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:

Montana spike on 4th down was embarrassing but no effect on game for #Tulane. Wave had no time to run real play after not getting 1st down
— Guerry Smith (@Guersmith) October 19, 2014

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. 

DIROCCO HITS IT FROM 42 YARDS. ROLL WAVE ROLL. 13-6
— Fear the Wave (@FearTheWaveBlog) October 18, 2014

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.

Winning on the road in Conference USA has never been a strong suit of the the Green Wave. Last season, armed with all-conference players like Josh Davis and Ricky Tarrant, they only managed the feat a grand total of two times.

On Saturday night, the Green Wave held on for a clutch 86-80 victory against UAB to find its first win in Alabama since 2007. Additionally, they managed to hold the lead for much of the game and ultimately grind out a victory with several players in foul trouble.

Tre Drye had a breakout game, highlighted by 21 points at 7-9 from the field (he also grabbed 9 rebounds and 3 steals). Louis Dabney nearly matched him with 20 points. Freshman Cameron Reynolds even came off the bench to add another 11.

This marked a solid all-around performance for the team after a disappointing 27-point loss to Middle Tennessee State.

It also brought the Green Wave back into sixth place in Conference USA at 6-5 on the season. Their next matchup will bring a strong UTEP Miners squad back to Devlin on Feb. 20.

As Tulane has beaten every team with a worse record (6 victories) so far this year, the Green Wave should be able to handle the UTSA, Florida Atlantic, and FIU games that follow. However, the regular season will end with another matchup against the dreaded Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles.

UAB has shown flashes of greatness this year, upsetting the UNC Tar Heels while they were still ranked and most recently crushing USM by 24 points. While UAB isn't a contender in the conference, this was definitely a needed boost after some tough defeats.

For tonight, great work to the team, and roll wave.

Also, check out the sick UAB locker room in the picture above... just a side note. But yeah, go Tulane!

Tulane's two-game win streak was snapped last night by the Old Dominion Monarchs on a road trip to Norfolk.

For virtually the entire game, the Monarchs possessed a solid lead over the Green Wave, yet Tulane managed to make it a two-possession game in the last 60 seconds following a Jonathan Stark three pointer.

The magic wasn't there, however, and the Monarchs were able to make enough free throws to escape the Green Wave's comeback attempt. The conclusion was a 70-64 loss on the Monarchs' court.

With the loss, Tulane drops to 3-3 in Conference USA while Old Dominion moves to 4-1 (and 10-10 on the year, weirdly enough).

The Green Wave's shooting struggled throughout the game, nailing only 19 of 49 field goals (38% from the field). In addition to Stark's team-leading 21 points, Jay Hook posted 14 and Louis Dabney put up 17.

Tulane has a short break until its final game of the road trip: a brutal matchup against a strong Southern Mississippi team in Hattiesburg on Feb. 1. The Green Wave is now 11-10 on the year.

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Green Wave fans. It's been about a month since the New Orleans Bowl marked the end of Tulane's football season. So I guess it is about time to jump into this exciting Conference USA basketball season...

I kid, but people liked the power rankings throughout football, so I am going to bring them back for the remainder of the in-conference schedule. Let me know what you think on Twitter (@fearthewaveblog) or in the comments, as always.

WEEK 12 - CONFERENCE USA BASKETBALL POWER RANKINGS 

16. RICE OWLS (5-12 / 0-4 CUSA) 
Notes: Rice is real bad this year. An 0-4 start in CUSA is disastrous, and a beatdown by Tulane didn't help matters. Rice will remain a bottomfeeder in this conference, even with some new contenders for that title in the mix this year.

15. MARSHALL THUNDERING HERD (6-13 / 0-4) 
Notes: Marshall and Rice play next to determine who will sink a bit further for next week's edition.

14. UT SAN ANTONIO (6-11 / 2-2 CUSA) 
Notes: Ken Pomeroy actually has this as the worst team in Conference USA. Remember that newly D1-A football team that broke Tulane's season in football, impressive in its youth and potential. Evidently, that narrative doesn't apply at all for the Roadrunners in basketball. The travesty is that the Roadrunners football team and basketball team will have the same postseason hopes in the 2013-2014 seasons...

13. FLORIDA ATLANTIC OWLS (6-12 / 2-2 CUSA) 

12. TULANE GREEN WAVE (10-9 / 2-2 CUSA) 
Notes: What a weird year. First with the exodus of players back in the spring and then the 8 freshmen Coach Ed Conroy had to prepare for college basketball. Tulane just isn't clicking yet. I don't know how to define it, but this week paints a pretty clear picture: the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs held Tulane to the fewest field goals ever for the team... they respond by shellacking an undermanned Rice squad. I expect 2014 to look very similar: win some games against the other scrappy CUSA teams, and get the youth ready for a move to the AAC.

11. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (10-9 / 2-2 CUSA) 
Notes: Notched a nice win against East Carolina, but they put up 36 points against Old Dominion. What?

10. EAST CAROLINA (11-7 / 0-3 CUSA) 

9. NORTH TEXAS MEAN GREEN (10-8 / 1-3 CUSA) 

8. OLD DOMINION MONARCHS (9-3 / 3-0 CUSA) 
Notes: Did anyone know that they were called the Monarchs? I pride myself on a fair amount of team name trivia, and this came out of nowhere for me. They are 3-0 in conference so far, but this Monarch will prove to be a pretender going forward.

7. TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (8-10 / 3-1 CUSA) 
Notes: Tulsa is trying to keep it weird out in Oklahoma. Their non-conference season was easily forgettable, but they have shown some heart in this early conference season. A smackdown of Tulane was pretty unexpected given both teams' records, but Tulsa looks to be a cut above the rest.

6. UAB DRAGONS (12-5 / 1-2 CUSA) 
Notes: UAB still owns a non-conference win over the UNC Tar Heels, which has to be the strongest win in the conference this year. They took a close loss to UTEP this week. That game kind of was a test for me. I am not betting on the Dragons to emerge as a top dog. They will batter the lesser CUSA talent, but I don't thing they can hang with a Louisiana Tech or Southern Miss to contend for the crown in the end.

5. MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE BLUE RAIDERS (12-6 / 2-1 CUSA) 

4. UTEP MINERS (13-6 / 3-1 CUSA) 
Notes: Took care of Middle Tennessee State and UTEP, two of the stronger threats in the league. Their lone conference loss is to Charlotte.

3. CHARLOTTE 49ERS (12-5 / 3-1 CUSA) 
Notes: I know so little about this new CUSA team, but they are probably peaking too early. They survived an overtime scare on the road against Tulsa, and they even managed to beat a reasonably solid UTEP team. Their conference loss? UT San Antonio... No good.

2. LOUISIANA TECH BULLDOGS (3-1 / 15-4) 

1. SOUTHERN MISS GOLDEN EAGLES (16-3 / 3-1 CUSA) 
Notes: I had Southern Miss as my top pick in CUSA coming into this season, and they deserve to be near the top. Great overall record, but a loss to Tulsa took some of the wind out of the Hurricane in the early season. They did manage to take care of a very good Louisiana Tech team in a home victory last night. To me, that represents a big momentum shift for this team in a "test" type of game. However, I do think Louisiana Tech is going to end up winning the conference when it's all said and done. The Bulldogs are a much more efficient defense than the Eagles, and their offensive firepower is pretty comparable. They won't meet again until the CUSA Conference Championship.

Let me know what you think. We'll check in again next week. @fearthewaveblog