Tulane may have played more players against Missouri State than in any game in the Wave’s history. According to the box score on the official site, we played 81 players, though they counted Sample twice and missed a number of players who I KNOW appeared in the game, and possibly more. By my count we played at least 84 players including 15 walk-ons and 14 “true” freshmen, most of whom will probably end up “redshirting.” Quite a few “backups” played at least a quarter and some even more. Lawrence Graham and Tyler Johnson did not play. I assume, like Johnson, Graham was kept out to heal for the Houston game. Also, for whatever reason, Patrick Johnson did not seem to play all that much even in the first half. I don’t know why.
Anyhow, it was really nice to see a lot of guys get the opportunity to see the field after having put in a great deal of time and effort during practice. It was particularly exciting to see Dane Ziegler, a 5’9” defensive lineman, get a tackle and the response by his teammates as he came off the field. He’ll never forget that; it was “Rudy-esque.”
It was a fun game against an overmatched opponent in which we could pretty much do what we wanted. Still, we had a couple of needless penalties, though much fewer than the first two weeks. We also had trouble hitting into the middle of their line and Bradwell never got going. Another bad center snap forced our first punt of the night; that simply can’t continue to happen. And Wright had one really good punt (47 yards with a -1 return) and one horrible one—13 yards. Add to that, I didn’t think we got as much pressure on their QB as I had anticipated.
Nonetheless, it’s a win and the focus now has to be on Houston.
Roll Wave!
Anyhow, it was really nice to see a lot of guys get the opportunity to see the field after having put in a great deal of time and effort during practice. It was particularly exciting to see Dane Ziegler, a 5’9” defensive lineman, get a tackle and the response by his teammates as he came off the field. He’ll never forget that; it was “Rudy-esque.”
It was a fun game against an overmatched opponent in which we could pretty much do what we wanted. Still, we had a couple of needless penalties, though much fewer than the first two weeks. We also had trouble hitting into the middle of their line and Bradwell never got going. Another bad center snap forced our first punt of the night; that simply can’t continue to happen. And Wright had one really good punt (47 yards with a -1 return) and one horrible one—13 yards. Add to that, I didn’t think we got as much pressure on their QB as I had anticipated.
Nonetheless, it’s a win and the focus now has to be on Houston.
Roll Wave!