Alex Bauman and Caleb Ransaw practiced fully today, and Tulane will need both of them against North Texas. The offense clearly missed Bauman as much for his blocking as his receiving, and he might have stabilized the receiving corps when dropped passes became contagious against Rice. Ransaw is Tulane' best cover guy and should play a huge role in trying to slow down the Mean Green's explosive offense, which scored 75 yard touchdowns on its first and second snaps against Memphis (one on an end around by DT Sheffield, the other on a pass to Sheffield). Javion White has played well in his absence, but there's no way to know how a true freshman will react against a pass offense that is light years better than any other Tulane has faced. North Texas is third in total offense and passing. Tulane's other FBS opponents are 30th (ULL), 43rd (Kansas State), 83rd (UAB), 99th (Rice), 101st (South Florida) and 128th (Oklahoma) in total offense, and only the Cajuns are in the top 50 in passing offense (33rd).

I'm not sure what to make of Tulane's defense, which has gotten better as the year went along, but it is notable that it held six of its seven opponents to under their season average for yards. The exception was Oklahoma, and Hurricane Francine had a lot to do with that in my opinion.

Here are the numbers:

Kansas State 346 yards (averages 428.1)
Oklahoma 349 yards (averages 288.1)
ULL 413 yards (averages 443.4)
USF 201 yards (averages 349.4)
UAB 305 yards (averages 372.9)
Rice 344 yards (averages 349.6).

Shazz Preston was in uniform but I did not see him taking reps at the end of practice.

Sumrall, Vincent Murphy and Tyler Grubbs talked after practice. I will transcribe the two players later.

SUMRALL

"A better Tuesday practice than last Tuesday. A lot better. The intent was a lot better, and I think you could see by the way we played last Saturday was maybe impacted by how average our Tuesday practice was in some areas, but I saw some good things today. I'm excited about the matchup. They are a really good team. Top 10 in the country in scoring, top 10 in total yardage. They are opportunistic on defense, make a lot of big plays. They are good in the kicking game. That No. 10, the receiver, and he returns some kicks, too, he's off the charts good. We've got a really big-time challenge this week with these guys. We've got to go on the road and do it."

On North Texas's explosiveness:

"The first play of last week and the second play of last week were 75-yard touchdowns. First two plays of the game were 150 yards of offense. Pretty potent. The tempo they run affects you, but the players and the plays they run are good. They've got great schemes, and they have a fantastic athletes to get the ball to in space. The quarterback's playing at a really high level, and then this No. 10, the slot receiver, is probably as explosive as anybody in the country right now. It is a really good challenge for our defense. We've got to make sure we stay on top of things. We'll have to tackle well in space and leverage the football, play clean with our eyes. They kind of get some guys lost with some motion or some vertical stuff they do, so we have to be on top of things and be assignment detailed, sound. They are a challenge, though. They've scored more than 40 points in five of their seven games, and in one of the games they didn't, they scored 35, and they scored 21 against Texas Tech. So far playing great defense against them has been a 21-point outcome and a 35-point outcome. That wins a lot of games for most people, so real challenge."

On Kevin Adams chasing down Dean Connors on long run:

"When you look back through the year, a couple of plays Johnathan Edwards has strained to tackle a ball-carrier that's broken free, and them understanding like, get the ball down and let's play the next snap and see what happens and make them earn it. Don't concede. Don't give up. The way the guys practiced today, they did a good job of running to the ball and getting set, but you can't ever assume anything. You have to make the stop and make them earn the opportunity to score. Defense is about effort half of the time. The schemes are the schemes, but it's about playing hard. We've got to continue to play hard on defense. That covered up some mistakes last week. We didn't play real clean or flawless in any manner, but the guys played really hard on defense and that made up for some mistakes along with the turnovers."

On first offense like this Tulane has faced this year:

"It's very unique. The tempo is like South Florida, but South Florida was more of a quarterback-run oriented team. This team will run the ball for 160 yards a game, too, but they're so explosive in the passing game. They've got multiple receivers that can beat you, and the quarterback is playing at an elite level right now. He was the starter at TCU the year they went to the national title and got injured. He's a big-time player. He's not just some Johnny Come Lately. He's Chad Morriss's son and he's a phenomenal player, knows where to go with the ball, has a really good arm and is a better runner than people probably give him credit for. You don't see people just stop him, so it's a real problem. We have to play really well to have a chance to slow them down at all."

On Hughes big fourth quarter against the Rice:

"Obviously a lot ofhe story of the day was the drops we had on offense, but when the pass game's not going good, you have to be able to hang your hat on the running game. Our offensive line and Makhi really took the game over in the fourth quarter. That drive when we went 70 yards on seven runs, Makhi had five of them and they sort of imposed their will on how we were going to finish the game. That was a gritty way to finish the game. By no means was it a great performance by us, but our guys finding a way to win and really just on the ground methodically creating big play after big play after big play to take the lead. It's encouraging. If your O-line is playing at a high level and your running back is playing at a high level, it makes everybody's job easier, and it makes your defense's job easier. The run game needs to continue to do what it did at the end of the game. We need to throw and catch a lot better than we threw and caught last week."

On Tyler Grubbs pass defense:

"Grubbs is a phenomenal player. I think he would tell you the work coach Polk puts in with him, I think Tayler Polk's as good a linebackers coach as there is. He's like a son to me, and him and Grubbs have a great relationship. The detail whch Grubbs has really addressed in his drops, in the coverage game, in a lot of areas, he's taken some huge strides forward in a lot of areas in his game. The pass coverage area has been fun to watch. He got the pick last week. He had an opportunity to get the other one. He's making plays and doing some things at a high level. He's elevating his game each and every week."

On if having short week next week changes this week's preparation:

"It changes really more into the next week. This week is somewhat a normal schedule for us. We might pull back on a thing or two, but not a lot. It affects me and our ops people as much as anybody to plan how we're using next week. Very fortunate to have been in situations the last couple of years when you play on a Saturday and then a Thursday, and it's worked most of the times so we have a formula. But my mind's so focused on this week. We do have a plan, really going back to May and June is really when I already sat down and worked through what does that plan look like (for a Saturday/Thursday stretch). If you wait until this week and figure out what are we going to do next week, you're not doing your job very well. We've planned what this week and next week looks like going back to the summer. It is a challenge, going on the road back to back and at the end of it a short week is not easy, but we can only control what's right in front of us. The them this week is going to be where you feet are. Saturday will control itself, but I want to make sure we have a great week of preparation."

On Javion White:

"You're always a little nervous when you're playing a true freshman for his first extended snaps. It's one thing if he's playing spot duty within the flow of the game, playing three or four snaps here and there and maybe spelling a guy. For him to take the lion's share of the snaps and start the game and play at the level he played is very impressive. It will pay dividends for him the rest of the year and fast track his development this week. We're excited to have Caleb (Ransaw) back this week, but Javion's really stepped up. Caleb only played like three snaps in the UAB game. It wasn't many. and then Javion and Jayden Lewis played the majority for the rest of the game and last week, so those guys really for the last couple weeks have held that position down. Ransaw's an elite-level player. It's good to have him back but I'm excited about those young players getting some opportunities to go play. I's fun to watch their development."

Following up on what one defensive assistant said was the best defensive practice of the year on Tuesday and what Jon Sumrall said was high quality all the way around, Tulane put in another strong effort Wednesday. It is clear the coaches and players are taking North Texas very seriously, and a team with championship aspirations wants to prove it can play a complete game on both sides of the ball. Other than blowouts of distracted South Florida and overmatched UAB, Tulane has not done it this year, playing well on offense but not on defense against UL, turning in an excellent first half but mediocre second half against Kansas State, no-showing for the first half against Oklahoma and struggling offensively against Rice until Makhi Hughes took over in the fourth quarter.

The Wave needs to show it can win comfortably without relying on turnovers. Tulane's plus-12 in the turnover margin the past four games is insanely good, but I've always believed turnover margin was the most reflective stat of what has happened and the least predictive. A team with a really good run defense is very unlikely to suddenly get gouged for 300 yards on the ground, but a team with a fantastic turnover differential can lose that battle 3-0 in an individual game if the ball bounces a funny way. If Tulane can really slow down North Texas's prolific offense, which only Texas Tech has done this year, it will go a long way toward proving it can win the AAC, assuming the offense does not have the uncharacteristic bad drops and poor throws in the passing game that plagued it against Rice. North Texas is bad defensively but not quite as bad as its 120th ranking in yards allowed indicated. Because of the Mean Green's fast pace on offense, there are a lot of plays in its games. The defense is 101st in yards per play allowed.

Look for Adin Huntington to play a huge role Saturday. He is more comfortable at bandit than he was at end and also is healthier than he was earlier in the year. He had by far his best game against Rice, and Tulane will need to take time away from North Texas quarterback Chandler Morris. The Mean Green throws a lot of bubble screens, but they also take a lot of shots with vertical routes that require the quarterback having plenty of time to throw. With Huntington and Matthew Fobbs-White rotating in and out, they can disrupt those plays.

Will Hall was at Tulane's practice yesterday, but I did not see him today. I could see him in a consultant's role for the rest of the year and will check to see if it is a realistic possibility. He will be someone's offensive coordinator next season but needs to do something the rest of the year because football is in his blood.

