As usual, almost all of us went down in flames picking Tulane to cover last week. This week the Wave is a bigger underdog than for any game under Curtis Johnson.

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

Georgia Tech (-29) Tulane
Cincinnati (-6.5) Temple
Louisville (-13.5) Houston
Connecticut (-7) Army
Mississippi State (+4.5) LSU
Oklahoma (-1.5) Tennessee
Michigan State (-3.5) Oregon
Stanford (-19) Central Florida

I attended Tulane from 1962 to 1967, which included our last four years in the Southeast Conference and first year as an independent. We played Georgia Tech all five years in football, losing 42-14, 17-3, 7-6, 13-10, and 35-17. Those were the final five years that Hall of Famer, Bobby Dodd, coached Georgia Tech, and in 1966, his last year, they were ranked eighth in the nation in both the Coaches’ poll and the AP poll. But they weren’t the dominating team they had been in the 1950’s when at one point they won six straight bowl games- Orange, Sugar, Sugar, Cotton, Sugar, and Gator. That’s still pretty impressive! They finished in the top ten all but one of those years when they finished eleventh.

Georgia Tech left the SEC after the 1963 season despite being quite competitive (20-15) in the conference their final five years. The reason? The SEC was going to limit the number of recruits a school could sign and Tech thought that with their academic stringency, that would put them at a disadvantage. Two years later, many will forget, that was also a reason Tulane gave for removing from the conference. Of course, we weren’t nearly as competitive either.

In 1980 a guy I worked with, Mike Ashmore, had been a defensive lineman at Georgia Tech in the late ‘60’s and said his “claim to fame” in football was that he ran down Bobby Duhon from behind in one of their games with Tulane. I’m not sure I believed that but, truthfully, Bobby was quick and shifty, but not particularly fast, so maybe… Anyway, Mike and I recalled many other events in that one-sided history.

We played Georgia Tech a number of times in the 30’s and 40’s and every year from 1955 to 1982 before taking a long break prior to last year’s game. Through the years we have a 13-36 record against “The Yellow Jackets” and have played them more often than any team other than LSU, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. I wish we’d play them every year. Eventually, we’d win again. The last time was 1981. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, but without much hope for a "W."

Roll Wave!!!

This year I will give a breakdown of how we fared on each game. If anyone had picked Duke to cover, they'd probably be in the lead with the two points they would have gotten. Only one person was above .500.

5

Dr. Box

4

Guerry
Charlamagne8
Kettrade1
MNAlum
Rcnut
Paliii

3

WaveON
Wavetime

2

nyoscar
Golfer81
p8kpev
Dew99

1

winwave
LSU Law Greenie
jjstock2005

Winners/how many picked them

Duke 0
Temple 4
Louisville 4
Texas A&M 9
Alabama 8
Notre Dame 7
BYU 6
Washington 8

Guerry - I don't think the Duke game would put Tulane in a very good light among recruits, but did you ever get a list of who attended?

I arrived late and practice ended early, so I saw about 15 minutes. The only thing I noticed was some second-team offensive linemen getting some reps with the first unit on the right side--Junior Diaz, Brandon Godfrey and John Leglue. The depth chart has not changed, but that bears watching.

Didn't have much to ask CJ today after catching him Monday and at Tuesday's press conference.

How was practice?

"I though it was good. I thought it was real good actually. It was better than I expected. We gave them a day off last time and they weren't good, but they were good today. They ran around."

With the offensive line, what is the primary thing you want to see improve from the disappointing Duke game?

"You know what, the one thing is I want to run the ball a lot better. This team's another tough team. They come after you. I want to get some consistency running. They did a good job keeping them off the quarterback. Two of those plays they called sacks, Tanner ran out of the pocket once and the other one he was just late, but other than that it (the protection) was good against a tough team."

Corey Redwine is being thrust back into a starting role after not even thinking he was going to continue playing football at the end of last season. Is he ready for this?

"I hope so. He's going back home. He's from the Atlanta area. The one thing about him now is he's playing a lot better this year than last year. I want him to play well in front of his family. He's begging everybody for tickets, so I hope he plays well."

Other than Wilson, is there any player who might miss this game due to injury?

"I don't think so."

