Tulane Green Wave Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Tulane season with what you need to know and keys to the season.
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Tulane Green Wave Preview
Head Coach: Willie Fritz, 7th year at Tulane, 31-43
27th year overall, 185-112
2021 Preview: Overall: 2110, Conference: 1-7
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Tulane Top 10 Players | Tulane Schedule
Tulane Green Wave Preview 2022
Last year was weird.
This was a rock-solid .500 ball club over the previous four years under Willie Fritz with three bowl appearances and some good moments, but the 2021 version fall apart.
Lots of turnovers, too many misfires, bad defense, inefficient offense, poor caddying. Last year was when the program was supposed to be hitting its stride, and instead it totally flopped.
But Fritz is an excellent head coach, there’s too much experience and talent in place to have another off year, and there should be a bounce back into a winning season and bowl appearance as it prepares for a new world next year.
The school is sticking around the American Athletic Conference, and it’s about to be a whole lot easier without Houston, UCF, and Cincinnati around.
Seven years into the Fritz era the program isn’t exactly rebuilding, but this is the season to reestablish itself before looking to be more of a power player in 2023.
Tulane Green Wave Preview 2022: Offense
Turnovers. No, the passing offense wasn’t good enough, but it wasn’t awful. No, the rushing attack didn’t dominate, but it wasn’t bad. The offense averaged 387 yards and 28 points per game, and it needs to be far, far better after only hitting 30 points once in the last ten games.
The turnovers killed any and everything the team tried to do. More on that in a later blurb. On the plusside …
The offense gets nine starters back. The offensive line has four decent starters and enough depth to be okay. It has to be better at keeping defenses out of the backfield, but there’s experience around Sincere Haynesworth at center and Joey Claybrook at left tackle.
The running backs are deep. Tyjae Spears is a quick speedster who averaged 6.7 yards per carry with a team-high 863 yards and nine touchdowns, Cameron Carroll is more of a pounding option, and on the way is Ashaad Clayton from Colorado to potentially take over in the rotation.
Michael Pratt did what he could last year. The sophomore quarterback ran for five touchdowns and threw for close to 2,400 yards with 21 touchdowns and eight picks, but he struggled to keep the chains moving.
The receivers are there to do a lot more. Jha’Quan Jackson is a dangerous deep threat, Deuce Watts is a strong, reliable veteran, and Tyrick James is a solid tight end who led the team with 429 yards and four scores.
Tulane Green Wave Preview 2022: Defense
The defense didn’t do a whole lot to help out the offense. It was a disaster against the decent passing teams, struggled against the run, and allowed 34 points and 428 yards per game.
It got ripped to shreds by Ole Miss, Oklahoma, East Carolina, and SMU, but there were problems against just about everyone. The 5.81 yards per play allowed were the most since 2017, but with seven starters back and a slew of good pass rushers, things should be better. At least that’s the hope.
Darius Hodges led the team with 16.5 tackles for loss to go along with five sacks. The star defensive end flirted with the transfer portal, but he’s back. He’s the best of the bunch up front, but the linebackers are going to be the other main playmakers. Nick Anderson was a good tackler and made a whole lot of plays behind the line, and Dorian Williams is one of the AAC’s best middle linebackers.
The line needs 6-1, 300-pound Adonis Friloux to be more of an anchor on the nose. Losing Jeffery Johnson to Oklahoma stinks, but Patrick Jenkins if coming in from TCU to be a part of the rotation on the end.
The pass defense was a problem. It was helped by a great pass rush, but it still wasn’t enough to come up with enough stops against the great passing teams on the slate.
However, there’s talent in the secondary starting with Macon Clark, the leading tackler with 74 stops and four picks at one safety spot. The corners have to start taking the ball away, but everyone can tackle.
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Tulane Top 10 Players | Tulane Schedule