The two-minute drill at the end of today's practice was sloppy, but Sumrall says it is more about just going over potential situations in games than executing crisply. Starting at the second-team defense's 45 and 55 seconds left on the clock, the first-team offense began with a 4-yard pass from Darian Mensah to Yulkeith Brown on the sideline. Next was an incomplete pass to Brown in traffic after Mensah held the ball a long time. Then came a scramble for a first down and a 5-yard pass to Arnold Barnes in the middle of the field, requiring a spike to stop the clock with 24 seconds left. A bad snap messed up third down, but Sumrall blew the play dead and had them try it again. This time, Mensah threw wide of Barnes. When a fourth down play did not work, Sumrall moved the ball to the 17-yard line and had Mensah take a snap under center, run to the center of the field and fall down for a 1-yard loss, setting up a winning field goal. Bobby Noel's 36-yard kick glanced off the right upright and went through, making him 3 for his last 3 at the end of Wednesday practices.

Tulane's practices are intense, but Sumrall also is more relaxed than Willie Fritz was at times. Today, he had a conversation with Fear The Wave collective co-head Mike Arata for several minutes as they walked down the field.

Sumrall, linebackers coach Tayler Polk and Mensah talked after practice. I had no idea Polk was as young as he is when he sat down for his interview. If anyone else requested players, I would have been sure he was a player I did not recognize. HIs last year at Ole Miss was 2017, and he looks even younger than he actually is (late 20s).

SUMRALL

On Tuesday's practice again:

"Really both sides was back to what a Tuesday should look like, opposite of the bye week Tuesday. But defensively the energy was good. The guys were focused. They understand the challenge. It's a tremendous challenge. These guys are top 10 in the country in scoring offense and total offense. It's not going to be an easy game. It's going to be tough sledding, so they've got to be prepared for what's coming. I thought they put their work in yesterday and today. They had two good days."

On today's practice overall:

"It was good. The two-minute drill we looked kind of sloppy on offense. We looked better all day. We do that as much as anything to work the in-the-game operation. It's less of a competitive drill than I want to work on situations."

On key to slowing down North Texas:

"They're tough because they make you defend every blade of grass. They will throw the screen game and run some fly sweep stuff and screen to the back and the tight end and No.10 (DT Sheffield) and then also throw four verticals a lot. They challenge you because they'll throw the ball 50 yards down the field or minus-5 yards, and you have to be ready for both. It definitely stretches you out a little bit, and you have to be prepared to defend the entire field."

On QB play from top teams in league:

"At every level, the better your quarterback is, the better your opportunity to be successful. I don't care if you're playing Pop Warner, middle school, high school, college or NFL football, the quarterback playing at a high level is critical. I bring this up a lot. Everybody around the quarterback playing well makes the quarterback's job easier, but the quarterback has to be able to execute and be efficient in everything you ask him to do. Their guy is playing at a high level. He's really playing quality football right now."

On Will Karoll:

"He was critical in the game. He flipped the field a lot. The thing that goes unnoticed is once he gets the ball in his hands, he's operating quickly. They rushed on three or four of them and brought more numbers than we had to protect, and he's been doing a great job of getting the ball off but then also punting it with great distance. This week's going to be a challenge because their returner is No. 10 (Sheffield), and he's created some huge returns this year (a long of 27 but an impressive average of 12.8) and we've got to make sure we at least make it harder on him to have clean access, but Will's been really good. He's a weapon for sure."

On getting North Texas offense out of rhythm:

"Their challenge is you can't give them the same thing the whole time, but they really want you to do is give them free access because then they have the ability to second release you down the field and hit the access throws. You have to take something away, and we're probably going to, particularly on No. 10, challenge him more than play off (of him). We've got to get down on him and we'e got to have somebody with the ability to play over the top of him some, but we're not going to play scared. The guys have to go challenge and get down. We don't press a lot to the field corner because that's a far throw. If they want to take that throw all day, that's usually something you'll give them, but we have to be aware of when we're pressing and when we're not and be really detailed with what's going on. We've got calls to mix it up and do both, but I don't think you can just sit back and play 8 yards deep against these guys because they will hit the screen game enough that they'll hit explosives in that area if you don't get down and challenge some."

On Huntington at bandit:

"Oh yeah, he creates some havoc. Him being healthy helps and us putting them helps him with being out there in a little more space, so he's able to create some real opportunities for himself there."

On Micah Robinson:

"He's got great feel in zone coverage, good vision, good ball skills, tracks it well. It was fun to see his on-the-ball production. He's been a pretty solid tackler for the most part. We've challenged him to come down and press a little bit more than he's used to. He's gotten better at that, but to see him have those critical plays was really cool."

This was inevitable as horrible as Southern MIss has been since the start of 2023, and I am surprised Hall struggled this much at what seemed like a perfect job for him. Yes, it's hard to recruit in Conference USA, but no harder than it is at most of the schools that were kicking USM's butt. Hall will land on his feet. He is smart and stable.

Actually, though, I'm more interested in the tattered career of Chip Long. In his last four years as an in-game coach, he got fired at Notre Dame after the 2019 season because the other coaches did not like him, piloted Tulane to a 2-10 season and was detested by Michael Pratt (I personally had a great relationship with Long), joined a sinking ship at Georgia Tech in 2022 and did not survive the in-season coaching change and was part of his college roommate getting fired midway through 2024. That's Hall of Shame material.

This will appear every Monday unless it stops becoming relevant for Tulane. The highest ranked champion out the AAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, CUSA and MAC will get a guaranteed college football playoff spot. This is how I see the teams stacking up at the moment.

1) Boise State (6-1)

Comment: If the Broncos are going to lose in the regular season, Friday night is the time at UNLV. Although they lead the nation in sacks, I'm still not convinced how good they are outside of Heisman Trophy favorite Ashton Jeanty. But since he's doing things no one since Barry Sanders (36 years ago) has done, it may not matter. That 3-point loss to now No. 1 Oregon is looking better and better.

2) Tulane (5-2)

Comment: Oklahoma likely will finish with a losing record, so that hurts, but Navy can help the Wave's eventual case tremendously by beating Notre Dame this Saturday. The Midshipmen and presumptive AAC title game opponent Army are ranked at the moment and have been utterly dominant and both get Notre Dame on neutral fields. Kansas State may be the best team in the Big 12 and can help Tulane's case by winning out. Of course, all this will be moot if the receivers and o-line do not play better Saturday at North Texas, when the Wave will need to score a lot of points (and should).

3) Navy (6-0)

Comment: I have a theory about Army and Navy, which cannot rely on the transfer portal at all. In my humble opinion, the quality of play in college football has been down this year as teams have to figure out how to play with revamped rosters and lack chemistry. Army, Navy and Clemson, which accepts almost no transfers at the behest of coach Dabo Swinney, have combined for one loss. The other factor, obviously. is tremendous QB play. We will find out if Navy can hang with and even beat Notre Dame this Saturday because the Middies have not faced anyone with a defense anything like the Fighting Irish. I have my doubts, but I would not be shocked by a Navy win.

4) UNLV (6-1)

Comment: I like UNLV to beat Boise State at home. Am I confident about it? Heck no, but I've liked what I've seen from the Rebels in multiple viewings, even in their loss to Syracuse. This team makes winning plays and is better than the sum of it parts. The loss of its starting QB to the transfer portal has had no effect al all. We will learn whether Boise State's defense is for real. If it is, UNLV won't win because it is going to have to score 40 points to get the job done.

5) Army (7-0)

Comment: The analytics give Army a significant edge on Navy, and I'm not sure why, although they may turn out to be right. Army has scored a touchdown on its opening drive in every game, a touchdown on its second drive in every game but one and never has trailed. It also has not played a team with a pulse. Vanquished conference opponents FAU, Rice, Temple, Tulsa, UAB and ECU are a combined 3-17 in league action. As good as AAC offensive player of the week QB Bryson Dailey has been, I want to see him do it against a good team. A trip to North Texas will be interesting because Army can't simulate an air raid offense. A win there would virtually lock up a spot in the AAC title game, but the real test will be Nov. 23 against Notre Dame.

6) Memphis

Comment: Here ends the potential playoff contenders, and I don't really buy into Memphis. First of all, the Tigers will be locked out of the AAC title game if Navy and Army go 8-0. A loss by either, though, would open the door if they run the table (next four games: Charlotte, UTSA, Rice, UAB and beat Tulane on Thanksgiving. Memphis has excellent talent at the skill positions and an experienced QB in Seth Henigan, but the defense gave up more than 600 yards and 32 first downs to North Texas and 566 yards to Navy. Given that sieve-like quality, it is hard to see them winning at Yulman Stadium after losing in their past three visits 40-24 (it wasn't that close), 35-21 and 38-28 (after trailing 35-0 at halftime).

7) Georgia Southern (5-2)

Comment: The Eagles' only two losses were to Boise State when they led 37-36 early in the fourth quarter and 52-13 to Ole Miss. No one in the Sun Belt has a ghost of a chance at making the college football playoff, but Georgia Southern, which beat James Madison 28-14 on Saturday, appears to be the best of an evenly balanced bunch.

8) UL-Lafayette (6-1)

Comment: Quarterback Ben Wooldridge, who was very inconsistent against Tulane, went 27 of 36 for 373 yards and three TDs against Coastal Carolina on Saturday. If he continues to play like that, the Cajuns will will the Sun Belt West and reach the league championship game. This is a pretty good team.

9) Western Kentucky (5-2)

Comment: The Hilltoppers' only two losses were to Alabama (63-0) and Boston College 21-20 when the Golden Eagles rallied for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I like their chances to win CUSA, possibly beating Liberty twice along the way (on the road Nov. 23 and at home in the championship game). They lost Vincent Murphy to Tulane but had no problem dispatching conference contender Sam Houston 31-14 last week.

