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: 

It's gonna be fun spanking Tulane and their "Greenies" 😏
— #BeatTulane (@ChargeOn_UCF) October 16, 2014

Week Two is officially in the books, and we have some movement in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Power Rankings.

Below, you will see a listing of the teams in rank order, their rank last week, and the most recent result.

Sound off @fearthewaveblog on Twitter.

AAC Power Rankings - Week Two: 


11. SMU Mustangs - LW #7, 0-2 Record, L to U. OF NORTH TEXAS 

SMU suffered a big drop this week. After getting shellacked by Baylor, we thought they might just be rusty. A 43-6 beatdown by the hands of UNT (a team Tulane beat last year) led to the resignation of their coach and shaky waters ahead. Likely moving down further with time.

10. Tulane Green Wave - LW #10, 0-2 Record, L to GEORGIA TECH 

This kills you, but Tulane has a lot to prove after a monumental week in the program's history. In front of a sellout crowd at the brand new Yulman Stadium, Royce LaFrance opened the game with a fumble recovery to get the fans fired up. Unfortunately, on an extremely hot and humid Louisiana Saturday, things slipped away, and ultimately standout QB Tanner Lee was benched. The second half allowed the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech to break it open, and Tulane was left winless once again. They will get another chance with Southeastern Louisiana coming to Yulman for the first ever night game.

9. Tulsa Golden Hurricane - LW #9, 1-1 Record, L to OKLAHOMA 

Well, reality came back to Tulsa 52-7 beatdown at home by the Oklahoma Sooners.

8. UConn Huskies - LW #10, 1-1 Record, W against STONY BROOK 

Not going to give them much credit for beating Stony Brook of the CAA. Let's see what else they will do down the stretch.

7. USF Bulls - LW #8, 1-1 Record, L against MARYLAND 

USF gave up a fourth quarter lead to almost secure another victory for the American Conference against the Power Five.

6. Temple Owls - LW #5, 1-1 Record, L against NAVY 

Temple could not complete a comeback against future conference rival Navy. The Owls are back to .500.

5. Memphis Tigers - LW #6, 1-1 Record, L against #11 UCLA 

I hate to move a team up after a loss, but no one in the rear made a move. And everyone lost. So what are you going to do? Furthermore, who saw the Tigers going punch-for-punch with the #11 UCLA Bruins on the road? Tough to judge the Tigers by this performance alone, but things seem to be turning around in Memphis.

4. Houston Cougars - LW #4, 1-1 Record, W against GRAMBLING STATE 

47-0 win against Grambling State after a beatdown suffered against UTSA last week. Moving on.

3. East Carolina Pirates - LW #2, 1-1 Record, L against #21 SOUTH CAROLINA 

The Pirates led going into the second quarter. Pretty sure South Carolina would have imploded if Shane Carden and the gang had stuck this one out.

2. UCF Knights - LW #3, 0-1 Record, No Action 

Snooze. Getting a break after the weird Ireland trip. What are we hoping to do with that gimmick?

1. Cincinnati Bearcats - LW #1, 0-0 Record, No Action 

The Bearcats will start their regular season after the Cinci Bengals in the NFL. Who made this schedule up?

Let me know what you think about the American Athletic Conference Power Rankings: Week Two. 

Green Wave fans, unfortunately, I missed a week of new power rankings last weekend while I was taking my finals. My B. Luckily, most teams had a little mid-December break in their schedules anyway, so we didn't really miss much.

Here's what the Conference USA landscape looks like with only a few games left before the conference schedule begins. Short story: the power teams are starting to emerge while some early risers have begun their descent. Here's what I'm thinking. At number 12...

12. Rice (3-8; W6 - 12th) - The Owls aren't having a good year. They are definitely the bottom feeder of the C-USA. No doubt. They took drubbings by the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds (not a joke name) and a team called Hartford. The Owls picked up a rare win against Chicago State, but nothing else to write home about here.

11. Tulsa (6-5; W6 - 10th) - Tulsa took a bit of a beating against a solid (and ranked) Creighton team, so that's not a big deal. Giving up a big loss to U-Arkansas-Little Rock definitely hurts. Consistency has remained an issue with this team, and I don't see much upside yet with Tulsa.

10. UAB (6-6; W6 - 11th) - After a pretty devastating series of losses to start December, they haven't rallied back much. UAB took a loss to Ruters and squeaked out a win against ULouisiana-Monroe. They don't really have a signature win or anything like it that points towards a run in C-USA, so don't expect much from this team moving forward.

