GAME TWO PREVIEW: Morgan State @ Tulane
Tulane narrowly missed a signature victory. They'll look to rebound against FCS Morgan State
Preview by Kelly Comarda. You can find FTW on Twitter (@fearthewaveblog).
Tulane Football caught the attention of College Football fans nationwide during a 40-35 battle in Norman after a tumultuous week. With 2.5M viewers tuning in to ABC, the duel between the Wave and Sooners was one of the most watched games of the weekend.
In the end, the Wave shocked many who were not familiar with the strides made in this program under Coach Willie Fritz. Nonetheless… the final result still went into the loss column. The Green Wave will look to equalize things on Saturday by getting their first win of the 2021 campaign.
Morgan State of the FCS will face Tulane on ESPN+ (subscription required) in a Green Wave “home game” played at Legion Field in Birmingham, AL. For folks who are local to the area and want to go, admission is free for the noon kick. Here’s your breakdown.
Wave of History
This is the first time that the Morgan State Bears will face Tulane in program history. Morgan State has qualified for the FCS playoffs one time — that was in 2014.
In their last full season (2019), the Bears went 3-9 with two games against FBS opponents: a 52-21 loss in their FBS game against Army and a 46-3 loss against Bowling Green.
And last, in the MEAC preseason rankings, the Bears were picked to finish fifth out of six teams.
Coach’s Comments
In his presser this week, Coach Fritz spoke about the importance of building on a nationally watched performance at Oklahoma:
There were some good things to takeaway, but we would rather learn lessons from a "W" than an "L". Like I told them, we have a 24-hour pout rule and a 24-hour gloat rule after we win, we got to move onto the next thing. Sometimes guys they sit around and revel in past successes and they're not as good as the next time they go out or they're still worried about the last game where they didn't play very well. We've turned the page, we're on to Morgan State and we just want to play better. Good ball clubs make their biggest improvements between week one and week two, so we certainly want to do that.
Fritz was asked to comment on what his thoughts were on the widespread reports that UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston out of the AAC are bound for the Big 12. He declined to really share his thoughts:
I saw something about it the other day, it's really none of my business. I want to do the best job I can for Tulane.
With Tulane announcing that the school will be opening early for academics, it seems like the team is eager to get back to campus. Fritz commented on some of the facility limitations that the team is encountering while in Birmingham:
We're still under the 20 hour a week rule, the problem we get into is that going to the weight room is a drive and coming back is a drive and going to the meeting rooms, I am trying hard not to walk through other people's meetings because we just don't have as many meeting rooms as we normally have. That part of it is different, guys come down every morning and try to find their loop.
Kelly’s Breakdown
I told you I had a feeling about last weekend. Maybe I was a bit intimidated to come right out and say that I thought that Tulane had a chance to win the game for fear of sounding like an insane homer, but Tulane came out and put the college football world on notice: The Green Wave came to play in 2021.
The Wave was far from perfect against Oklahoma (and Oklahoma struggled at times too), but Tulane played like the veteran team that it is. With Michael Pratt at the helm, Tulane has the ability to hang with anybody. The key to the rest of this season will be taking some of these close calls and turning them into W’s. Here are a few observations from week 1:
Pratt can be a lot better. Crazy to think, but Michael Pratt actually left some plays out on the field against Oklahoma. There were 3 or 4 throws where Pratt threw his best fastball when a bullet pass wasn’t necessary. While many of those passes were catchable, and should have been caught, if Pratt can play with a bit more finesse, he’ll be downright unstoppable. Two other throws that come to mind are a throw where Pratt airmailed Phat Watts in the front corner of the end zone in the first quarter and a bomb to Jha’Quan Jackson in the second quarter that fell incomplete.
On both of these throws, the Oklahoma defenders were in good position in single coverage, but Pratt had plenty of space to throw his receivers open. On both occasions, Pratt’s passes were too flat and in areas where his receivers had little chance to make a catch. As Pratt continues to grow, these are throws that he will make.
More impact from Duece and Quan. Last season, our top two receiving targets were Duece Watts and Jha’Quan Jackson led Tulane with 31 catches a piece. Neither player caught a pass against Oklahoma, although both were targeted multiple times. While Tulane will need both players to contribute to continue its bowl streak and contend for a conference title, it was encouraging to see players like Shae Wyatt, JaeTavian Toles, Tyrick James, Will Wallace and YG Booker step up and make plays in the passing game.
Green and Thomas held up well. A concern for Tulane going into this game was the inexperience of the right side of the Tulane offensive line. Rashad Green and Caleb Thomas passed their first test with flying colors. Oklahoma got to Pratt 4 times in this game, but most of the pressure was applied by Isaiah Thomas who came off the right side of the defensive line away from Green and Thomas.
