Green Wave fans, Homecoming is upon us. In 48 hours, the 6-3 Memphis Tigers will be entering Yulman Stadium with the hopes of spoiling a Tulane Homecoming. 

 Here to break it down in "Know Your Enemy" is John Martin, a columnist for ESPN 92.9 who specializes in all things Memphis Tigers. 

 He was cool enough to take some questions over email after covering the Memphis Tigers' big matchup with Christian Brothers University on the hardwood last night.

 Give John a follow on Twitter, and you can read his column on Memphis here.

 Let's see what the Tigers are thinking.

Q: This season has certainly shaped up to be an interesting year for the Tigers. For one, they haven't been to a bowl game since 2008. On top of that, they were picked to finish 7th -- behind UConn, SMU, and USF -- in the preseason media poll. What were the expectations of Memphis fans coming into this year? 

 This being Justin Fuente’s third year, I think Memphis fans expected to see more wins this season. There wasn’t a quarterback competition — Paxton Lynch locked it up — and the defense, particularly stout last season, was returning mostly everyone. Maybe a portion talked themselves into six wins, with home games against UConn and South Florida to end the year. But nobody expected this. 

 Nobody expected to go toe-to-toe with UCLA and Ole Miss for three quarters. Nobody expected to have the chance to win nine games and the American Athletic Conference championship. In a Tiger fan’s wildest of dreams, that scenario wasn’t on the table.


Q: Memphis is on a nice run since their bye, obliterating SMU and Tulsa by a combined score of 88-30, and then following with a solid win on the road at Temple. How much fire do the Tigers have right now after those wins and gaining bowl eligibility? 

 It’s a huge deal to be bowl eligible at Memphis, as you know. That hasn’t happened since 2008. Even Justin Fuente, a notoriously understated fellow, let himself celebrate after Jake Elliott’s game-winning field goal went through. People don’t realize how bad a shape the program was in when Fuente took over; they were low on scholarships, low on talent, low on attendance and low on hope. 
But Fuente, by way of not missing in recruiting and sharp evaluating, has this thing rolling, and Memphis is gonna have to find the resources to keep him from bolting in the offseason. With the AAC title still mathematically possible, the key for Memphis is to obviously not be satisfied with six wins.

 Q: Senior running back Brandon Hayes has been very solid with a 200 yard and three touchdown game against Tulsa and a 5.1 YPC average on the season. With Tulane's defensive strength in producing turnovers, what do you envision the Tigers' offensive game plan will look like?

  I don’t really expect Memphis to change its game plan; the Tigers have been pretty balanced all season long. They’re reasonably better at running the ball, with Hayes and possibly Sam Craft returning from injury this weekend, but Lynch has accounted for 18 total touchdowns this season, too. So I suspect it’ll be, as it has all season long, a healthy mix of run and pass.

 Q: Rick Ross made an appearance at the FedEx Forum for Josh Pastner at Memphis Madness. Has the football program thought about bringing in the big guns for this road trip?

  I think Rick Ross took up their entertainer budget for the year.

  Q: Tulane's offense has been inconsistent at times due to a dangerous combination of youth as well as injuries at quarterback, running back, and receiver. How do you think Memphis will stack up on defense to Tanner Lee's offense?

 Memphis’ defense, when at full strength, is tough to handle. The Tigers have ball-hawking defensive backs like Bobby McCain and Chris Morley and they’ve got a havoc-wreaking defensive lineman in Martin Ifedi. There just aren’t many weak links in the Memphis defense, and they thrive off of causing mistakes.

 Q: While I am sure Tigers fans are gearing up for those heralded Memphis vs. Tulane matchups in basketball, do you see a strong contingent of Tigers making the drip down to Yulman? 

  You know, that’s an interesting question. It’d all depend on the hotel availability, which doesn’t seem ideal this weekend with the Saints in town. Maybe a few hundred?

  Q: If you were given the choice for a world where Coach Calipari stays for the 2009 Memphis season but Memphis football could not reach bowl eligibility until 2025, do you take the deal? 

  2025 is a long time, man. And that season would’ve been vacated anyway, probably.

  Q: Prediction for the game on Saturday? 

  Let’s go 31-14, Memphis. (Sorry, Tulane. New day.)


