As you know by now, the Tulane-Tulsa game will kick off at 11 a.m. Saturday instead of 3 p.m. due to the potential arrival of Tropical Storm Nate. Tulane AD Troy Dannen told me they never were worried about not being able to play the game this weekend but decided changing the time to avoid any possible issue was the best decision.
"Even moving to 11 was an abundance of caution," Dannen said. "It's supposed to make landfall on Sunday, but there will (potentially) plenty of (bad) weather ahead of it. "This is a chance to get out in front of it."
The game most likely will not be televised over the air now but will be streamed live on ESPN3. ESPN U is showing the East Carolina-Temple game at 11, and ESPNews has a World Cup qualifier between Bosnia-Herzogovina and Belgium. ESPN Classic is a theoretical option, but it almost never shows live events. As one of the rare tennis fans left in the United State, I know it has shown live stuff occasionally when the beginning of matches gets bumped by live football or basketball and they shift the match there until the other games end, but Dannen said that scenario for the Tulane-Tulsa game was unlikely.
"I would guess it's going to be ESPN3," Dannen said. "The league is trying to come up with another option, but lacking that I guess it would be ESPN3. TV was very secondary in the discussion. For all three, the league and both schools, the last concern was whether there was going to be a television option or not. We knew at least we were going to have the streaming option at the very least."
Dannen added Tulane approached the conference Wednesday to start the process of a potential time change in motion in case Nate's predicted track moved West, which is exactly what happened.
Willie Fritz said the change would not be a distraction after practice ended on Thursday morning. The change was announced near the end of the workout.
"I just told them if you still have your internal clock going for 3 o'clock, the game's going to be over and you better switch it," Fritz said. "It's no big deal. If they had told us the night before, it might be a little hectic, but it's fine. I like the earlier starts. We're used to getting up early. The kids usually get up around 5:30, 5:45 (on a normal day) and now we're getting up at 6:30."
Although Nate is not supposed to arrive until Sunday, wherever it hits in the cone of uncertainty that extends from southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, Tulane will be prepared for possible windy conditions and rain.
"We got lucky that Monday it rained on us when we came out here," Fritz said. "We worked a little wet ball on Monday. The thing you need to do is run some plays that are safer. I don't think we can exaggerate ball security any more than we do, so you just have to be smart with your play-calling."
Tulane has turned the ball over just twice this year, ranking in a three-way tie for third nationally. Both came against Oklahoma--the costly pick six Johnathan Brantley threw that changed the course of the game and a much less costly fumble by Darius Bradwell late in the fourth quarter.
"It's been good," Fritz said. "You're goal every game is to have zero. We've done a pretty good job and need to continue doing a good job with it. The kids have embraced (the philosophy). That's the only reason you have success. If they don't embrace it, it doesn't work."
Fritz said Ade Aruna would start Saturday after having his long streak stopped against Army, when he sat for almost the entire game due to an ankle sprain before playing the final three downs as a pass rusher. Triple-option teams do not fit his skill set, but the Wave is done with those type of opponents this year.
On the offensive line, definitely look for Tyler Johnson to start ahead of Keyshawn McLeod at left tackle, with both playing. That's what their practice reps told me this week. The rest of the line should remain unchanged, although Leeward Brown and Hunter Knighton got reps at right guard along with Dominique Briggs. Those are the eight linemen who will play, with center Junior Diaz, freshman left guard Corey Dublin and right tackle John Leglue likely going all the way barring injury. Brown also got some reps at right guard behind Dublin.
Former Tulane DB Derrick Strozier attended practice. He is trying to get Tanzel Smart, Rob Kelley and Orleans Darkwa active in alumni events in their areas, and all of them have been receptive, and he was there to talk to Fritz and his staff about their cooperation in promoting how their former stars in the NFL are still active in the Tulane community. I always really liked Strozier, who had a heck of a year at nickelback for the 2013 defense. He still knows plenty of guys who were redshirting freshmen on that team--Parry Nickerson, Aruna, Eldrick Washington, Quinlan Carroll, Luke Jackson and Sherman Badie.
Corey Dauphine, who has been out since the preseason with a knee injury and cannot play this season as a transfer from Texas Tech, dressed out today but did not practice in the 45 minutes I was there. He's getting very close to returning, though. I did not see Robert Kennedy out there, so it appears he has not been cleared to return yet.
