Tag: Willie Fritz

3 Green Wave to know ahead of Oklahoma vs. Tulane

The Oklahoma Sooners welcome the Tulane Green Wave to town this weekend and here are three key players to know ahead of their nonconference showdown.

Oklahoma’s performance against Houston rocked the foundation of the fan base. Many expected Oklahoma to flat-out dominate the Cougars.

Instead, they found themselves sweating out a 16-12 win that needed a late safety and a big third down conversion to make it out of the 4th quarter with the win.

This week, the Sooners get the opportunity for course correction, but their most challenging opponent to date looms large as they get set to host a dark horse playoff candidate out of the AAC in the Tulane Green Wave.

Tulane has dominated the AAC over the last few years. Tulane had 23 wins over the last two seasons under Willie Fritz, who is now at Houston, which included back-to-back conference title game appearances.

This year’s team has a new coach and features some players that could cause trouble for the Sooners on Saturday.

Makhi Hughes, RB

Malik Hughes resides at the heart of the Tulane offensive plan. He’s not getting as much love as some other running backs but make no mistake, he’s a really good player.

Hughes made a name for himself last year as a workhorse running back, ranking ninth in the country with 1,378 yards and earning 20+ carries in eight of his 14 outings. Oklahoma would be wise to expect a full dose of Hughes come Saturday.

Mario Williams, WR

If the name looks familiar, it should be. That is indeed Mario Williams, a former Sooner who started his career in Norman before transferring to USC along with Caleb Williams when Lincoln Riley defected to Southern California. Williams may have finally found his groove as a collegiate wide receiver. He entered Oklahoma as a consensus four-star and showcased the ability to be a threat at times in his only season wearing the Crimson and Cream.

For Tulane, he’s already leading them in receiving yards through two games with 252. He’s clearly a favorite target of new Green Wave quarterback Darian Mensah. Expect Williams to be targeted early and often with the quick screen game and other quick hitters.

Patrick Jenkins, DT

Former TCU transfer Patrick Jenkins has found a home anchoring the middle of Jon Sumrall’s Green Wave defense. He is Tulane’s best defensive player and with the instability along OU’s offensive line, he could have a day disrupting an already inept Oklahoma run game. Jenkins is cerebral yet very powerful despite staying under 300 pounds.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Bryant on X @thatmanbryant.

2023-2024 College Football Coaching Carousel

Texas A&M hires Duke’s Mike Elko as the coaching carousel continues to spin.

The end of the college football season is here and the coaching carousel is once again getting fired up. This season saw two early head coaching changes within the Big Ten to get an early jump on things, but more coaching changes are popping up as we close in on the end of another regular season around the nation.

We’ll keep track of all of the head coaching changes in our updated coaching carousel tracker to see what head coaches are out and who is replacing them. This will be updated daily as needed with the latest head coaching changes as jobs open up and are filled. As is so often the case in college football, one coaching vacancy being filled will lead to another opening popping up as a result.

As of Thursday, Dec. 8 there are 2 head coaching vacancies in college football, including 1 power conference job to fill. A total of 19 head coaching changes have been made this year.

Below is the updated chart for this year’s edition of the head coaching carousel in college football. After that is a bit more detail on each job opening, listed in alphabetical order.

Houston makes a phenomenal hire with Willie Fritz

Houston gets off the coaching carousel and Tulane jumps on after latest hire.

One move that was lost in the shuffle of the College Football Playoff selection Sunday was the hiring of Willie Fritz for the Houston Cougars.

It was announced on social media less than 12 hours after the Tulane Green Wave lost to the SMU Mustangs in the AAC championship game. The 63-year-old head coach had just finished his eighth season with Tulane. He amassed a record of 54-47, but more importantly, he finished 23-4 over the last two seasons.

It felt like a matter of when and not if that Fritz would make the jump to the Power Five. A long-time head coach with plenty of experience at the JUCO, FCS, and FBS levels. Before taking the job at Tulane, Fritz helped the Georgia Southern Eagles make the jump to the FBS. His two-year run finished with a 17-7 record and 14-2 in Sun Belt play.

The 2022 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year has a combined record of 247-121 with a 4-1 record in bowl games. He is familiar with coaching in the state of Texas, although things have changed since he was at Sam Houston State in 2010 to 2013.

Fritz is a proven winner and plenty of players will want to play for him as the Cougars look to climb out of the doldrums of the new-look Big 12. It was important for Houston to get a good hire with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah coming in 2024.

Willie Fritz’s first goal is arranging his staff and hitting the recruiting trail as Houston has a lot of ground to make up.

Tulane head coach Willie Fritz pays a visit to Saints practice

Tulane head coach Willie Fritz recently stopped in to visit the Saints facility during a training camp practice session | @crissy_froyd

Tulane Green Wave head football coach Willie Fritz recently stopped by the New Orleans Saints practice facility to observe training camp, where one of his former players, linebacker Nick Anderson, is competing for a roster spot.

