Here are the candidates:

Lindy Infante
Rich Rodriguez
Mack Brown (he was the actual OC when he was at Tulane)
Will Hall
Don Jackson/Lynn Amedee
Garth Hall
Ken Meyer
Frank Scelfo
Duke Christian
Pappy Morris
Eric Price

I have not gotten it confirmed, and I have been told by one well-placed source that it is rumor rather than fact at this point.

I do not doubt the veracity of the reporting from Mississippi, but sometimes negotiations can take surprising turns. The odds are Hall will be announced as USM coach tomorrow, but it does not appear to 100-percent certain.

After practicing Monday for the first time since playing Tulsa 11 days earlier, Tulane was back at Yulman Stadium Tuesday morning for an workout in cold conditions. Cornerback Jaylon Monroe wore long green sweat pants to keep from getting chilly, but it actually was a great day for football, with the sun shining for the first time in nearly a week.

It looks like that dirty block (my words, not Tulane's) Kevin Henry received on the knee from a diving Army offensive lineman will sideline him the rest of the way. He was not in uniform today and does not appear close to returning, so unless he decides to return for a second graduate season, his career likely is over. It's a shame because he was having a good year (45 tackles, six for loss in nine games), but Tulane is three-deep in starter quality players without him for the two inside 'backer spots with Marvin Moody, Dorian Williams and Nick Anderson.

With Brandon Brown gone, I looked at Tulane's defensive line today and they were rolling three units. The first group was Patrick Johnson, who left before the end of practice unless I wrote down his number by mistake and he was never there,, Cam Sample, De'Andre Williams and Jeffery Johnson. The second unit had Adonis Friloux and Eric Hicks inside and Darius Hodges and Angelo Anderson outside. The third unit had Noah Seiden and Armoni Dixon outside and Davon Wright and Alfred Thomas inside. Wright and Thomas have been no factors this year. Carlos Hatcher, who has not played since the UCF game due to injury, was in green today but did not get any reps. Noah Taliancich was in green, too, but was on the scout team side of the field after not playing all year.

Tim Shafter was not at practice today on the offensive line, and Josh Remetich was with the first team at right guard. Trey Tuggle started for the still-injured Ben Knutson at right tackle, so this was the line Tulane had for the first four games before things went haywire early in the first half against Houston. The second unit was Jaylen Miller, Rashad Green, Michael Remondet, Caleb Thomas and Tuggle doing double duty.

Keon Howard, last seen consoling Michael Pratt in emphatic fashion after his game-ending interception against Tulsa, was not there today. Fritz said he was fine, but his absence allowed Justin Ibieta to get a bunch of reps. Ibieta looked pretty good throwing, and it will be interesting to see what he decides at the end of the year with Pratt entrenched as the starter.

Other players who did not practice with injuries were wide receiver Tyrek Presley, who has played in five games, and freshman offensive lineman Michael Lombardi.

Cornelius Dyson, who played the entire way against Tulsa in his first career start, said he learned he was starting right before warm-ups when the coaches told him Chase Kuerschen was too banged up to play. He acquitted himself well, making seven tackles with two for loss.

"It was a great experience for me to play my first full college game," he said. " I was prepared for it. I feel like I have improved the whole season because I came from a small school and didn't play free safety. The coaches prepared me well this fall camp, instilling in me to learn the playbook, work hard, lift weights and do all that other stuff and I would be in position to make plays. I could have had a better game, but I felt comfortable."

Tulane is approaching Memphis as a must-win game to get to a bowl game. Dyson and linebacker Nick Anderson said Fritz compared it to an NFL playoff game as win or go home. That's not technically true since the NCAA waived the requirement of being .500 or better to play in a bowl and the American Athletic Conference still has nine scheduled bowls to fill its seven slots (eight if Cincinnati gets into an Access Bowl) and Tulane currently appears to be in the seventh or eight spot, but it sure works as a motivational tool.

"I feel like this is one of the biggest games of my life," Dyson said. "I've been played in three state championship games, and I feel like this is worth more. We have a chip on our shoulder from the Tulsa game. We came out yesterday and worked hard, came out today and worked hard. There's just a lot at stake. We can go to a bowl game. Like Nick said, this is an NFL playoff game. If we lose, we go home, and we're not ready to go home yet. This is a must-win game."

Here is Fritz:

"It was our second practice of the week. We had quite a bit of time off. They changed the game around on us and we had Thanksgiving week, so I was kind of holding my breath letting everybody go home to different places, but when we came back fortunately everybody did a good job testing back into the bubble, so it was a good time off for the guys. We've been going for a long time, really since June 15. We're playing a really good Memphis team. They had a hard-fought battle Saturday night at Navy, which they were able to win 10-7. They have a very experienced quarterback returning. I think he's going to be the all-time passing leader in school history if he isn't already. A very talented team, big offensive line, and defensively to hold Navy to 7 points and not very many yards (321; Memphis had only 280 yards of offense) was good. They did a good job matching up, playing physical and tackling. They always give you fits in the kicking game. It's a big game for us at 11 a.m. on Saturday."

On telling team Memphis game is like an NFL playoff game:

"It's win or go home, right? It's a big game for us. As I talked about before, the opportunity to be one of the few teams in Tulane history to have three winning seasons in a row and the opportunity to get to another bowl game, which has never been accomplished three times in a row, so there's a lot out there on the table for us to play for. Memphis has got it, too, wanting to be in the AAC (championship game). They'e got to keep winning as well."

On Memphis winning close games:

"Starting with coach (Justin) Fuente and coach (Mike) Norvell and coach Ryan (Silverfield) is doing an excellent job there as a first-time head coach, especially this year of all years, but I also think that's a byproduct of having a really experienced quarterback as well who's seen it all."

On challenges Brady White presents:

"He's just smart. His control of the offense. There's not much you can throw at him that he hasn't seen before. Good touch on his passes. I'm sure he's going to have an opportunity to continue playing after this year."

On lessons learned last year from Memphis loss:

"There's a lot of similarities, but you've got different play-callers on offense and defense. The special teams coach is the same guy, so there's some carry-over there,. There are a lot of similarities, but the tendencies are a bit different because of the guys calling it."

On Memphis hitting everything last year:

"They did a nice job spreading the field horizontally and vertically and did a good job with tempo and went for it on fourth down a couple of times early and got it. If they don't get it, it's a good play for us. They got momentum early and it was hard to get it away from them."

On defense having played well in last four games until last 10 minutes against Tulsa:

"Well, you've just gotta rise to the occasion and be sharp and crisp and execute the call regardless of the side of the ball you are on. There are going to be some really good calls Saturday that might not turn out well, and there are going to some bad calls that turn out great. Everybody's just got to execute and do their assignment."

On winning game helping current recruiting class or down the road:

"I think it helps you down the road probably a little bit more. What we're selling is gold whether you win zero or 14 games in a season with the academics and the great conference and living in New Orleans. That's what we're really pushing toward more than anything else, but having a winning tradition helps you as well."

On Howard consoling Pratt at end of Tulsa game:

"He's a great teammate. He really is. That's what you want to have everybody on the team do. When Keon was starting, Michael was pulling like crazy for him. When we made the change, Keon has been pulling hard for Michael, and that's sometimes you point out as being unique nowadays because it is different. It's a good example for everybody."

On Dyson's performance against Tulsa and overall:

"He's done a great job. We think he has a tremendous future here. He's got good size, speed, movement, instincts. He was going to roll and probably play 40 to 50 snaps, but because of Chase not being able to go, he ended up playing the whole game and did a very nice job. For a safety, he's a big guy. He's a legit 6-1 and 205-210 pounds and he combines that with excellent movement and change of direction, quickness, agility, balance. He does a super job of all of those, and he'll tackle you. He's learning every game. He didn't play third-level safety in high school. This is much more complex than what he did in high school. He's got good instincts, but he also can learn. If you throw something at him, it doesn't weight him down and not allow him to play fast."

He just posted

New commitment from Tenn. 6 feet 6 225 defensive end. Played at Father Ryan in Nashville.