What’s up with our academic problems? Our poor 2015 recruiting class, average rating between 247, Rivals, and Scout was 103rd out of 128 teams, lost three players before they even got to campus due to failing to meet NCAA minimums. Then, before fall practice starts, Leonard Davis and Edwin Williams have to sit out the year for academic shortcomings. The good news (I guess) is that they can take a “redshirt” year and IF they can get their academic situation in order will not lose a year of eligibility. Now, it’s reported that two guys who have really underperformed on the field, Kenneth Santa Marina and Braynon Edwards, have been declared academically ineligible as the season starts. Both have already used a “redshirt” year so this is a lost year of eligibility, assuming either returns. That’s seven guys not able to play out of 83 we might have had available. I’m all for taking in guys who meet NCAA standards, but they need to meet those standards. And, once enrolled, they have to do enough to stay eligible. This is not good.

All of us have views on whether Team A is better than Team B or Team C is not as good as Team D. Yet, few of us, even retired guys like me, have the time to analyze each and every team and rank order them from #1 to #128. I’ve always liked the Massey rankings (http://www.masseyratings.com/cf/compare.htm ) because they attempt to put together a composite of a wide variety of polls, computer model rankings, and individual, magazine, and newspaper views on how each team is ranked. That doesn’t make them right; it’s just a consensus of a large number of viewpoints.

Prior to the start of the season, Tulane was ranked #101 by the Massey composite. Going into week two, following the Duke game, we’ve dropped 13 slots to #114 and are now only ahead of two FBS teams on our schedule. What follows is the ranking of each team we play this year with Maine being ranked within the FCS. I’ve shown the team, followed by its preseason rank, its current rank, and the change since last week. For example, Duke’s line looks like this:

Duke 45, 37, +8. Last week they were #45. This week, they are #37, and they’ve improved (+) eight slots.

The others in order of our schedule:

Georgia Tech 15, 11, +4.
Maine 40, 51, -11
UCF 53, 74, -21
Temple 74, 51, +23
Houston 68, 65, +3
Navy 66, 61, +5
Memphis 49, 39, +10
UCONN 119, 110, +9
Army 118, 123, -5
SMU 122, 120, +2
Tulsa 113, 105, +8

Off of the first week, UCF had the worst drop, 21 slots, while Tulane was second, 14. Army’s loss to Fordham only dropped them five spaces because, frankly, they couldn’t drop much further. Overall, at least according the the Massey rankings, our opponents as a group moved up from an average of 76.6 to 72.4, a gain of four spaces. For interest, the AAC remained just behind the Mountain West among G5 conferences, but moved up a couple slots on average from 80.7 to 78.2.

I’ll be tracking this through the season for my own interest. If others are also interested, I’ll post the weekly results here each Thursday, depending on my schedule.

Roll Wave!!

After causing a fumble on Duke's first series last Thursday, Ade Aruna got injured in the first quarter and stayed on the ground for a minute before getting up and walking off the field without a limp. He returned in the second quarter and finished with five tackles, but it was unclear what happened to him to cause him to leave for a while. I caught up with him today after practice and asked.

"I got the wind knocked out of me a little bit. That's why I went down. I just had to come back catch my breath a little bit, so they took me out and I came back in and started playing again."

How do you feel like you played?

"I can do better than that. The whole team can do better, but it is what it is. I think I did OK, but I can do better than what I did in the first game."

Georgia Tech runs on almost every play. That wasn't your strength when you got here. Are you confidence you can handle the assignment?

"Yeah, me and Royce (LaFrance) don't need to get up field. All we have to do is play our assignments, and that's what we're going to do. Last year (against Georgia Tech) I was on the special teams and did not get any reps on defense, but I watched what happened. We just have to stick to the assignment and do everything exactly like the coaches tell us to do."

Opening Statement:

“The most disappointing part of the loss was that we didn’t play like we practiced and with the energy and the fire. We had a couple of three-and-out’s on offense. I looked at the bench and people’s heads were down and eyes were cloudy, almost like it was over, and it wasn’t over yet in the first half. In the second half, when the momentum began to change, we began to miss tackles and some smaller things that are correctable. I did remind the team of a couple of things. A few years ago we played South Alabama and our defense couldn’t stop running water, and I was really on suicide watch then. We lost that game but at the end of the season we were bowl eligible. It’s not over yet. The sun is up. We have to play a really good Georgia Tech team this week. I want to see us progress and do the things that we do well. If we can do those things, I’ll be happy.”