10) North Texas (5-2)

Comment: When you do one thing really, really well, you are dangerous even when the rest of your team is bad. North Texas is lights out in the passing game behind a quarterback in Chandler Morris and a coach in Eric Morris whose offense at Incarnate Word was prolific before he had tremendous success as the offensive coordinator at Washington State for one year and then returned to Texas as North Texas coach last year. The Mean Green needed a couple of miraculous plays to turn the Memphis game into a one-score deficit after leading early in the fourth quarter, but they are never out of it with that offense.

Also considered: UL-Monroe, Liberty, Toledo

Tulane was sloppy offensively from the very start, but if Mario Williams had not dropped one of the easiest touchdown catches you will ever see on the Wave's third possession, this might have been the 38-10 final score I predicted in the newspaper. But I counted five dropped passes, the three false start penalties on Josh Remetich in the first half and several errant throws by Darian Mensah, all of which could have gotten this team beaten by a better team. It's hard to win by only 14 when you win the turnover battle 5-0, although Wlllie Fritz actually lost two games with the same margin in his tenure--one against Houston in 2020 and another against an opponent I can't recall at the moment.

Jon Sumrall, Makhi Hughes, Sam Howard and Micah Robinson spoke after the game.

SUMRALL

"I'd like to thank our fans. I thought we had great turnout. Our student section was outstanding. All and all proud of getting the win. Always going to celebrate a win and never going to apologize for a win. We did not play our best football, in particular on offense. We have a lot to clean up. Some of the fears you have coming out of a bye week when you've been playing pretty good is getting in a rhythm and finding your flow, if you will, of how you're playing the game. We just didn't play clean. We had some drops that were critical. We had some throws that weren't our best today. We had a lot of things offensively that maybe weren't our best performance. Defensively we gave up too many yards after contact and didn't play our best. The turnovers were the huge component. That's the story of the game. You win the turnover battle like that, you should win the game, so that was big. Excited for our guys to get the win. Hopefully we've got our full attention that we're not a finished product and we haven't arrived and we have a whole lot of getting better to do."

On the five turnovers forced:

"Micah's pick was a big one. It was 10-10 at that time down in the red zone there. That was a huge one. Obviously the scoop and score there at the end was a big one. Grubbs' was an unbelievable catch. Could have had two but he gave Adonis (Friloux) the second one there at the end by deflecting it. Sam had his hands on another one I thought he was going to get, but the guys were making plays on the ball, which is exciting. We talk a lot about the keys to victory being run the ball, stop the run, explosive plays, which includes the kicking game, and win the turnover margin, and when you win the turnover margin plus two, you should win, and the way we won it today, I'm a little disappointed we didn't have a bigger margin of victory because of the way we played, but we have a lot to clean up. I'll sleep better with the win, but I'm still a little frustrated with maybe some of the things we didn't do our best today."

On his frustration level at getting only 17 points on offense:

"Extremely. We didn't play good, we didn't coach good. That's on me. That's on our staff first, not the players. It was bad football at times. And give Rice credit. They did some really good things defensively. I will say this, I think Rice is maybe one of the best coached teams we have played this year. Coach (Mike) Bloomgren does a great job. Tui (offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo) is creative in the pass game, gives you fits, and then defensively they attacked us really well with some things. Our problem though, we had some self-inflicted stuff. Multiple drops. Just things you can't do and win a lot of games, so we've got to get some stuff cleaned up. I'm frustrated with a lot of parts of the game, but we'll take a win."

On defense forcing 10 turnovers while offense has committed zero in last three games:

"If I knew the exact why, then I could bottle up and I'd be able to sell it for a lot of money. The defense is being opportunistic. In the previous two games you get a lead and you sort of make them a little bit one-dimensional where they have to get out of the run game. You saw tonight, once it got to the end of the game in the fourth quarter--we had to make them throw the ball to probably have a chance to get back in it--if we know it's a pass, our defensive staff can call the game a lot easier. Now all of a sudden we can do some different front mechanics on the D-line pass rush-wise. We can change some coverage stuff because we don't have to be whole in the box. We can be a little light in the box, so it allows you to maybe play with some coverage emphasis, and then guys played with great effort. A couple of those picks, you look at Champaigne's against UAB on a deflection where Sam knocked the ball loose on a screen, and that was an effort play because Elijah was turning and running to the ball out of the pass rush, and similar to Don's today. The pass happens and he could just stop, but he didn't. He played with great effort and pursued where the ball was thrown, and the ball found him. If you're playing hard, the ball finds you. A lot of guys are getting confidence in tracking the ball. We've got to tackle better on the perimeter. Sorry, I'm getting off, but I was pissed off by the tackling. And then offensively we put a premium on ball security. We talked about ball in jeopardy, BIJ, make sure the ball's away, and if you win the turnover margin, you are going to win more often than not, so it's huge for us to continue that trend and continue to create turnovers and protect the football. We talk about it every day."

On conversation with Darian Mensah after he took nasty blind side sack and went down:

"Honestly, I think he was more stunned than anything. Dr. Stewart, when he saw him come off, told him to go down. He said go down and let's check you out. He went down, and I walked over and Dr. Stewart said he's fine, I just wanted him to compose himself and evaluate him without him trying to get off in a rushed manner. So he took a seat. Darian said I'm good, I just was startled because I didn't really see the hit coming. So we have to protect him better."

On how game would have been different without dropped passes:

"Yeah, just catch and throw the ball. It's not that hard. Catch it, throw it, and then the game's probably a lot different outcome. Like, they could have probably taken their DBs out there when we dropped them. Just unforced drops which we've got to improve, which we will. Our guys work hard. They take pride in their work. We'll get that cleaned up, but very frustrating because it was just fundamental miscues. Not anything major, just simple, easy stuff that we have to execute better."

On having Makhi Hughes take over on go-ahead drive:

"The message all the time, we talk about when you have the ball in your hand, you have the program in your hand, and our program's in good shape when 21 has the ball in his hands. He's really consistent, really steady, really physical, really tough, great teammate, plays really hard, does the right thing. He's the model citizen of our team. I can't get him to say five words. When y'all get him up here, his answer will be yes and no. He's such a hard-working kid, but you know what you are going to get every day out of 21. Makhi shows up to practice, I don't wonder like, hey, I wonder if Makhi's ready to practice today. He's one of the most consistent, steady people in our entire program, coaches included. He's one of the most consistent people in the building. We're better as a team when he's carrying the ball."

On Hughes showing emotion on decisive drive:

"We hadn't played great on offense, and sometimes in the run game you have to feed a guy like that carries. I think of some great runners, and one of the first guys that comes to mind, I watched Shaun Alexander play and I always thought the more he got the ball, the better he got. Makhi's the same way. He's not a give him eight to 10 carries and let's see how it goes. If you give him 20 or 25, that's when he really starts to make the other team pay because he wears them down. That's his style of play, and he just gets bigger runs as the game goes because that's how he runs the ball--physically."

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

Tulane (-22.5) Rice
Texas (-3.5) Georgia
Arkansas (+2.5) LSU
Tennessee (+3) Alabama
Louisville (+4.5) Miami
Indiana (-6.5) Nebraska
Memphis (-10.5) North Texas
Oregon State (+7) UNLV

There's very little to report from an actual Thursday practice, which Jon Sumrall considers a walk-through and in which the players do not even wear helmets, but he gave an update on the status of three injured players for Saturday's game against Rice.

Tight end Alex Bauman is questionable/doubtful, with Sumrall later saying he was probably out. Makes sense. No reason to rush him back off an ankle injury.

Nickelback Caleb Ransaw is questionable, 50-50. ("He's done some but not enough to go yes."). If he cannot go, Javion White is the likely starter, with Jayden Lewis a possibility and Jahiem Johnson and Lu Tillery getting reps in practice at nickel in case they are needed. When Rice goes to two tight ends, Tulane will counter with Dickson Agu or Chris Rodgers or Sam Howard at nickel.

Shazz Preston is "probably available." Sumrall added he would run full speed tomorrow to confirm his status.

"I feel really confident in his availability," Sumrall said. "His availability is high, but what does that look like when he has not been fully cleared all week for practice."

I'm doing a story on Tulane's NIL that will run instead of a straight game preview in Saturday's paper, so I asked Sumrall about this statement on social media last week:

Sumrall on the collective

Here is what he said today:

SUMRALL

on why he posted his comment:

"The timing was the bye week, so my mind wasn't just on winning the game that week. I take the bye week to evaluate how do we get better as the year goes and then how do we build this program for the next five to 10 years. What's the landscape in college football? I've told everybody that will listen to me--facilities are great, you build a brand new building and everyone wants to talk about the bubble, and you don't have any good players, then good luck winning. NIL, rev share, those things are vital. To me it's not facilities and that. It's that and facilities if you want to know the truth. I've been a part of winning a lot of games. When I coached at the University of San Diego, my office was in a trailer. We went 9-2 three times. I've told the administration here I can be in the same office I'm in until the end of time and I'll be fine. I don't need a fancier office. I'm good. So it's about players. Everything we do is about players."

On if he feels good about where Tulane is headed in the NIL environment:

"We've got to push the gas and continue to go. I'll say that. I like what's been started here, but if we just think what we've done is enough to keep winning or keep performing at a high level, we have to keep going. You have to always constantly evolve and adapt and push the gas. If you're not pushing the gas and you're slowing down, then somebody's going to pass you and somebody's going to catch you. There's people in our league that are being very aggressive--Memphis and South Florida being the top two right now. If we don't move towards that direction, then it's hard to win at a really high level. I think we've got really great assistant coaches. They coach great players really well. They coach bad players not very good. We need a great roster. I tell people all the time--players win games, coaches lose them. I've lost a couple games. I haven't won any. You know who wins the games--the players. Players win the game, and so we have to have good players. How do you get good players now? Take care of them. We have the Green Wave Grill. Man, wow. That's unbelievable, right? That's on a different level, so it's about do you constantly serve and develop players."

