onto a “new” school with two years of remaining eligibility. Combined with the decision to allow a student athlete to “redshirt” in football if they don’t play more than 4 games has probably resulted in some unintended consequences. Jalen McCleskey’s decision to redshirt after playing four games at Oklahoma State and, using the graduate transfer opportunity, moving on to Tulane, was the first such case of which I am aware. But, since then, two Houston starters (possibly recognizing the McCleskey case) have chosen to sit out the rest of this season and taking a redshirt because they didn’t like how their season was progressing. Others across the nation have taken the same route. Personally I see some ethics issues with such decisions whether initiated by the student athlete or the coach (as might be the case in Houston) but it is what it is.

For me, I still haven’t figured out if graduate transfers count towards the annual signing limit of 25. I’ve seen various opinions but no “conclusive” NCAA-adopted decision. In Tulane’s case, we brought in five graduate transfers, one JC, and 20 freshmen this season, 26 total. How does that compute? I didn’t think we had any slots to count against the previous year. Anyway, they clearly count towards the total 85 scholarship limit.

So that brings us to our favorite team, the Olive and Blue of Tulane. We’ve clearly been advantaged by the graduate transfer rule. This season, we have six graduate transfers making significant contributions to our success (Christian Montano, Ben Knutsen, Jalen McCleskey, Justin McMillan, Mike Hinton, and Malik Lawal). That’s a lot of help from kids who spent three or more years in another program.

But the 4-game redshirt rule looks to be coming into play this season in a big way. We have several lettermen who, primarily due to injury, could play 4 games this season and still redshirt, giving them an extra year of eligibility. These include Tyler Johnson, an OL, who has only appeared in one game; Keitha Jones, a LB currently working out at TE, who has only played in two games; Alfred Thomas, a DT, who was one of our more prized recruits two year ago, has, due to injuries, only played three games. and Carlos Hatcher, a DE, who played a great deal last year with some success, and has also only played in three games. Depending on their health and needs during the remainder of the season, all or none of these guys could redshirt. And, as Guerry explained last week, Chris Joyce, a sophomore DB who has played in 4 games, will also redshirt.

And for the first time in memory (and mine goes back 57+ years) we are likely to redshirt almost all of our incoming freshmen. Of course, with at least six, likely seven, and potentially eight games remaining, a lot could change. Still, to this point, only one of our true freshmen has appeared in at least five games—the LB, Dorian Williams. Sincere Haynesworth , OL, has appeared in four games and RB Tyjae Spears has appeared in three. Both look to have long-term potential and, if possible, an extra year of eligibility would be great. Fifteen other freshmen have gotten limited experience in “garbage time” over 1-2 games and are not likely to see action in five. Regardless, we’re likely to redshirt 15+ of our 20 freshmen recruits and the number could be as high as 19.

As an aside, we’ve also had 16 walk-ons get playing time this year which has to be a record for Tulane. This does not include Merek Glover who is now on scholarship. One of them, Timothy Shafter, has appeared in five games in the offensive line, more than any of our three scholarship redshirt freshmen linemen. I’m not sure if that says more about him or about them; hopefully, him.

I don’t know how the back half of this season will play out, but I like the way our coach is building a program, taking advantage of the changing rules as well as anyone.


Roll Wave!!!

Prior to the season I expected us to win between 5 and 8 games, settling on 7. I thought we would be better than last year but so too would be our schedule. Interestingly, I expected the first half of the year to be slightly tougher than the second half. Hopefully it will turn out that way.

But, I thought FIU, Houston, and Army would be better than they have shown and UCONN wouldn’t be as bad as they’ve proven to be. I had no expectations about Missouri State and Auburn is probably better than I anticipated. Still, 5-1 against that schedule and the impressive way we have moved the ball against all but Auburn is very encouraging. But, to be fair, we haven’t beaten a team with a winning record. The teams we have defeated have a combined 10-19 record. And four of our first six games were at home.

Looking forward to the next six, we’ll only play two at home and the combined record of our opponents thus far is 27-9, with only Tulsa sporting a non-winning record. Except for UCF, all the other teams, including Tulsa, have been better than I expected and playing on the road at places like Navy is always a challenge.

But, we don’t play all six at once, we play them one at a time. Memphis is first up and, like us, they have a 5-1 record though they have beaten one team with a winning record, Navy at home. Their wins are against teams with a combined 14-16 record, so they aren’t tearing up really good teams. They’re averaging about 38 points a game and allowing about 21, though a 31 point win against Southern and a 36 point victory over South Alabama, tend to skew their numbers, much like our wins against FIU, Missouri State, and UCONN skew ours.

We beat them last year and we’re better this year. Yes, we’ve got to play them on the road and that is a disadvantage. But, to be honest, we haven’t had a great home field advantage, crowd-wise, in a long time. And Memphis’s home-field advantage can’t compare to Army’s a couple of weeks back. Sensing the betting public’s view, odds makers have us as an underdog (4.5 pts last I saw), so this week’s win will be a mild upset. After that, we can focus on the next game.

Roll Wave!!

WILLIE FRITZ

This is the second game you've played this year where you were expected to win comfortably. What does is say about the team that you came out and did exactly what you were expected to do.

"Well, I think that's the sign of a mature team. We talked all week about it. I know sometimes guys look past games and that's when upsets occur and we're certainly not to the point where we can do that, but I was excited about our effort. We had pretty good energy."

Once again you were able to rest guys. Justin McMillan was out midway through the third quarter.

"I didn't even see him on the sidelines (joking) in the second half. I don't know where Justin went. He took off and went in the stands? No, we wanted to get a bunch of guys out there. We've got such good kids on this team. We want to get those guys in there and get the opportunity to play. Against Missouri State I think we played 87 guys, and we're going to be close to playing that much. Our secondary one time had all true freshmen in there that are on the scout team. We had to kind of coach them up on the sideline and get them going, so it was fun to get those guys in there. I like the fact that the starters were pulling for guys that were getting in there. That's a neat thing."

I was on a radio show this week where I was asked to give a weakness of your team and I could not come up with one positionally. Do you feel pretty good about what you have?

"We are much deeper than we have ever been by far. The first couple of years if we got an injury at a couple of spots, there was a big drop-off from the first-team guy to the second-team guy, but we also wanted to play a lot of guys so that we could keep some dudes out of harm's way. It's a big game next Saturday, and we felt like we had the game in hand at halftime, so not everybody played as much as they might normally play."

How happy are you with the pass defense this year? Only five teams had held opponents under 50 percent completions entering this week (It's no longer true for Tulane).

"It's awesome. We had an interception return (for the touchdown) and there were a couple others I thought, we'll go back and look at the tape (on Jaylon Monroe's interception off a tipped pass by Larry Brooks when Brooks was flagged for interference), I thought that was pretty good defense and they called interference (Ed's note: I thought it was interference, but the referee who called it was the side judge on a pass in the middle of the field, and he appeared to wait for the result before throwing the flag) on us. We'll see. We're playing good pass defense. Part of that's the rush, but we work on it every single day. When you go against (Darnell) Mooney and (Jalen) McCleskey and (Jaetavian) Toles, those guys who are quick as a cat, it helps those guys with their technique, our DBs."

There were some costly penalties in the first half, and you've already said you're not sure the call was right on the interference in the second half (Tulane finished with eight penalties for 80 yards). How do you feel there?

"Well, we're trying to decrease it. We had eight today. Some of those were late in the game with some guys who don't get to play much. We had a guy that jumped late in the game. We had a guy that was the second shover. Hopefully he learned his lesson. The second guy always gets caught, not the first guy, but we need to play a lot cleaner football this Saturday."

The defensive starters were upset you didn't get the shutout.

"I wanted to play those guys. We've got to finish the game. One thing we talked about on Monday was we've got to know how to react when we're up on somebody (unlike what happened at Army) so we can keep competing and keep playing and all those kind of things. We did that for the most part, though."

You've put yourself in good position with a tough schedule the rest of the way. What are your thoughts going into the second half of the season?

"Well, the same thing as we've been preaching all along. We want to go 1-0 (this week) and that's all we're worried about. We're going to let the guys have fun, celebrate. It was a big win. It's hard to win college football games. Everybody is trying to win, but we'll come back here on Monday and we're turning the page and moving on to Memphis."

Will Thakarius Keyes be OK?

"Yes. He's fine."

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Regrettably, there were no player interviews because the interview session was moved to right before the start of practice from its originally scheduled time after practice due to a conflict with a Saints media opportunity. There were two TV there and I was the only print reporter.

Ed Daniels asked every question but two--one by the other TV guy and the last one by me.

HUNTER

"We all have been waiting for this day for a long time. It seems like that I've been here five years already. We've put a lot of work in. I love the team that we've got and we're ready to start. I've spoken about something to prove. Today becomes the day to back that up."

There are not many expectations at least outside the program for you this year.

"Well, there are many expectations inside the program. As I said in my press conference and I've said every day that I've been here, I did not come here to win five games. I did not come here to bury the program and say this year let's see what happens. We will be disappointed if we aren't playing in the NCAA tournament. That's always going to be our goal here. These guys have worked really hard. Again, this is a brand new team. I'm excited because I've been coaching a long time and I've never done anything like this. What I mean by that is basically have a brand new team with guys who've never played with each other. This is fun for me, but there are high expectations inside this program and there will always be as long as I'm the head coach."

What were your conversations like with (Kevin) Zhang and Ray (Ona Embo) about coming back?

"Well, it's funny with both of those guys. One's from France and one's from China. They didn't understand anything I said anyway, so it really didn't matter. Naturally, everyone can understand both of those young men want to win, so it starts with that. They are the only really holdovers left from that team (Buay Koka is a third but has not played a huge role in the past). They are both talented young men that have really fit in well with a lot of the new guys. We wanted to bring in guys who have been to the NCAA tournament (grad transfers K.J. Lawson and Christion Thompson did it at previous stops Kansas and Rhode Island), who have won conference championships (grad transfer Nick Thomas did it at Norfolk State last year). We were able to accomplish that, so it's not just something that the coaches are talking about. These also guys who have come here with us whether it is for one year or two years that have also been at programs that won."

When you look at some of the grad transfers, football has been successful here doing that and it seems like a trend in college basketball. True?

"It is and it has to be. If you look at what's going on at Carolina and Duke and some of those other programs, everybody is taking transfers now. It's just the way it goes now and if you don't adapt to it, then you are going to struggle. I built a program at Georgia State based on transfers and we are going to do the same thing here. Not that we won't recruit high school people, but we've got to take transfers at Tulane. If you look at our conference, Houston got their thing rolling because of their transfers. That will be part of what we do. I wanted to start with this because I wanted to infuse a winning attitude. I wanted to change the culture immediately. I didn't want to wait 24 months to say, you know what, we're finally here. I think we've been able to do that right away."

Will the university academically jibe with that?

"The university's great. That's not going to chance. A Tulane education is in my opinion the best in the country, so I get a little bit upset when they say that we can't do that in basketball. There are enough kids that are like me, that are in this city, that are in this country, that can come to Tulane, graduate, be a productive part of what we're doing here and still be great students. I think that's a cop-out when they use the academics at Tulane (as a reason for failure). That's a huge cop-out, and it's not something we are going to worry about or talk about."

Realistically, will you not know how tough this group is until they start facing adversity when the season starts?

"They are going to find out in five minutes. When we practice, I get into it now, so that's going to happen in the first five minutes. These guys know. Basketball is about winning. Football's about winning. I love what our football program is doing, but we're not trying to change anything. All we want to do is what we've been doing, and that's winning. I don't know what happened here before. I still have not seen one tape of Tulane last year. I have no idea what happened here. I've told the G.A.s and the video people to get rid of it. I could care less. People keep bringing it up. but that's not my issue anymore. The issue is what happens today, and today this is about a winning program. That's the only thing that matters."

Would it be fair to say that you have scheduled winnable games in the beginning of the season?

"I will schedule Sisters of the Poor. I will schedule the homeless. I'm talking five homeless guys. We'll try to put uniforms on them and go play. I could care less who we play. We need to win and we're going to win, so if you walk in and you see some homeless people coming in with jerseys on and nice shoes, that's because I want to play them. And if they want to play, we'll play. That's not to say we won't play the school in Baton Rouge. If you want to play, we'll play. We'll come down there and play. We don't care. At the end of the day we'll play anybody, any time, anywhere, and if it happens to be the Sisters of the Poor, you might just have to get beat up that day. We'll pray for you, we'll bless you but then afterwards we'll beat your butt. That's just how it's going to roll at Tulane."

Have you had discussions with Will Wade about playing?

"No. I'm more worried about Tulane, but Will, you're my guy, man, I love you. Let's play. Let's get this over with, Will. Let's play a game. I'll come. As a matter of fact let's do this. I will meet you., let's put a court on Lake Pontchartrain. Let's play right now. No media. Get your guys against my guys, five on five, hoop it up and let's just find out. That's what we're doing. So that's my invitation to Will. I love you, Will. I love LSU, but let's go play and let's do it right now. I'm OK with that."