On whether the biggest thing right now is keeping the players from getting too down:

“I think what happens is, you practice hard and you know you’re better and you just want to come out and play well, but you don’t, especially against an opponent that was probably better than us. That offensive line they had was good, and the quarterback played well, but we have to play better. The kids have to understand that they have to put it to teams in order to win. It’s just not going to happen by happenstance.”


With special teams being a big focus in the offseason, were you disappointed in their performance:

“One thing we did do was personnel the kicking team much differently. As far as the punting, I thought Peter (Picerelli) did ok. He did what we asked him to do, which was kick it high where the kid couldn’t return a punt. We knew their punt returner was very dangerous. We like the ball to be kicked a little farther to the left. We just got to go down and make a tackle on a big return. If you don’t do that against a good team, they’ll utilize their explosive players.”


More on the snapping issues:

“Yeah, very disappointed. We are going to go with John Leglue on short snaps. (Michael) Lizanich will continue to do the long snaps but enough is enough. I think Lizanich definitely has the talent to do it, but he just has to do it every time, which isn’t that much to ask.”


Is the run game something they want to do more of in week two:

“Yeah, we have to. We wanted to do more when we started that game out, but we got backed up a couple of possessions. Then all of sudden we had no run game because we were down and had to catch up. We probably threw it the most in the time I’ve bene here. The disappointing part was, we have to make first downs. We have to continue drives. The one thing I’ve always told our team is when you can get a couple of first downs, you can flip the field position. Duke flipped it and we didn’t.”


In having more time between games – did that allow more time to recover or a longer time to dwell on loss:

“I don’t mind playing whenever we play. I think we all got to look at each other as a man and say we have to coach and play better.”


On going for it on 4th down deep in enemy territory and how much it has changed offensively and not having a reliable kicker like Cairo Santos. Is there a line:

“There’s definitely a line. That’s what we talked about going into it. Everyone knew right away we were going for it. We hadn’t been consistent in making those (field goals) from that distance. I didn’t want to do that to that kid and the team. I thought we had a chance to make it on fourth down but we didn’t execute like we should have. We’ll continue to go for it until we feel a little bit more comfortable with (Andrew) DiRocco.”


“When you get down there you have to get points against a team like Duke. Like I said, I don’t know if we could have beat them or not. They’re a really good football team, but you want momentum and something to come off the field with.”


On the minimum lineup changes for week two:

“No, we’re not changing very much. I really love our team, we just have to play better. I like what we’re doing on defense. Sean (Wilson) is going to be out the next game and we’ll miss him. I thought the linebackers played well, just look at what (Darion) Monroe did. He probably had his best game. Nico (Marley) had 15 tackles. They just played tremendous on defense. I would like to get a couple of those balls back that we didn’t intercept. Offensively, the receivers did pretty well, specifically (Terren) Encalade and (Teddy) Veal. Then (Devon) Breaux had the big play.”


Is it easy to get the kids up for facing a top-20 team in Georgia Tech and being a heavy underdog:

“No, I don’t think it plays to our favor. The one thing you have to do when you’re playing a team like this, a really good football team, is work on your own mistakes. If we concentrate on ourselves, and not worry about the (scoring) line, and be more concerned with getting this team to work, we’ll be fine for that game.”


Was the result more disappointing now that you have more experienced players:

“It’s always disappointing when you only score seven points. They did do some good things, but we need to mature. We need to get better at the third down situations. Tanner will get it better. He made some throws in there that I thought were incredible, but still did some novice things. Again, Tanner will be good.”


On what he thinks Georgia Tech’s weakness might be:

“I don’t know if there’s a weakness. When I watched the Mississippi State game last year, I didn’t see any. The quarterback is phenomenal. They have a bunch of players that came back on defense. Coach Johnson has many answers for the option. They’re a very good football team. Again, the one thing we need to do is tackle, move the ball on them, and get a lead and try to make them throw the ball and become one-dimensional. That’s how you beat the option.”


