Tag: Tulane Football

New Tulane coach Jon Sumrall boldly predicts Green Wave will make and win CFP during his tenure

Jon Sumrall has big shoes to fill as he replaces Willie Fritz, but he’s raising the stakes even higher.

Shortly after losing in the American Athletic Conference Championship to SMU which cost it a return trip to the New Year’s Six, Tulane suffered an even bigger gut-punch.

Coach Willie Fritz, the architect behind the most successful era in the program’s modern history, left to become the head coach at Houston. While losing Fritz hurts, that pain was eased significantly with what looks like a home-run replacement hire.

The Green Wave wooed Troy’s Jon Sumrall away, and it landed a coach who went 23-4 and won two conference championships in his two years with the Trojans. A former assistant at Ole Miss and Kentucky, Sumrall also brings SEC ties to his new job in New Orleans.

Sumrall has big shoes to fill. He replaces a coach in Fritz who has also won 23 games in the past two seasons and led the Green Wave to their first double-digit win season since Tommy Bowden went 12-0 in 1998.

However, Sumrall made the expectations clear right out of the gate by issuing a bold prediction in his introductory press conference: Not only will Tulane make the College Football Playoff under his leadership — it will also win a national championship.

It’s certainly a tall order, but it’s a feat that will become at least slightly more attainable next season when the playoff expands to 12 teams with a spot guaranteed to the highest-ranking Group of Five team.

Under the four-team format, only one team from the G5 ranks made it to the CFP, Cincinnati in 2021.

But with a reported six-year contract in tow, Tulane will hope Sumrall is around for the long haul as he seeks to make his prediction a reality.

Way-too-early Alabama football bowl game prediction

According to the latest 2023 bowl game prediction, Alabama misses the College Football Playoff again… but why?

Alabama football has only missed the College Football Playoff twice since its inception in 2014 and has never missed it in consecutive seasons. The Crimson Tide finished 2022 ranked No. 5, just outside of the top-four teams to be invited to compete for a national championship. Now, the team looks to return in 2023.

Brad Crawford of 247Sports, however, believes Nick Saban’s program fails to make it in the upcoming season.

In Crawford’s latest, very early bowl game projections, No. 1 Georgia would play No. 4 Michigan in the Sugar Bowl and No. 2 Ohio State would face No. 3 Texas in the Rose Bowl. In the end, he believes it would be Georgia vs. Ohio State for the national title.

Alabama is left out of the playoffs and is projected to face Tulane in the Peach Bowl.

“The Crimson Tide could fail to get to the playoff, again, thanks to two regular-season losses,” writes Crawford. “And Nick Saban won’t be happy with the committee. Their reward? A possible matchup with the Group of Five champion. Think Tulane or Boise State in this spot. Michael Pratt’s back for the Green Wave, but that team did lose several key pieces from last year’s historical run under Willie Fritz. Alabama’s 2023 season could fall short of national title aspirations if the lingering quarterback situation isn’t solved with a difference-maker in place coming out of fall camp.”

This would be back-to-back New Year’s six bowl game appearances for Alabama after defeating Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl last season. For most programs, this would be a huge step in the right direction. In Tuscaloosa, however, this is a step back.

There are still a few months before the 2023 college football regular season gets underway, but many unanswered questions remain for the Crimson Tide. Most notably, who will be the starting quarterback and emerge as the go-to guy in the ongoing three-man competition?

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Alabama football as the offseason progresses.

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Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on Twitter @SpurrFM. 

Pre-portal, way-too-early 2023 college football rankings

We project out who the best teams will be after portal additions.

It’s way too early to know what teams will look like next season. That said, we can have a decent idea of which teams will be playing meaningful football at the end of the year.

Heading into the season, Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State were safe bets to have strong seasons. Judging by each of the teams’ last performances, they are about as good as we expected.

There were some surprises in the 2022 season. Nobody I know had TCU playing in the national championship. You could argue some are still underrating the Horned Frogs heading into the championship game.

Even so, let’s attempt the foolish task of projecting which teams will compete among college football’s best teams in 2023, starting with this year’s top team.

Texas Football: Bowl season proves playoff expansion is necessary

The BCS could never give a postseason like this.

TCU is going to the National Championship. After many argued the Horned Frogs were undeserving of a playoff spot, Sonny Dykes’ team defeated the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines.

Michigan dominated all season, including their regular season finale against No. 4 Ohio State. Many thought Saturday’s game would bring more of the same for Jim Harbaugh’s team. TCU shocked the college football world.