Lipscomb barely beat Lamar today, but Lipscomb is the preseason favorite to to win the Atlantic Sun and came close to getting an NCAA tournament bid in 2019, losing the championship game to co-regular season titlist Liberty, which went on to knock off Mississippi State in the first round. Lipscomb lost to Liberty in the championship game again last year but finished 16-16 and was not a contender in the regular season.

Gabe Watson suffered a concussion and lost a tooth in a collision late in the second half against Lamar, and Ron Hunter said after the game he was very unlikely to be ready to play Sunday. It will be interesting to see how the Wave plays after having an awful first half against Lamar when no one appeared able to get calm but rebounding to win comfortably.

Here was my Zoom call with Hunter after the game. No one else was on it.

"I'm glad it's over with. I've never seen a young group a nervous as my group was in the first half, but one of the things I said I didn't want to do this year opening up because we've got such a young team--11 of our 14 I think are freshmen or sophomores--I didn't want to play a veteran group that has veteran guards that had played a game already, and we were able to get all of that. I thought Lamar did a good job, but I'm proud of our kids. The freshmen (Sion James, Tylan Pope and Jadan Coleman) did a nice job for the first time playing college basketball. You can see those guys are going to be good players. The thing that surprised me was our transfers (Jaylen Forbes, Watson, Kevin Cross, Oton Jankovic) were the ones who were probably over-excited, and so we just couldn't make a basket. But both halves, our goal is always to keep teams to 30 points in a half, and we did that. The defense kept us in it in the first half until our offense got going. I thought Jadan coming in and making those 3s, we kind of got going when he started making those bombs. We needed to see the ball get through the basket, and it allowed us to set up our press. We did a lot of little things that better basketball teams don't do, but these young guys will figure it out, so I'm proud of them. I would rather play a game like this we these young guys than win by 20 thinking they are better than they are. They realized today what college basketball is all about, and I was really proud of how they were able to fight and come back and do it defensively."

Forbes hit a 3 at one point and then launched from like 30 feet the next time down the court and did not come close. Did he just need to settle down because we got to see what he could do in the second half?

"Yeah, there's no question, all of them, I've been coaching a long time, but I've never had so many guys anxious and going so fast. We were running past balls. We weren't picking up loose balls and it almost felt like if the ball touched their fingers, they had to shoot. We just talked about settling into the game. They have to learn how the game has to slow down. You can do everything you want in practice and it doesn't even matter. They've got to get game experience. Even Forbes, he didn't play a lot last year at Alabama. We've got to get him where the game has to slow down, and I thought in the second half the game slowed down for him."

You weren't kidding about Jadan Coleman's shooting ability. The first four 3s he took all hit the bottom of the net.

"He can really shoot it. He can't guard my mom, your mom, anybody's mother, but he can really shoot that basketball. He's a weapon coming off the bench and it really kind of gets our team going. When he hit those couple shots, it really energized our team and he's going to be a big part of what we do this year."

Tylan Pope had a double-double off the bench. How critical is he going to be for your team?

"He's huge. He's our physicality. He hasn't played college basketball and we weren't rebounding the ball like I thought. The two things we really wanted to improve on this year were rebounding and 3-point shooting, and you can see we are a better 3-point shooting team. In the second half we only gave up two offensive rebounds, but that's what we've got to get. T.Y. (Pope's nickname) is a big reason for that. Nobal (Days) is not a great rebounder but he understands our defense, but T.Y. and we have bigger guards now coming down to help rebound. Overall, I'm not even worried about the score. I told the kids the only score that matters is 1-0, but I'm really glad how these kids came together. We had a deficit. We haven't had a deficit in practice. You can't get a deficit in practice, so this was really good for me and good for our team. You never want to be down at half, but I learned more today about my team than I probably had since we've been in quarantine. Now our offense is still in quarantine. Don't get me wrong. Our offense is still in quarantine. I think we've got another day for our offense to get out of quarantine, then we're going to be fine."

You used the press a lot today, something you couldn't do last year. How much will that help?

"Last year it was hard to put my whole system in. We probably had about 45 percent of the system. This year with the presses and the traps, we've got everything in. We can do a lot more things. There were about four or five more defenses I wanted to play, but we were having so much success with the press that I didn't use them, but our length and our athletic ability allows us to play a lot of defenses and presses. That's what really excites me. These kids are going to be fine. Even in the locker room, they were going 100 miles an hour before the game. I couldn't slow them down. It was one of the craziest scenes I've ever seen."

Quick turnaround for Sunday. Do you like to see how they respond to that?

"Yeah, we do. We're probably going to have to play without Gabe. He has a concussion, so he's probably going to be out. He's lost a tooth, so they are taking him to the hospital with a doctor right now to get him checked out, so we're down one guard, but I feel like we've got a lot of different guys. We needed a second half like this and we are going to play a different type of team on Sunday, so we just have to turn around and get prepared. I like this better now. Now I know my team, and we need games. One thing this team needs is game experience."

Watson lost a tooth?

"Yeah, he lost a tooth. The concussion's probably the bigger thing right now, the thing we're most concerned with. He'll be fine, but we probably won't see him on Sunday."

So ESPN.com and 247sports are reporting a commitment of a Bryce Bohanon from Arkansas on 11/18? Guerry do you know anything about that? This kid does not have a Rivals profile, although other cites list Air Force and Central Arkansas offers. He is listed as the 14th ranked prospect in the state...

It's Joker Gill, a DE from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Rivals lists him by his given name, Jae'vien Gill.

He is a 2-star prospect who previously was committed to Troy. He has played in four of his team's five games this season and has 11 tackles with two sacks. Mississippi Gulf Coast is 5-0 and plays in the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference championship game on Dec. 5 against Northwestern Mississippi Community College.

I'm sure almost no one wants to rehash this, but I just watched the key plays down the stretch of Tulane's loss on Thursday. Here's what happened:

1) THE HAIL MARY

Regardless of what else happened in the game, this was the the play that lost it. A defense simply has to make the play here. Here is what all 11 guys did on the play, with the ball in between the 37 and the 38 on the snap in what amounted to a 3-2-2-1-3 alignment (three rusher, two linebackers, two intermediate coverers, one deeper guy and three backline safeties) against Tulsa's set of trips receivers to the right. a running back, and a lone receiver to the left.

-- For someone who gives tremendous effort on just about every snap, Cam Sample chose a strange time to take a play off. He must have felt the game was secure, but as the outside rusher on the left side (Darius Hodges was lined up on the nose and Patrick Johnson was on the right side of the three-man alignment), he lost contain while allowing his blocker to push him around the quarterback and totally out of the picture. He then jogged slowly away from the play before starting to turn around as Brin ran the other way. His vacating his side of the field allowed Brin to take about eight steps to that side with no pressure whatsoever before setting his feet to launch his pass exactly the way he wanted to, with both receivers having plenty of time to get to the back of the end zone.

--Patrick Johnson was blocked effectively, never disengaging from his man and ending up with his back to the play.

--Hodges, playing out of position in what must be Tulane's Hail Mary defense, had no chance against a double team. He finally got off of them and ran after Brin and was a step away from him when he launched the ball and tackled him after the throw. It would have been hard for him to do anything more.

--Marvin Moody, one of two linebackers on the field, following a running back who went in motion to the other side of the field from the play..

--Linebacker Dorian Williams, lined up on the left hash (from Tulane's perspective) at the 30, followed JC Santana, the inside of the three trips receivers to the right as he cut outside slightly. He then followed the flight of the ball but was well short of Santana and never got in position to keep him from catching the ball. He jumped off of one foot but the ball, and Santana, were at least three yards clear of him.

--Cornerback Kevaris Hall, lined up at the 25 on the outside, ran with the other receiver who ended up in basically the same spot as Santana, stopped in the middle of the end zone, backed up slowly while the ball was in flight, jumped while off balance and watched it go over his head to Santana. The guy he was covering was behind him, too.

--Ajani Kerr stood at the 6-yard line guarding the middle of the field and was watching a receiver coming his way. He had no chance to get over to make a play when the ball was released to the outside, although you would have liked to have seen him do more than jog toward the ball.