When you say the team didn’t play like they practiced. Who is that on?:

“I mean, you could put it on me, but it’s on everybody. I have to get those guys ready to play like they practiced. The coaches have to make sure they’re putting them in the best opportunity to play like they practiced, and the players have to go out and execute the game plan.”


Assessing the team’s tackling woes:

“We did some tackling circuits this week. We hit the sled a little bit more. To me, tackling is an attitude. You got to bring your feet and tackle your guys. Also, I think a part of it (last Thursday vs Duke) was in the second half when the defense became a little more discouraged.”

Some random thoughts.

Our running game. We started out with a 4 yard run and a 5 yard run and on 3rd and 1 I was confident. Then, we handed off to Thompson, our “pile-driving” back and three Duke defenders broke through to tackle him 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. NO ONE BLOCKED. I knew then we were in trouble. In the end, our longest run was for 11 yards and our four running backs gained 58 yards on 17 rushes (3.4 yds/carry). Are we overrating our running backs? Maybe. None of them are Matt Forte, but much of the problem is a very poor offensive line, who’s play, considering the experience they have, is inexcusable.

Our passing game. On the second series, we got a first down on a pass interference, then threw two incompletions, both bad throws. Jacquet then moved early to make it 3rd and 15. To cap off the series, Lee was then sacked by two guys who charged in on either side of Jacquet, with neither of them being touched. To be that close to the action and not participate usually costs the viewer a lot of money. (Sarcasm). Before it was all over, Lee was sacked four times, hit many more times, and hurried on most throws, including the 76 yard TD, in which Breaux made a great play. Lee missed quite a few passes, but the line didn’t do him many favors and receivers seldom had much separation. The interception was off his man’s hands in a very tight space. But most of his throws were to “very tight spaces.” Lack of blocking, poor separation, an inaccurate QB, and faulty play calling seldom spells success. Other than the long TD, our average completed pass went for 7 yards. And, on several occasions we were 3rd and short, having completed two passes. It’s hard to move the chains if you have to complete three straight passes to get a first down. That's a play calling problem but may be driven by lack of time to throw.

Our Defense. I note a lot of people give our “D” a pass in this game because they were on the field so long. There is probably some truth to that. But, one of the reasons is that the “D” couldn’t get off the field. In the first half, presumably before our “conditioning” gave way, Duke had seven drives which resulted in a TD, three FGs, a turnover, and two punts. They gained over 250 yards. Before it was over, they “gashed” us for 530 yards, averaging 5.7 yards/play. Receivers were wide open all night. And, we never figured out how to cover their option (Heaven help us against Georgia Tech, Navy, and Army). Their QB outrushed our entire backfield. And their speed and athleticism was well beyond ours. Our linebackers and DB’s couldn’t keep up with their backs all night and they “turned the corner” on virtually every rush to the outside. Allen, Franklin, Monroe, and Lewis made 35 tackles in the defensive backfield. BTW, I thought Monroe may have played his best game as a Greenie, though he must have played a part in all the completions over the middle. Thomas had a terrible game in my view, and though Marley (who I love) made several really good plays, he was badly fooled on a run straight at him that went for 20 yards and should have been stopped at two. Another time he tried to “block” a ball carrier to the ground with his shoulder and “whiffed” completely, allowing another long gain. Good stats for the “little guy” but not one of his better games in my view. Better offenses than Duke’s lie ahead. We need to improve quickly.

Special TeamsI think Dr. Box may have “coined” the expression, “clown act” for our special teams back during the Toledo era (error?). Whatever, I don’t recall “Buffet Bob’s” teams putting on a performance so woefully inept in every area. Last year we were last in the FBS in special teams by most accounts. But a continued performance like last night would put us last in Division 1 (FBS plus FCS) and maybe the entire NCAA, to include Division 2 and 3. A nightmare! Start with the two high snaps on our first two punts, which were at least partly to blame for poor punts (30 and 31 yards respectively). That said, I can’t come up for an excuse for Pic’s later punts of 37, 32, 32, 25, and 33 yards. That’s’ seven punts that averaged 31.4 yards. He did have a very nice 55 yard punt and another for 47. He also had a very short punt that rolled forever to give him a 44 yard net. Really poor overall!

Our punt and kick coverage regressed badly. The 95 yard TD return was the first we’d given up in three years. Considering we only kicked off twice and that was the only one returned, you can’t do much worse.