The Tulane Green Wave is coming off a remarkable 31-24 victory over Houston last weekend with a big-time matchup against the Memphis Tigers on the way.

I'll be publishing an interview with an expert on Memphis football tomorrow for my "Know Your Enemy" piece, but with three games remaining this season, I couldn't help but think: what is this year going to look like?

Saturday will be a big factor. Memphis -- like Houston -- is fighting for the top spot in the American Conference. Tulane will be an 11 point underdog, which will shock no one, when they enter Yulman Stadium on Saturday.

Thinking about our chances, I have been getting really into the Football Outsiders website, which specializes in advanced stats for college football. If you're into that sort of think, you'll probably dig this post. If math isn't your thing, I'd probably use this as a jumping off point.

Memphis at Tulane: 

 While the conventional wisdom was that this season would come down to UCF vs. Cincinnati vs. East Carolina, that has not been the case. Memphis has already thrown a wrench in that dynamic with a single in-conference loss so far this year.

Memphis is a damn good football team. They took UCLA to the wire on the Bruins' field, and then hung with a very talented Ole Miss team into the fourth quarter in the Liberty Bowl. But how good are they?

Using the F/+ formula of Football Outsiders, which rates teams on the basis of offensive, defensive, and special teams performance excluding garbage time and garbage drives, here's a quick preview of Saturday:

Tulane Green Wave [3-6]: 

  1. Ranking: 99th out of 128 in FBS 
  2. Offensive Ranking: 92nd 
  3. Defensive Ranking: 63rd 
  4. Special Teams: 126th 
  5. F/+ Rating: -14.5% 
Memphis Tigers [6-3]: 
  1. Ranking: 45th out of 128 in FBS 
  2. Offensive Ranking: 75th 
  3. Defensive Ranking: 46th 
  4. Special Teams: 2nd 
  5. F/+ Rating: 6.1% 
A couple things pop out immediately. For one, as you can see in the full ranking, Memphis is the highest rated team in the American Conference. The Tigers, through this week, have been on par with the likes of Texas A&M, Texas, and the University of Florida. That is a big time college football team. 

While both teams boast a serious strength on defensive with relatively low-ranked offenses through this week, you will notice the discrepancy at special teams: Memphis being ranked second in the country to Tulane, ranked second to last. 

Interesting, but still 6.1% vs. -14.5% in a F/+ rating? What does that actually mean in terms of the football game that is about to be played. 

An Underdog Story: 

SB Nation writer Bill Connelly writes a pretty cool blog called Football Study Hall, which is worth checking out if you like this sort of thing. 

Unfortunately, they do awesome projections for the power conferences but the AAC doesn't get any love. 

My question this week was how meaningful the difference between Memphis and Tulane in their play so far this year should be as a factor in projecting who wins this game. After tweeting at Bill, they do not publish their algorithm for how they turn the F/+ ratings into pretty impressive predictions for win probabilities, so I decided to try to do it myself. 

Using this college football season as a data set, in games so far between teams with a margin of F/+ ratings between 19 and 20 points, the favorite won about 96.8% of the time. If we played a game like that 100 times, you would expect the underdog to win about three of those times. 

Does It Matter? 

Depends who you ask. The ratings tend to be pretty solid. If you are picking games straight up using the F/+ ratings, you would be right about 78% of the time (it's a little tougher in projecting beating the spread, so that's a whole other conversation). 

A relevant factor that we don't pick up from these numbers is that a team trending upward is obviously desirable when you need one to beat the odds, even if the chance of victory is fairly small. 

I think Tulane fits that profile as much as any team can. For one, reports from practice this week indicate that not only has Tulane seen a couple key components coming back online after injury, but quarterback Tanner Lee is starting to hit his peak. 
That's a good sign. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the Tulane offensive unit -- which along with the special teams -- really anchors the Green Wave down in such ratings has been forced to evolve in some pretty absurd ways.

Does the trajectory of the offense under Nick Montana, which slowed to a crawl as the team tried to minimize risk against UConn and UCF, have anything to do with where the offense is right now?

Is the fact that 70% of the yardage Tulane has put up offensively has been produced by freshman a factor in that each game is basically multiplying the amount of experience this team has?