GASPARATO

On giving up explosive runs and how you fix it:

"It just shows that we can be really good when we do our jobs. When we don't, then everybody we play against has good players and they have the ability to create explosives when you don't figure a gap, when you don't cover your man, when you don't wrap the ball carrier up. Big plays are due to a lack of execution. It's generally not a lack of effort. It's just you don't execute, so whether it's a 5-yard gain or a 25-yard gain, for us it's about doing your job on that play. If you do your job, then big plays are eliminated. We've looked at the explosives, but that's what it comes down to is everybody executing, so there's no special call or magic potion. It's just do your job and make the plays you are supposed to make."

On fixing it:

"For us again, it's about doing our job, so when we execute and do our job and everybody's where they are supposed to be, the big plays will eliminate themselves. We put an emphasis on doing your job as opposed to eliminating those explosives because they kind of go hand in hand from our standpoint."

On Huntington playing bandit:

"He has been a little bit more flexible. He gives us twitch, the ability to come off the edge and create some mismatches. He's got a little different skill set. I know the guy that played here last year was a 300-pounder playing out there (I guess he is referring to Darius Hodges, who was 280 and carried a bit of a spare tire on his belly) and it kind of opened my eyes to who you can play and still be effective with, so our job as coaches is to find the best way to get our personnel to win and be in the position where they can use their strengths."

On Tulane's versatility up front:

"We have a lot of guys with unique skill sets where they can do a little bit of both. We had tinkered with Gerrod (Henderson) playing some bandit, and he looked really good doing it in the spring I believe or maybe in the summer, so we've moved these guys around to try to cross-train them to be ready and available, and it also creates depth. If one guys does go down, then you have the ability to move a really good player into that position, so you're not hamstrung by necessarily a depth chart. You can move your best players around to get them on the field and be a little bit more effective."

I'll finish with this nugget which was fed to me by SID Jason Corriher. Tulane's current string of not committing a turnover for three games is its longest going all the way back to the final five games of 1998. I keep saying this is Tulane's best team since 1998, and here's another similarity between the two teams. But, seriously, how impressive is it that the '98 team, which threw the ball a ton, executed so well with Shaun King and company that it went without a turnover for five straight games. Amazing.

Although Shazz Preston practiced a little bit Wednesday for the first time since preseason camp began, he did not receive regular reps and I am skeptical that he will get any snaps on Saturday. He's still not full speed, and a return against North Texas seems more realistic to me. If he does play Saturday, Jon Sumrall said today it would be for fewer than 20 plays and more likely just a handful.

Staying healthy has been important for Tulane's offensive line this year. The No. 2 line today was Reese Baker, Elijah Baker, Caleb Thomas, Landry Cannon and Darion Reed from left to right. With the exception of Thomas, that's quite the contrast in experience from the starting unit of Derrick Graham, Shadre Hurst, Vincent Murphy, Josh Remetich and Rashad Green. Rice is tied for seventh nationally with 20 sacks and is first in the AAC, getting most of that pressure from its front four (12 different players have at least one sack), so the offensive line will need to be on point Saturday.

Sumrall said today Rice almost always plays opponents close and makes it tough on them, but that's simply not true this year. The Owls trailed Sam Houston 31-7 early in the third quarter, fell behind Houston 26-0 after three when the Cougars were absolutely punchless offensively against anyone else (before changing QBs for their last game) and trailed Army 28-0 at halftime, so they've been out of half of their games early. If Tulane starts fast, it probably will be four times in seven games the Owls are done by halftime.

The two-minute drill at the end of Wednesday practices has become a big thing for walk-on kicker Bobby Noel, who is not in the running for playing time but kicks on Wednesdays because the regulars get the day off while doing most of their work on Tuesday and Thursday. Today, Darian Mensah hit Bryce Bohanon and Mario Williams for good gains to move the ball to the defense's 25 on the first two plays. He then scrambled for a 1-yard loss when no one was open and hit Makhi Hughes as a safety valve for 5 yards before a Hughes run up the middle was ruled to be a 1-yard gain. The field goal team rushed on the field, and Noel sent a low line drive through the uprights (it was ugly but effective) as the offensive players whooped and hollered and celebrated with him.

It was the first good-football weather day of the fall, and the energy was evident most of the way. I did not put much stock into Sumrall's criticism of practice yesterday--it was good coaching to get the guys' heads out of the clouds and no cause for concern--so I'm not putting much stock into today's rebound, either. This team is on a mission to win out and potentially get a playoff spot and will be up for every game, although that does not guarantee good play.

I talked to Sumrall, Ty Thompson and Johnathan Edwards after practice. It was Thompson's first interview since losing the battle for the starting QB job.

I will say this about Sumrall--his handling of the QB decision was next-level coaching. I've covered Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer and Wllie Fritz (among others), and Sumrall being willing to start the unheralded Darian Mensah over more heralded and experienced competition AND getting Thompson to buy in and give the team a tremendous asset as a wildcat QB is as good or better than I've ever seen. So many coaches would have gone in a different direction, and almost none of them would have gotten the most out of two guys. Really, really impressive.

SUMRALL

On Thompson adjustment to wildcat package:

It wasn't in the training camp plan because he was in the competition to be THE guy. Once it became evident that Darian was going to be the game 1 starter, we didn't really want to do it in game 1. We just wanted to play that game for what it was, but really at that point we felt like Ty with his physical traits--he's big, he's athletic, he's got a really strong arm--and the type of competitor he is, and really how he handled the news of not being the starter made me go I want to find a role for this guy, because was he pleased to not be the starter? No. But he was like, coach, I want to do whatever I can to help this team. And then him and Darion are attached to the hip. I'm telling you, you go around town and they are together half of the time, so they've become really good friends. It's fun to watch their relationship. But the package, once we got into it, I kind of went into the offensive staff room and said, guys, we're going to create some stuff for him because from a defensive perspective, it's a problem. You put just one of them on the field, you put both of them on the field, you start changing them, it's like all right, how do you game plan for all this?"

On the element of him being to throw it out of wildcat look:

"He can throw it for real. It was funny because he missed the easiest one he had against UAB, that little jump pass. My son could make that throw, like come on, man, but we've really had more planned plays in every game plan we've actually run, so there's more that hasn't been shown. It's kind of a fun thing to have. It's taken on a life of its own. I think our guys have drawn energy off of It. I think Darion has drawn energy off of it. It's made everybody on the team better."

On it being unusual that Thompson took not starting as well as he did:

"I think the first few days after being told, hey, Darion's going to take the reps with the 1s for the foreseeable future, he wasn't happy, he was disappointed, he was frustrated because he's worked incredibly hard, but the way he approached what he did next at practice, the very next day he frickin brought it. It was like all right, this guy's wired right. Ty's been great to be around. He's fun every day. He has a great attitude. Usually when you just keep showing up, good things happen."

On knowing he was this type of athlete:

"At 5:50 in the morning in January, February running, we didn't know he had the foot issue yet. It's something he came here with we think, and he was beating wide receivers and DBs in races. I was like, oh, wow. I knew he ran good. I didn't know he ran that good. I was like, wow, this guy can really run."

On knack for knowing where to run in wildcat:

"Honestly, I didn't know how he would be there because we had not just run him during training camp. We were trying to run the whole offense, and so you don't really know the instinctive piece how a guy's going to see the runs, and he's got a good feel for it."

On explosive plays defense has allowed (seven gains of 45 yards or more):

"A couple of them is schematic things we've cleaned up in the bye week. A couple of it is guys not communicating a check and having 10 guys doing the right thing and one guy not. That's been something last week when we kind of recalibrate and look at things that have gone well and things that haven't gone well, that was without question defensively one of the big things we discussed and watched and talked about as a staff to pinpoint how can we maybe improve that area for sure."

On not giving up many plays of 10 or more yards or 20 or more yards compared to other teams but giving up all of the home runs (five on essentially running plays and two on passes):

"I'm not accustomed to that. It's something that bothers me. That has not appeared much in the last several years in any situation I've been. it's frustrating because that will cost us a game if we don't get it fixed. It will cost us a game."

On Johnathan Edwards speed (he has saved two touchdowns by tracking down runners on huge gains):

"He can run run. In the Lafayette one he hit 23 miles an hour in the GPS, which the only other guy I've been around in my career that hit hit that was DK Metcalf (at Ole Miss and now the franchise record-holder with the Seattle Seahawks for 50-plus yard touchdown catches). I've never had another guy hit 23 on the GPS, and then Johnathan hit it against Lafayette, which is eye-opening. That guy (Thompson) has hit close to 23. He's hit 22. He's gotten close."

I finally had a decent week after an abysmal stretch. Arkansas kept roll wave from the always elusive perfect week.

