The Green Wave will be looking for its first win of the season as it welcomes the Jaguars to Yulman Stadium.
After an ugly loss to the Duke Blue Devils to open up the season, the Tulane Green Wave is finally back in Yulman Stadium and ready to add a tally to the win column.
The Green Wave will welcome the South Alabama Jaguars to New Orleans in the first home game of the Will Hall era. Though Week One did not come without some struggles, there's still time for the program to adjust and turn things around. As an added bonus, the team will be showcasing its King of Mardi Gras City Edition uniforms, which took the college football world by storm upon release, in this weekend's matchup.
It's going to take a major effort for the program to get back to its winning ways, but Tulane appears to be up for the challenge. Here are three keys to success for the Green Wave as it prepares to take on the Jaguars.
Get off to a hot start on offense.
The Olive Green and Sky Blue looked sluggish offensively against Duke, with its lone field goal coming in the fourth quarter.
Kadin Semonza has drawn his first start at quarterback for Tulane after providing a bit of energy off the bench for the team. Though his completion percentage of 52 percent left a bit to be desired, he wasn't afraid to air the ball out some, ultimately accumulating 140 passing yards.
The Green Wave also couldn't get much of a rushing attack going, with just 54 total yards on the ground. The running backs room looked like the strongest group on the team in the preseason, so the performance was certainly disappointing.
Tulane simply can't afford to look lost and slow when it hits the gridiron on Saturday. The team should be looking to enter the game with a new spark, and every student-athlete who suits up should be ready to give his all on the field.
Limit the opposing rushing attack.
The Green Wave was absolutely throttled by Duke's rushing attack, giving up a total of 250 rushing yards.
Sure, Nate Sheppard is an incredible player who picked up 227 yards and two touchdowns all on his own. However, there's no excuse for Tulane's defense to look that bad moving forward. The group struggled with fundamental tackling, and the defensive line was pushed around quite a bit.
Meanwhile, South Alabama picked up 241 rushing yards in last weekend's win against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions. The visiting squad is going to be a legitimate, well-rounded threat on the ground, and it will put the Green Wave to the test.
Can Tulane settle down and play some hard-nosed football, or will it be ran all over again?
Clean up the penalties.
There are few things more infuriating in football than unnecessary penalties, and the Green Wave had plenty of them in Week One.
Tulane picked up 15 penalties for 109 yards against the Blue Devils. Any time the team seemed to get the slightest bit of momentum, it was derailed by some sort of unnecessary foul. These are college players: there's no reason to have so many basic, high school-level mistakes.
The Green Wave has to clean its play up as quickly as possible. It's easier said than done, of course, but it is absolutely necessary if the team wants to find any success this year.