--Jaylon Monroe, who has the best ball skills of Tulane's corners, was stationed at the 17-yard line outside the far hash. He covered the middle of the three receivers, who ran right down the hash (the same guy Kerr watched) and never left his side. He had no chance to make a play.

--Freshman safety Cornelius Dyson was the deep man on right side of the field. He was not involved in the play.

--Larry Brooks, who graded out as the second-best safety in the country over the weekend by Pro Football Focus, was ultimately the guy most responsible for the completion. He lined up at the 7-yard line outside the hash and absolutely, positively could not let anyone get behind him. Yet that's exactly what he did. He was in perfect position when the ball was released, but he did not follow the ball correctly, taking a half step forward as if he was going to try to intercept the ball and barely jumping when the ball came down with Hall right next to him making the same mistake.

--Willie Langham, lined up at the 24, was the wide cornerback on the opposite side of the field from the throw and guarded the wide receiver who ran straight down the field on his side. He played no role.

2) THE DRIVE BEFORE

--Brooks made an outstanding play on third-and-13, breaking up a deep ball for Santana even though he had his back turned to the play, knocking the ball away at the last second to force a fourth-and-13 from midfield with 4:15 left and a 14-7 lead. Tulane was now one play away from taking over and needing two first downs to either run out the clock or get in range for a clinching field goal. Instead of punting, Tulsa decided to go for it on fourth-and-13.

--Tulane rushed four with its starters on the field but got nowhere, giving Brin a clean pocket. He passed to wide receiver Josh Johnson three yards short of the first down and with his back to the line to gain. safety Macon Clark was in perfect position to make the play but fell off of him. That's a play that simply has to be made. Making matters worse, Dyson grabbed a face mask cleaning up for Clark's mistake, moving the ball 13 yards to the 13.

--Brin had a TD pass on the next play but missed his receiver slightly with Brooks covering. The pass was high but could have been caught in the end zone.

--Brin scrambled for 8 or 9 yards on the next play but Santana was called for illegal motion, making it second-and-15.

--Patrick Johnson showed excellent anticipation on the next play, jumping to deflect a pass but he could not gather it in for what would have been close to a clinching interception. The ball fluttered down and off his left hand as he could not get both hands together to make the grab. He would not have scored as I initially thought. AThere was a receiver right there who probably would have made the tackle. But it would have been Tulane ball with 3:25 left.

--Ajani Kerr had excellent coverage on the third-down pass into the back corner of the end for Santana. There was no room for the throw, making it fourth-and-15.

--Tulane called timeout before the snap on fourth-and-15. Hodges was on the field instead of Sample on the left side, and Sample replaced him after the timeout.

--When the ball was snapped, Tulane went with a three-man line of Patrick Johnson, Eric Hicks and Sample and also rushed both linebackers--Nick Anderson and Dorian Williams. I give Tulsa a ton of credit here because Brin threw a beautiful pass and Josh Johnson ran a pro route, cutting to the outside on Monroe and then curling back inside without losing speed. This is a play a lot of teams would have failed to defend. Dyson was the safety near the ball but could not get to it. The window was small, but Brin put it exactly where it needed to be with good zip. Neither of Tulsa's other two QBs would have made that throw and certainly not Seth Boomer, the No. 2 guy. What an unlikely performance from Brin. Tulane would have taken over at the 18 with 3:16 left if the pass had not been complete. The Wave would have needed to pick up two first downs to end it.




--

Well, most of us won the Tulane game, for what little consolation that provides.

UCF-Cincinnati made Bad Beats on Scott Van Pelt's Monday night SportsCenter for the way Cincinnati's RB purposely did not score after getting inches from the goal line on first down at the end of the game (then the Bearcats appeared to half-heartedly try to score on second and third down), likely costing the Bearcats the cover.

The Houston-SMU game was not played.

WEEK 10 RESULTS

7

Guerry

6

MNAlum
paliii
DRBox

5

GretnaGreen
winwave
WaveON

4

buck2481
ny oscar
diverdo

3

charlamange8
chigoyboy

2

wavetime


OVERALL STANDINGS

51

pallii

50

buck2481

49

Guerry

48

ny oscar
DrBox

47

Wavetime
WaveON

46

chigoyboy

45

diverdo
GretnaGreen

44

MNAlum

43

winwave

41

charlamange8


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 10 of 13
UCF 4
Indiana 7
LSU 5
Northwestern 6
Oklahoma 8
USC 10

I had this interview last Thursday before the start of the Team Bob vs. Team Blob World Series. I did not ask about Olthoff because he's a given, as he proved with a dominant seven-strkeout, three inning performance in the opener of the five-game series.

How would you assess what has gone on in fall practice?

"It's so-so. We got a little fractured with the start, with COVID and things like that, and are just trying to catch up so to speak, and by trying to catch up, we're almost trying to run too fast and there's some tripping going on in between, so we just have to slow down a little bit. We're trying to build the pitchers up so that they can stay healthy and get some innings, so our competition level hasn't been as much as we'd like, but it's starting to pick up over the last couple of weeks. It's good. It's an experienced team but it's an inexperienced team if that makes sense. There's a lot of older guys that have been around, but there's a lot of new. A lot of teaching. A lot of steps backwards before we're going forward, but one thing I'm proud about is the older kids that are more knowing, I find them sharing information with the kids. They are coaching them. That's been helpful as we try to get it all back together, but when you lose senior citizens like (Grant) Mathews and (Jonathon) Artigues, all of a sudden you really know what it's like to have older players in your program who have been around and done it and they know the coach and what he wants. We're missing a couple of those guys for sure, but a lot of capable of guys are stepping up and we'll go from there.

"I'm excited about our pitching. We've got quite a few and we like some of our right and left and firm and slow. That's got a really good chance to be a strength of our team. We're going to need some of those younger kids like (Ethan) Groff, who was off to a good start last year, and Logan (Stevens), those guys are going to have to emerge and they are doing that well right now. Collin Burns is playing really good baseball. When the ball's hit to him, it's sticking in his glove. He's landing all of his throws and impacting the ball incredibly well. And then (Trevor) Minder and Luis (Aviles) and Hayden (Hastings), there are some components there for sure. We're just going to have to get it all tied together."

What happened to Ty Johnson? I know he no longer is listed on the roster.

"You know how I feel about Ty. We miss him a great deal for sure. There's a little bit of that as far as our hesitancy. He was kind of our energizer bunny for sure. We're trying to figure out life as it is without him. Ty, he was kind of in the Artigues and Grant mode, older. You get to a point where he had some other things going on that he wanted to attack."

Was he gone at the start of fall ball?

"Close to it, yeah. He hasn't been around for a few weeks for sure. But he's in a good spot. He's back at home as we speak, and I communicate with him constantly. He's just kind of turning the page and moving on. I love Ty to death and I'm just hopeful he will use the things he's learned here through his education and his baseball opportunities and be a dude out there. I think he will. We miss him a great deal but we wish him all the luck in the world."

You did not lose any pitchers who were effective last year and you retained a bunch who were and brought in a lot of new ones. How do you manage that surplus?

"Competition from within is part of any great organization, so that's good and will help elevate everybody's game. Our entire weekend rotation is back, so that helps. Keagan (Gillies) and (David) Bates in the back side of the game are back, and then we've added some nice, talented high school arms as well as some junior college/four-year transfers. We call it (Daniel) Latham's army. He's got quite a few of them out there. That's good because that's baton passing. The kids are competing well. The game starts with the elevated round circle in the middle of the field, and it's the reason you've seen our improvement go north and a lot of it has to do with the quality of the arms. If we can get the game started off and contained and manage the other innings to keep us within reach, then we become a dangerous team because we swung the bat pretty well over the course of time. Now we're able to maybe do a few different things because our pitching is so competitive and they've got a chance to keep the opponent at bay or off the scoreboard a ton. We can be holistic in our offensive approach because we feel really good about the strength of our pitching and the ability to keep us in games."

Which of the transfer pitchers has stepped forward and can be a big contributor in the spring?