It's very possible. Tulane will be able to choose its own fate on Saturday playing in front of a sold-out crowd against the toughest team in its league.

If the Green Wave can survive this one again, it will be a huge statement not only to the development of this team but also to its viability against East Carolina and Temple, which on paper will prove to be easier games.

Predicting the Other AAC Matchups:

 Thursday: 

 East Carolina at Cincinnati: This one is extremely close on paper. Ranked 57th to 64th respectively, I have East Carolina with a 53% win probability. This is going to be a toss-up.

Saturday: 

 Tulsa at UCF: Huge disparity between these two teams. UCF playing at home will have a 98.5% chance of beating the Tulsa Golden Hurricane to stay in the AAC contender race.

Temple at Penn State: Temple will head to Penn State after a tough loss by a field goal to Memphis. The Owls should lose this one but have a 31% win probability, so they may be able to find some magic on the road.

USF at SMU: Both of these teams are considered the worst 15 squads in the country, but the Mustangs are putting up some historic numbers in their badness. USF will have an 81% win probability for this one on the road.


 It's been a good week in the Tulane sports world. On Saturday night, the Green Wave shocked AAC fans when they took down a strong Houston team while spoiling their Homecoming in the process.

In the wake of that victory -- and with our own Homecoming on the horizon this week -- Tulane players racked up some nice individual awards.

Leading the pack, Parry Nickerson, who responded to a near ejection by intercepting the ball on two critical fourth quarter plays, was named American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week by the AAC as well as Defensive Player Honors for the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

Forgot one important fact. Nickerson, who is now third in the country in interceptions, is a red-shirt freshman.

Fellow freshmen Tanner Lee and Dontrell Hilliard also were named, alongside Nickerson, to the AAC Weekly Honor Roll.

The future of this team is strong, and the young guns keep bringing it.

Happy Homecoming, and Beat Memphis.

Sept. 17, 2011. That was the date of the last Tulane road victory outside of the state of Louisiana. In this millennium, the word that has defined Tulane has been: struggle.

That has never been more true over the past decade than on the road, where wins were few and far between.

The narrative this week was that this team was done.

With a road trip to the Houston Cougars, favored by a full 18 points by the folks in Vegas, many believed this team was headed for another disappointment.

Instead, the Green Wave produced what was hands down the most impressive win of the Curtis Johnson era. Houston was no joke. With a victory, they were set to clinch bowl eligibility for another year and regain control of the American Conference atop the AAC standings.
Tulane jumped out to an early lead with a Tanner Lee touchdown following an interception of the first quarter. In the end, the Green Wave went wire-to-wire, controlling the momentum for nearly the entire game.

The only exception: two minutes of disaster at the end of the first half, when a Tulane fumble bobbled into the end zone, and the Cougars snagged it for a TD. 14-14. On the next drive, with Tanner Lee taking his offense down the field, an interception on third down set up a field goal, allowing the Cougars to head to the end zone with a 17-14 lead.

Tulane has struggled to put together complete games this year. There's no question about it. Until today, the Green Wave had never reclaimed a lead in a game where they were trailing.
They did today. Tanner Lee immediately responded by throwing his third touchdown of the day against the #4 pass defense in the country.
Just a great throw and a solid catch on that fade route.

Now the game looked all but over in the fourth quarter. With less than 9 minutes remained, CB Parry Nickerson grabbed an interception, bringing his total for the year to five.

We just had to wait for the clock to strike zero. However, Houston managed to put together one good drive in the half, and scored with less than 2:00 remaining. Now here is where it gets sticky.

Down by one touchdown, Houston goes for the onside kick. A Cougar blatantly crosses the line before the kick, a seemingly obvious offsides call. Tulane bumbles the ball, and Houston recovers, but a flag is on the field for the offsides.

The AAC official chose to pick up the laundry, and the fumble recovery was good. Curtis Johnson was incensed. Houston proceeded to move down the field to the red zone, within yards of the house on 4th down and the game on the line.

Parry Nickerson, who was nearly ejected in the first quarter, made a game saving interception for his team. Tulane won on the road outside its state for the first time since 2011. They did it against a defense ranked higher than LSU. And they did it, most importantly, with no excuses.
Great game. Beat Memphis. It's Homecoming.