WEEK 6 RESULTS

8

roll wave

6

tacklethemanwiththefootball
Guerry
paliii
Gretna Green
MNAlum

5

diverdo
chigoyboy
Wavetime
DrBox

4

p8kpev
LSU Law Greenie
charlamange8
WaveON

3

winwave


OVERALL STANDINGS

36

tacklethemanwiththefootball
winwave
Wavetime

35

charlamange8

33

Gretna Green
roll wave

32

MNAlum

31

diverdo

29

Guerry

28

chigoyboy
DrBox

27

LSU Law Greenie (missed 1 week)
paliii

26

WaveON (missed 1 week)

25

p8kpev


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane over UAB 15 of 15
Texas A&M over Missouri 8
Ole Miss over South Carolina 8
Ohio State over Iowa 8
Minnesota over USC 7
Washington over Michigan 4
Navy over Air Force 10
Arkansas over Tennessee 2

I'm learning some of the many differences between Jon Sumrall and Willie Fritz as the year goes along, and today featured another one. Sumrall, like all of the coaches I covered at Florida, lambasted the team for having an "average" practice today. It very well might have been a bad day of practice, but Coaching 101 dictates that you rip your team at the first opportunity coming off a bye week when guys might be feeling comfortable, as is the case with Tulane following 45-10 and 71-20 conference blowout victories. There were rare occasions when Fritz criticized the intensity at practice, but he kept on such an even keel at all times that it certainly was not the norm.

The bottom line is Sumrall does not want his team to overlook Rice, which would be easy to do with Tulane being favored by 22 1/2 points. That's the third-largest spread in Tulane's favor for an AAC game, trailing only the 34 points vs. UConn in 2019 (won 49-7) and the 24 vs. Tulsa last year (won 24-22). This also is the 13th consecutive AAC game in which Tulane has been favored, dating back to Friday after Thanksgiving victory at Cincinnati in 2022 as a one-point underdog. This, after being favored only 19 times in the Wave's first eight years of AAC play. If there was ever an opportunity to develop a big head before it was justifiable, this is it, and Sumrall is making sure he nips that in the bud. Or at least that's my take.

What I noticed in practice today was Adin Huntington practicing full time at bandit, which makes sense. Gerrod Henderson and Kam Hamilton become an effective duo at end while Huntington was ailing the past two games, and if they want to get their best four on the field, Huntington needs to be at rush end. Terrell Allen, who started the opener at rush end before fading into the background, practiced at defensive tackle today. I see Huntington and Matthew Fobbs-White sharing time at rush end against Rice, with Shi'Keem Laister getting some snaps, too. Parker Peterson and Patrick Jenkins are the first-team tackles. with Adonis Friloux, Eric Hicks and Elijah Champaigne supplying depth.

This is a defense that should play better in the second half of the year than it did in the first, when it struggled for stretches against Kansas State and Oklahoma, played subpar against ULL and has continued to give up some huge runs while improving overall against South Florida and UAB. Guys have gotten comfortable playing with each other, and the coaches have learned who plays best where.

Sumrall said Caleb Ransaw, who missed a lot of the UAB game after going out with an injury, likely would play against Rice. Javion White performed very well in his absence.

SUMRALL

"Good to get back into the flow of a normal week. We gotta get prepared against a really well coached Rice team. They play extremely hard. I've got a lot of respect for how they play the game and how they operate. Today our practice to be quite honest with you was pretty average, so if we don't get better real fast, I was disappointed in our day, and I told our guys that just now. We better sharpen up real quick. If we're going to roll into this thing off the bye and think that you just get to win because you've won before, we're going to get embarrassed. With that we'll open up the questions. I'm in a great mood as y'all can tell."

On Mensah being top 10 nationally in passing efficiency:

"He's operating at a really high level and most of the year he's been that way. He's had some moments where he's got to grow and learn, but he's playing the position at a high level. The receivers have helped him. The O-line protections helped him, the backs have helped him, but he's doing some really good things. He's been really efficient in the throw game for the most part. He's protected the football. Hasn't put it in jeopardy a ton. He's got great anticipation and awareness and he needs to keep playing that way."

On what most disappointed with in practice:

"Theres a standard about our physicality and our effort and our toughness that I don't think was met today. The biggest killer in our sport is complacency. If you think you are ever going to have an average practice and an average week of preparation, you know what's going to happen--you are going to play a really average game. That was not our best Tuesday. It's on me. I'll own it. I told the guys I'm a part of it. It will get fixed tomorrow or it will be a lousy day for everybody because I'm not going to allow us to do it again."

On message going into this week:

"I showed our guys in Monday's team meeting the final score last year was 30-28. Like, it was a fight until the end. Our guys have to understand the opponent. I always talk about knowing yourself better than anything, but you also have to know the opponent. They are really well coached. They do great things schematically. I'm really impressed with how they operate. Their running back (Dean Connors) is a phenomenal player. He is the real deal. He leads them in rushing and receiving and catches. I think he's as good as any skill player we've played all year. The O-line is really solid. The quarterback understands what they're doing and where to go with the ball and sees things well. They've got quality receivers. The defense is big and physical. I see all the positives. I see a team I respect to a really high level. Our guys have to understand the task at hand is going to be a challenge. This is a really good team. It's about us, though, being our best, and if we're our best, we can live with whatever results come. But our guys do have to understand the task at hand and it's a real challenge. I've got to get their attention because today wasn't what it needs to be."

On curse of bye week compared to the importance of rest:

"Coaches, too. It's all of us. Human nature is you get a week off and you relax and you go home and everybody tells them how good we are because you've won a couple games in a row, and then I have to bring them back here and tell them, hey, we're really close to getting beat if you're not prepared. When you finally are playing at a level you feel better about, while there are some bumps and bruises you'd like to heal up, the flow of what you're doing you kind of like to keep that going, so yeah, my biggest concern's making sure that we are fully awake, fully attentive, fully ready to go for a game on Saturday, and we have to practice that way to be there."

On what makes Connors so effective:

"Hes so good in the run game. He's physical. He breaks tackles. He's got good speed. He's got good vision and balance. He catches the ball well out of the backfield. He competes at a high level. You can feel his competitive nature on tape. You just watch some plays he makes, some runs he makes. He kind of reminds me a little bit of Makhi (Hughes). They probably use him in the throw game more, but he is a physical running back. He plays the game the way it's meant to be played."

On health:

"We're fairly healthy. Alex Bauman I would say is questionable. He will for sure be back next week it looks like, but whether he's ready to go this week or not, to be seen. Ransaw didn't play a lot of the UAB game late. He should be available, but everybody's day to day. It's hard to know when you go through practice. We practice physical on Tuesday and Wednesday and sometimes things happen in practice. When you get to the middle part of the year, there's normal wear and tear, but at the same time we have to practice the right way to be prepared for the game. I tell the staff all the time I'm in to being smart tough, not dumb tough, so we''re not going to go out and do an 11-on-11 scrimmage any time this week, but we are going to practice with some physicality so we can play the game with physicality. You want to use the tool you have to sharpen the tool. We'll practice physical, and I think we're fairly healthy all things considered."

On Shazz Preston:

"He ran yesterday, ran today with the trainers. Look good. Hit 19 miles per hour with the GPs which is about five or six times yesterday. Hes about a 20 to 21 miles per hour guy, so 90ish percent speed wise. Tomorrow, if things went well today, he'll practice with some limited reps. He would take like 50 percent of what a normal workload would be roughly, and then he would potentially be available this week. We'll be smart about how we decide to prepare him, and it's hard on the offensive side because you find out a guy's ready for sure Wednesday or Thursday, well how much are you going to have in the plan for him versus how much needs to operate in the normal system, so there's not going to be any things that are maybe designed for him per se. If he is able to play, he would be on a rep count. It wouldn't be like 30 or 40 plays. It would be most of the teens. He's probably questionable for this week.I don't think he's doubtful. He has a shot, but tomorrow will be a big indicator, but he's trending positively."

It's college football playoff or bust for the five Group of Five champions. The highest ranked team will be playing one of the most meaningful games in program history, while the other four will be subjected to crap like SMU lining up on the same sideline as Boston College at Fenway Park on a frigid December day last year.

I am going to do a new ranking every Monday, but I'll get it started before tomorrow's games since Tulane isn't playing.

1) Boise State

Comment: The Broncos have the best player in the country, the best loss among these contenders (37-34 to Oregon) and a relatively strong conference in the Mountain West

2) Tulane

Comment: Tulane has two good losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma, a sneaky good win at ULL and the playmaking ability on both sides of the ball the selection committee favors historically

3) James Madison

Comment: Good thing this team lost to ULM on a night it dominated the statistics but made some key mistakes. The weak schedule will not help, but an undefeated team that hung 70 on North Carolina would have been hard to pass up.

4) Navy

Comment: I admit I have not watched the Middies for a single second, but I'm a secret option devotee and know what makes an elite QB in that system. Blake Horvath is that guy, and he's a good passer, too.

5) UNLV

Comment: I've seen this team play quite a bit, and it passes the eye test. It will be interesting to see if the committee values wins against Power 4 schools even if those schools stink (Houston and Kansas are a collective 3-9; Tulane's win over ULL is actually better at the moment).

6) Army

Comment: Have not seen Army play, either, but it, too, has an excellent QB for its system, although Bryson Daily is not as dynamic as Horvath.

7) Memphis

Comment: A road loss to Navy ended the (seemingly annual) excessive hype this team was receiving, but experienced QB Seth Henigan is surrounded by plenty of talent and the schedule is light the rest of the way. The Tigers still have a good chance to be playing Tulane for a spot in the title game on Thanksgiving.

8) Sam Houston State

Comment: Conference USA is garbage, but this is the latest former FCS power to prove it can be competent at the FBS level. I think Sam Houston State is flat-out better than Liberty this season. Neither team has any wins of consequence.

9) ULL

Comment: The Cajuns were a little better than I thought against Tulane. The Sun Belt is a pretty good league, though, and their schedule has plenty of potential landmines even though James Madison is not on it.