"All of them. Jake McDonald started off at Texas Tech and has actually gone through an opening ceremonies at Omaha. That's experience. That's good. The kids call him grandpa. He's a little bit older, but he's healthy and I think he feels good about where he's at. He feels loved and wanted and cared for and coached, and that's showing up in his talent on the mound. It's showing up in his personality. You're talking about an aggressive guy that has some verocity with his pitches and he's in attack mode. I really have some good feelings about what he can bring. What role we're not quite sure. He will start game 2 for team Blob in the World Series (team Blob lost to team Bob 6-5 but was ahead early). Lane Thomas is a junior college (Jones County JC) kid that I like a lot, a fast-paced, very athletic, arm works really good, can spin three pitches over the plate at any time, maybe blindfolded, so that's good. The (Tyler) Hoffman kid from Mississippi Gulf Coast (CC), talented, big-time arm strength guy. We're looking forward to a lot of good things from him, and then we have another four-year transfer, a kid named Keaton Knueppel, from Gonzaga that we like a lot. Their head coach, Mark Machtolf, is one of my dearest friends in the world. He gave me my first Division I job, and he was saddened to see Keaton go and I can see why. He's an awesome kid, great teammate, left-handed with an ability to do some things. He gets healthy or stays healthy and does his thing, then he brings another component to our deal.

"We've got the high school kids. (Black) Mahmoud out of Minnesota has been going through our hitters like a hot knife through butter. He's been up to 94 with a good breaking ball and changeup. We have a couple of kids from the same high school, Tampa Jesuit in Florida, one Bennett Lee, the catcher, and Turner Thompson was their closer. They were the No.-1 rated high school in the country last year, so the kids are conditioned to talent and winning. I'm feeling really good about our pitching. I like our options. Now we have to figure out who's going to start it, who's going to pitch in the middle, who's going to set it up, who's going to slam it down and all those types of things. Everything is about competition and evaluation right now."

What is Justin Campbell's status?

"Justin Campbell is opting back in. There's an opt out and an opt in option, and he and us decided to opt in. I'm excited about that. He had some necessary decisions there for the first opt, and now he's maintained his academic excellence and has some things under control outside the lines. When we decided what we were going to do, he was basically in tears on the other end of the phone. He was so excited I could see the smile and the happiness. I know the kids are excited to have him back. I certainly am. We've got some power in our pitching, and Justin is more of a decelerator type. It's going to be nice for him to come in and give us some gear shifts."

I could probably pencil in six starters in your lineup with Trevor Minder, Luis Aviles, Frankie Niemann, Ethan Groff, Collin Burns and Logan Stevens. Who else?

"You're not far off. Haydan Hastings, I'm real proud of him. He's a really good catcher and has great rapport with our pitchers. Last year he caught every one of Braden Olthoff's deals. Daniel calls him Eddie Perez, that was (Greg) Maddux's personal catcher. Last year he was working his way into more playing time and it's continuing to go that way. His swing is so much improved, and last year I think he had four game-winning hits for us (he went 4 for 24 for the year) just in our 17 games, so there's some clutch to it. And then we have some junior college transfers in Jared Hart (East Georgia State) and Walker Burchfield (Hines CC) that provide some corner/first base for us in Burchfield, and Jared Hart is looking like he can play the outfield by himself the way he's been covering ground. And a pocketful of high school position players who are fighting like crazy to figure me out so they can breathe and actually play. Right now we are putting so much on their plate and I can see it paralyzing them a little bit, but they will come through it on the good end."

Who are the candidates at second base?

"Simon Baumgardt has really come on. He didn't play much last year as a true freshman, but he's playing well and we're cross-training him like crazy. He has a third baseman's glove, a shortstop's glove and he's even worked around first base a little bit. He's swinging the bat well and catching extremely well. Groff was a high school shortstop and we moved him to the outfield, but he's back working at second base and in the outfield. And we do have a few high school infielders that are capable as well."

Guerry, Can you ask Fritz/Dannen about potential for an ad hoc addition to football schedule? Tulane can't make AAC championship game with four losses. Some (maybe many) "minor" bowls could be cancelled by COVID. Combining that with "losing" teams (presumably all P5) being allowed to accept remaining bowl bids, I'm wondering if teams like Tulane could be squeezed out because their record isn't good enough. In other words, even if a 7-4 Tulane beats Tulsa and Memphis that may not be attractive enough compared to say a 4-5 or 4-6 SEC or 3-4 PAC 12 team to mid-level bowl games desperate for TV attention since ticket sales will be limited or even eliminated. .

Tulane has several open weekends after Thanksgiving and could buff its record in meantime before bowl bids go out. The most obvious suspect is BYU but there are others as well. Is it worth it?

Getting old.....very old.

need a change on the Def side of the ball and we can’t play call in the second half to not lose.

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

Tulsa (-6.5) Tulane
Central Florida (+5.5) Cincinnati
Ohio State (-20.5) Indiana
Arkansas (even) LSU
SMU (-3) Houston
Northwestern (+7.5) Wisconsin
Oklahoma (-7) Oklahoma State
Utah (+3) Southern Cal

Tulsa's third-string QB had thrown one career pass before entering late in the third quarter tonight. Enough said. But here are quotes from Willie Fritz, Nick Anderson and Stephon Huderson:

WILLIE FRITZ

"I felt we did a poor job of execution down the stretch. We work on that situation Hail Mary pass the day before games, and obviously we didn't execute it very well. Poor coaching, poor execution. That was a big play. The game would have been over, we win the game and we'd feel good about things right now. When you play a good team like that, you've got to play really well. We had some foolish penalties. We had some missed tackles that would have finished the game for us. As I just got done telling them in the locker room, there's plenty of blame to go around--coaches and players. It's disappointing. It's a game we should have won."

On the Hail Mary, what did you guys go over after calling the timeout and did you debate the decision to rush only three?

"We got a little bit of pressure on there and then he bought some time. We just didn't do a very good job of leverage over on the left side. The guys that were around the ball appeared to be hoping that someone else was going to make the play rather than going up after him and making the play."

Why did you call a timeout before that play?

"We wanted to go over everything, which is what we did, and we just didn't execute it."

How tough is it to swallow the second game of the season you think you should have won?

"Hard. Difficult. You work your tail off and want a different outcome. Woulda, coulda, shoulda had a different outcome. We just didn't do it. Credit Tulsa. They kept fighting. They had a couple quarterbacks get injured and continued to keep playing hard and did a nice job."

Early in the fourth quarter you were up 14-0 and looked like you were about to score more when you got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (Josh Remetich) after a play. How big a turning point was that?

"Big turning point. It was over aggressive at the wrong time. You've got to be smart aggressive. That was a tough, tough penalty."

On the final touchdown you scored, were you between thoughts of trying to drain the clock and kick a field goal or just go for the jugular there?

"I thought it was a good play call and excellent execution. It got us seven and now they have to go the length of the field, so that was all good. They had another timeout left. Well they had three of them (at the start of Tulane's possession), so that's not what got us beat. It's the last drive by them and some others during the game as well. There were a lot of plays throughout the game. We had the 15-yard penalty and a fourth down where we should have tackled the guy short of the first down."

Can you talk about the production from the tight end position? You had touchdowns from Tyrick James and Will Wallace.

"They did a good job. They are both playing well for us."

What happened on the first field goal attempt from Merek Glover (he missed a 28-yarder)?

"He just didn't hit it right."

How difficult is it to adjust midgame to a quarteback that you really didn't have much information on?

"We didn't. Obviously you don't prepare for the third-team guy coming in, and we didn't know much about him. The young man came in and did a nice job. Good speed, runs well, had some options back there. Threw some good balls as well. That was a nice throw when they tied it at 14."

Did the defense wear down at the end?

"Yeah, they just didn't play very good down the stretch. We needed to make a play. The disappointing thing was we had some opportunities to make some tackles and we missed some tackles that would have slammed the door. I believe there were three situations where if we had just tackled the guy, they are short. That's tough."

NICK ANDERSON

How can you put into words what happened down the stretch?

