What Challenge Does UTSA Present for Tulane’s Defense?

The Tulane Green Wave are facing extremely different offenses as they’ve began their American Conference slate, with the UTSA Roadrunners presenting their own challenge for the defense.

The Army Black Knights were simply a completely different style of football in the triple option, and the Green Wave responded with a tweaked defensive front with a linebacker in their usual nickel/slot/spear role.

Against the Memphis Tigers, that offense was one that was largely defined by explosive plays and containing those.

The Roadrunners won’t be looking to throw 20-plus yards downfield each drive. They’ll look to slowly bleed a team by gashing them with short, chunk completions.

When Tulane faced UTSA signal caller Owen McCown last season, he was impossible to bring down because he got the ball out in such a miniscule amount of time.

That same challenge will present again this weekend. The offense will look different this year, with Rick Bowie as the team’s new offensive coordinator bringing a true Air Raid style to the offense. The quarterback will have another year of experience under his belt.

This game is where the tough competition the Green Wave faced in their non-conference slate should hopefully be the difference maker.

The phrase about the game “slowing down” for guys gets thrown around, but you can really tell when it clicks for a player and he just starts to play faster and with total confidence.

There were a lot of guys on the Tulane defense who showed those traits after starting to show signs of it against the Black Knights.

After having to fight against the offensive lines of the size of the Duke Blue Devils and Kansas State Wildcats, it makes the size of the typical G5 o-lineman look more manageable.

UTSA might actually be one of the bigger teams on the line of scrimmage in conference play. But they certainly won’t be bigger than the Wildcats, and probably not the Blue Devils either.

It was obvious that the heightened challenge of the two Power Four contests on the road came into play when they beat Memphis last Friday.

The Green Wave defense was just faster and more powerful winning their one-on-one reps.

Now, they also have that game of experience under their belt. It’ll be important to see that applied two weeks running.

Especially on the defensive line after their breakthrough moment against the Tigers. UTSA will try to bounce plays out to the field side and get out in space. Containing that up front will be major to a victory this weekend.