Have you had any discussions with your friends from Houston since your proclamation back in the spring?

"I have talked to my good old buddy, and I don't want to call him old because we're not far from the same age, with Kelvin (Sampson), and seriously I have talked about what Kelvin Sampson has done because what he did at Houston is what we want to do here. He took over a program that was at the bottom, he fixed it up and now look where they are. That's what we want to do. I'm not one who liked to say we want to do what other people have done, but there's a school, I've always said, we're the new kids on the block and you don't pick on the ones that are down here, you pick at the top, and Houston happens to be at the top. The last time I coached a game was against Houston, so I'm really looking forward to it. Not to say that the football program the other day made me want to have a little fun with that. I actually sent my friend a nice little message with that, but football beating Houston made it an enjoyable weekend for us."

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

Tulane (-34.5) Connecticut
Oklahoma (-11) Texas (Dallas)
LSU (-13.5) Florida
Notre Dame (-11) USC
Tulsa (-1) Navy
Temple (+5) Memphis
Texas A&M (+17) Alabama
Iowa (+4.5) Penn State

Tulane practiced an hour later than normal this morning. Running back Darius Bradwell did not practice and I doubt he will play against UConn. The same goes for defensive tackle Alfred Thomas, but everyone else who has logged significant downs appears available.

My focus for this report is the offensive line, which is playing better than any Tulane offensive line since I started covering the team in 2010. When LT Tyler Johnson went out with a leg injury in practice the week after the opener against FIU, the coaches moved Joey Claybrook from RT to LT, Keyshawn McLeod from RG to RT and inserted Virginia grad transfer Ben Knutson at right guard. I expected a lesser performance, but instead it was the opposite. Those guys have developed good chemistry along with left guard Corey Dublin and center Christian Montano, and the way Tulane knocked Army off the ball Saturday was impressive.

"They are really doing a good job," Willie Fritz said. "I've been very impressed with those guys and how they meshed together. People think it's not that big of a deal going from right tackle to left tackle or right guard. It's a big deal. Angles and leverage and pulls. They've done a good job. Keyshawn McLeod can play any place, which is great for us."

McLeod's development as the only fifth-year scholarship senior left from before Fritz arrived has been unexpected. He played a fair amount throughout his career, but he rarely played well, losing his job each time he started. Not this time.

"He's developed," Fritz said. "He's gotten better every year. Coach Atkins did a very good job with him and now coach (Cody) Kennedy has done a good job with him and he's just gotten better. He's gotten stronger. He's done a good job in the weight room with coach (Kyle) Speer and all those guys, but most of all it's him wanting to do it. He's stuck with it, he wants to be a good player, he's got a lot of pride and he's doing it."

Fritz explained why the coaches moved Claybrook to the left side and put McLeod at right tackle after Johnson's injury. It's simply that McLeod had not played left tackle before and Claybrook had, so they went with what would be most comfortable.

Knutson, who last started a pair of games in 2017 at Virginia before entering the lineup, needs to improve his conditioning now that he's playing every down, but he is effective when fresh.

"He's doing a good job," Fritz said. "He's getting better and better. He's a big guy. When he gets pointed in the right direction, he's dominating."

Tyler Johnson got some reps today, but it is looking like he might get redshirted and come back for another year. He is a true senior and has not played since getting hurt in practice the week after the opener (even though Tulane lists him as playing against Auburn, he did not).

With McLeod finishing his eligibility this fall and the line playing very well without Johnson, the move would make sense. Obviously, it hinges on everyone staying healthy the rest of the way. Some insiders considered Johnson the best lineman on the team in preseason drills.

"It's a possibility (to redshirt him)," Fritz said. "We're just seeing what's going on."

I also talked to Claybrook, McLeod and offensive line coach Cody Kennedy. For now I've transcribed Claybrook. I've always sensed resistance in interviews from the offensive linemen who have been in the program for a while because I've written a lot of negative copy on them in the past, but if they keep playing like this, it won't be an issue.

CLAYBROOK

You were entrenched at right tackle and then had to move to left tackle after the first game. It seems like is has gone pretty well. What are your thoughts?

"We all practice and play each position. Just each of us being reliable, we really practice on that, just making sure we can play each position in case anybody goes down."

How have you jelled?