A rare appearance on national television was not kind to the Green Wave on Halloween night. Despite entering Yulman Stadium with an astounding 8-0 record, Tulane endured a 38-14 beating at the hands of the Cincinnati Bearcats in front of a sparse home crowd.

Yikes. I don't really have a need to talk much about this game. I have made an active effort not to read any of the fan boards because I don't like ruining my Saturday and I pretty much know what is going to be there.

Here's a funny picture of a creepy Cat in the Hat though.


Look how lonely that creepy Cat in the Hat is. But I digress. Tulane went to halftime with a 24-0 deficit. The worst part is that it didn't have to be that way.

Tulane showed up for this one, at first. On superstar QB Gunner Kiel's first throw, Parry Nickerson picked off the Cincy gunslinger. He was abruptly benched for the rest of the game. Good news, right?

Well then Tanner Lee marches his team down the field completing every pass on the way. Maybe he has some Manning at Isidore Newman blood in him, who knows? The kid looked great though.

In the red zone, Tulane couldn't break through when going for the touchdown on fourth. Then it was all Munchie Legaux, graduate of the nearby Karr High School, for the rest of the half.

Cincy just straight up rolled through the Tulane defense. Nothing was stoppable. Pressure the QB? Munchie would float one to the screen for 30 yards. Try to cover the spread? Watch a Bearcats RB break through the line at twice the speed of our linebackers.

It just got out of hand. No way around that. Now that being said, there is one thing that I loved. 

 This team --- all year --- has come out of the locker room flat. They scored one touchdown in the third quarter of every game combined up to this point. Not this time.

Tanner Lee led his team on the opening drive to make it a 24-7 game. Tulane wasn't done. Darion Monroe picked off a charging Munchie on the next drive. After that, it was Lee time once again, who looked sharp and smart in the pocket, culminating in a TD throw in the red zone.

24-14. It's a game. Two scores. Maybe the Bearcats were getting a little ahead of themselves, but who knows? Tulane looked like a real team.

Then this happened.


Munchie hits a gentleman named Shaq Washington, who put in a phenomenal effort to haul this pass in. It is ruled a touchdown on the field. As the replay and the screenshot above shows though, the ball essentially rested on the receiver --- not in control -- until he crosses that boundary when he gets his hand back onto the ball. It is bobbling until he crosses out of bounds. The good folks of ESPN 2 confidently believed this one was coming back.

It did not. And the game was 31-14 and out of reach entering the fourth quarter. Look, I am not going to bellyache about this too much. When you put your team down by 24, you are one bad break from letting a game get away. I think it was a shitty call, but that is my $.02.

Regardless though, the momentum was gone. The air was sucked out of Yulman. And as the commentators noted, it seemed like Munchie's 75 friends and family in attendance made up about half of the total audience at that point.

Absolutely brutal. At least this dude perfectly timed going Hulk on his t-shirt for the ESPN cameras. Nice work, bro.



Happy Halloween, y'all. It is Tulane Gameday. At 7 PM, the Cincinnati Bearcats will make their first-ever appearance in Yulman Stadium in a crucial in-conference matchup. 

The Bearcats are 4-3 on the year and will enter riding a two-game winning streak. Tulane had a week off to allow star running back Sherman Badie to heal up and for freshman Tanner Lee to get back in the mix. 

I had a chance to interview Scott over at the Bearcats Blog. You can find them on Twitter here too. Here's what we learned. 

1. We now know Gunner Kiel is officially in for Friday instead of Munchie Legaux (who went to Karr on the Westbank in New Orleans). With his rib injury against USF, do you see Gunner being limited at all, or should the offense be back at 100%? 

 Kiel has battled the rib injury ever since the third game of the season at Ohio State. He's a very tough kid. He's also been knocked out of a couple of games since. That's a little worrisome. I'm of the mind that Kiel shouldn't start and only play a "In case of fire, break glass," role, but I'm not the coach. Kiel is great. He's going to throw deep, he's going to throw short and he's going to just make any throw he wants because he's incredibly talented. We've seen him tear apart most of the secondaries UC has faced. 