10) San Jose State

Comment: I could have put Liberty here, but that team keeps struggling to beat awful opponents. No one from CUSA should be eligible for the playoff spot, so I'm going with what looks to be the third-best team in the Mountain West. The Spartans' only loss was 54-52 to Washington State.

Also considered: Liberty, Western Kentucky, Toledo

I've been meaning to do one of these for weeks, but between being too busy (before USF) and losing my notes (after USF), it just had not happened until today. There were more inspiring games to do it than against a demoralized UAB team that quit and had a kamikaze coach who did not care how many points Tulane scored, but what the heck. I rewatched the game on ESPN+, which is not nearly as easy as when I tape an over-the-air telecast and can rewind over and over to get the details I want. You did not want to be around me when I tried to back up 30 seconds and ended up going back five minutes, then went forward too far trying to get to the right spot.

I broke it down by possession.

UAB series 1

Jalen Geiger diagnosed a very poorly executed throw-back to not particularly athletic QB Jalen Kitna and set the tone for the day by tackling him for a 9-yard loss on the opening play. Caleb Ransaw, who has been guarding opponents' best players and coming up short at times, then had perfect coverage on a deep ball before Sam Howard's solid tackle made sure the Blazers came nowhere close to a first down on a dump-off.

Tulane series 1

I wrote a feature on Yulkeith Brown's breakout game as a receiver for The Advocate yesterday, but the funny thing is UAB stoned him on his normal strength-a pair of jet sweets. On the first one, he got tackled for a 1-yard loss when he could not get to the corner. Later in the game, he got stopped for no gain. He's always been better than Tulane's other receivers on that play, but he got nothing done on a day when Tulane scored 71. Strange, but irrelevant.

UAB series 2

Patrick Jenkins, who got off to a slow start this year, has rounded into form even if he is not as dominant as expected. He made a nice tackle for no gain to force a third-and-6, then combined with Matthew Fobbs-White to produce a sack on the next play. Fobbs-White ran a twist inside Jenkins, who occupied most of the attention of the offensive lien, and came in untouched.

Tulane series 2

Josh Remetich and Shadre Hurst pull constantly on running plays in this system, and Remetich did it on Makhi Hughes' 11 -yard run. I liked the pass to Hughes that gained 15 on the previous play. When you have a stud running back, and he has good hands, use him in that role. Mario Williams then made a good decision not to force a throw into coverage on a reverse that was supposed to be a pass, taking a 1-yard loss instead of a potential turnover and benefiting from a personal foul. Ty Thompson, who scored the opening TD behind a pulling block from Hurst, is a natural as a wildcat QB. I was surprised when they introduced that package because I never saw it in preseason camp, but Sumrall said recently they did not install it until right before the opener.

UAB series 3

UAB was fortunate to score because downfield fumbles usually are recovered by the defense, although this one, which UAB got after a 21-yard gain, apparently was not called a fumble. Tulane forced a field goal largely because of the Blazers' ineptitude, with a terrible pass on first down from the 20 and a receiver getting his feel tangled on third down.

Tulane series 3

No series. Just a brilliant 100-yard return by Rayshawn Pleasant for a TD. I mentioned in one of the preseason practice reports that Shaadie Clayton-Johnson clearly was Tulane's best kickoff returner. Good thing I'm not the special teams coach. Pleasant is incredibly fast with outstanding instincts, and he scored untouched on a return that would have gone for 20 yards at most by a normal returner.

UAB series 4

This is when UAB's badness and Tulane's playmaking ability really came to the fore. Sam Howard laid a huge hit on a running back who already had lost control of a pass on a middle screen, and the ball ricocheted to Eli Champaigne for a lucky interception that still involved quick reflexes on his part and never would have been possible without the big collision. Good for Champaigne, who has been around for ever, signing in 2020 but never enrolling while a serious knee injury healed and then signing again in 2021.

Tulane series 4

Arnold Barnes made a nice block on Hughes' 1-yard TD run. Tulane has five legitimate running backs. I'm not sure why Trey Cornist, who was the least impressive of the group during camp, earned early opportunities in games earlier this season, but even he has looked good. If he is No. 5, that is a strong room. I love me some Jamauri McClure, but Barnes was terrific on a second-half drive.

UAB series 5

Tulane's biggest concern when it faces good teams will be the periodic breakdowns on defense, particularly on running plays, as occurred on a 61-yard run. Bailey Despanie, whom I almost wrote a feature on after the Oklahoma game before deciding the material was a little thin, has not played nearly as well since his ejection for targeting in that game. He got juked badly when he came up to limit the gain to 10-or-so yards. Johnathan Edwards, for the second time this year, prevented a touchdown with tremendous catch-up speed, and this time it paid off, unlike at ULL. Those plays go unnoticed in a 71-20 laugher, but they will matter down the road. Javion White broke up a third-down pass at the back of the end zone, providing foreshadow.

Tulane series 5

The kickoff out of bounds, though not intentional, was a direct result of Pleasant's TD return. Shaadie Clayton-Johnson broke two tackles on his first carry, the Hughes took it 51 yards to the house after breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage. He'll never be mistaken for a speedster, but his improvement in that department made the difference between being tackled near the 5 and scoring.

UAB series 6

Fobbs-White nearly got his second sack, and this time Patrick Jenkins benefited by cleaning up. They are an effective combo when they line up on the same side of the line.

Tulane series 6

A rare possession that did not end in a touchdown, with Brown getting stuffed on the jet sweep again and Thompson getting too excited and throwing well over the head of an open Alex Bauman on third-and-goal. He got a chance for redemption later.

UAB series 7

Javion White, who is going to be a terrific player, made a stop for a 1-yard loss with Ransaw having left due to an injury, showing his multi-dimensional skills. In a litany of issues for the Blazers, one of them was Kitna's inability to keep his helmet on. He had to leave for a play for the second time, this time on third down, when it came off. What the heck was going on. Not that he was playing well enough for it to make a difference.

Tulane series 7

Arnold Barnes converted a fourth-and-1 with a power run after lining up as a fullback in the old I formation. I really like the different things Joe Craddock does with his offense, and the way he uses two backs in short-yardage situations at times is one of them. The rest of the drive was too easy.

UAB series 8

It was Kam Hamilton's turn to get a drive-ending sack. Tulane's best defensive line in my view this year is with Hamilton and Fobbs-White on the outside and Jenkins and Parker Peterson inside. If you had told me that would be the case a month ago, I would have thought you were crazy.

I will put the second half up in a while.

I’m sure everyone has seen that Boise St, Fresno St, SDST and Colorado St will be joining Oregon St and Wash St in 2026. The 2 year waiver will expire at that time and they will need 2 more invites for a total of 8 members.

I sure hope they want to go into the central time zone and invite us. We need to ditch this Dumpster Fire of a conference.

No practice report today because they have limited media to Tuesday only during bye weeks in the past few years, but I did make it over to the stadium to get the free snoball that comes following Wednesday practices following victories (I'm totally a 56-year-old-kid) and timed it perfectly to when practice ended.

I really think a college football playoff spot is in play for this team if it keeps winning, and that's the hard part. ESPN's college football power index (FPI) gives Tulane the best chance to win out of anyone in the FBS, although the percentile (.309) makes it much more likely the Wave will lose again according to that formula, which dovetails into the point I want to make. It is hard to win week after week without a slip-up, which is whey I do not agree with the people on my twitter feed who insist the Wave has no shot at the automatic bid that goes to the No. 5 conference champion because there is no way Boise State will lose again. That's hogwash. I'm not saying Boise State definitely will loss, but the FPI has it as 74.8 percent likely and I agree. In Boise State's favor is having the single best player in college football. Running back Ashton Jeanty is averaging 206.2 yards per game and has the highlight reel to back up those numbers. He will test whether a running back can still win the Heisman, particularly one from outside the P4. It hasn't happened since Derrick Henry in 2015 and hasn't happened for any running back for a school other than Alabama since Reggie Bush in 2005. But the rest of that team is beatable. It would not shock me if Boise State lost at UNLV on Oct. 25 or at San Jose State on Nov. 16 or at home to Oregon State in its regular-season. Then, even if it has won out, it would need to win the Mountain West championship game to qualify for the automatic spot.

Tulane obviously missed a huge opportunity against Kansas State, but as long as the Wildcats and Oklahoma stay in the top 25, those will be good losses in the eyes of the selection committee in comparison to the other Group of 5 conference champions. The committee also likes complete teams that dominate their opponents, and that's two more checks for Tulane. I don't see any team other than Boise State that would be rated higher than an 11-2 Tulane, which might even have a pair of good wins on its resume if Navy and Army (in the AAC title game) are ranked when they play (likely requiring upset wins over Notre Dame for both of them).

A 12-1 James Madison? Nah. Its wild win over North Carolina may not even be as good as Tulane's over ULL. James Madison lost to UL Monroe and will not have played a team receiving a point in the polls.

A 12-1 Coastal Carolina? Not with a loss to Virginia and no other games of consequence.

Anyone in the MAC? No chance. Northern Illinois already has lost twice since its shocking upset of Notre Dame.

An undefeated LIberty? The committee will not be fooled twice, and Liberty, which survived FIU in OT last night, is playing the single easiest schedule in the country. For what it's worth, FPI gave Liberty on ly a two percent chance of going undefeated before the FIU game anyway.

The only team that could push Tulane out other than Boise State is UNLV, but there is no way UNLV is beating Boise State twice and beating San Jose State on the road. FPI gives UNLV a 6.1 percent chance of winning out, which I think is too high.