"We've jelled very well. It's a big family in the O-line room. We all love each other and all have each other's backs no matter what happens."

It's been a long time since Tulane's offense was looked at as anything but a weakness. How nice it to play like you're playing now, and how frustrating was it to get that criticism in the past?

"It's awesome. I'm going on my third year here now and redshirted in my first year, and I've had to hear that ever since I was committed here and everything. We were just determined to change it, and we're still working to do that. Everybody sees we're doing well, but we're still not where we want to be, so we're just keeping on grinding every day to get there."

There have been six sacks through five games. Last year there were a lot more.

"Like coach Hall says, that's our form of ball security--protecting the quarterback. We really pride ourselves on straining past the whistle and just protecting our quarterback the best we can. We really take pride in that."

How much does Corey Dublin help you lining up next to him?

"He's good. We all help each other communicate. He's got the most experience under his belt. I came in with him in our freshman class and he started and I redshirted. It's been nice to learn a lot from him, but we all help each other out."

How good can this offense be this year?

"I feel with the weapons that we have and such good coaching, the only people that can stop us is ourselves. As long as we're executing and staying in a rhythm, nobody can stop us except ourselves."

The only real negative was all the false start penalties in the first four games. What was going on?

"We can't make excuses that defenses were (simulating the snap). It's all our mental focus. That's something we really, really worked on last week because it was one of our biggest problems. We've had our defense making sure they were yelling at us before the snap. It's just mental focus and what we've really harped on."

What's Cody Kennedy like as a coach?

"He's awesome. He brings such good energy every day and he relates to us. He played O-line and I feel like that's really important, so he understands what we go through. We love running the ball and he loves running the ball and that's nice."

There were several plays against Army where the running backs had huge holes.

"That's the best feeling in football. If it was up to me, we'd run every play. I love it. Our backs are awesome. They make it easy on us. We've got every type of back you could ask for and we're really close with all of them."

MCLEOD

The line changed in three spots when Tyler Johnson got injured in practice the week before the Auburn game, but the group appears to be playing better now than in a long time. What is your assessment?

"We're playing phenomenal right now. The biggest thing is we can't get too happy with that. We just have to keep it up, but we're playing great right now. It's good to see that happen. We're playing as a unit right now, so that's great."

There were times against Army when running backs were 10 yards down the field before they had to juke anyone. How nice was that feeling?

"It's a good feeling, man, just to know that we're playing as unit. I've seen both sides of it--not playing good and playing good, but we're playing as a unit now, so that's great."

What's been the difference for you personally this year?

"The difference is our coaching staff and our players and everybody feels like we're doing great as a team. Everybody sees we made a bowl last year and that's not our goal this year. Our goal is to go into conference championships."

The offensive line had not done great in the past. How does it feel to be a true reason the team is winning?

"Listen, we have the most confidence in ourselves and each other, so that's the biggest thing. We're playing as a unit right now, and that's great."

Was it tough to take the criticism in the past?

"Yeah. For people to say that, like I said, man, we always had confidence in ourselves but it's just things were missing. We're putting them together now and we've got to keep it up."

You line up next to Ben Knutson, and he's a big dude. What is he bringing to the line?

"He brings a big frame, good hands, he knows what's going on and is a pretty smart guy. He helps me out a lot. When I don't realize something, he'll tell me and we'll get the job done."

Ben Knutson, a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility left, started only two games at Virginia, both in 2017, before heading to Tulane this summer. He began the season as a backup but moved into the starting lineup at right guard for the Auburn game and has not come out. He is imposing physically (6-7, 315) and is starting to play to his size.

Virginia went 2-9, 6-7 and 8-5 in his three years there and got off to fast starts the last two seasons before sliding. There is no indication Tulane will follow the same pattern.

Yesterday, I talked to him about his first year at Tulane. If I had realized the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was on him and Corey Dublin, I would have asked about it, but I didn't know that until later in the day.

How much fun has this year been?

"Oh, it's a blast. We're doing exactly what we wanted to do so far. We had the one hiccup (against Auburn), which is still on our minds, but we've been glad to see all the work we've put into together actually translate on to the field. Being a grad transfer and coming in and seeing the culture in here and seeing success is a lot of fun."

You've been in the starting lineup for the last four games, and the group really appears to be jelling. How do you feel you are playing as a group?

"Really good. There's a lot of chemistry. We worked out some kinks in the FIU game. We worked out a lot of kinks in the Auburn game. I think we've grown as an offensive line the last four games, and not just as line mates but also as friends and people together. That definitely helps with communication on the line. Being able to trust each other, that's a big part of it, and that trust is being developed and continuing to be developed, so it's only looking up from here."

You scored 42 on a good defense Saturday and there was some huge holes. Was that the best game you've had as a group?

"I think the biggest difference for us is we were able to pick up their blitzes a lot better. We knew it was coming and our ability to identify is definitely spot on. That's the preparation. Having the extra week definitely helped, but we're capable of that every week, too. It's definitely shown how important the film room is. We went out there and 90 percent of the time we knew what kind of blitz we were going to get, and they're a team that slants a lot, so it was good to be able to have confidence."

You got some playing time at Virginia but now you're playing every down. How different is it?

"I definitely love it. Our first few games I had to work up the conditioning a little more than I had to before, but I'm starting to really get in the swing of it and am really enjoying it. It actually feels good to be sore on Sunday, as weird as that sounds. I love it. I'm glad to be out there and put my body on the line for these guys."

Coming in this summer, how hard was it to adjust to a new team?

"It took some time. It helped that we did a lot of walk-throughs in the summer, but it was light years different than what we did at UVA. I'm just glad I had the summer. I didn't have to finish my degree at UVA over the summer because I might have needed even more time. It took me a while to get my footing with the offense and get the minutes I'm getting now."

The coaches were not sure where you would play on the line when you committed, and you spent some time at tackle in the preseason. Do you like playing guard?

"Guard just is a more natural fit. It was what I played at Virginia, so it was the easiest transition. We might look at me playing tackle next year when I have a spring to learn it and actually develop the position and not just the offense."

What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?

"For me, if I can develop and actually be a solid presence at tackle, that would be the quickest way to improve. To have that versatility is a huge asset for this team and for my career going forward. Right now I've had some success in the pass game at guard this year, which is something I struggled with at Virginia. A lot of that has to do with the schemes we're doing, but I've improved skill-wise, too. I fit better in the schemes here, too."

What held you back at Virginia?

"I definitely developed as a player. A lot of it for me is just understanding the game better. That's coaching and that's also experience. It's a lot easier for me if I understand the why, why we're doing it, what the reason is and just being able to identify defense. I know that was one thing at Virginia I was not very good at was understanding why the defense was doing something. I'd be surprised in my stance, oh they blitzed that play and you're not ready for it. Having that understanding now and being taught why the blitz is coming and being able to read the secondary to understand the blitz has helped me a lot. Our running backs also make us look good, too."

What's Cody Kennedy like as a coach?

"A blast. I've had a few different O-line coaches, but he's our friend when we want him to be and our biggest critic when we want him to be, too. He's intense on the field and the meeting room. He wants you to understand, and that's the biggest thing I like about him is he has that switch and he's really good about flipping that switch. Also he has a lot of knowledge about the offensive line, a lot of knowledge about the NFL offensive line and their schemes and what they're doing. I've heard stuff from here I'd never heard in my entire career."

What type of stuff?

"Technique, talking about how to attack down guys, how to get the most movement, so that definitely has helped me develop as a player."

How fun is it blocking for these talented running backs?

"It's a blast. We didn't really have a true speed back at Virginia, and that is really our bread and butter here. It's a little different. We have the power back when we need him, which is nice, but that's the biggest difference, having a running back that on any given play can be gone. You don't have to give him that much room, and he'll bring it."

Do you change how you're blocking depending on which running back is in there?

"To be honest, with how quick we're moving, I don't turn around to look and see who's lined up. I trust the coaches are putting us in the right schemes for who's in there. A lot of that has to do with the play call--what running back is in and what they tell us to do--but it's not a conscious decision on my part."

Coach Fritz just said Keyshawn McLeod had maybe his best game against Army. How much has he helped you?

"Knowing Keyshawn coming in, just the amount of growth he's had since the summer into the season has been tremendous. I hear from coaches that's been even more since spring. He's a heck of a player, but a lot of it for him clicking was just mentally. He always had the talent and it's finally starting to click for him, and that's fun to see and fun to watch. Even the last few weeks, he's seeing the field better and our communication has gotten better."

The offensive line has struggled for about 10 years running here. You had nothing to do with it, but are guys talking about how much better the line looks now?

