2021 Football Schedule

[TU77CAL82]

Sorry about the scale, but have only seen this composite schedule from the American.

[tulaneoutlaw]

Thanks for posting. It's weird not playing Navy. We owe them a decade's worth of beatdowns.

First six outside of Morgan St. (and maybe ECU on the road) looks pretty tough. Bye comes at a good time. Hope we have enough left in the tank in the back half to push for bowl eligibility. Wouldn't mind just fighting to get to six wins so much if we'd have won 8+ last like year like we should've.

[gerryb323]

Wow. Conference as a whole scheduled some tough ones

[tjtlja]

We will be playing our toughest schedule in years. Early opinion is we will not be bowling in 2021. We just don’t have the talent our opposition has.

[wavedom]

Really sad that six years in our fans think that schedule is too tough.

[Cheerleader]

Undefeated with that schedule will put us in the Championship series.

[Baywave1]

Unsurprising range of opinion on comparative adjective use to describe our past schedules. I would vote that too many of those (especially as crafted by the previous admin) were underwhelming.

Regardless I think most here agree that if Tulane "succeeds" against this schedule, it and the AAC will receive appropriate recognition. Let's make it happen.

[Rotorooter]

Wow. Conference as a whole scheduled some tough ones

Hey, you want to be considered a "P6" you better schedule up. It worked for Florida State. Personally, I like it, the AAC only has to win one of those for recognition.

The one to watch is UCF. They start with Boise St., then Boston College, then Louisville. They have a new coach. Talk about baptism under fire.

By now, we should expect to go 7-1 in the AAC. Even if we only beat the FCS team, we will have won 8 games. I think we can beat UH, UCF, Tulsa, ECU, USF; SMU has our number but certainly beatable, ECU away is tougher than it seems, and we should give Cincy a good game at home. A lot depends on injuries.

[WaveProf]

We will be playing our toughest schedule in years. Early opinion is we will not be bowling in 2021. We just don’t have the talent our opposition has.

I'm not anticipating a huge jump this year due to schedule. I'll expect that in 2022. But if we can't at least tread water in year 6, it's time to move on

[wavedom]

Wow. Conference as a whole scheduled some tough ones

Hey, you want to be considered a "P6" you better schedule up. It worked for Florida State. Personally, I like it, the AAC only has to win one of those for recognition.

The one to watch is UCF. They start with Boise St., then Boston College, then Louisville. They have a new coach. Talk about baptism under fire.

By now, we should expect to go 7-1 in the AAC. Even if we only beat the FCS team, we will have won 8 games. I think we can beat UH, UCF, Tulsa, ECU, USF; SMU has our number but certainly beatable, ECU away is tougher than it seems, and we should give Cincy a good game at home. A lot depends on injuries.

Agree with your post. Just want to point out UCF has Bethune-Cookman not Boston College on the schedule.

[tulaneoutlaw]

Wow. Conference as a whole scheduled some tough ones

Hey, you want to be considered a "P6" you better schedule up. It worked for Florida State. Personally, I like it, the AAC only has to win one of those for recognition.

The one to watch is UCF. They start with Boise St., then Boston College, then Louisville. They have a new coach. Talk about baptism under fire.

By now, we should expect to go 7-1 in the AAC. Even if we only beat the FCS team, we will have won 8 games. I think we can beat UH, UCF, Tulsa, ECU, USF; SMU has our number but certainly beatable, ECU away is tougher than it seems, and we should give Cincy a good game at home. A lot depends on injuries.

There's a big difference in what we should be capable of in year 6 and what we are realistically capable of. UH and UCF lit us up last year. Beating both seems like a tall task. If we do, then SMU should go down as well. But again, this is the kind of conference schedule we should feel confident against and I really don't, even in year 6.

[WaveProf]

There's a big difference in what we should be capable of in year 6 and what we are realistically capable of. UH and UCF lit us up last year. Beating both seems like a tall task. If we do, then SMU should go down as well. But again, this is the kind of conference schedule we should feel confident against and I really don't, even in year 6.

Outlaw is right. The only reasonable expectations can be based in relation to year 5. If you EXPECT us to go 7-1 in year 6, then we should have moved on after year 5. We didn't, so time to be realistic. And, realistically, we could be better this year than last year and still only win 6-7 games.

that said, two things I'm less open minded about:

~2022's schedule should open up a lane for serious success
~ A step backwards in 2021 should be absolutely unacceptable. That's the lowest of hurdles/expectations, and failing to meet it can't be normalized.

[Baywave1]

Homecoming? I’m guessing Tulsa or maybe UC.

[GretnaGrn]

Clearly a much tougher schedule (even UAB isn't a gimme). Just as clearly, our *minimum* expectation at this stage needs to be bowling, regardless of schedule. The coaches have talked of competing for a conference title for at least two years now. Well, if we do that we're bowling.

[Baywave1]

Schedules could always change but I could see OU-TU being ABC day game especially if there is a double or triple header. (If so bring your speedos. It will be oppressively hot.)

Bama v Miami (neutral site) is almost certainly a night time game (on ABC?.) Georgia vs Clemson will be prominently promoted on ABC or ESPN regardless of kickoff time.