The key for Tulane is taking care of business. North Texas on the road could be interesting because North Texas throws the ball really well. Tulane likely will have to beat Navy to even reach the AAC title game. Memphis is no automatic win even though the Wave has won three in row at Yulman against the Tigers fairly comfortably. A likely title game against Army would not be a piece of cake. Still, the Wave is better than everyone it will face, so it's a matter of not having a slip-up or bad luck at the wrong time.

Not good. Tulane, you are on the clock!

Tulane will practice four teams times in its open week, and today, the only one open to reporters, was practice No. 2. It was a relatively light workout, but Darian Mensah looked sharp on several of his throws. I expect him to play even better in the second half of the season than he did in the first half, and as long as the offensive line holds up, this will be the Wave's highest scoring team since 1998. Mensah has three playmaking wideouts in Mario Williams, Dontae Fleming and Yulkeith Brown. Makhi Hughes is the best running back in the AAC, and the backup running backs are the best reserves at that position in the league.

The defense is deep, too. Jalen Geiger had an interception against the scout team today, and his interception at the end of the ULL game is the only one by a starter among the last five. Jack Tchienchou had the pick-six near the end of the first half against the Cajuns, and reserve defensive tackle Eli Champaigne, reserve nickelback Javion White and reserve linebacker Chris Rodgers (another pick-six) accounting for the three interceptions against UAB. I would not count on reserve safety Joshua Moore joining that club. He showed stone hands today when he dropped an easy interception against the scout team. I did some research today and learned the last defensive tackle to make an interception for Tulane was Taurean Brown on Nov. 13, 2004 against Army. I was still in Gainesville covering Florida back then, so I don't know of him, but does anyone remember his 18-yard return against Army in a 45-31 home win? The AP game story, which is available on the Tulane web site, did not mention the play.

Tristen Fortenberry and Gabe Fortson are the only scholarship players on the scout-team offensive line. All of the other linemen played against UAB with the exception of Jayce Mitchell, with Elijah Baker, Landry Cannon, Darion Reed and Reese Baker getting action in the fourth quarter. Kaleb Thomas is a regular reserve, and I assume Dominic Steward played a little bit before the fourth quarter as well.

Jon Sumrall, Chris Rodgers and Yulkeith Brown talked after practice today. Rodgers was shaky, likely hardly ever have done interviews before, but Brown was really outspoken.

SUMRALL

"Good to get the win last week. It's nice to be in a bye week with the win. It's always better in a bye with a win. Our guys did some really good things last week in the game. A lot to improve on this week to make sure we're heading for the stretch run of the season. We're half-way in in the regular season with six games left, so a lot of improvement on our end is needed this week to take the steps forward to have the type of year we want to have and a lot of work to be done. We're not anywhere near a finished product and we have not arrived. We have a lot to improve upon."

On his bye week mindset:

"Yesterday was a really intensive day on ourselves, and then some correction things on defense today that maybe have caused issues for us. The first part of this week we looked at ourselves predominantly and this afternoon, and tomorrow we'll start to look more at, OK, what's coming the rest of the year. We'll give next week's game its due diligence. We might give it an extra day, like a Thursday practice, but really it's about healing, recovering and then maybe looking at OK, who's not getting as much as they should and who's getting more than they should, maybe recalibrating some rotational stuff. And then we will look ahead and not just just next week, but what do we have coming down in the next five weeks, six weeks of the season that we need to be prepared for, the things we haven't seen. Maybe what offensively we have not seen and what defensively we have not seen that we have to be prepared for. So it's evaluation of ourselves, it's taking care of our guys that play a lot of snaps, it's maybe getting some young guys ready who haven't played as much naps to maybe be called upon down the stretch. With guys' availability, maybe looking at some different packages personnel wise, and it's what do we have coming down the stretch that we haven't done or seen from an opponent that we need to be prepared for."

On hurricane approaching Tampa:

"I talked to (USF coach) Alex Golesh on Sunday. He wanted to talk about a couple other issues, and we talked about that as well. I think they are going to Orlando maybe today for a couple of days to try to at least move away. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those people who are in the way of where that storm is headed. You have to have contingency plans. If we had a serious storm like they have now, our plan is Birmingham where we would evacuate to. When we were tracking the storm we had, it didn't look it was going to be quite as severe, so how much do we keep things as normal as possible but keep our guys safe. Every storm's different. Where it hits in the week is a challenging thing, too. They were playing a Friday game but now they've moved it back (to Saturday at 2:30). You have to be prepared, and luckily our administration has done a lot way ahead of win a storm comes to help us have contingency plans. We were very fortunate to not have to fully evacuate town. We evacuated to our team hotel here locally, which we're very fortunate to be able to have that opportunity, but our thoughts are with those people in the path of the storm and with the South Florida program."

On Bauman:

"Nothing torn, nothing fractured. Some bumps and bruises in there, but all things considered a very positive prognosis. He'll be out this week. He would have been limited anyways to get his body back. He could be available next week. We'll see. We're not going to rush it. We'll be smart and do right by him, but he was very fortunate on the hit. It looked nasty the way his knee or leg got kind of contorted. His cleat wasn't in the ground. If his cleat had been stuck in the ground, it would probably be worse news, but very grateful we got positive news on the injury. It's not as significant."

On Bauman as safety net for Mensah:

"Well, a smart guy who's in the right spot. A big guy who you don't to throw a perfect ball to every time for him to find a way to make the catch. He's got a great catch radius. I'd like to throw the ball to a guy like that, too, if I was playing quarterback, so I think he's been a nice comfort for Darian. Alex has been extremely reliable and dependable, has great ball skills and catch radius and just does the right stuff. He has very good poise when the ball's in the air. Some guys panic when the ball's in the air. Some guys are just very calm. Darian's felt comfortable getting him the ball and it's been a good weapon for us in the pass game. Alex is blocking it, too. He's had a really good year so far."

On his Saturdays during a bye:

"So Thursday and Friday will be recruiting. I'll go recruit Thursday and Friday, somewhat local, and Saturday my son's got a real big fifth versus sixth grade scrimmage at 10 a.m. I'll be at that, and then I'll watch other people work and probably grill out Saturday night and just relax. not sweat about too many scores. We'll watch other people play. It's kind of been weird this year. We've had so many 11 and noon kicks that I've watched a lot of games at my house on Saturday nights, which has not been normal. I feel like I've watched more college football this year other than our games than normal. But this week for the whole staff it's important that guys get to see their families a little bit more."

On what a game is like at his house:

"I usually look at it from a very intensive football perspective. When I watch a game, I'm probably not the most fun guy that you watch a game with. I'm thinking about how I would coach the situation in the game a lot of the times. It depends on if I've had a drink or two or not, too."

On going back to Jacob Barnes:

"We worked through that today. Our field goal period, all we did was kick extra points. We need to start making every extra point, so we kicked only extra points today, no field goals. Jacob's been in that fire a little bit more. Head's done some good things. He's been a little erratic as you've seen. He's made some big kicks, too. He's been really good in the kickoff roll. We'll work through it. Jacob's back to pretty close to full strength. There could be a formula where Jacob kicks extra points within the 40s range. If it had to be a really long one, like 50, then we might throw Head in there because he's got a huge leg, but you've got to get it dialed in to where it's going through the uprights every time. But Jacob's available and we'll try to maybe get him back into that fold."

Scroll down to Dylan Vickerson near the bottom of the story.

Vickerson

I apologize for not getting this up last night, but I drove straight back to New Orleans after finishing my stories, did not get back until after midnight and was too spent to transcribe.

As I wrote before the season, this is the most talented Tulane team since 1998 (or 1999 if you interpret that statement as including the undefeated season). They can't get the loss to Kansas State back, but if they take care of business the rest of the way, all they likely need to make the playoffs is one more Boise State loss (at UNLV later this month or in a major upset to someone else or in the Mountain West title game). The coordinating on both sides of the ball is outstanding. The head coach is not a slave to analytics when he makes his decisions, using the numbers for sure butalso relying on the flow of the game and his team's strengths. I like everything about where the program is at the moment.

I will say this about Jamauri McClure--he needs to be used the rest of the way. Willie Fritz was an excellent coach, but his staff's waiting to start Makhi Hughes until the sixth game last year blew my mind when he clearly was Tulane's best back. He still is, but McClure is going to be a star and can help Tulane win now. Tyjae Spears was redshirted his freshman year when he was better than most of the guys playing, but there's no reason to do that with McClure. He is a playmaker. I saw it all camp, just like I did with Spears in his first year.

Sumrall, Rayshawn Pleasant, Hughes and Sam Howard spoke after the defenestration of the Blazers.

SUMRALL

"Glad to get the win. Happy for our guys. 2-0 in the conference now, 4-2 on the year after starting 1-2 with a tough opening slate. Our guys from the opening kick until the end really played pretty quality football. There's plenty of areas to clean up and a lot of things we have to address to get better in the next week during the bye, but it's always good to go into the bye with a win."

On Alex Bauman:

"It looked really bad live to me. I was extremely concerned. X-rays showed no fracture. Might be like a sprain, potentially a low-ankle sprain, not a high, and maybe an MCL. We're not really sure yet. Well have to find out more tomorrow, but they did imaging on X-ray for tib/fib, ankle, foot, knee, all of it, and everything looked good is my understanding at halftime. They even said hey, we could put it in a sleeve, but the score, whatever it was, I was like, no, he's good, let's get him healthy. We'll know more the next couple of days. I was worried his foot was in the ground and it had one of those nasty turns. You see that a like in tib/fib breaks, and that's a substantial injury. When you went back and watched it, the nice thing now is we have these surfaces or I Pads or whatever they're called and during the game we can look at what you couldn't look at before, and we could see his foot wasn't in the ground. His cleat came out, and that kind of saved him because if his foot had been in the ground it would have been very substantial, but it might have been a week, going into a bye week , which is nice. It might be two. I don't know yet his availability for Rice, but it doesn't look as serious as what I initially thought."

