Tulane will open the doors to Yulman Stadium for the second time in history when the Southeastern Louisiana Lions come to town tonight. Here are the key details for your gameday preview.

1. Game Time: 7 PM (CST) at Yulman Stadium, New Orleans

2. TV: Nationally televised on ESPN 3 and Watch ESPN online

3. Records: Southeastern Louisiana Lions (2-0) and Tulane Green Wave (0-2)

4. Enemy Playmaker: Quarterback Bryan Bennett. Bennett is a transfer from a little FCS school called Oregon, where he was supposed to be the next big thing for the fast paced offense. Then Marcus Mariota happened, and Bennett went to Southeastern to run the Lions offense. This game will feature a big time matchup between a talented quarterback and Tulane's stacked secondary, namely Lorenzo Doss.

5. Current Power Ranking: Tulane 10 of 11 in AAC Power Rankings 

6. FearTheWave.com Prediction: Tulane 34, Southeastern 30 

7. Other Storylines: Tonight will be the first-ever night game for Yulman Stadium. That will be a nice respite for the folks who sweated it out last week in the early September heat. 

Tulane (0-2) got its first home game in Uptown out of the way last Saturday in the kickoff at Yulman Stadium. They will notch another first this week when the Southeastern Louisiana Lions (2-0), ranked #3 in FCS, come to town to face the Green Wave.

I wanted to do a "Know Your Enemy" preview piece with a Lions expert, and here is my Q&A with RL from the Lions Den forum. Check him out on Twitter @royalLion05 too. 

Tulane Head Coach Curtis Johnson called SELA the toughest team on Tulane's schedule. Do you think that is deserved, or was CJ just hyping this game up?

As for Curtis Johnson's comments ... I believe he said an NFL scout told him that, and was essentially repeating it. Not sure those are his thoughts but the fact that he brought it up when he did, leads me to believe he has respect for our program. But we hear "coachspeak" all the time ... it's part of it. As for whether I feel it's deserved? We're an FCS program with 63 scholarships, the AAC is a solid FBS conference with 85 scholarships ... I'll leave it at that.

Green Wave fans are familiar with how well SELA did with big-time transfers, including Jordan Batiste, who led the team in sacks last year. Who do you see as the big-time players for the Lions this week to watch out for?

We do have a number of FBS transfers, including Bennett, but also have a solid core of kids signed out of high school who are impact guys for us. Harlan Miller, Xavier Roberson, Chris Malott, Marice Sutton, Drew Misita, Kaleb Muse, Tyler Stoddard and Rasheed Harrell to name a few.

As far who to to look out for this weekend? Obviously Bennett, along with Xavier Roberson, Devante Scott, Jeff Smiley, Rasheed Harrell and Chris Malott on offense. Defensively, our top guys are Harlan Miller, Isiah Corbett, Jacob Newman, Drew Misita, Marice Sutton, Jordan Batiste, Micah Eugene ... I could pretty much name them all, we've got a lot of depth.

QB Bryan Bennett had a nice week against Southern Utah last game. Tulane is noted for its strong secondary and ball hawks like Lorenzo Doss. How do you anticipate the Lions will handle that passing defense.

Actually Bennett didn't have one of his better nights vs Southern Utah, though still managed to put up over 300 yards of total offense, and made big plays when he had to. As for facing Tulane's secondary ... I'm sure we'll handle it the same we approach practice everyday vs our own secondary. Anytime you have to go against Harlan Miller, Derrick Raymond, Batiste, Eugene, Stoddard and Sutton on a daily basis, you're pretty well battle tested.

One inning is all it took for the Green Wave tonight, and it wasn’t the eighth. On a beautiful, windless night at Turchin, the Greenies took the field against Southeastern, a team that obliterated them thirteen to one earlier in the year. Although Coach Jones dismissed the idea of this being a revenge game when he said “you play so many games, it’s not like that at all,” Tulane played like they were trying to prove something, defeating Southeastern seven to three. This came as a result of a seven run first inning bonanza that gave the Greenies all they would need for the rest of the game.

This offensive performance was mirrored by another gritty pitching performance by the Green Wave staff. This time it came from Sophomore David Napoli, plucked from middle relief to start tonight. He worked out of a couple of jams on the evening, snagging double plays and strikeouts when he needed them most. “It was exciting to get the win but I don’t think I pitched as well as I could have pitched, command wise but it’s nice to get out there and get the win,” Napoli said. His control was the only issue in his five innings, as the only run he allowed was walked in. Nonetheless, Napoli came away with the win.

Napoli wasn’t the only player making the most of his start. Sophomore Bowen Woodsen, an infrequent starter, displayed all he had to offer at the plate and in the field tonight. The first inning was his inning. He smacked a three run homerun, the first of his career, off of Southeastern starter Sophomore Jordan Hymel. He ended up with two hits on the night. He made his mark in the field too, making a leaping catch in the first, which stopped the Southeastern bats after Napoli allowed a single to center.

Woodsen was a big piece of the biggest inning of the season for Tulane. The Green Wave batted around for the first time all year, and consequently scored the most runs in an inning. Redshirt Junior Matt Ryan got in on the act as well, driving in two, while both Freshman Briggs Barrios and Junior Jeremy Schaffer drove in one.

While it was a different cast of characters for Tulane, it was another win, bringing them to twelve and four on the season, and cementing their spot in the top-25. To describe it, Coach Jones said: “You win differently every day, and every game isn’t going to be the same and you can’t continue to think, ‘oh we’re not going to score’.” The Greenies showed that mentality tonight.

Photo Credit: Parker Waters

Tulane's bats were quiet again tonight, as they fell to Southeastern 13-1. Not only were the bats quiet, the pitching was poor, at least early; the Lions scored all of their runs in the first four frames. It quieted down after that, as both teams subbed often, giving playing time to the players who normally would not receive it.

Nearly all parts of the Greenie's game were off tonight. Aside from poor pitching and hitting, they also played atrocious defense, committing three errors. This accounted for 7 unearned runs. There were plays where no error was committed that defense was still poor. The Wave had a runner trying to steal second out easily if the throw was caught, but neither the second baseman nor the shortstop took control, and the ball went right between them into center.

It seems that there is plenty to work on for the Green Wave this year. Perhaps the top-25 ranking was premature for this team, or perhaps they aren't playing to potential, but either way they are sitting at 2-2 heading into a home series against GW this week.

Find the box score here:

http://www.sidearmstats.com/selu/baseball/index.htm