As for our own return game, the only time we got beyond the 25 yard line on kick-returns was when they kicked out of bounds, hardly a sterling achievement for our side. And, Breaux taking a knee inside the one yard line is something I’ve only seen one other time in the past 60 or so years in any level of play. As far as punt returns, we caught one that should have been let go and let one go that should have been caught. We had 8 yards in total returns all night so that can’t be very good.

Of course, lining up “off sides” when Duke was punting deep in their own territory was yet another in a long list of “unforgivable” efforts on the night.

What can one say about or snapping issues? The two high snaps on punts I already mentioned. The “dribble” that only went about five yards looked like Lizanich tried to stop the snap for some reason and couldn’t. It may have been due to the “procedure” penalty called on us that play but I don’t know. Maybe it will be explained at some point. Anyway, that was truly the “capper” on the special teams’ effort. Oh, DiRocco’s extra point was a “Thing of Beauty.” (Got to find something positive I suppose).

I know a lot of people think we’re so much improved athletically over recent Tulane teams and that may be true. But to think we’re in the same class as a team like Duke doesn’t pass the eyeball test from my perspective. They appeared faster, bigger, and more aggressive. The difference in coaching only exacerbates the problem. While recruiting may be CJ’s strength, we’re not getting the players necessary to compete with Duke. Maybe we’ll show better in the coming weeks. I always have hope.

Roll Wave!!

Bogie got the call up. Well deserved.


http://www.mcall.com/sports/basebal...-qa-brian-bogusevic-0905-20150905-column.html

Our opponents, in general, did better than the Wave this weekend, going 8 - 4, but all did not impress.

Duke- Duke looked good. I don’t wish to comment further at this time.

Georgia Tech- The “Yellow Jackets” routed Alcorn State 69-6, despite “calling off the dogs” early. Next week could be tough for the Wave.

Maine- Maine, as our one “walk-over” this year, may be tougher than some expected. They lost to Boston College 24-3, but trailed only 10-3 into the fourth quarter. They didn’t show any offense, however, netting only 91 total yards while giving up 359.

Bye- While we’re unlikely to win this match up, it probably gives us our best shot of the year to avoid defeat. The big question: Will CJ give the players the week off? Green Wave fans want to know.

UCF – UCF blew a 14-3 lead to lose 15-14 to Florida International. That this was unexpected is an understatement. UCF may not be as good (or as average) as many have thought.

Temple- In the conference’s “best” win in a while, Temple trounced Penn State 27-10. I watched a lot of this game and the score reflected the dominance. Trailing 10-7 at half time, Temple took over. For the game they led in 1st downs (16-7), time-of-possession (36-24), and yards gained (315-182). Their second half defense was awesome. It’s only one game, but it is more like what we were hoping for from “our team.”

Houston- Houston beat FCS’ Tennessee Tech, 52-24, in a game which they led 45-10 early in the 4th quarter. Houston rolled up 627 yards while allowing 341. Of course, over half of those yards (173) came on Tech’s last two drives against Houston reserves.

Navy- Navy mauled FCS Colgate 48-10, while throwing only six passes. Three were complete, all to one guy for 67 yards. Of course they also ran for 373 yards with their triple option. They are always tough and will be again this year in Annapolis.

Memphis- Memphis slaughtered FCS’ Missouri State, 63-7. They rolled up 519 yards to their opponent’s 125 and were helped by three Missouri State turnovers, while clearing the bench (played 66 guys). I don’t know if we learned anything from this mismatch, other than Memphis can run up big numbers against bad teams.

UCONN- UCONN struggled to beat FCS’ Villanova 20-15. It was a very close game with UCONN gaining 307 yards to ‘Nova’s 303. The teams had similar stats for rushing, passing, turnovers, kicking, punting, returns, 3rd/4th down conversions, and penalties. Not much to choose from, but the scoreboard kept the “Huskies” from an embarrassing defeat.

Army- Army fell behind early to FCS’ Fordham, came back to tie the game, and then lost the game in the fourth quarter. They apparently suck, but Fordham may have their best team since the “seven blocks of granite” featured Frank Leahy as the offensive line coach and Vince Lombardi as one of the “blocks.” Fordham outgained Army 445 to 389 on the strength of 323 yards passing. Army, of course, got most of their yards on the ground (256 net). Losing to an FCS team in a home opener can't be good.