2. This is obviously a weird year in the world of the AAC with some new teams coming on board, but Cincinnati was the #1 pick in the preseason. After losing that three game stretch against Ohio State, in-conference Memphis, and the U, do you feel like the Bearcats have regained their momentum? How's the fan base handling this season in Cinci? 

 That's a tough question to answer. The Bearcats have bounced back on the scoreboard with a couple of lopsided wins. Those wins have come against Southern Methodist and South Florida, teams who hold up the southern part of the standings. They are two of the dirt worst teams in the nation. Tulane isn't thought of much better, sorry!, so even a huge win here wouldn't answer a ton of concerns.

 The defense has been a huge issue for the Cats this season and is one of the 30 or so worst in the nation. They have feasted on SMU and South Florida. The Bearcats have picked off 4 passes the last two weeks after having two all season to that point. The Cats have taken away opposing run games, something they didn't do to OSU, Memphis or Miami, and forced the awful quarterbacks to make plays. If you know anything about SMU and USF, those quarterback situations are a mess.

Cincinnati's running game has given the offense balance the last couple weeks as well. The UC QBs ran for over a combined 100 yards against SMU and freshman running back Mike Boone had over 200 yards last week. Again, the competition is a major point but the results are positive. 

Cincinnati has turned a bit of a corner. I say that with some optimism and some reserve because we really won't know until the Cats play East Carolina. Double sorry, Tulane fans reading this. 

3. We're a little shocked to be a 2.5 point underdog to Cinci, especially since the Green Wave was a 20 point dog to UCF in the last matchup. What's your prediction for the matchup this week? 

 I'm a bit surprised the spread was that low too. Cincinnati was only 13.5 and 10 point favorites to SMU and USF. Vegas does not believe in the Bearcats. Memphis opened as a 24ish point favorite at SMU for some comparison. I thought some of it was because of Kiel's status, but even now it's a 4 point spread. Cincinnati is ranked 75 on the Football Outsider S&P rankings, Tulane 101. Just off that, you would think that the Bearcats would be a bigger favorite, even on the road.

My prediction is going to be a blowout (sorry again). Cincinnati has proven one thing under Tommy Tuberville and it's that they can wipe the floor with the bottom of the league, USF excluded. The games against the top teams are a different question. Maybe Tulane gets the Bearcats to play the same type of terrible offense that the Green Wave were able to force Central Florida into a couple weeks ago. Making the game incredibly ugly is Tulane's only shot in my book. 

 I just don't think they'll be able to pull it off for 60 minutes. UC was pushed to the limit by an awful Miami Ohio squad, so anything could happen. Still see a blowout. Something like Cincinnati 34 Tulane 13.

4. With a sophomore linebacker picking up another run-in with Johnny Law this week, is Tommy Tuberville starting to see some distractions for the team with the legal incidents, or do you not expect that to be much of a factor against this opponent? 

 Sadly, Cincinnati has faced this problem as recently as last week. It sounds like Marcus Tappan, the player arrested, is going to have a long road back to getting on the field, if he ever gets on the field at Cincinnati. I think arrests are more of a public perception problem than on the field problem. I doubt FSU is going to be too distracted by the fact their starting running back is involved in whatever the hell he's involved in. There are bigger things to worry about, like the opponent. You can't stroll into Tulane and be distracted. That's how you walk home with a loss.

I hope ending this with a compliment of Tulane has endeared me to the readers. You'll be better soon. Just not this year in any sports that matter. But one day.

Week Eight of college football is in the books, and it's time for a new edition of the American Athletic Conference Power Rankings. 

11. SMU Mustangs - (0-6 / 0-2 in AAC) - LOST to CINCINNATI 

Easy one. SMU is without a head coach with no light at the end of the tunnel. They have no hope for this season. I just wish they were on our schedule. Next. 

10. Tulsa Golden Hurricane (1-6 / 1-2 in AAC) - LOST to USF 

Tulsa is in a death spiral. Coach Blankenship's program gave up a commanding lead at home to lose to a struggling USF Bulls squad with 17 points allowed in the fourth quarter alone. Yikes. I wish we had that first game back, but so it goes. 

9. UConn Huskies (1-5 / 0-3 in AAC) - No Action 

UConn had a weak to recover from a road loss to our Tulane Green Wave. Until they find a way to compete even against the bottom tier of our conference, UConn will remain in the doghouse. 