"This one hurts. It hurts bad. I feel like you have to give credit where credit is due. They are a talented team. They have players, but we've got to play better and we've got to finish. We've got to finish. But it's over with. We've got one more left and we've got to take care of business. We've got to move on. It hurts now, but tomorrow we've got to move on."

Could you feel it slipping away in the fourth quarter with their third-string quarterback in?

"I feel like we were in the position to make plays and we just didn't make them. We've got to do a better job of executing and finishing. We had our foot on their necks, and we let it slip. It's not on the coaches. It's on the players. It's on me. We have to execute better and we have to finish. We've just got to finish."

Can you compare the feeling to what you felt after the Navy loss?

"I feel like this is worse. It's worse now simply because of the standards of this game. It was an ESPN game, a top-25 team, so this will hurt us a lot worse simply because. I'm at a loss for words, but this one hurts a lot worse than Navy. We just let it slip, but like I said, we've got to stay together. That will be the main thing is staying together as a team and preparing for Memphis and finishing the season strong."

Was it difficult to go against a quarterback that you had not prepared for at all?

"It was a gray area simply because when you knock the first-string quarterback out and you knock the second-string quarterback out, a lot of times you are not prepared for the third-string quarterback. I still feel like it comes back to us and execution no matter who they play at quarterback. We've got to play our type of football, play our type of defense, play our style."

What was your view on the final play?

"I watched Pratt dropped back. Jha'Quan ran the drag route from the 3, and when it left Pratt's hands, I thought it was a touchdown. I actually closed my eyes. I thought it was a touchdown and I was getting ready to go back on defense, and then I see No. 23 running down the sideline. But like I said, if they don't score, they don't win the game, so defensively me and the other defenders take the responsibility. If they don't score, they don't win. Kudos to them. Defensively we've got to execute better. The third string quarterback was very talented. Very talented. But we've got to play better and we've got to execute better."

STEPHON HUDERSON

Can you put into words what the feeling is like in a game where it looked like you had it in the bag?

"Unbelievable, man. We still have yet to play a full game. We're getting tired of these almost games. We've got to come together as a team and finish strong. We didn't finish like that."

It was 14-0 in the fourth quarter and one of your teammates got a penalty that knocked you back and forced a punt. Was that a moment where you sensed the momentum changing?

"We just told the guys the Wave can't beat the Wave. That's a little saying we have. We just told them we can't put ourselves in situations to play behind the chains. We should have kept cool heads and just moved on."

How difficult was it to mentally move on once you got to overtime after that Hail Mary throw?

"You just have to say we are in position. We had guys around the ball. We just didn't make a play right there. Moving on, that's a situation we've got to work more in practice. We've just got to want it more actually. The play is there for us to make. We are in position to make a play. We've just got to finish. Moving on is tough, but that's going to make us better as a team. Going forward we have to fix it."

How disappointing was it to not score a touchdown on your first possession of overtime when that would have won it?

"It's tough, but I wouldn't say it's disappointing because knowing Merek (Glover), he's very confident, so we know if he got a field goal on the board we were going to be back on the field to try again. So a lot of pressure right there, but then again, we knew we were about to go back on the field and try to score again."

What was your view on the final play?

"Almost, man. We've just got to finish right there. We were in position to finish it right there. We just have to finish. That's it."

You did a good job of bouncing back from the Navy loss. How do you get back from this?

"Just knowing that we will get back in the film room tomorrow and fix those things like we did against Navy. Come together as a team and just put all the mistakes out there on the table for everybody to see and things that we can and cannot do. That's how we get better as a team, just knowing and learning from our mistakes in the last game."

What can you say to Pratt to console him?

"He's probably thinking the game is on him right now, so our job and my job especially because I think I'm a leader on this team is to just keep him going and tell him that the reason we lost this game is not his fault. We had plenty of plays that could have been made before that play happened. It probably shouldn't have gotten to that point right there. My job as a team leader is to keep Pratt going and keep his head up."

This was from Monday:

On adjustment to right tackle from left tackle

"It's a little bit less of an adjustment than it was from guard to tackle, that's for sure. A lot of it's just flipping in your head. I know in the middle of the Temple game we made the switch, so that was the bigger adjustment was being able to do it on the fly without having any reps at practice that week, but now that I have practices under my belt, I feel more confident. I've been happy with how my play has been the last few weeks. Obviously we have two more weeks to keep it up and then hopefully a third, but I've been happy with how things are going so far."

On improved pass protection

"We know that if we give Pratt a clean pocket, he'll be able to make something happen. It's been the common denominator is giving Pratt a clean pocket to find the open man, and when he's had to scramble, it's been a lot tougher on him. Especially having a freshman under center, having a clean pocket is very important to us and that's been a point of emphasis the last few weeks. We've done a good job of that."

On teams no longer being able to stack the box with no fear

"Balance definitely helps that a lot. It's nice not to have safeties rolling down every down and have to run the ball regardless of what happens. Having that extra dimension is a great benefit to us. Pratt has done a great job as a freshman. He's performing well beyond his years and really doing a good job of commanding the offense and putting us in the right position as well. They've given him a lot of reign to operate the way he needs to, and it's really helped us out that he's able to do what he can do."

On Will Hall saying Pratt can be great

"He has the physical talent to be able to do anything he wants to do on the field, and then combine that with he's a very football-smart guy. There are some times when we're at the line of scrimmage, and as a lineman you can tell we're not in a good play and he finds the exact right play to put us into at that moment. That's the type thing coach Hall is talking about. Having not only the physical ability to make you a good player but also being able to react to what the defense is doing and putting yourself in a great situation. He's definitely got that ability to think on the fly and get us in a better situation that might have been called from the sideline. That was evident in the last few weeks with him being able to get us away from pressure and get us into the right play. He's been given the keys to the car to be able to do that, and it shows how much trust the coaching staff has put in him and how much trust the offense has put in him. If he sees something, we'll trust that he's seeing something correct."

I thought I was headed for a 6-1 week, but SMU headed down the tubes in the second half against Tulsa. Honestly the Mustangs were lucky to be up 21-0 early after two bad Tulsa turnovers, but they were inept offensively down the stretch. The Arizona State-Cal game was canceled.

WEEK 9 RESULTS

7

chigoyboy
wavetime

6

charlamange8
Guerry
ny oscar
DrBox

5

MNAlum
diverdo
WaveON

4

paliii
GretnaGreen
winwave

3

ny oscar


OVERALL STANDINGS

46

buck2481

45

pallii
wavetime

44

ny oscar

43

chigoyboy

42

WaveON
Guerry
DrBox

41

diverdo

40

GretnaGreen

38

winwave
MNAlum
charlamange8


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 13 of 13
Tulsa 2
Miami 11
Florida 6
Notre Dame 8
Wisconsin 10
Nebraska 5

Michael Pratt threw some today against the scout team, although Justin Ibieta continued to serve as his ghost for most of it. Actually, they both threw on some of the reps, with Pratt throwing an underneath route and Ibieata throwing the deeper route as he stood behind the play. Pratt appeared to have no issue getting the ball to the sideline on short out routes and appears to be fine.

Tulane's starters on the offensive line will be the same as last week, with Tim Shafter holding on to his spot at right guard despite getting two holding calls against Army and being benched immediately after the second one. It is interesting that the two true freshmen who started the opener no longer are starting. In Josh Remetich's case, recovering from mono is a difficult process and he likely is not 100 percent yet. Trey Tuggle simply got beaten out by Ben Knutson, who has been terrific as a starter at left tackle and right tackle in the past five weeks, much to my surprise. Check out his block on Amare Jones' 50-yard touchdown run against Army. He just cleared his guy out of the way to help create a gigantic hole, and he has not allowed a sack since his opening series as a starter against SMU. He is the only significant lineman Tulane presumably will lose next year--I'm not even sure Jaylen Miller played against Army--and he is doing a heck of a job. This line is better than any at Tulane in a long time, but how much better will be shown Thursday against Tulsa's tough defense. The Green Wave is going to have to pass well early to open up the running game.

