Tulane Football – Page 2 – Syndication Server

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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Former Tulane coach Bernie Bierman could be the greatest CFB coach no one knows about

Tulane’s Bernie Bierman vs USC’s Howard Jones in the 1932 Rose Bowl matched two of the most successful CFB coaches of all time.

When the turn of phrase “The greatest X no one knows about” is used, a lot of people might think that’s hyperbole and embellishment.

Come on: A lot of people know about X. To be sure, “no one” is a bit of embellishment. However, the larger point being made is that a really excellent professional or craftsman is known by a lot fewer people than he should be. A person who is elite in his profession and has achieved very richly on a larger, historical level is known by few members of younger generations of human beings.

Before we dip into sports, let’s take some non-sports examples of people who achieved on a remarkable scale in life but are not household names for younger generations of Americans:

Wright Patman.

Dorothy Day.

Marriner Eccles. (Yes, this is the guy whose name is on the Utah Utes’ football stadium, for reasons other than football.)

If you’re a younger person and don’t know who those people were, it’s not your fault at all. No one taught you about them. You had no control over that.

Yet, it is important that you know about those people. We should all try to keep the memory alive of important Americans and world citizens who did significant things in their lives.

You might wonder what Patman, Day, and Eccles have in common. Here’s one answer: They were all very prominent and active in the 1930s. Why mention the 1930s?

That’s when USC and Tulane met in the Rose Bowl, guided by two of the greatest and most successful coaches in college football history.

This leads us back to the “Greatest X no one knows about.”

USC fans know all about Howard Jones, the patriarch of the Trojan football program and the man who first made USC football a national household name. USC fans might not know about the Tulane coach who opposed Jones and the Trojans in the 1932 Rose Bowl.

Bernie Bierman, who coached against Jones 91 years ago in the first and most important USC-Tulane game ever played, really could be the “Greatest college football coach no one knows about.”

Let’s tell his story, so that younger college football fans will know about him and pass that story down to their children and grandchildren:

USC vs Tulane: The 1932 Rose Bowl

91 years ago, USC and Tulane met in a New Year’s Day bowl game. The game was so long ago that the Rose Bowl was the only bowl in existence at the time.

The Orange, Sugar and Sun Bowls all came into existence in the 1934 college football season. Those three bowl games — all tied for the second-oldest bowl games in the United States, a few years ahead of the Cotton Bowl — were first played on January 1, 1935. (The first Sun Bowl, however, was not played between two college teams. The first all-college version of the Sun Bowl came one year later in 1936.)

Therefore, when USC met Tulane in the 1932 Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the Rose Bowl was still the only bowl game in existence. It was not just the only show in town; it was the only show in college football’s postseason.

9-1 USC faced 11-0 Tulane in the Arroyo Seco on Friday, January 1, 1932. A crowd of 75,562 gathered to watch the game.

USC and Tulane played a scoreless first quarter before the Trojans scored the only points of the first half on a five-yard touchdown run by Ray Sparling with 9:34 left in the second quarter. USC built on its 7-0 halftime lead by scoring 14 points in the first seven minutes of the third quarter. Halfback Erny Pinckert, an All-American who earned Rose Bowl MVP honors, scored on two touchdown runs of over 22 yards — 30 and 23, to be precise.

USC had a 21-0 lead with eight minutes left in the third quarter. Tulane managed to score two touchdowns, but each conversion failed. USC was able to preserve a two-possession lead in the game’s final 17 minutes and earn a 21-12 win.

USC coach Howard Jones won the second of his five Rose Bowl championships. Tulane finished its season 11-1, the second-best record in any season in the history of the school. Only the 1998 team — which went 12-0 — finished with a better record.

Here are a few game highlights:

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Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch have both faced Tulane before

Lincoln Riley has already coached vs Willie Fritz. Alex Grinch has already competed vs Tulane QB Michael Pratt. Watch the Oklahoma-Tulane game from Sept. 4, 2021.

If you didn’t know this already, you know it now: Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch have both coached against Tulane, its current head coach, and its current quarterback. Yes, this really did happen.

On Sept. 4, 2021, Tulane and Oklahoma opened the college football regular season in a game originally scheduled to be played in New Orleans. A hurricane moved the game to Norman, Okla. Riley went up against Willie Fritz. Alex Grinch tried to contain Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt.

The Sooners roared to 37 first-half points and a 37-14 halftime lead. However, Oklahoma hit the snooze bar and relaxed in the second half. The Sooners scored just three points after halftime. Tulane posted 21 points. The score was Oklahoma 40, Tulane 35, entering the final two minutes. Tulane had a 4th and 1 in Oklahoma territory. Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch were sweating in a game they previously led by 23.

Oklahoma was able to get a fourth-down stop and survive, but the game revealed Alex Grinch’s inconsistency as a defensive coordinator, and the tendency for Lincoln Riley-coached teams to let opponents back into games.

It’s certainly worth a watch because you’ll see the chess match between Riley and Willie Fritz, and the battle between Michael Pratt and an Alex Grinch defense:

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The Trojans Wire – Voice of College Football 2023 Cotton Bowl Preview: USC vs Tulane

.@s_helwick joined Trojans Wire and the @VoiceOfCFB to preview #USC – #Tulane in the #CottonBowl, focusing on the absences of Andrew Vorhees and Jordan Addison.

There are plenty of matchup keys for the 2023 Cotton Bowl between the USC Trojans and the Tulane Green Wave, but the dynamics of this matchup have changed in recent days.

