The Tulane Green Wave are not where they need to be to be a contender in American conference play.
New Orleans, La. – The Tulane Green Wave were in real danger of dropping a game they certainly could not afford to lose on Saturday night.
The 24-21 victory over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles felt hollow.
It wasn’t an unmitigated disaster, but a loss absolutely would have been to head coach Will Hall’s former team.
What should have frankly been an easy night for the win column turned into a nailbiter that required a career night by running back Maurice Turner and six points left off the board by the Golden Eagles’ kicker.
Now, those things also deserve a bit of credit. The running back room that was touted all preseason hasn’t been consistent enough through four games, but it’s had two playmakers emerge with 200-plus yard nights – and it’s one still missing Jamauri McClure, whose return is definitely close.
The second field goal should have been a chip shot 21 yards out for Southern Miss. Credit to spear TJ Smith for getting close enough to disrupt the timing to allow defensive end Josh Lewis to get the block, as we figured out through a series of conversations with players in postgame.
The end of this game required real grit and heart. Turner’s 74-yard touchdown run preceded the game-deciding blocked kick, and while playcalling overall has been an issue, it wasn’t on the call to have fourth string quarterback Dagan Bruno seal the win on a third down run.
But there was absolutely no reason that those things were necessary against an inferior Southern Miss team talent-wise, at home, and as 18-point favorites.
What we saw on Saturday will not do in conference play, and things do not start out slow for the Green Wave facing Army and Memphis in back-to-back weeks.
What I will say is that this staff calls it when they need to. Cooper Helmke should be the starting placekicker. Kadin Semonza needed to leave that game. He was seeing ghosts, taking unnecessary sacks, and ultimately threw an interception in the end zone down one touchdown in the fourth that was a really poor call.
And so, the quarterback who most fans wanted to see out the gate was thrown into the fire a bit unceremoniously.
Trace Johnson didn’t have the night of his life. But he operated with impressive poise for a true freshman.
He was the fastest player downfield to try and throw a block to get Turner into the end zone, which he did successfully, after first leading a field goal drive that ended up being critical.
It’s nonetheless disturbing that Tulane has needed to cycle through three quarterbacks and presumably will see what they have in Johnson now in conference play.
They have no offensive identity heading into their American slate.
The other phases weren’t blemish free, but less offensive. The defense vastly improved on third down but allowed a backup quarterback down their top two targets to carve up the secondary and nearly drive right down the field to win the game at the end.
Tulane has a real duo in punter William Hudlow and Helmke. But half of the field positions in this game were ruined by needless penalties on punt return.
It looked like a team completely unprepared for conference play.
This team is not going to operate under the benefit of the doubt any longer. It’s up to them to find a way to win without it.