"We're not satisfied, but we're definitely happy with where we are progressing toward. I wasn't here before, but I can say at UVA the offensive line has been a struggle my entire career there, too, and I'm watching us play on film and then watching their games on TV and it's fun to watch how much we're developing. I watched a little of Tulane's film last year, so I can see the difference there as well. It's funny to see how the two different paths are going, but I'm excited to see where we can go. I'm really happy with our progression. We're not there yet, but things are looking really promising and I'm excited."

How nice is it to be 4-1 with everything in front of you?

"We made a bowl game my last two years at UVA and were bowl eligible pretty early. I was talking with an equipment guy the other day and he was talking about how it was a weird thought that we were bowl eligible because we'd always go into the last game. It's a weird thought for me. I'm confident we can be there soon and move on to our next goal."

After getting only two hours of sleep Saturday night at the end of a well-worth it trip to West Point to watch Tulane thump Army, I have caught up on rest and regained my equilibrium (I headed straight to the Saints game and more work when I got back to New Orleans Sunday morning). The Green Wave has a breather this week against awful UConn, but then the schedule is tough the rest of the way with five games against teams either ranked or receiving votes, including all four on the road.

That said, I really believe Tulane is better than every remaining opponent and running the table is possible. The gap is not large enough to guarantee anything, and the schedule is tough, but this team's talent level is not recognized nationally or even locally.

From top to bottom, I divide the league into three categories. Cincinnati, Tulane and UCF are in tier 1 in no particular order. I picked Cincinnati to win the East before the season because the Bearcats got UCF at home, but I'm not sure they are better than the Knights.

South Florida, East Carolina and UConn are in tier 3 in descending order. UConn is one of the worst teams in modern college football history, although slightly improved from last year's debacle.

Tier 2 encompasses the other six teams, and I don't know what the pecking order is. We'll find out in the next two months.

Memphis, in my view, is overrated. The Tigers are suspect defensively, and Brady White is an immobile, inconsistent passer. They are loaded at the other skill positions, though, which gives them a shot. We'll learn a lot about that team this Saturday at Temple.

SMU is 6-0 but easily could end up 8-4 or 7-5. The Mustangs have a good quarterback and excellent wide receivers, but the rest of the roster is sketchy.

Temple always seems to play well in conference games with a top-notch defense and limited offense, year after year, but I can't see the Owls beating Cincy or UCF.

Navy appears to be back on track after a disastrous 2018, and if the Midshipmen can get by Tulsa this week (in what is basically a pick 'em game according to the oddsmakers), they will be 5-1 when they play host to Tulane on Oct. 26 with UConn, a home game with SMU and a trip to Houston left on the docket. In other words, they could be a real contender in the West.

Houston may go in the tank lot of lot of people believe, but the talent level on offense is still high without D'Eriq King. Let's see what the Cougars can do this Saturday against Cincinnati, which is bound to have a letdown after its huge win against UCF.

Tulsa probably is the fourth-worst team in the league. but it led SMU 30-9 on the road in the fourth quarter and would have won if its kicker were competent. If it beats Navy this week, it will stay afloat in the West for a while.

I'm sticking with my Tulane-Cincinnati conference championship game prediction from the preseason and feel more confident about it now than I did then, but the Wave still has a lot of work to do.

As for practice, Jeffery Johnson returned today. He received second-team reps rather than first-team reps, but he will play Saturday against UConn. The temptation to rest him is superceded by getting him in the flow so he will be sharp in the vital game at Memphis the following week.

"He'll be able to play this week," coach Willie Fritz said. "He could have played last week. He was about 85 percent or something like that. I don't know how the heck I came up with that number, but somewhere around there, but he's ready to go. In that game, you've got to be able to push off both ways, and it's so important for those defensive linemen to have quick movement. He'll be good to go this week."

Alfred Thomas did not practice today. I got criticized on another message board for not addressing his status in The Advocate last week, but I don't consider him as important as other people do. He may turn out to be an excellent player, but he had only seven tackles in seven games last year and three in three games this year. I knew he was not going to play against Army and wrote as much here, but I never thought his availability would make much of a difference compared to Jamiran James or Mike Hinton, who has six tackles in five games.

Tyler Johnson, who has missed four consecutive games since getting hurt in practice in the week of Auburn, did not practice today. Barring an injury to one of the starters, I believe he will be a backup the rest of the year even when he is healthy. The line is playing very well right now in its current set-up, and he just has not been able to get back to 100 percent. I was watching when the injury happened, and it did not appear that serious at the time, but it clearly turned out worse than expected.