BSU-UCF is interesting and could make ESPN. So I guess it's possible the OU game ends up on ESPN2 but I doubt it.

Meanwhile it appears Houston and SMU games will be ESPN fodder against NFL Thursday night games.*

Obviously this is all speculative on a very cold day. But hey I have power!

On Edit: * This assumes ESPN is not showing an MLB playoff game. If so then one/both of those games will be bumped to ESPN2 unless NBA starts by time of SMU game. Then it's the U for that telecast.

[PeteRasche]

Pretty sure this EXACT SAME THREAD with all the EXACT SAME THOUGHTS was posted in the week after we lost our bowl game back in December.

[wavedom]

I can see the OU-TU game being on ESPN+. So we can pick the time. If that happens people need to be in Dannen's ear about all those people leaving the GT game on gurney's.

[Baywave1]

Pretty sure this EXACT SAME THREAD with all the EXACT SAME THOUGHTS was posted in the week after we lost our bowl game back in December.

Hey that's what make seniordom so much fun. You only have to know five jokes, factoids, heartwarming stories and LSU disses and you just keep them in rotation with me. I'll be happily entertained through the AAC NY6 game and then you can start the new year again with no sweat.

However this being chained to the house waiting for the icicles to form is getting old.....

[WaveProf]

[youtube][/youtube]

Undefeated with that schedule will put us in the Championship series.

No way. They would humor us but we wouldn’t make it. Maybe, just maybe, if Oklahoma ran the table beside us, andWe got some other dominoes to fall..... But if we we Oklahoma, that means they aren’t good enough to run the table

[PeteRasche]

Undefeated with that schedule will put us in the Championship series.

No way. They would humor us but we wouldn’t make it. Maybe, just maybe, if Oklahoma ran the table beside us, andWe got some other dominoes to fall..... But if we we Oklahoma, that means they aren’t good enough to run the table

If Oklahoma lost to us they could still win out and call it "first game jitters" and end up highly ranked. If they worked their way back up all season long and we were sitting there undefeated with a win over them, we'd get a long look. But the other key (as I pointed out in the redundant thread back in December) is we'd need Cincinnati to be undefeated, meaning they'd have won at Notre Dame a few weeks before their visit to Yulman. Considering they're likely to start the year around the top ten, they'd probably be ranked in the top five when we played them, meaning we'd have a win over two top five teams (Oklahoma projects to be preseason #3). Most SEC teams not named Alabama don't get two top five wins in a single season.

For this reason, I had the same thought as Cheerleader back in that December thread. But today I'd say "we would have a better argument than any previous G5"... not that we'd get in. After watching what the committee did to Cincinnati this past year (dropping them enough poll spots during off weeks to keep them out of contention, even if it meant moving two-loss P5 teams past them), I'm now convinced no G5 will ever make the CFP under the present scenario.

Regardless, I'm not expecting to be undefeated so it's moot...

[Poseidon]

1. The shcedule is tougher, but unless we blow games like the Tulsa and Navy games we should get to the six win mark.

2. We have the advantage of Houston, Cincinnati, UAB, and Tulsa at home. That is four big games and we play much better at home. We should be favored vs USF and will beat Morgam State. OU rounds out the home schedule. I think 5-2 is very doable and at least 4-3 should be expected.

3. If we can win 3 of 5 away games we should be happy. Ole Miss will be toughest match up, not becuae they are an SEC opponent, but rather the pass happy tempo offense they run has thrashed us on the road under Fritz. Memphis and UCf look tough on paper for the same reason, but Malzhan will change UCfs style to one we should handle better and Memphis has a new QB and may regress more with the newish coach. SMU has found a way to beat us evey year. They have been competitive games, but CWF need s to break through that wall. If we beat them I dont see us winning less than three road games.

As tough as this schedule seems we have some big home games that helps us out and the away vs UCF and Memphis may be notably better macthups for us this year than they have been in the past 5 years.

[IM42lane]

7 HOME games should help. Maybe that will be a difference maker when it comes to bowl eligibility.

[ml wave]

I can see the OU-TU game being on ESPN+. So we can pick the time. If that happens people need to be in Dannen's ear about all those people leaving the GT game on gurney's.

Hard to imagine Oklahoma not being on a network somewhere.

[CT Wave]

I'm not anticipating a huge jump this year due to schedule. I'll expect that in 2022. But if we can't at least tread water in year 6, it's time to move on

WaveProf, I am interested in your definition of "tread water". For me, it might be a similar national ranking as in 2020. But what are your thoughts?

[Marathon Wave]

I see 8 - 9 wins. OU will be very tough to beat, so I'm calling that a loss. Ole Miss will be tough as well - high-powered offense against our rebuilt defense. Doesn't mean we can't win, and I expect the team and coaches to treat each and every opponent as beatable, but if I'm predicted won-loss record, they're down as L. We shoulda beat Tulsa and SMU last year, I say we do it this year. UCF won't be the same due to coaching changes, we should beat them. Cincy will give us problems. Anyway, another bowl for sure.