We didn’t know 10 days ago how many USC players would or wouldn’t play in this game. Now we know that Andrew Vorhees and Jordan Addison will not suit up for the Trojans. How does this change the nature of the matchup with Tulane? What can the Green Wave do now that USC will be without two of its best offensive players? Which players and positional matchups become that much more important for both sides? Do these roster adjustments change the game plan or the line of attack for Tulane on defense?

We also looked at the other side of the ball and the clash between the Tulane offense and the USC defense. We evaluated key Tulane players and how they will shape the outcome, one way or another.

Steve Helwick of Underdog Dynasty provided extensive Tulane analysis and joined USC Voice of College Football postgame show co-hosts Tony Altimore, Tim Prangley, and Rick Anaya on our show.

Note: The USC postgame show at The Voice of College Football will air next Monday afternoon after the Cotton Bowl ends. Go to The Voice of College Football at YouTube and look for the link to the USC-Tulane Cotton Bowl postgame show.

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Our recommendations for what each team’s uniforms should be this bowl season

No, you won’t see teams wear double home uniforms in bowls, but they should. This photo is from the 1966 Rose Bowl. Look at those UCLA and Michigan State unis!

We’re on record as saying Tulane’s home light blue should be worn by the Green Wave in the 2023 Cotton Bowl, and that USC should wear its Cardinal and Gold home uniforms. Double home uniforms ought to be a regular part of bowl week.

It is true that in certain select instances, double home uniforms can’t be worn. A really good example of this is the Cheez It Bowl, in which Oklahoma and Florida State wear similar home colors. One team will have to wear road whites while the other team wears its home jersey. However, the other bowls this coming week offer a chance for teams to wear double home jerseys.

They won’t do so … but let’s provide our recommendations. Maybe in 2023, we’ll see bowl teams use double home uniforms and start a new tradition in college football.

Before we give our recommendations, one last note: See the cover photo for this story? That’s the 1966 Rose Bowl, with UCLA and Michigan State wearing double home uniforms. It used to be the case. It can become reality again. College football teams ought to bring back the double home uniforms for bowl games.

On to our recommendations, which appear below:

Bowl season means teams should wear double home jerseys, just like USC and UCLA

The unfortunate reality: Bowl teams don’t wear double-home jerseys. They should. Tulane will wear gray instead of its normal home light blue vs USC.

Bowl games are part of the color, pageantry, and aesthetic beauty of college football. Painted end zones, parades, bigger halftime shows, all wrapped around the holiday season. The Rose Bowl is the foremost example of bowl aesthetics, but the other bowls are spectacles unto themselves.

The Orange Bowl halftime show was a very, very big deal when I was a kid in the 1980s. The Sugar Bowl went from plain-jane Tulane Stadium to the modern Superdome. The Fiesta Bowl was a small, backyard bowl when it began in the early 1970s. It quickly grew into a main-event bowl game.

These big events — obviously the College Football Playoff semifinal bowls, but also the other big bowls — are visual feasts, or at least, they are meant to be. Why teams don’t have double home uniforms for them is a real head-scratcher.

Tulane’s light-blue home uniforms aren’t the exact shade of blue UCLA uses, but they are close enough. That should be the Cotton Bowl uniform matchup: Tulane blue versus USC Cardinal and Gold.

It won’t be.

Tulane will wear a gray alternate jersey:

😈😈 pic.twitter.com/WozKNNj3Sn

— Tulane Equipment (@TulaneEquipment) December 6, 2022

This is a real missed opportunity.

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Score predictions for major bowls, including Texas vs Washington

Oklahoma and Texas play bowls back-to-back on December 29.

The on-ramp to bowl season begins this week as the Bahamas Bowl and Cure Bowl begin the slate on games on December 16. More intriguing matchups as the postseason progresses.

Louisville and Cincinnati battle in what could be termed the Scott Satterfield Bowl. Cincinnati, who lost its head coach to the Wisconsin Badgers, poached Satterfield from its old Big East rival. The teams will play on December 17.

The same day, Florida and Oregon State will compete against each other in a surprisingly even matchup.

The best games begin on December 27 when Wisconsin faces Oklahoma State. The Cowboys will be a team to watch after an early portal exodus saw them lose Spencer Sanders and Trace Ford, top players on both sides of the football.

December 29 features a Red River double header on ESPN. At 4:30 the Oklahoma Sooners face the Florida State Seminoles. At 8, the Texas Longhorns take on the Washington Huskies.

Let’s predict some of bowl season’s biggest games.

Wille Fritz is a coaching superstar without the Power Five identity

Willie Fritz doesn’t coach at an elite football school, but he is an elite coach. Learn more about the man who will face Lincoln Riley and #USC in the #CottonBowl.

Willie Fritz is the college football head coach journalists and college football junkies love.

Fritz has done great work at non-Power Five conference programs, the out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-path coaching stops which don’t receive major national attention.

Lots of us who blog about college football for a living have long felt that lower- or middle-tier Power Five schools in need of a coaching upgrade should have hired Fritz.

No Power Five athletic director has snapped up Fritz yet, however. Tulane is very thankful for that. Fritz, who has coached at Tulane since 2016, has won the AAC championship and the Group of Five title. He has led Tulane to its first New Year’s Six (formerly BCS/Bowl Alliance/Bowl Coalition/New Year’s Day) bowl appearance since the 1940 Sugar Bowl.

Learn more about Tulane’s excellent coach, who will match wits with Lincoln Riley on Jan. 2 in the 2023 Cotton Bowl: