A Merry Fritzmas for the Greenies
Tulane caps off what looks to be an historic recruiting class on Early Signing Day
This update was written by JP Gooderham. You can subscribe to his Tulane podcast here.
Greenies… it was, indeed, a Merry Fritzmas. On Early Signing Day — the December period in which recruits “make it official” by signing their Letter of Intent — the Green Wave racked up - by my count - 18 signees.
And folks… today delivered some of everything. Anxiety. Surprise. Hilarious anger from the University of Miami fanbase over my tweets. Seriously, if you aren’t on Twitter, you missed a wild ride. So allow me the honor of bringing you up to speed with my “Biggest Storylines” of Fritzmas.
#1: Tulane’s class is ranked by 247 at #58. That’s the best ever in the AAC era and the highest since 2001
So let’s get this out of the way right out of the gates... The Tulane Football staff flat out got it done. By 247’s rankings, Tulane currently sits ahead of “power” (lol) programs like Virginia Tech, Illinois, Arizona, USC (ahem), and many more.
More importantly, the Greenies are at #2 in the AAC. So let’s dive in, and I’ll tell you why that is such a big deal.
A local reporter who I have a lot of respect for commented to me when Willie Fritz was hired that Tulane, frankly, was not recruiting anything like an AAC program. That might be priority #1 if the Green Wave was ever going to turn around back in 2016. He wasn’t wrong.
You can extend that history even further — Tulane’s recruiting classes were below average for Conference USA going all the way back to 2004. I took a look below at every recruiting class since 2001, and it paints a pretty grim picture.
With this class at #58 and 2nd in the AAC, it clearly stands as one of the absolute best of the post-1998 era.
Willie Fritz Era:
2020: #58 (2nd in AAC)
2019: #94 (8th in AAC)
2018: #68 (4th in AAC)
2017: #112 (11th in AAC)
2016: #97 (11th in AAC)
Curtis Johnson Era:
2015: #91 (8th in AAC)
2014: #90 (10th in AAC)
2013: #83 (10th in AAC)
2012: #83
Bob Toledo Era:
2011: #81
2010: #90
2009: #79
2008: #102
2007: #102
Chris Scelfo Era:
2006: #84
2005: #93
2004: #62 (Editor’s Note: Matt Forte was the 10th highest rated recruit in this one…)
2003: #58
2002: #65
2001: #51
#2: Jesus Machado chooses Tulane over waiting for a high major P5
Coming into today, linebacker was a clear position of need. In fact, we started the morning with no publicly announced commits at the LB position. That changed earlier when Matthew Hightower (LB) out of Illinois signed with the Wave.
The biggest national splash of the day came when Jesus Machado out of south Florida signed with Tulane (pictured below):
If you look at the 247 page for the high 3-star Machado, it’s stacked with Power Five offers, including Alabama, Georgia, and many more. According to Miami reporters, his hometown school may have failed to deliver a committable offer in time as the Hurricanes pursued other options first. This opened the door for the Green Wave to pull in this highly sought after recruit out of Florida in a coup for the program.
Pretty awesome to see a player of that caliber take destiny into his own hands rather than waiting, which is something I really like about the fairly new early signing process. It forces schools to be more upfront, and the player can make the best decision for him.
#3 Tulane beats out Kansas for Josh Remetich
I think Tulane had 16 signees done by 9 am today. It was crazy efficient (again, shout out to the Green Wave staff). One of the final targets we were waiting on was Holy Cross OL commit Josh Remetich.
Remetich had been a long-time Tulane commit but received a late effort from Les Miles and the Kansas Jayhawks to reel him in. Both schools were waiting patiently to see which direction he would go.
In the end, the allure of the P5 did not beat out his hometown team, and Remetich chose to sign with the Green Wave.
#4: The “Hometown Heroes” Lock In
In addition to Remetich (a consensus Top 40 Louisiana recruit), this class was highlighted by a number of local prospects.
DE Angelo Anderson out of John Curtis was another highly sought after recruit from “P5” programs who consistently stuck with the Greenies. He made it official to start the day after a dominant career for the local powerhouse, and he made his statement that he wants to see New Orleans talent build the program at the New Orleans FBS school.
Quarterback Justin Ibieta signed as well (which, might I add, contributed two very promising quarterback signings along with Florida prospect Michael Pratt).
We’d be remiss if we failed to shout out Noah Taliancich (check out this interview he did) who just capped off a tremendous high school career. The Defensive End out of Destrehan isn’t just a big time recruit… he’s a life-long Tulane fan with a lot of passion for the program. In that interview, he mentions how growing up, he was used to other players dreaming of going upriver. Not for Noah. He ultimately was able to sign at the school he always wanted to play for.
Final Thoughts
Hope you enjoyed this Fritzmas Recap. I obviously couldn’t touch on everything but there were a lot of highlights today. I would expect Tulane to try to add ~3 more signees before it’s all said and done on this class, but I would assess today as a major step forward for the program.
Coach Fritz and his staff have delivered AAC Top Four (#4 and #2) classes in the past three years, and the path to winning an AAC title will require this to become a norm. That can’t happen unless you get started, and this class may be a major moment in that trajectory. Roll Wave and Merry Fritzmas.