SMU- SMU held tough with Baylor for a half, only trailing 28-21, but eventually was overwhelmed 56-21. The Ponies gained 366 yards but allowed an astounding 723 (300 rushing and 423 passing). Could be interesting when our “no offense” faces their “no defense” on November 21st.

Tulsa – Tulsa beat Florida Atlantic in a “track meet,” 47-44, in overtime. Tulsa racked up 618 yards with the “Baylor-like” offense coach Phillip Montgomery brought with him. Of course, they allowed 568 yards, and “lost” the time-of-possession” battle, 2-1. Yet, it’s a lot better than what happened to UCF against another CUSA team.

Quick Summary- It’s hard to judge our opponents off of one game, especially since it included so many mismatches against FCS opponents. Temple looked particularly good; Army looked particularly bad. UCF wasn’t as good as expected, and SMU and Tulsa looked like they can move the ball. Navy looked like, well…, Navy. We're still playing our toughest games early and our easier games later in the season.

According to the official site, Richard Carthon did not play Thursday night. He obviously has never joined the defensive rotation but he has been a really solid special teams guy in my opinion. Is he hurt? What’s the story? Also, after all the hype, I was a little surprised that walk-on, Sam Davis, did not see the field.

Anyone know anything about his injury??

All the NFL teams had to be down to 53 players yesterday afternoon and, to this point, I think six
"Greenies" are still on NFL rosters. Orleans Darkwa is with the Giants; Carlos Santos and Dezman Moses are with the Chiefs; Doss stuck with the Broncos; Ryan Grant is with the Redskins; and, of course, Matt Forte is with the Bears

Troy Kropog got cut last week by the Giants and Taurean Nixon, Ryan Griffin, and Sean Donnelly all got cut yesterday by their respective teams. Some additional adjustments will be made in the next few day as teams pick up guys who were cut and eliminate others from the roster. And, of course, each team will add a handful of "practice team" guys and, in so doing, keep their "NFL dreams" alive.

Of the six that made the roster cuts, only Forte was brought in by the Scelfo regime, while the others were recruited by "Buffet Bob" and crew. Next year will be the first time any CJ recruits have gotten a full four years of college, so it may be a year or so before any of them "make" the NFL. Anyway, congratulations to the former Tulane players who made NFL rosters. Let's hope there are many more in the future.

Roll Wave!!!

I've watched a lifetime of blowout losses and incompetence from everyone at Tulane from the AD to the PA Announcer. At least yesterday I was prepared for what I was about to witness because I was under no illusions about our team/coaches.

The thing really makes me feel hopeless is that there's absolutely no concern for the paying customer at Tulane. If you disagree with what you're being served, Dickson specifically told those fans that "they can take it across the street." If you want to ask CJ a pointed, critical question on his radio show they simply ignore it because they don't take live callers anymore and they can choose to ignore the written questions that are submitted in advance.

Most programs care if the fans stay away in droves. Not Tulane. So voting with your ass doesn't have the effect that it normally would with nearly every other program. We fans, who spend our money annually in the most futile pursuit in all of collegiate sports, have absolutely no voice and no recourse at all. We're just passengers, take what you're given and accept it and we don't care what you think about it. Our opinions are truly irrelevant to them.

In any other facet of my life I'd never accept this kind of relationship. All I'm left with is apathy, which makes me no different than tens of thousands of other local Tulane fans. There were 25,000 fans at our opener and a few decades ago Tulane used to draw nearly 3 times that amount for their spring game. How can anyone say anything good about this program?

Willie Allen is an offensive lineman, about 6'7" and 300#, from John Curtis, who has over 30 scholarship offers from many of the nation's "football factories." According to J.T. Curtis (https://tulane.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1798683 ), his "final five" are LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, and TULANE. I know he has visited Tulane on numerous occasions and can't imagine J.T. Curtis saying this if it isn't true. Regardless, he would be the biggest "name" recruit for Tulane since J.P. Losman transferred from UCLA. In case anyone hasn't noticed, we have a major concern in the O-line. All five of our current starters will be gone in two years. Their "backups" are evidently not as good.
If this kid is interested, we NEED to find a spot for him.