Maybe I was imagining things, but watching freshman wideout Travis Tucker on the scout team offense, it looks like he has gained 10 or 15 pounds the wrong way. He looked a little pudgy. In fact, I checked my roster to make sure I had the right number for him.
"Even moving to 11 was an abundance of caution," Dannen said. "It's supposed to make landfall on Sunday, but there will (potentially) plenty of (bad) weather ahead of it. "This is a chance to get out in front of it."
The game most likely will not be televised over the air now but will be streamed live on ESPN3. ESPN U is showing the East Carolina-Temple game at 11, and ESPNews has a World Cup qualifier between Bosnia-Herzogovina and Belgium. ESPN Classic is a theoretical option, but it almost never shows live events. As one of the rare tennis fans left in the United State, I know it has shown live stuff occasionally when the beginning of matches gets bumped by live football or basketball and they shift the match there until the other games end, but Dannen said that scenario for the Tulane-Tulsa game was unlikely.
"I would guess it's going to be ESPN3," Dannen said. "The league is trying to come up with another option, but lacking that I guess it would be ESPN3. TV was very secondary in the discussion. For all three, the league and both schools, the last concern was whether there was going to be a television option or not. We knew at least we were going to have the streaming option at the very least."
Dannen added Tulane approached the conference Wednesday to start the process of a potential time change in motion in case Nate's predicted track moved West, which is exactly what happened.
Willie Fritz said the change would not be a distraction after practice ended on Thursday morning. The change was announced near the end of the workout.
"I just told them if you still have your internal clock going for 3 o'clock, the game's going to be over and you better switch it," Fritz said. "It's no big deal. If they had told us the night before, it might be a little hectic, but it's fine. I like the earlier starts. We're used to getting up early. The kids usually get up around 5:30, 5:45 (on a normal day) and now we're getting up at 6:30."
Although Nate is not supposed to arrive until Sunday, wherever it hits in the cone of uncertainty that extends from southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, Tulane will be prepared for possible windy conditions and rain.
"We got lucky that Monday it rained on us when we came out here," Fritz said. "We worked a little wet ball on Monday. The thing you need to do is run some plays that are safer. I don't think we can exaggerate ball security any more than we do, so you just have to be smart with your play-calling."
Tulane has turned the ball over just twice this year, ranking in a three-way tie for third nationally. Both came against Oklahoma--the costly pick six Johnathan Brantley threw that changed the course of the game and a much less costly fumble by Darius Bradwell late in the fourth quarter.
"It's been good," Fritz said. "You're goal every game is to have zero. We've done a pretty good job and need to continue doing a good job with it. The kids have embraced (the philosophy). That's the only reason you have success. If they don't embrace it, it doesn't work."
Fritz said Ade Aruna would start Saturday after having his long streak stopped against Army, when he sat for almost the entire game due to an ankle sprain before playing the final three downs as a pass rusher. Triple-option teams do not fit his skill set, but the Wave is done with those type of opponents this year.
On the offensive line, definitely look for Tyler Johnson to start ahead of Keyshawn McLeod at left tackle, with both playing. That's what their practice reps told me this week. The rest of the line should remain unchanged, although Leeward Brown and Hunter Knighton got reps at right guard along with Dominique Briggs. Those are the eight linemen who will play, with center Junior Diaz, freshman left guard Corey Dublin and right tackle John Leglue likely going all the way barring injury. Brown also got some reps at right guard behind Dublin.
Former Tulane DB Derrick Strozier attended practice. He is trying to get Tanzel Smart, Rob Kelley and Orleans Darkwa active in alumni events in their areas, and all of them have been receptive, and he was there to talk to Fritz and his staff about their cooperation in promoting how their former stars in the NFL are still active in the Tulane community. I always really liked Strozier, who had a heck of a year at nickelback for the 2013 defense. He still knows plenty of guys who were redshirting freshmen on that team--Parry Nickerson, Aruna, Eldrick Washington, Quinlan Carroll, Luke Jackson and Sherman Badie.
Corey Dauphine, who has been out since the preseason with a knee injury and cannot play this season as a transfer from Texas Tech, dressed out today but did not practice in the 45 minutes I was there. He's getting very close to returning, though. I did not see Robert Kennedy out there, so it appears he has not been cleared to return yet.
Maybe I was imagining things, but watching freshman wideout Travis Tucker on the scout team offense, it looks like he has gained 10 or 15 pounds the wrong way. He looked a little pudgy. In fact, I checked my roster to make sure I had the right number for him.