In the following game, Georgia had to come from behind after being shredded for most of the game. If not for a missed field goal, the No. 1 Bulldogs would be watching the championship with No. 2 Michigan in front of a television at home.

Bowl season produced more impressive finishes. No. 5 Alabama looked like a national championship contender against No. 9 Kansas State. The Crimson Tide was not afforded the opportunity to compete for a title.

No. 16 Tulane upset the No. 10 USC Trojans, once again illustrating teams have to show up and play each game.

We’ll never know who would eventually be crowned champions if the 2022 playoff had more than four teams. The issue needs to be remedied moving forward.

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Tulane 46, USC 45 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic What Happened, What It All Means

Tulane 46, USC 45: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic what happened, player of the game, and what it all means

USC beat Tulane to win the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. What happened, who was the player of the game, and what does it all mean?

Tulane 46, USC 45 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic What Happened, Player of the Game, What It All Means

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– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic What Happened

– Well that was fun. USC was up 45-30 on a 43-yard Denis Lynch field goal with 4:30 to play. Tulane needed just two plays to score a touchdown, USC messed up on the kickoff and was pinned deep, RB Austin Jones was tackled for a safety, and then things really got crazy.

Down six, Tulane went 66 yards in 12 plays with a six-yard touchdown grab – which was originally ruled incomplete but was reversed – with seven seconds to play for the win.

– Caleb Williams did everything he could. He threw a pick, but he bombed away for 460 yards and five touchdowns with the offense going up by 14 twice and 15 late in the game before the Trojan defense collapsed again.

– Tulane kept fighting back even after USC kept pushing ahead. Tyjae Spears came up with four scores – the USC defensive front kept getting ripped up as the game went on – but Williams and the offense almost always took over when needed … at least until the final 4:30.

100 Best Bowl Players | Ranking How Good the Bowls Were

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Player of the Game

Tyjae Spears, RB Tulane 
He ran 17 times for 205 yards and four touchdowns and caught a pass for 14 yards.

CFN Experts Picks Dec 20-27 | CFP NY6, Dec 28-Jan 2

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Fun Stats

– Caleb Williams completed 37-of-52 passes for 462 yards and five scores with a pick, and he ran four times for ten yards. Brenden Rice and Tahj Washington combined for 283 yards on 11 catches – Rice caught two touchdown passes.

– Tulane QB Michael Pratt completed 8-of-17 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns, and ran 15 times for 83 yards.

– USC held the ball for 39:49, Tulane had it for 20:11. USC outgained Tulane 594 to 539.

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic What It All Means

The Tulane offense kept on pressing, and with the win, the Group of Five got a huge win. That’s going to be harder and harder to do going forward – in the expanded CFP era the Power Five programs will have most of the parts there, and the field of Gof5 teams won’t be great to choose from – but for now, this was massive for the a Tulane program that went from two wins last year to 12 this season.

The 1998 Green Wave team went 12-0, but it didn’t face anyone like this USC team. The program hadn’t won more than seven games since then, but it was good in bowls under Willie Fritz. It was Tulane’s fourth appearance in five years going 3-1.

Not to make excuses or dismiss this brutal loss, but … whatever. This game would’ve been a nice moment for a USC program that hadn’t won a bowl game since the Rose Bowl at the end of the 2016 season, and it would’ve helped ease a little bit of the pain over losing the Pac-12 Championship.

However, USC has much bigger fish to fry going forward than this. All this did was highlight further that the defensive front needs a makeover. That, and if there was any concerns about motivation going forward, this will certainly help.

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– 2022-2023 Bowl Schedule, Predictions

Losing the Cotton Bowl was a lowlight for USC; for Americans, the game was full of highlights

If you’re a #USC fan, the #CottonBowl was a familiar experience. If you were a neutral or a Tulane fan, you enjoyed the heck out of it. USC’s 45 points didn’t create a win.

We knew we were going to see points, touchdowns, long gainers, and plenty of highlight-reel plays in the 2023 Cotton Bowl between USC and Tulane.

The game lived up to the billing when viewed solely through the prism of exciting plays and lots of offense. Naturally, USC will be hugely disappointed with yet another bad showing on defense, but purely in terms of entertainment — especially for neutral fans just wanting a ballgame to watch on the holiday — this game came through.

It exceeded America’s expectations, that’s for sure.

Tulane looked dead in the water (which is ironic, given that the team’s nickname is the Green Wave), but it poured on a tsunami of points late in regulation to steal this one from USC, 46-45.