Roll Wave!!!!

With Darius Williams, Darius Black, and Doug Henry not making it to school due to Academic/NCAA clearing house issues, Tulane only has 15 scholarship freshmen on the football roster this season. One, Dedrick Shy, missed at least the first game, also, as I understand, due to NCAA clearing house issues. According to the official site, ten other true freshmen didn’t play either— Jeremy Francis, John Washington, Brian Webb, Zach Block, Devin Glenn, Nigel Anderson, Andrew Hicks, Keeyon Smart, Leeward Brown, and Keyshawn McLeod. In fact, only Ricky Preston on offense, and Malik Eugene, Roderick Teamer, and Taris Shennall, from the defense, saw any action against Duke. The best I could tell, it was very limited for all of them.

Apparently the team has nicknamed Yulman Stadium, “The Oven.” With unmatched conditioning, quality depth, and a raucous home-team crowd, this could become an intimidating “nickname,” like “Death Valley.” If the name was chosen in a whining, “it’s too hot to even practice” attitude, it needs to go away soon. I certainly hope the situation proves to be the former.

Roll Wave!!

Just go out and be mean bastards. Take no prisoners.

You can do it, wishing you the best.

It's back! With Tulane opening against Duke on Thursday, it's time for another year of Pick 'em.

I will list eight games each week, and you pick the winner versus the point spread. The Tulane game will count as 2 points, while all the others will count as one point. You are allowed to miss one week in the contest without it hurting your chance to win overall first place because your lowest score for the year will be dropped. Unless otherwise noted, the team listed first is the home team. All point spreads come from VegasInsider.com consensus.

It's a weak opening week, particularly in the AAC, where Temple and Tulane are the only teams playing opponents with a pulse.

Tulane (+7.5) Duke
Temple (+7) Penn State
Auburn (-10.5) Louisville (game in Atlanta)
Texas A&M (-3) Arizona State (game in Houston)
Alabama (-10.5) Wisconsin (neutral site game at Arlington, Texas)
Notre Dame (-9.5) Texas
Nebraska (-7) BYU
Boise State (-12) Washington

Freshman cornerback Dedrick Shy will not play against Duke. He tweeted earlier today that he was suspended for two games, then deleted the tweet, but the reality is he has not been suspended.

He has NCAA Clearinghouse issues that recently cropped up, and erring on the side of caution, Tulane will hold him out until that is settled. It's a no-brainer decision because if he played against Duke, Tulane won and he subsequently was ruled ineligible by the NCAA, the Green Wave could be forced to forfeit the game.

Shy is listed second to Richard Allen on the depth chart, but he actually practiced with the third team behind Stephon Lofton last week. Maybe that was a product of the Clearinghouse situation, but I understand he just got flagged in the last few days. I do not know what the exact nature of the Clearinghouse issue is.

In other news, as I posted in another threat, Darius Black will not be in school this semester. CJ had indicated during preseason camp he hoped Black would be cleared by the NCAA, but it won't happen any time soon if at all. That means Tulane is without three members of its signing class--Black, wide receiver Darius Williams, who may be allowed to enroll next year, and defensive back Doug Henry. Henry never will be part of the team.

Guerry-

I know that recruiting for 2016 is over or almost over, but I’d still be interested in what recruits visit each week. Just knowing that some of our commits are visiting would be a positive sign. That other 2016 recruits are visiting might indicate where we still might fill some slots or, possibly, who among our current recruits could be wavering.

More important, if we could put on a good show, or, heaven help us, beat Duke in front of an enthusiastic sell-out (or near sell-out) crowd, it could really help us with 2017 and 2018 recruits. While we’ve clearly upgraded the athleticism from some of our recent years, we still are not garnering the “top 40” talent in Louisiana that would move us up significantly in the national rankings. It’s a tough task, but MUST be done if we are to get the kind of success year-after-year that most of us want.

I know you’ll do what you can. Thanks

Roll Wave!!!

Guerry- Haven't heard anything recently, but any word on Darius Black or Darius Williams? The 28th of August was the last day to confirm class registration. So, are they in school? Any chance to play this year? Plan to enroll for the spring term? The football staff has to know something by now, I'd think.

Thanks