Protecting Pratt is the number 1 priority of this offensive line and Oklahoma has one of the best, if not the best, defensive lines in college football. If Tulane can use this performance to boost the confidence of the O-Line, AAC defensive lines aren’t going to stand a chance.
Tyjae Spears isn’t 100%. Tyjae Spears was back out on the field for Tulane about 11 months post ACL tear. Judging from the first performance, he is still getting back to top form. Tyjae was not yet explosive in his first performance back from injury. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sat against Morgan State or only played a few plays to give his knee time to recover. Hopefully as the season wears on, Tyjae can regain some of the speed and elusiveness that he showed before the injury.
No pressure. Tulane’s defensive line struggled against a big, athletic OU offensive line. While Tulane was able to hit Spencer Rattler on occasion, it was mostly due to tight coverage down the field. Morgan State will be a good opportunity for Tulane’s dogs to go hunting for a QB. Again, experience and confidence will be huge for Tulane’s young edge rushers like Angelo Anderson, Keith Cooper and Darius Hodges. This will be a good week for the young trio to get going.
Coordinators were awesome. Both Chip Long and Chris Hampton did an excellent job in their first games running their respective systems. Long had Oklahoma on skates to start the game and if it weren’t for three Pratt fumbles (only 2 of them really mattered because one was on 4th), Tulane played about as well as you can play offensively. Chris Hampton’s squad had a tough job. I said before the game that shutting Oklahoma down would mean them scoring 35 or 38. They scored 40 and had 6 points handed to them by Tulane turnovers and another 3 by a questionable coaching decision at the end of the half by Willie Fritz. OU scored a grand total of 3 points in the second half and the Wave picked off Rattler 3 times (I’m counting Macon Clark’s second pick that was wiped away by a b.s. pass interference call). OU was not able to hit Tulane on any real deep passes. There were a couple of catch and run chunk plays, but OU was not able to blow the top off Tulane’s defense like it wanted to.
Morgan State: Analysis
Tulane is a 40.5 point favorite in this game against Morgan State, so there isn’t much analysis to do in this one. On paper, Tulane should win this game going away and ideally, Justin Ibieta would get plenty of snaps as early as the second quarter. Morgan State mustered 7 whole first downs against Towson State last week in its first game in over a year.
The “film” I could find on that game showed Morgan State’s lack of speed on defense, especially in the secondary and poor pass protection on offense. I expect Morgan State to play a little better this week with a game under their belt, but Tulane isn’t Towson. This week for Tulane is more about what we want to work on versus just trying to win the game. Here are some things I want to see this week.
Get the running game going. Tulane couldn’t run the ball consistently against OU which put a lot of pressure on Michael Pratt to make plays both through the air and with his feet. I want to see Cam Carroll and company go off for more than 250 yards rushing, and I’d love to see Devin Brumfield and Iverson Celestine get some carries in this one. I don’t want to see Michael Pratt carry the ball more than 3 or 4 times in this one.
Open up the deep passing game. Tulane attempted a couple of passes over 20 yards against OU but was unable to connect on any of them. I’d like to see Tulane complete a couple of passes that travel more than 20 yards down field in the air.
Pitch a shutout. Tulane has not shut out an opponent since beating Army 41-0 in Tommy Bowden’s first season in 1997. The Green Wave almost shut Temple out last year and UConn in 2019. I’d love to see Tulane shut out Morgan State (who was shut out last week) and re-set the clock on the lack of shut outs.
New faces. Tulane didn’t play that many guys against Oklahoma. This could be an opportunity for Tulane to see Justin Ibieta in extended action. Other young players on offense like Iverson Celestine, Bryce Bohanon, TJ Huggins, Jeff Nwankwo, Reggie Brown and Tyrek Presley should get some run in this game. On defense, it would be great to see Jesus Machado in extended playing time as well as newcomers like Devean Deal, Keith Cooper, Corey Platt, Michael Lunz, Mandel Eugene and Bailey Despanie get some playing time.
Predictions:
Kelly’s Prediction: Morgan State did not do much in their first game back in over a year, and while I think that Tulane could come out a bit flat after this OU game, this game will never be in doubt. I’m rooting for a shutout. 55-0 Green Wave
JP’s Prediction: Pratt and the offense ignite with a big performance from a receiver like Jha’Quan Jackson. They get rewarded by being able to sit early. Tulane stays in control on the way to a 49-7 victory, and we get the benefit of seeing Ibieta work with more in-game experience.
FTW readers, what’s your prediction? Leave it in the comments. Make sure to subscribe to FTW Weekly below for more updates.