8. Tulane Green Wave (2-5 / 1-2 in AAC) - LOST to UCF 

Yargh. Tulane had a real chance to start a run when our defense held UCF to 20 points, but a struggling offense was not able to produce a tying score. Still, they have a bit more upside than those bottom three teams and a few appealing upset matchups on the docket. First up: a home battle with the Cincinnati Bearcats after a week to prepare. Let's roll. 

7. South Florida Bulls (3-4 / 2-1 in AAC) - WIN against TULSA 

Well, the USF managed to earn a winning record in the conference with a huge comeback against Tulsa. Don't get me wrong. The Golden Hurricane is not a strong team, but for the time being, USF has put itself in the middle of the conference. 

6. Memphis Tigers (3-3 / 1-1 in AAC) - No Action 

I've been a fan of Memphis all season, but a home loss to Houston kills the momentum they built from a smackdown at Cincinnati. They have a favorable stretch of SMU, Tulsa, and Temple as their next three games. They will need to win all three to put themselves back into the conversation as a contender for the conference. 

5. Temple Owls (4-2 / 2-1 in AAC) - LOST to HOUSTON 

Owls, Owls, Owls. One of the feel good stories of 2014. A 4-1 start was a great thing for a program that was once straight-up disowned by the Big East (the old Big East, that is). But still, a 31-10 beating at the hands of the Houston Cougars won't cut it. Were wins against Delaware State, Vanderbilt, UConn, and Tulsa great tests, or are we about to see some serious regression? Let's watch. 

4. Cincinnati Bearcats (3-3 / 1-1 in AAC) - WIN against SMU 

The good news? The Bearcats are now coming off of a 41-3 shellacking of a conference opponent. The bad news? They had a three game losing streak coming into that win. I do not believe Cinci is a serious contender to win this conference at this stage, but they are still very dangerous behind QB Gunner Kiel. 

3. Houston Cougars (4-3 / 2-1 in AAC) - WIN against TEMPLE 

Houston just took care of business in back-to-back week by silencing plucky newcomers Memphis and Temple with nice wins. They do have a loss to UCF on their record, but still, they have USF, Tulane, and Tulsa as their next three matchups. Houston controls its own fate if it wants to put itself in the mix, as they do not play ECU. 

2. UCF Knights (4-2 / 2-0 in AAC) - WIN against TULANE 

UCF did not look like a great team against Tulane. In fact, the offensive line looked like a much bigger problem than the absence of big-time QB Blake Bortles. That being said, they are playing at another level than the rest of the teams, and I would say they are the only real viable threat to ECU's run here. 

1. East Carolina Pirates (5-1 / 2-0 in AAC) - No Action 

East Carolina did not have a game this week, but they are up to #18 in the rankings and expect them to keep rising with UConn and Temple as their next two games. 

That's it for now. Hit me on Twitter @fearthewaveblog or leave your comments. 

Tulane Football dropped to 2-5 on the season (and 1-2 in the American Conference) in a 20-13 loss to former Conference USA foe UCF yesterday in Orlando, FL.

At this point, we know the program is done with moral victories, so I don't want to go crazy in celebrating a loss... But here are the key points from the game yesterday.

1. The Tulane Defense is Actually Very Good

The biggest surprise this year, in my opinion, was not the foibles of the special teams unit but a strange regression for the Tulane Defense.

By the end of last season, capped off by a bowl appearance, "mid-major Michigan State" was thrown around frequently to describe the defensive powerhouse that Tulane was honestly becoming. Lorenzo Doss was picked as the next big thing, and anyone who knew anything about this team expected for the "bend but don't break" Green Wave to come back.

It didn't quite happen like that. In the first game of the season, the secondary broke down against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and couldn't stop a comeback that culminated in a double overtime loss.

Things didn't look better when the Duke Blue Devils and Rutgers Scarlet Knights put up points at will against the prized element of our program.

That seems to be changing though. Last week at home, Tulane held the UConn Huskies to three points, facilitating another home victory with minimal offensive production in the absence of Tanner Lee. Fair enough, but it's still UConn, right?