9. Houston (8-2; W6 - 8th) - The good news? They boast the best record in the conference right now. The bad news? They don't look good. They took an extra overtime to beat a bad Texas Southern team at home. They took a loss to Prairie View earlier this year, and they have won by two points or less to San Jose State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. I think this team looks worse by the week, and in spite of a great non-conference record, they will see a sharp drop once we get into conference play. Think about Tulane last year after starting off with a 10-0 run. I'm not betting on Houston right now.

From MinerRush.com

8. UTEP (4-5; W6 - 9th) - UTEP is one of only two losing teams in C-USA. But it's the same old story. UTEP played a few good teams and were outmanned big time early this year. And as we know, most in-conference teams didn't play anyone yet... ya-da-ya-da-ya-da. BUT. UTEP is starting to show some life. They took the Oregon Ducks to three overtimes a couple nights ago to pick up a hard fought win. They also lost 62-60 to the #21 UNLV Rebels. Make no mistake, UTEP isn't a powerhouse, but they are picking up speed and will look to improve in conference play.

7. Marshall (7-5; W6 - 7th) - Though UTEP will soon overtake Marshall in the power rankings, I'm going to hold them at 7th this week. Since the last rankings, they took care of Coppin State and Savannah State and suffered a loss to a great #11 Cincinnati team. They lost to the team they were supposed to and beat the teams they should beat. So we'll keep them there for now.

6. SMU (8-3; W6 - 3rd) - December hasn't been good to Larry Brown's Mustangs. After starting the season 8-1, they haven't won since Dec. 1. The Mustangs took a beatdown against Rhode Island on the road and lost a relatively close one to Utah. SMU is poised to keep sinking as their schedule gets tougher.

5. East Carolina (7-2; W6 - 6th) - The Pirates get a little bump this week. Since last ranked, they went 1-1. They beat Gardner-Webb at home and also took a struggling but #21 ranked UNC to the wire in a 93-87 loss. That said, we've seen the Tar Heels falter this week against a rough Texas team, so don't get too excited. ECU is playing solid basketball on par with the middle-weights of Conference USA.

4. UCF (7-3; W6 - 2nd) - I'm not liking the Golden Knights right now. They took a 22 point defeat at home to Miami (of 'the U' variety), which is necessarily killer. Miami is a good team. But UCF isn't a bracket buster this year, at this point. That's not really the problem though. They have played a close home game against Bethune-Cookman and barely beat Old Dominion on the road. So far, UCF looks much more vulnerable than in years past, and they haven't shown much spark yet.

Josh Davis in action. From NOLA.com

3. Tulane (9-3 - W6 - 5th) - Tulane is on a bit of a hot streak right now. They smoked a bad Texas Pan-American team but did it in style: the entire bench was able to hit the floor in that game. They followed it up the next night with a 15 point home win against an alright Pepperdine squad. The Green Wave is 9-0 in its new fieldhouse. They are solidly beating middle of the road teams, especially those that can't stack up against the talents of Josh Davis and sharp shooter Jordan Callahan. There are two big questions for the Green Wave as they try to ascend into the upper echelon of C-USA. 1) Can they win on the road? So far, the answer has been no. They are 0-3 after underperforming against Georgia Tech and giving up winnable matchups against San Diego and Nebraska. 2) Can they play tough ball against UCF, Southern Mississippi, and Memphis? Last season, an injury-plagued Green Wave had nothing left for the conference schedule. For Tulane to establish itself as a top-notch program in this conference, it will need to rattle these teams for the first time in years.

2. Southern Mississippi (8-3; W6 - 3rd) - Right now, it's Memphis/Southern Mississippi and then everyone else. They had a tough run with losses against a ranked Arizona team and a solid Louisiana Tech. They battled back with big wins against Grambling and Georgia State. The next two games will show us what kind of team the Golden Eagles are: Wichita State and bracket buster Morehead State.

1. Memphis (7-3; W6 - 1st) - You want to think that Memphis has finally got it. They fell apart at the Atlantis Tournament, looked bad for a bit after that, and then finally got some steam. Then they do something like last night: make a game against the Lipscomb Bisons into a close battle... Even good teams falter, but inconsistency is killing the Tigers. Anyway, the Tigers showed their teeth a bit in a fairly close game against rival Louisville. That said, Conference USA is lacking a powerhouse team this year. Simple as that. Nevertheless, it's still Memphis's conference to win at this point.

That's my breakdown this week. Thoughts? Disagreements? Leave comments on our Facebook or on the post.