Although Cornelius Dyson got some reps with the first unit today, Chase Kuerschen is going to start with all of the same guys as usual except for Kevin Henry, who did not practice and is extremely unlikely to be available. It looks like they will go with Marvin Moody and Dorian Williams as the starters and Nick Anderson rotating in as the third guy. Jeffery Johnson practiced today with no cast or brace anywhere, so he is fine. Eric Hicks will start at defensive tackle next to Johnson ahead of De'Andre Williams for the fourth consecutive week, although Williams had six tackles off the bench against Army and was very active. Moody is wearing a cast on his right hand, but he said he missed the Temple and East Carolina games due to an ankle injury.

Dorian Williams and Willie Langham had back-to-back interceptions against the scout-team offense. That could happen in the game, too, because Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith is an erratic passer. He has thrown at least one pick in all five games this year, although he did not have any against Tulane last year.

Again today, I did not see Davon Wright get any reps even though he was in uniform. I did not see Alfred Thomas get any, either. The second-team D-line was Armoni Dixon, De'Andre Williams, Noah Seiden and Angelo Anderson.

Ajani Kerr got some reps with the first-team defense at nickel because Macon Clark spent most of his time at free safety with the second unit. I still expect Clark to start at nickel. Neither of them started against Army because Tulane had an extra defensive lineman on the field, but Clark started the previous six games. He had six tackles at safety against Army, and Kerr has gone three straight games without a tackle.

Willie Fritz is 3-3 when his teams play a game on a Thursday following a game on the previous Saturday, with all three wins coming at home and all three losses coming on the road, so he will want to reverse that trend. Georgia Southern lost to Appalachian State 31-13 in 2015, Tulane lost to Houston 48-17 in 2018 and Tulane lost to Houston 49-31 this year. All three were ugly losses. His wins were 34-14 over Appalachian State in 2014, 42-10 over Troy in 2014 and last year's wild 38-31 victory against Houston. He never had a Thursday game following a Saturday game at Sam Houston State.
,
WILLIE FRITZ

It's a quick week of preparation. How do you feel about where you are by the end of a Tuesday practice?

"Good. I've had quite a few times where I've had to do the Saturday to Thursday turnaround. We do a little bit more probably on the mental part of it. We extend our meetings a little bit and cut back a little bit on practice. You want to be prepared but you also don't want to be worn out, so I think we've had a good week up until now. Tomorrow will be a little bit more walkthrough than normal. The good thing for us is we won't have class on Thursday. Guys will be able to sleep in and take a little nap in the early afternoon and play the game, so they will be off their feet most of the day up until Thursday's game."

Has the bowl situation been clarified to you this year or is that still kind of to be determined?

"I don't know. I'd be B.S.ing you if I gave you an answer. I don't really know exactly what's happening with it."

Are you concerned? Do you want a reward if you've earned it at the end of the year?

"You always want that. This is a different year. We'll see what happens, but I'm not sure what they are going to end up doing. I really haven't dove into it to be honest with you. They don't want my opinion anyway, so it doesn't matter. They could care less about my opinion."

Is Kevin Henry going to be a game-time decision?

'I hope."

He got hurt when a lineman dove right into his knee. Is that normal football or is that something you're not a big fan of?

"This is not anything on Army or any of the teams like that. I don't want you to think this is, but one of the thing that's really tough is we've got all this protocol for concussions and then when a guy gets hit low in the knees, for a concussion he's out for a week, 10 days. If something happens on a low block when a guy is planted and it's in the core and it's at an angle, now he's out for a year. I was on the rules committee one time and that's one of the things we just talked about. Those are severe injuries or they're big-time ankle sprains. I just think that's something we're looking at. All they talk about is safety, safety, safety. I think you've got to continue looking at that. We've really cleaned up a lot of the game in terms of low blocking, but sometimes when you are on the core area, there are some rules that allow it. You get a hit where a guy doesn't see it and it's low and at a bad angle, and the guy is out for a year at least. That's always been the way I've looked at it, but it's part of the game so you've got to play it right now. You've got to learn how to defeat those kind of blocks and all those kind of things, get in the weight room and build yourself up."

Josh Coltrin got a couple of carries at the end of the Navy game. Was he the fourth-string guy with only three scholarship running backs, or was he rewarded for something specific? I know he arrived as a walk-on quarterback and was moved to wide receiver in preseason drills.

"We've moved him over to running back full time. I'll tell you, the kid's something else. He has an unbelievable attitude. I've told my guys they need to hang around with old Josh because he'll hire them in two years (he is a sophomore majoring in engineering physics). He's going to be unbelievably successful. We wanted to get him some runs. He's a good player, too. He played at one of the top high school programs in the state of Texas, Manvel High School and started at quarterback for them. He's going to expand his role. It's a little bit too late this season, but he can help us in the kicking game and is a tough, hardnose player. Coach Hall calls him a swiss utility knife because he can do a lot of stuff. You can throw him out there at receiver. He knows how to run the correct route. You can put him at running back and he can do it. You can throw him out there at tight end, play him at quarterback. He's just a really smart guy."

You have five fourth-year seniors starting on defense in Cam Sample, Patrick Johnson, Marvin Moody, Chase Kuerschen and Jaylon Monroe. Could you tell you had a special group when you got those guys in camp in 2017?

"Yeah, we knew those guys were going to play a bunch. Obviously you don't want to have to go out and start or play a bunch of freshmen if at all possible, but that's where we were. They've done a super job of developing. Those guys have logged a lot of minutes for Tulane and played a lot of football. We're proud of the fact that a bunch of those guys have already graduated and all of them will graduate by December. They've been very, very positive for our program."

From Monday. Ed Daniels and I tag-teamed him.

This offense has scored 30 or more points in seven straight games, something that had not been done since 1998, but Amare Jones said Saturday it still was not where you guys wanted it to be. Where do you feel like the offense is right now?

"Well, one thing as a coach you always talk about is you want to improve as the year goes on and obviously we've done that. We're getting better and better. Like we said at the beginning of this year, we are going to be a good offense at some point. We hope that happens tomorrow, and it's taken us a little while to get to this level. We've had a lot of young guys playing. Everybody knows that. We've had a ton of injuries. Everybody knows and understands that. And we've got a young quarterback who's going to be a great player, but we battled through it. I'm really proud of our coaching staff, especially coach Kennedy on the O-line shuffling those guys around. Our kids have just embraced what we're doing, and we've gotten better each week. We really felt like we left a lot of points out on the field the last three weeks. We felt like we easily could have had 50 this past week if we complete a few more passes that we have there. The week before we fumbled a ball going across the goal line and dropped a long pass that would have probably given us 50 that week, so we've just got to continue to clean up some things and we've got a chance to be really good going down the stretch. And the good thing is every one of them's back. Tyjae Spears will be coming back from injury and we'll recruit again like mad men like we always do, so the future's very bright."

Willie Fritz says now you are able to run the offense you wanted to run when you got here because of the threat of a consistent passing game. How much has that helped in what you're doing?

"Yeah, you want to be balanced, and what is balance? People think balance means if you snap it 80 times, you run it 40 and you throw it 40. That's not what balance is. Balance is being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it, and it's being able to do whatever is called for by the looks the defense is giving you. We're getting to that point obviously. Last week they really wanted to take the run away, so we threw it more. Early in the game versus East Carolina it was the same way, and then we loosened them up and got the run game going, so you've got to be able to do both. When you run into a good team that's also well coached, they can take one side of it away, so when you can do both it allows you to be consistently high octane."

How important is Michael Pratt's accuracy to what you are able to do offensively?

"I can't say enough about Michael, not only as a player but as a person. All great teams through the history of time had a tough guy at quarterback, and Michael's a tough guy. We talk all the time with our guys toughness is not winning a bar fight. A real man with real toughness is how many blows can you take, how much adversity can this world put on you and you still bounce back every day and handle your obligations and responsibilities and do what you're supposed to do. Michael does that every day. He impacts people around him. He battles through being banged up, and he's just been really fun. He's got such a bright future."