Well, this week may be a true turning point. In the last two matchups with UCF, the Golden Knights put up 110 points of offense combined. It was not good, and the Green Wave didn't belong on the same field.

Yesterday, however, the Tulane Defense did everything it possibly could to keep its team in the game. In the second half especially, Tulane forced two consecutive three-and-outs to set up potential game-tying drives. This is what you have to do playing a good team on the road, and they stepped up every chance they had.

2. Nick Montana muffed a meaningless play, and now everyone is freaking out but it did not matter. 

You have probably seen this, right?


With :05 left in the first half, Nick Montana thought he had a first down and instinctively spiked the ball in a last ditch effort to stop the clock.

SB Nation, Bleacher Report, and ESPN could not resist the urge to post this as a not top ten-type of play involving "Joe Montana's son." The fact remains though:
It's whatever. I am sure Nick is capable of handling that type of attention given his last name, but he did everything he could as a third string quarterback to give his team a chance to win. In the fourth quarter, he threw deep shots on first and fourth down (including escaping two sacks) that his receivers dropped. He did what he had to do.

3. DiRocco Nailed a 42 yarder, and it was awesome. 
The narrative that DiRocco isn't any good was easy to latch onto. He missed field goals, extra points, and pretty much anything that involved holding a football and kicking it at something.

CJ was adamant, however, that DiRocco had the ability to play at this level, as a former first-team prospect out of the state of Florida. In particular, the snapping has been horrid, and this has caused a dozen opportunities where the play was mis-timed, which wreaks havoc on kickers mentally and physically.

He hit a good one yesterday, and you have to hope he's back on track after a pretty disastrous introduction to college football.

4. Tulane Could Have Won 

 We out-gained UCF 278 to 233 in total yards. Tulane had greater time of possession. The Green Wave was +2 in turnover margin yesterday. It all adds up.

In the end, they were not able to nab a second score to tie it up. UCF is the upper level of the American Conference, and you have to make some plays to get out of there with a rare road victory.

That said, the Green Wave showed tangible progress yesterday. It wasn't enough for a win, but it is enough for me to get psyched for the Halloween showdown with Cincinnati.

Tulane has a week off and some momentum and fire after leaving Orlando. Let's see what they bring to Yulman against another top team from the American Conference.

Tulane Football returns to the field tomorrow for an AAC showdown with the University of Central Florida.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. UCF, of course, is a former Conference USA foe, but this will be the first meeting between the two teams in the American Conference.

Let's preview the action in Orlando.

1. Records: Tulane (2-4 /1-1 in AAC) at UCF (3-2/1-0 in AAC)

2. Last Game: Tulane defeated UConn at home in a 12-3 victory. UCF delivered a home victory in overtime against BYU, albeit a BYU team without injured big-time QB Taysom Hill.

3. Broadcast: National on ESPNU and Streaming on Watch ESPN

4. Game Time: 11 AM CST. Wake up for this one.

5. All-Time Record: UCF leads 4-1 in the all-time series

6. Green Wave Storyline: The return of Montana.

Redshirt freshman and resident gunslinger Tanner Lee missed his first full game of the season last week when he nursed a "bruised" shoulder (with speculation that it may be separated). Due to second-string QB Powell struggling to command the offense in the prior week against Rutgers, the stage was set for former starter Nick Montana to lead the offense once again.

Nick Montana came out with another victory as a starting quarterback with one passing TD to boot. That said, the offense largely fell back to the "dink and dunk" method of 2013. While this may have been in part due to Montana's lack of recent experience, the UConn defense is also structured to prevent long plays.

The feeling is that Montana will be starting this week unless CJ is working on some Payton-esque Jedi mind tricks here. The report is that Montana worked on some longer passes this week in his first team reps, so our offense will be a big question mark.

7. UCF Storyline: Pretender or contender?

UCF has not established a clear identity in wake of the departure of first-round draft pick Blake Bortles. They started the season with disappointing losses to Missouri and Penn State, but they have been solid, as of late.

They will enter their home field riding a three game winning streak and a history of taking care of business when on the same turf as the Tulane Green Wave.

That said, with an emotional overtime victory behind them, they will need to reclaim their focus this week to take care of a Green Wave squad that just captured its first American Conference victory ever.

8. Bulletin Board Material of the Week: 

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