On having said he wanted this Tulane team to show up every week:

"I really emphasized to our guys, we knew this UAB team was going to play with a chip on their shoulder and play desperate to go get a win because they to some degree had their backs to the wall, so we knew we were going to get a hungry team. I told our team if they're desperate, we have to understand that our desperation has to be desperate to dominate, like we have to continue to impose our will about how we play and how we bring it and how we execute and how we prepare and how we encourage each other and all that stuff. I was very pleased with the approach this week. The team took the game very intentionally with their focus and didn't coast during the week and it showed."

On stuffing throw-back to QB on first snap:

"I called trick play on the first play. This morning I was like I bet they're going to run a trick play on the first play or maybe the first drive. I even said I thought they'd have a trick play every drive of the game. I don't think that held up, but they did have that trick play. They had several screens I thought were fairly effective against us, but the first trick play of the game I kind of had a hunch that something like that was coming early. I thought it was either going to be that or a shot on the perimeter, a double move where they tried to hit an explosive."

On Mensah and Ty Thompson both QBs playing well:

"Mensah did a nice job. He was pretty efficient. He hit 12 of 15, didn't throw it a ton. Once the score's up, I'm not interested in seeing how many times we can throw. We threw it 18 times on the day. He was 12 of 15 and had a touchdown. Ty was 2 of 3 and had a touchdown and should have had the second one. He air-mailed the one on the little run-action, Tebow jump pass kind of deal, but they both played really well. It's been fun to watch Ty get in. He's such a hard-working guy, and he's handled not winning the starting job with class, and he's really made our team better. His approach has really made everybody around him better. It's made me better. Both those guys played well. Didn't lean on the pass game as much today. Felt like we could control the game by running it. We kind of see saw back and forth which way we lean between the run game and the pass game depending on what the other team's willing to give us."

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com. Another crummy week on paper with only one ranked vs. ranked matchup.

UAB (+15) Tulane
Texas A&M (-2.5) Missouri
South Carolina (+9.5) Ole Miss
Ohio State (-20) Iowa
Minnesota (+8.5) USC
Washington (-2.5) Michigan
Air Force (+10) Navy
Arkansas (+13.5) Tennessee

Another atrocious week for me as I wrap up the worst two-week picking stretch of my life.

WEEK 6 RESULTS

7

charlamange8
diverdo
tacklethemanwiththefootball

6

MNAlum
Wavetime
roll wave
winwave
DrBox

5

p8kpev
LSU Law Greenie
chigoyboy

4

paliii
Gretna Green

2

Guerry


OVERALL STANDINGS

33

winwave

31

Wavetime
charlamange8

30

tacklethemanwiththefootball

27

Gretna Green

26

MNAlum
diverdo

25

roll wave

23

Guerry
DrBox
chigoyboy
LSU Law Greenie (missed 1 week)

22

WaveON (missed 1 week)

21

paliii
p8kpev


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane over South Florida 13 of 14
Alabama over Georgia 6
Notre Dame over Louisville 6
Illinois over Penn State 10
Kansas State over Oklahoma State 8
LSU over South Alabama 6
BYU over Baylor 10
Boise State over Washington State 4

Ty Thompson and Mario Williams get a mention.

https://n.rivals.com/news/rankings-spotlight-former-five-stars-playing-outside-of-the-power-four

Jon Sumrall did not have much time to talk as he rushed off to some event after Thursday morning's practice, but he confirmed Jacob Barnes would be available Saturday after missing the two previous games with a groin injury he aggravated against Oklahoma. Note he said "available," not that he definitely would take over from Ethan Head. I'm guessing it will come down to a Saturday decision on who would be more effective.

In other injury news, Adin Huntington still is not 100 percent and may not play against UAB. That's why Tulane experimented with Gerrod Henderson at end and Kam Hamilton at tackle during Wednesday's practice. As I wrote yesterday, they still are searching for their best combination on a deep defensive front that did not gotten consistent production until the South Florida game. Huntington played a few downs at bandit in his limited action against the Bulls because they have not found anyone who can get to the quarterback at that spot. My best bet is they will stick with the starting four they used against South Florida, with Hamilton at end, Parker Peterson at the nose, Patrick Jenkins at tackle and Matthew Fobbs-White at end, but they won't hesitate to shift Hamilton inside and go with Henderson at end.

Sumrall also gave a promising update on Shazz Preston, who has not played or practiced since aggravating a hamstring injury in a conditioning drill before preseason practice started. Preston does not like he is walking without a hitch to me, but Sumrall said he was on schedule to return after the open date and play against Rice on Oct. 19. I'm skeptical about that, but Sumrall has been a straight shooter about injuries all year, so that definitely is the plan.

"He had an appointment yesterday," Sumrall said. "He should be able to run some next week and I think he's going to be available after the bye."

Thursdays are light workouts with no helmets on--what Sumrall calls a walkthrough. The most notable thing to me today was the bucket hat Yulkeith Brown wore during practice. It clearly made him stand out.

I am doing a feature on Tyler Grubbs and Josh Remetich to run in Saturday's paper, so I asked Sumrall about their similarities.

"Man, they are both passionate, they are both true New Orleanians, guys that take pride in what they are doing, they care, they give great effort, they hold others accountable, they don't have a problem stepping up being vocal, they play to the echo of the whistle, they strain. I love being around them. I love having them on this team. They are what you want."

I talked to Remetich yesterday. Here's the interview:

REMETICH

On what he remembers about PAC ball:

"I remember me and him first met playing baseball, and then we actually went to middle school together in the fifth grade. Me and him didn't really get along. It was pretty funny. Me and him were always going back and forth, especially at recess. We started some fights, but it was fun."

On who won the fights:

"It went back and forth. I wasn't as big back then. Kind of like getting into high school I started getting a growth spurt."

On when got closer:

"Probably around seventh grade year. In fifth and sixth we'd go back and forth, and then in seventh grade when we started playing football together, we were in seventh grade playing eighth grade football, and then when we started eighth grade we started playing J.V., so it was fun getting closer with him instead of fighting."

On personalities:

"I'd say pretty similar. On the field we're aggressive, but off the field we're kind and nice. We have two different personalities on the field and off the field."

On dynamics when Tulane recruited Remetich but not Grubbs:

"I tried telling them this guy's a hell of a player, he can run sideline to sideline and he's big. He's not a light guy, but he always gives high effort. We always talked about him here at Tulane, and I always put in a good word for him."

On mosquitos at Pac ball:

"Oh my gosh. We were out in the woods. It was bad."

On how close they lived to each other growing up:

"Yeah, we actually used a carpool together going into high school, and then we probably lived five minutes, 10 minutes away from each other. We were always together, always hanging out."

On Grubbs transferring to Tulane from La Tech:

"I first heard he hit the portal, and then JJ (McCleskey) came up to me and said we need to get him here. I was like, all right, get him on an official and I'll hang out with him, so I was actually his host on the official visit. His uncle that he's really close with and I'm really close with came here with us and was up there taking pictures. It was really exciting times. I was like, dude, it doesn't get much better than this. You're playing big-time ball in front of your family and everything like that. He's close with his grandparents and his uncle, so it was a dumb decision if he didn't come here to be honest with you."

On entering fifth year:

It's just really exciting. Seeing everything from 2-10 to 12-2 Cotton Bowl. Seeing what it takes to be 12-2 and what happens when you're kind of messing around and you're 2-10. Seeing the team grow from spring to fall camp, the talent that coach Sumrall was able to bring in from spring to fall camp was really special. I said this a long time ago. I think we have more talent everywhere on the field than the Cotton Bowl team. Absolutely."

On needing time to jell:

"We're finally starting to come together and playing together. The first couple of games it's hard to get a feel for how someone plays--different coverages, different how the wide receiver breaks and everything like that, and once you all start playing together, you saw this past game we were lighting up the scoreboard and stopping them on defense."

On being banged up last week:

"I had to take a little time, but I"m good."

On pulling guard:

"That's one of my strengths is being able to get out there in space. One thing that coach Roushar always says is don't break down whenever you're out there in space, just run through them. They are far more athletic than you."

On O-line play:

"There are still a couple of things we need to improve. We've got to get rid of the TFLs and the negative plays, but it was a couple of little missed assignments that we're going to clean up for this week and then we'll be good."

On what team needs to do:

"We need to come out with the same mentality that we come out with every week. If you control the line of scrimmage and control the box, you can have fun playing the game."

On all O-line coaches he has had at Tulane:

"All right. I had Cody Kennedy, and then that year I had Ben Thomas for the bowl game. Then I had George Barnett for a little bit. Then I had Chris Watt, and then it was Geep Wade and then it was Eman Naghavi and now coach Roushar. It's good to see the same face in here for two years."

On what he will remember from Tulane career:

"We all get together, the little things we do outside of football. Obviously football brings us all together, but it's better to know the person outside of football and stay together with them. I'm making lifelong friends being here."

On blocking for Makhi Hughes:

"It's easy. He's a great running back. He communicates really well with us like what's he seeing and what he needs us to do, so just having that constant communication and that chemistry with him is really easy."

From Maddy Hudak for SI:

Hand-to-hand combat coach