Tulane Must Get Back To Run Game Basics Against Charlotte

The Tulane Green Wave need their running game to show back up, and fast as they get ready to play the Charlotte 49ers on a short week.

The touted room of talented backs has certainly taken some hits in the injury department. It was a strong, deep room that could handle a fair number of injuries, but the room thinned out quick against the UTSA Roadrunners.

Maurice Turner did not play a snap in the game, and Jamauri McClure re-injured his foot on the first carry of the contest. He clearly did not look right, was in the medical tent a bit, and only had four carries on the evening. McClure hasn’t participated in practice this short week.

Turner, optimistically, has been practicing in full. But it’s put a lot of pressure on Johnnie Daniels, who was the leading back on the night with eight carries – which is a negligible number at best.

It was also made clear by the fact that quarterback Trace Johnson attempted 44 passes, the most attempts by a quarterback in a Green Wave uniform since Michael Pratt against the UAB Blazers back in the 2021 season.

Now, some of that comes from the fact that they were playing from a deficit a fair amount of the game and as that piled up, the desperation grew to make explosive plays in the passing game. Unfortunately, those couldn’t connect enough with a lot of inexplicable drops.

It put a lot of the onus on Johnson to be great in that matchup. And the Roadrunners, unlike the Memphis Tigers, had a game of tape to scout the freshman signal caller.

He committed some turnovers, but he was dared to throw by UTSA who put seven or eight guys on the line of scrimmage at times.

They prioritized bringing the pressure over stuffing the run, but they really didn’t have to try too hard with Tulane simply not being effective in that element of the game.

There is a way to win boring and win ugly in football: running the ball well with a complementary defense.

That seemed like a solid and obvious formula for a team with really no answer at quarterback and one that has really seen correlated success on the field with a running game leading the attack.

It’s not clear what leads this Green Wave team’s attack. But they need to get back to the basics against Charlotte, and that includes figuring out how to run the ball effectively again.