Thursday will be your third game in 12 days, and you were harping on that in practice today, saying embrace the grind. Do you feel pretty good about the ability to do it with a short turnaround?

"Yeah, with him (Pratt) and (Corey) Dublin and (Stephon) Huderson and (Joey) Claybrook and (Ben) Knutson, those guys, they want to win and they want to raise the standards of this program. They understand where we are going down the stretch. We have a chance to finish strong and go to three straight bowl games. Looking long term, we've got a chance to win out and win more regular season games than been done in a long time and just continue to raise the standard for this program, which is why we all came here."

What is your definition of great when you talk about Pratt?

"I'll say the same thing I tell my two sons. Great is getting the most out of what God gave you, so greatness is different for every human being. For Michael, I think greatness is being an elite quarterback in this conference and this level. I think the sky's the limit for how good he can be. I think he can be an All-Conference quarterback. I think he can be a draft pick, so just him maximizing his fullest potential, continuing to work in the weight room and getting stronger. He can still get a little bit faster. His arm can get a little bit stronger and just learning the offense and just working hard every day."

When you have a quarterback of his ability as a true freshman, does that make it harder to entice quarterbacks to come in here or not?

"You know I can't say any names, but we've got some pretty good ones committed right now. What sells to quarterbacks is what Tulane is. When coach Fritz brought me in here, I said, "Coach, don't worry, relax, we are going to be able to recruit quarterbacks. That's not going to be a problem. We're going to run an offense the quarterback loves, we're going to be in a city that quarterbacks want to come play in. We're in the South, we're in New Orleans, there's great looking girls everywhere, we got great academics and we run an great offense. What quarterback doesn't love all those things? Man, why wouldn't you want to come play quarterback here."

What has gotten Pratt's completion percentage to rise so much with each start?

"The people around him have gotten better. He's been consistent from the jump. His first start against Houston he played lights out under extreme duress. Thenext week versus SMU he played great under duress. We had some O-line injuries. We lost Jacob Robertson and Sorrell Brown at receiver, which were two starters at the beginning of the year. You lose Tyjae and Corey Dauphine, so he had some other guys growing up around him. Now all of a sudden we're going into game 10 and Jha'Quan Jackson's become a really good player, Duece Watts has become a really good player, Phat is really comfortable in the offense now, our tight ends have grown. Mike Jones continues to progress. All of a sudden the people around him are playing better. We're completing more passes and more people are getting open.

"He is better. He's getting through his reads faster than he was earlier in the year, but he's playing at a high level."

The sack total has gone from 15 in his first three starts to five in his last three. Is that a byproduct of Claybrook coming back or him getting the ball out quicker?

"Let's talk about that. In the first three games (of the year) we gave up one sack. All right. The week going into Houston our starting right guard gets mono, our starting left guard pulls his calf, our backup left tackle breaks his hand and then in game versus Houston our starting left tackle separates his kneecap, so within the first two drives of that game we've lost four O-linemen, so we had a makeshift group out there for the rest of that game and gave up a lot of sacks in that one, and then for the next two weeks we played two really good teams with a lot of guys out and we gave up some sacks. We got behind and had to throw it in passing situations. What you've seen the last few weeks is we've gotten our O-linemen back and we've been able to maintain leads early in the game where we could control and dictate the tempo of the game with run and pass and they weren't defined passing situations. It goes back to what I said earlier about being balanced, being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. So really that's why the sack total went astronomical for a few games and why it's gone back down."

The offensive line has a lot of depth now. How much has that group improved since the adversity you just mentioned?

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and we've got a lot of guys that have played and they are all coming back. Ben Knutson's really stepped up at tackle, and all these young guys that we've played are only going to be better for it, and now we've got Claybrook back, Dublin's back healthy, Remetich is back, Knutson's come on, Tim Shafter's back. I've just named four guys that are starting that were out with injury during that stretch we're talking about. We've got a lot of guys that played a lot of minutes and we're just playing well and coach Kennedy has done a good job of shuffling them around and they have a lot of confidence right now."

Stephon Huderson is running really well but he's put the ball on the ground for four straight games. Has that become a mental thing?

"We work on it every day. He's a kid that through his career here has not been a fumbler. He doesn't fumble at practice. It's just something that's kind of happened. He cares. Hud loves Tulane as much as anybody does. He does what's right all the time. I think it's something you're going to see go away because of his character and the way he works and he knows it matters. It's been a lot of different things that have caused it. He's got to address it and fix it and I've got a lot of confidence thathe will."

Tulane did something at practice today I've never seen in 30 years as a sportswriter. Giving Michael Pratt's throwing arm a bit of a rest during scout-team work, they had him take all of the snaps with the first-team unit while Justin Ibieata stood behind the play and made all the passes when Pratt was ready to throw. Pratt executed all of the hand-offs and had the ball in his hand on each rep, but he did not use his arm in that segment. This almost certainly is not a significant injury because they would not have had him taking all the reps if it were, but with a short week to get ready for Tulsa, clearly they wanted to save him some wear and tear. If I could have gotten Willie Fritz to the side I could have found out the reason, but there is a zero percent chance he would answer that question on a Zoom call that is made available to the public.

It was interesting to watch. Pratt did everything but actually throw the ball, while Will Hall kept drilling into his guys to "embrace the grind" of a short week. A little later, he shouted, "three games in 12 days. Only tough teams can do that. Embrace it, embrace it, embrace it."

Tulsa will be a significant challenge on Thursday night as Tulane goes for its second win against a ranked team in six days after not having one for 36 years. At times, the Golden Hurricane looks mediocre--it needed help from a clueless replay-booth official to beat ECU at home--but at other times its defense has been outstanding. In the second half of its victories against UCF and SMU, it made outstanding offenses look pedestrian, shutting them down.

"They are a three-man odd front and will mix it up playing some man and some zone," Willie Fritz said. "They will rush three, five under, three deep and go ahead and bring a fourth guy, bring a fifth guy. The thing I've been impressed with is when you run the ball they really fit it up where they will have one more guy at the point of attack than you either from the linebacker position or the safety position. There are a little bit of similarities between what they and Army do but also some significant differences."

A one-dimensional Tulane would be in a world of hurt against this particular Tulsa team. After giving up 395 yards and 31.3 points per game a year ago, Tulsa is allowing 370.2 yards and 21.8 points, easily the best numbers in coach Philip Montgomery's six-year tenure, in a season where offenses are dominating.

"When you're one-dimensional and playing against a good defense, they are going to get you," Fritz said. "It's critical when you play high-quality defenses like Tulsa, like Army, if you're two-dimensional, you have an opportunity to do some things offensively. That's what we are going to have to be able to do to have some success offensively against Tulsa."

Defensively, Tulane should be in good shape the way it has played lately. Tulsa has some playmakers on offense, but quarterback Zach Smith is an inconsistent thrower and the running game has been pedestrian (161.8 yards per game), unlike earlier in Montgomery's tenure when it averaged more than 200 yards from 2016 through 2018. Fritz, though, respects the history.

"Coach Montgomery is from the Art Briles spread-you-out school, and they really do a nice job of running. They are a physical team, so we are going to have to play great Thursday night, there's no question about that. (A win) would be huge for our program. I think 1974 was the last time it occurred (actually, it was 1979 with No. 13 Stanford and No. 19 SMU). You look at all those things during the offseason and after the season, but I've got a lot of respect for coach Montgomery. They've got a veteran-laded squad."

Although Jeffery Johnson was nowhere to be seen today after exiting the Army game with what appeared to be a hand or wrist injury from the pile-up on the fourth-down stop early in the fourth quarter, Fritz said he would play against Tulsa, and lately when he has said that, the injured player has played. Kevin Henry, who left a few plays earlier with a left knee injury after an Army lineman dove at it on a downfield block, did not practice today, either, but the Wave is loaded at linebacker. Freshman Jesus Machado got reps with the first unit while Marvin Moody rested. Ben Hicks started alongside De'Andre Williams on the interior of the line.