Chris Joyce did not practice, with freshman Jacquez Norman getting his reps. Whether Joyce returns or not this week, Tulane should be fine there with Thakarius Keyes, Jaylon Monroe and Willie Langham.

Fritz talked for nearly 14 minutes at the media session today, and I will pass his quotes along when the SID office transcribes them. He was not asked a single question about UConn, which is a 34.5-point underdog in the biggest spread of the week. Fear The Wave listed Tulane's game against ULL in 1998 as the only one on record with a bigger spread (35.5). I don't have access to spreads from before 2000, but it makes sense considering ULL finished 2-9 that season and the game was in the second half of the year.

Amare Jones came in before Fritz, and I had a one-on-one with Ben Knutson, who has started the last four games at right guard since the three-position switch that occurred after Tyler Johnson's injury. I will post Knutson's interview later today.

JONES

Can you talk about the season you are having so far?

"From my perspective we are kind of just getting started. I'm going to speak for the offensive half, not the defense because they control everything over there. But as an offense I feel like we haven't even found our true identity yet. We're still putting pieces together to see what we're going to call our bread and butter, and we're kind of just going with it and it seems to be working right now. Once we find the bread and butter and we mix in everything else, it's going to be unstoppable."

How much have the expectations changed just because of the way y'all started?

"I wouldn't say the expectations came from the coaches. We kind of hold ourselves accountable. Starting in the summer we've kind of all have been pressing each other and talking about it. We know what we want to do here. We know that we want to change what's gone on around here, so either we're going to put in the work to do it or we just are going to lay down."

What were your goals coming into the season?

"Well it was just to get off to a good start--1-0, 2-0--but as the season started to progress, we realized this team could do big things and so we all had a talk and were like, we want the conference championship."

Because of your size, do you have to play with a little bit of an attitude?

"Yeah. For sure. When everybody else is bigger than you, they kind of look at you like you're weak or something like that. Me being this size, I like to prove to them that I'm just as good if not better than you."

Who do you model your game off?

"Growing up it used to be LeDainian Tomlinson. I used to always watch him and was always telling my dad I want to be like him when I grow up. He's always been that role model for me, just seeing how he played and how he ran hard every play and practiced hard. I wanted to model that so that I could set an example for my teammates around me so that I could bring them to be great, too."

Are you familiar with Tony Converse and Mewelde Moore?

"We've had a couple of talks with Mewelde and he's been in a couple of film sessions with us. When he comes and talks to us, he tells us if you want to be a pro you have to practice like it. You can't just give minimum effort and expect to be great."

Can you talk about Justin McMillan's ball fakes. Some quarterbacks have a knack for it and he really does. How important to the offense is it?

"Yeah, it's kind of just as important as the person that has the ball. If you can decoy yourself and give the illusion that you have the ball and make it seem like you're a threat, then that opens up a lot of other stuff for the person with the ball."

I had to watch the fake kneel down about 10 times to see him hand the ball to you. Have you played with a quarterback who is as good as he is with deception (Ed's note: that was my question, but since Jones was a QB in high school, he hasn't played with many QBs).

"No, I haven't. When Justin first got here he kind of took me under his wing and taught me a lot, not just about the game but about coverages and just the little things that could help progress my game just a little bit more to where I could help myself out."

The Navy-Air Force game changed dramatically twice in the fourth quarter. The other games were more straightforward.

WEEK 5 RESULTS

7

highwave
buck2481
diverdo

6

ny oscar
MNAlum
p8kpev
mono41
chigoyboy
WaveON
DrBox

5

kettrade1
charlamange8
paliii
Golfer81
winwave
GretnaGreen
Guerry
wavetime

4

LSU Law Greenie
Harahan Wave
ssscald/aa013289

2

St Amant Wave


OVERALL STANDINGS

32

p8kpev
MNAlum

30

Guerry
highwave

29

ssscald/aa013289
WaveON
ny oscar

27

LSU Law Greenie
winwave
wavetime
DrBox
chigoyboy
diverdo

25

Harahan Wave
kettrade1
Golfer81
charlamange8

23

paliii
buck2481

22

GretnaGreen

21

mono41 (missed 1 week)

19

St Amant Wave


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 22 of 22
Cincinnati 9
Florida 4
Michigan 8
Baylor 10
Navy 13
Ohio State 13
California 16