For USC, the plays Tulane made were lowlights. For America, they were amazing highlights, and rightly so. It was a supremely fun game if you were a neutral party. No one can deny the national view.

The view for USC? Anything but fun.

Here are the many highlights created by USC … but not enough to win, as it turned out. Tulane’s winning score has to be included in this USC highlight reel, because that was the ultimate story: The Green Wave did more in the end.

Bowl games on TV today: USC vs. Tulane, live stream, TV channel, time, how to watch

The No. 8 USC Trojans will face the No. 18 Tulane Green Wave at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas in The Cotton Bowl Classic.

The No. 8 USC Trojans will face the No. 18 Tulane Green Wave at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas in The Cotton Bowl Classic.

The Green Wave has a balanced offense that has been able to put up 35.2 points per game, ranking 22nd in the FBS. In recent games, it has been the Tulane ground game that has been particularly dominant, as the team has averaged 259.4 rushing yards per game since November 5th.

USC, meanwhile, has been scoring even more, with 41.1 points per game ranking them 3rd in the nation. The Trojans came close to making it to the national title game but ultimately fell to Utah 47-24 in the Pac-12 Championship on December 2nd. That loss snapped a five-game win streak for USC.

This should be a great game between these two teams, here is everything you need to know to watch or stream the game today.

#10 USC vs. #16 Tulane

  • When: Monday, January 2
  • Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
  • TV Channel: ESPN
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

 NCAA Football Odds and Betting Lines

NCAA odds courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook. Odds were updated at 11:20 a.m. ET on Monday.

USC (-2) vs. Tulane

O/U: 66

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Trojans Wire appears on college football YouTube show to preview USC-Tulane Cotton Bowl

We joined @Marcus_Era and co-host Jackson Johnson for the Young Guns College Football Show, previewing the #CottonBowl between #USC and #Tulane.

The Cotton Bowl is near. The year 2023 is already here. It’s time to discuss USC versus Tulane, the second-best matchup on January 2. The best one is the Rose Bowl between Penn State and Utah.

There’s a new YouTube show in the college football broadcasting realm. Co-hosts Will Clough and Jackson Johnson put together the Young Guns College Football Show. We stopped by and talked about USC, Tulane, and the big game in Arlington on Monday. The game starts just after 1 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. Pacific. We will get to see how healthy and mobile Caleb Williams is, how good Tulane’s pass rush is, and how well USC’s reshuffled and undermanned offensive line is without Andrew Vorhees and Brett Neilon.

Those are just some of the stories and plot points we explored. We also looked back at the 2022 USC season and examined some big-picture questions surrounding the program.

Subscribe to the Young Guns College Football Show on YouTube:

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Tulane QB Michael Pratt thrived vs Alex Grinch’s defense one year ago; rematch is next

Michael Pratt uses his eyes to manipulate linebackers and safeties. #USC needs to be on high alert. @s_helwick talked to us and the @VoiceOfCFB about Tulane’s QB.

Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt has faced an Alex Grinch defense before. He has gone up against a Lincoln Riley team before.

It was September 4, 2021. Tulane paid a visit to Oklahoma in a game originally scheduled to be hosted by the Green Wave in New Orleans. The location was moved at the last minute because of a hurricane. Tulane wasn’t ultimately bothered by the location change. The Green Wave trailed by five points and had 4th and 1 in Oklahoma territory in the final minutes before failing to convert that short-yardage situation. Oklahoma held on for a tenuous and not-very-convincing 40-35 win. Tulane QB Michael Pratt was a big reason the Green Wave almost toppled Alex Grinch and Lincoln Riley.

Group of Five and AAC football analyst Steve Helwick talked about the qualities and components Michael Pratt brings to the table for Tulane in the upcoming Cotton Bowl matchup against USC. Helwick joined Trojans Wire at The Voice of College Football to preview Monday’s bowl showcase:

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College football’s New Year’s Six bowls ranked by watchability

This year’s crop of games features the entire Heisman finalist list, a mix of legendary blue blood powers and dangerous upstart spoilers.

We have finally reached the end, the long journey of the 2022 college football season leading us to mountaintop of the sport: the New Year’s Six.

This year’s crop of games features the entire Heisman Trophy finalist list (plus, last year’s Heisman winner), a mix of legendary blue blood powers and dangerous upstart spoilers. All six of these games, in our humble opinion, are worth the time of any serious college football fan this year, but we’re here to rank them by watchability, that oh-so-scientific metric that helps you decide just how much of a priority each game should be in your life.

Let’s dig in.

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