Duece Watts, who left for the locker room before the Army game was over, practiced today. Sorrell Brown, who practiced last week but did not play Saturday, was not able to go today, and I suspect he may be done for the year. Those two serious knee injuries he sustained in back-to-back preseasons are proving tough to overcome. Tim Shafter reclaimed his starting right guard spot after losing it to Josh Remetich following two holding penalties against Army.

Dane Ledford ran the definition of a post pattern late in practice. With Keon Howard at quarterback Ledford caught a ball in the back of the end zone and almost slammed full-on into the goal post, grazing it instead and avoiding injury.

I talked to Will Hall, Ben Knutson and Jha'Quan Jackson in addition to Fritz today and will post their quotes later. Hall, as always, said some good stuff.

Recruiting has picked up in recent weeks for 2021 DB Dontae Balfour and a couple of SEC schools have moved to 1-2 on his list.

link: BALFOUR UPDATE

It was a closer game than the score indicated and if Jeff Monken had not chased a blocked extra point by going for 2 in the second quarter, Army could have cut the deficit to 8 points with a chip shot field goal early in the fourth quarter and made Tulane sweat. But Monken, an otherwise excellent coach whose strategical decisions range from poor to awful, did what he did, and the game got out of hand late. Tulane was in complete control save for an abysmal second quarter, but the drops that have been a problem all year really hurt in the first half.

While still a work in progress offensively, Tulane has scored 30 or more points in seven consecutive games, matching its run at the end of 1998. Will Hall knows what he is doing, and with Michael Pratt at the helm, the offense is going to get even better down the road.

Here is what Willie Fritz had to say after the satisfying victory that ended a 36-years drought against ranked opponents.

"It was a big win for us. I was worried before the game. We had a great week of practice, but our guys just seemed kind of down and dead. We got out there in warm-ups, and luckily one of their coaches ran through us in warm-ups and was trying to knock our guys over and stuff, about 30 guys. It fired our guys up. They came in the locker room and were ready to play, so I appreciate that. It was good. We played well in all three phases. We did a really good job offensively, controlling the clock and controlling the ball and not turning the ball over. That's big against these guys. We were plus-3, and there's not very many times you are going to be plus-3 against these dudes. Defensively we played extremely well. Great job tackling, great job playing with leverage. A bugaboo against them has been them throwing the ball over the top against us, and they didn't get an opportunity to do that this week. We did an excellent job staying over the top of routes and then obviously we made some big plays in the kicking game. Huge play by Jaetavian Toles at the end of the game. I've been doing this a long time, since 1982, and I've never had a play like that before. At the end of the game when somebody needs a desperation play and we talk about ultimate contain, he did a nice job taking that lane and scoring a touchdown with it. Great job overall. They don't get beat like that very often. If you beat them by 10, that's really dominating them, so a super job by our guys."

On being ready for tricks:

"The most important physical attribute of a player is his eyes. If you're looking at the right thing, you have a chance to be right. I've had some guys who weren't very good athletes who had great eyes and played fast and pulled the trigger. Our guys did a nice job today of not getting tricked by formations or motions or going way and coming back another way. Just very good discipline."

On confidence to throw pass on fourth-and-1 from own territory in fourth quarter:

"It was big for us. That's really just a long handoff, but that's been a difficult play for us. He did a nice job of reading it and it was wide open out there on the perimeter. He hit Jha'Quan right in his chest and he put his foot in the ground and got vertical and allowed us to run another three or four minutes off the clock."

On not having to hear about never beating a ranked team:

"It's good. Somebody told me 36 years. That's a long time. We've come awful close a bunch of times, so it's good to finally accomplish it."

On Army not scoring on long drive when Tulane foiled throw-back to the quarterback:

"There were a bunch of big plays in the game but that was certainly probably the biggest play defensively. When they run a lot of time off the clock and don't score and we get the ball, that's a big win for us. We knew they would come up with some type of trick play. It was just good discipline with our eyes and we kind of brought the heat on them a little bit, which you don't do very much against them because they are usually in manageable situations to run the ball. Both coordinators, coach Curtis and Will Hall, did a very nice job with calls. We always have a few calls you wish you had back, but when you're batting a pretty high percentage, you have your defense in position to make a play or the offense in position to make a play, that's a real tribute to those guys."

On having fast start:

"We got some veterans defensively because you do always worry about the speed of the game. Our scout team guys can't simulate that speed. Those guys work on that day in and day out 365 days a year, and they can march to that triple option. Our guys adapted to it early very well and offensively, getting up on them, it's always easier against anybody to play when you're head and certainly against them it's a huge advantage for you when you play from up front."

On Pratt taking hit and leaving for a play:

"He just wanted to get his name on the radio and on ESPN2 where they had to stop the game. He's sitting over here. That's the reason I'm saying that. He's fine. He's a tough, tough kid and he sat out a play and jumped back in there, so he's fine."

On difference between first half of the season and past three weeks:

"I don't know. We've done a better job of executing the game plan. That's so important, minimizing our mistakes. When we do that, we are a pretty good team in the offense, defense and kicking game, and we should be starting to get that way because we've got a lot of veteran players. Michael's one of the few true freshman that's starting for us. Obviously that's a key position, but we have a lot of guys who have been through it quite a few times."

On quick turnaround to Tulsa game:

"They are playing tonight (and rallied from a 21-0 deficit to beat SMU 28-24, remaining undefeated in AAC play), so there's no advantage other than the fact we've got to go up there. We're going to come in tomorrow, put this game to bed and start working on Tulsa and flip the script, turn the page. We've got to get ready for Tulsa. They are a very good team with an excellent defense. We've kind of seen that same style against a few teams over the last few weeks. I think that will help us. Defensively, we've played them quite a few times with the same coaches that are there, so it's not like you're playing a team that you've never prepared for. That's one of the reasons in the summer you put together a preliminary game plan on guys in case something like this happens when you're playing two days earlier."

On Pratt's influence on recent win streak:

"Huge. We were able to throw the ball. We haven't been able to do that as effectively as we wanted to. It's just the gimmes. There were a lot of hitches out there just available to throw. If we can protect him, Michael's accurate and there are a bunch of big throws out there. And we run the ball well enough. We had 171 yards rushing on 32 carries. They've got to respect that. They've got to play the run. and if they don't we'll run it. But if they are packing the box, there were some good keys coach Hall had with their defensive backs and what kind of coverage they would be in, but Michael's got to execute it. It sounds easier than it really is."

On why he thought they were flat during warm-ups:

"Oh, I was just kidding. That guy who ran through our team with all those guys, I thought that was ridiculous. It fired me up. One of my coaches, who is one of the nicest guys in the world, he was very upset after all that happened."

On search for QB like Pratt:

"That's great, and I don't want to diminish the things some of our quarterbacks in the past have done for us. The offense we run here is a pro-style offense. There's a lot of things I'll be watching a game (on Sunday) and say this is that for us watching the Saints or the Rams in particular. If we can protect it, there's an answer for almost every type of coverage. That's great, and when you have a good run game to match it. The teams that just do one thing or the other, if they can run it real good or throw it and can't run it, sooner or later you have problems. This is the vision that I had when I hired coach Hall, and he's done an excellent job of putting the pieces together. It also is recruiting. The biggest thing for us, and it's going to be like this for the next few years, is we've got an offensive line now. We've always had some difficulties there. We've got a bunch of guys that are redshirting. We've had a couple of guys that were hurt and then coming back. We've got some good depth out there, so that's exciting for our future."

It was a good week for most of us, but nobody had an elusive perfect score.

WEEK 8 RESULTS

8

buck2481
ny oscar

7

charlamange8
Guerry
wavetime

6

diverdo
GretnaGreen
winwave
WaveON
DrBox

5

chigoyboy
paliii

4

MNAlum


OVERALL STANDINGS

41

paliii
ny oscar

40

buck2481

38

wavetime

37

WaveON

36

chigoyboy
diverdo
GretnaGreen
DrBox
Guerry

34

winwave

33

MNAlum

32

charlamange8


GAME-BY-GAME RESULTS

Tulane 13 of 13
Notre Dame 8
Florida 5
BYU 8
Cincinnati 12
Oregon 9
Indiana 3
Arkansas 10