Tulane’s Season Might Rest in the Trenches

The Tulane Green Wave have to rely on their play at the line of scrimmage in order to win their Power 5 matchups.

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The Tulane Green Wave merely have weeks to finalize their depth chart and prepare for their out-of-conference matchups against Oklahoma and Kansas State.

While winning the conference is essential to their goal as conference champions, Tulane made a splash scheduling opponents in the Big 12 and SEC; it matches the competitive energy of Coach Jon Sumrall.

All the talk about a quarterback competition forgets an important game: last season’s loss to Ole Miss. One where Tulane was without their starting quarterback.

While Kai Horton is in the quarterback battle with Ty Thompson now, he wasn’t when he was thrown into the Green Wave’s most important game of the year. With 6:01 remaining, the score was just a three-point deficit, and Tulane led through halftime.

Would Tulane have won the game with Pratt at quarterback? People tend to answer yes, but we ultimately have no idea. What stood out more was how well the team as a whole was poised to compete—and it started and ended in the trenches on both sides.

Pratt’s legs would’ve come in handy during the matchup, but the offensive line held up considerably. Horton was sacked four times, but so was the opposing quarterback, Jaxson Dart, who was Ole Miss’ second-leading rusher.

Their leading rusher, Quinshon Judkins, had a mere 48 net yards on the ground on 18 carries, and a rushing touchdown. He managed a career-low 2.7 yards per attempt, with his longest run of the day going for 12 yards.

It wasn’t the first, or the last, running back that Tulane would stop in their tracks last season.

On the other hand, Makhi Hughes racked up 92 yards and a rushing touchdown, and that was his second game of his career. That was without the potency of a backfield that includes Arnold Barnes this season.

The takeaway from that loss was that Tulane can compete in the trenches; that’s really all that matters.

When Group of 5 teams can’t compete with Power 4 programs, it typically comes down to their ability to disrupt, penetrate, and hold up their own line of scrimmage.

On defense, Patrick Jenkins had a hurry and half a sack, but the tape shows how many headaches the interior defensive line gave Ole Miss last year. Kam Hamilton and Eric Hicks, both returning, each had a sack. 

In his first game as a starter, returning linebacker Tyler Grubbs was the leading tackler. Most of those were on Judkins or Dart as a runner.

They bolstered the line with Adin Huntington, who had a sack and tackle for loss for UL Monroe against the Rebels last season.

A lot will depend on health. Tulane has some injuries on the right side of the offensive line—not expected to linger, but something to keep watch of.

As all eyes are on the quarterback competition, Tulane can game prep for Oklahoma and Kansas State in silence and prepare to win by reinforcing the trenches.