This is not exactly out of the ordinary considering the strong relationship between Saints and Tulane; the Green Wave have practiced in the Saints’ facility at times during their own camp.

Fritz has visited the facility before, notably stopping by during the 2019 offseason in his fourth year on the job. College coaches are a common sight at Saints training camp: they also hosted Dave Aranda and Joe Brady, formerly with the LSU Tigers, in the same time period. Jeff Brohm, formerly of the Purdue Boilermakers, also stopped in.

Since that visit, Fritz has taken the team to new heights, most recently helping lead the Green Wave to the greatest turnaround in college football history as Tulane flipped the script with a 10-2 overall record after going 2-10 the previous year, capping it all off with a memorable Cotton Bowl victory over USC.

Others that stopped in during Fritz’s most recent appearance in Metairie included wide receiver Jha’Quan Jackson and photographer Parker Waters.

It will be interesting to see how Fritz continues to elevate the Wave in a year with high expectations. It’s plenty possible for his team to run the table and maintain continuity as what can be called one of the best teams in college football, even though it’s not being said enough.

Tulane RB Tyjae Spears landing with Saints could be the best story in 2023 NFL draft

Tulane star running back Tyjae Spears landing with the New Orleans Saints could be the best story in the 2023 NFL draft, via @MaddyHudak_94:

I’ve always said life imitates sports, and there’s no greater illustration of that sentiment than Tulane running back Tyjae Spears. No better example of persevering through adversity; battling the ugly and finding the beauty at the end of the tunnel.

It’s a mindset that saw the 2022 Green Wave football team accomplish the greatest single-season turnaround in college football history. While the team captains primarily led the charge, the origins of that campaign tie back to the words of the most dynamic back I’ve witnessed from the sideline.

The New Orleans Saints might not have to look far for more help at running back. This is Tyjae Spears’ story:

Tulane Green Wave appreciation: Willie Fritz, Michael Pratt, Tyjae Spears were fantastic, deserve a salute

USC lost a heartbreaker to #Tulane, but let’s also credit @GreenWaveFB for a fantastic turnaround — in the #CottonBowl itself, and also from 2021. What an effort!

The USC Trojans won four games in 2021 and earned a trip to the Pac-12 title game and the Cotton Bowl in Lincoln Riley’s first year.

Even after the loss to Tulane, this year is still a step in the right direction for the USC program.

However, it is worth noting that Tulane’s turnaround was out of this world. In 2021, the Green Wave won just two games. Then, Willie Fritz and his team won 11 games and then stunned the Trojans in a 46-45 victory in the Cotton Bowl in one of the best games of the entire season.

Tulane earned a ton of appreciation after the win, and deservedly so.

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:

[mm-video type=video id=01gm9qwfp301nx1fxmsa playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gm9qwfp301nx1fxmsa/01gm9qwfp301nx1fxmsa-5f1ce800029f353b16aab280fdc8f9aa.jpg]

[listicle id=53379]

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:

USC fans react to the news: the Trojans will face Tulane in the Cotton Bowl

One view among some #USC fans: It will be hard for the Trojans to be motivated for Tulane, and the team will be crushed in the media if it loses.

USC versus Tulane. It’s not the same as playing Ohio State, Michigan, or Georgia. It’s not a matchup which will generate huge national headlines, even though football junkies will love seeing Lincoln Riley match wits with Willie Fritz, two of the more creative and tactically astute head coaches in college football.

The very real possibility that Caleb Williams might not play in this game would take a lot of juice out of the event, but we don’t yet know that for sure. No one could have possibly imagined that USC’s bowl opponent would be one of the least successful programs in college football over the past 80 years … or that a program with Tulane’s minimal stature would get to a New Year’s Six game and meet the Trojans on that big stage.

USC fans realized on Saturday afternoon that Tulane would be the bowl opponent and the Cotton would be the game, which was subsequently confirmed on Sunday. Here’s a small taste of those reactions from the Trojan fan base:

USC vs Tulane in 2023 Cotton Bowl

#USC will face the #Tulane Green Wave in the 2023 #CottonBowl. The Trojans make the #NewYearsSix and earn a due reward for an 11-win regular season.

The announcements on Sunday will make it official, but as of Saturday evening, the USC Trojans appear to know what their bowl destination and opponent will be.

The Trojans are going to be in the New Year’s Six — that’s not an official report from us (though we told you to expect it a week ago once USC beat Notre Dame in the Los Angeles Coliseum). It’s straight from the foremost bowl projection experts who have sources within the bowls and know the internal aspects of this process.

Brett McMurphy of Action Network is usually the college football journalist/insider who tweets out the bowl matchups on bowl selection day. After Tulane beat UCF on Saturday evening, McMurphy wasted absolutely no time saying where USC was headed for its bowl game. He didn’t use a bunch of “coulds” or “maybes” or “chance of” phrasings. He was very direct and unambiguous in informing his readers and followers what USC’s bowl matchup would be:

That seems fairly definitive. We’ll wait for the bowl selection show on Sunday to make it official. Let’s give you an early primer on Tulane’s season and this bowl game: