Tulane Opens As 3 point favorite against the other TU

[WaveProf]

Let's do this!

[WaveProf]

ESPN has us at a 62.5% chance to win

I'm taking that metric a bit more seriously ever since they were so confident (83%) in UCF beating Memphis win the oddsmakers only had a three point spread. UCF crushed them

[waverider]

If the defense plays well like they should we have a chance. Tulsa looks vulnerable to the run. A fully healthy Banks will help.

[tulaneoutlaw]

It feels weird to be favored against Tulsa. This is a huge game for us as we enter the middle third of the season. If we can go at least 2-2 over the next four games, we remain on track for a bowl. Let's find a way to get this thing done.

[WaveProf]

We absolutely should be favored against Tulsa. We absolutely should expect to win. This is a big game, and important game, the type of game we have a history of messing up, but it would NOT be an upset

[Rotorooter]

KICK THEIR @SS!!!!

[tulaneoutlaw]

We absolutely should be favored against Tulsa. We absolutely should expect to win. This is a big game, and important game, the type of game we have a history of messing up, but it would NOT be an upset

Agree 100%. The numbers say we should be favored which means a win here isn't an upset. I just meant it's weird to be favored vs. them in a historical sense.

[IM42lane]

Just WIN, WIN, WIN!!!! Show me that my 5-7 prediction for 2017 is totally WRONG! Flip that record and go to a bowl this year!

This is the game for the 1970 Liberty Bowl champions which will be admitted as a group into the TU Hall of Fame. Honor one of the finest college defenses ever assembled by HC Jim Pittman. Recognize great players like Rick Kingrea, Ray Hester, and Bullard's Bandits.

ROLL GREEN WAVE!!!!

[long green]

It won't be easy because it's never easy but apart from that we're playing a team with their backs squarely against the wall. To have any sort of season at all, Tulsa has to beat us Saturday. I hope at the end of the game I'm able to say "Demaris Johnson is not walking through that door. Nor is Alex Singleton, nor is Dexter McCoil."

[waverider]

It won't be easy because it's never easy but apart from that we're playing a team with their backs squarely against the wall. To have any sort of season at all, Tulsa has to beat us Saturday. I hope at the end of the game I'm able to say "Demaris Johnson is not walking through that door. Nor is Alex Singleton, nor is Dexter McCoil."

Are you saying there could be a lot of heads hanging coming in at 1-4? That could make for a long game for them if Tulsa responds to 1-4 like any Tulane team the past 50 years has.

[1401973]

I think we will play our best game to date. If we are as good as we were at Navy that may do it. If we play like we did v Army that may not do it.

President is the most explosive running QB we will have played and has a nice arm.
They've run for 1500 yards already and 19 TDs.
We will need our secondary to tackle well and limit the explosive plays.

On O, I hope we can open it up just a bit with Banks. Get CJII the ball. And Mooney. And Clewis. And Robertson.
Plus sneak Brantley in there for some option.
OL needs to get physical and show that they can dominate a game.

Hoping for a special teams push. Tulsa blocked a FG v Navy. WF looks like he won't kick another FG all year.

Intangables: Tulsa knows they own us. They know they are going to come in here and whip our arse like they do every year. Plus as lg sez below they will be playing for their season.
We are changing a deeply ingrained losing culture. The kids have bought in. They have found a leader on the field in Banks whom they can follow.

If they pop a few quick TDs will we fall back to our old ways or do what Navy did last week when down 14-0 - fight on every play and scratch out a win.

My guess/hope is we will win the turnover battle again and that will help us sneak out with W.

[1309th WAVE]

It won't be easy because it's never easy but apart from that we're playing a team with their backs squarely against the wall. To have any sort of season at all, Tulsa has to beat us Saturday. I hope at the end of the game I'm able to say "Demaris Johnson is not walking through that door. Nor is Alex Singleton, nor is Dexter McCoil."

Are you saying there could be a lot of heads hanging coming in at 1-4? That could make for a long game for them if Tulsa responds to 1-4 like any Tulane team the past 50 years has.

I've seen Tulane teams respond to being 2-2 with a chance to go over .500 not so well over the years too. 2008 Army etc etc

[Billow]

The betting line up to 3 1/2 now

[Johnny Mac]

It won't be easy because it's never easy but apart from that we're playing a team with their backs squarely against the wall. To have any sort of season at all, Tulsa has to beat us Saturday. I hope at the end of the game I'm able to say "Demaris Johnson is not walking through that door. Nor is Alex Singleton, nor is Dexter McCoil."

Are you saying there could be a lot of heads hanging coming in at 1-4? That could make for a long game for them if Tulsa responds to 1-4 like any Tulane team the past 50 years has.

I've seen Tulane teams respond to being 2-2 with a chance to go over .500 not so well over the years too. 2008 Army etc etc

yeah.. they totally choked last year and went to 3-2

[1309th WAVE]

It won't be easy because it's never easy but apart from that we're playing a team with their backs squarely against the wall. To have any sort of season at all, Tulsa has to beat us Saturday. I hope at the end of the game I'm able to say "Demaris Johnson is not walking through that door. Nor is Alex Singleton, nor is Dexter McCoil."

Are you saying there could be a lot of heads hanging coming in at 1-4? That could make for a long game for them if Tulsa responds to 1-4 like any Tulane team the past 50 years has.

I've seen Tulane teams respond to being 2-2 with a chance to go over .500 not so well over the years too. 2008 Army etc etc

yeah.. they totally choked last year and went to 3-2

Point taken, but these "corner turning" games will still horrify me until we establish a new trend in them. I'll take not fumbling on the first offensive touch and losing by 40 in 90 degree heat as a start, but of course I want to win.

[WaveProf]

This is not a corner turning game. This is, at best, a chance to show we aren't 100% still stuck in the CCJ era.

And the current players (both teams) have no idea of a history of TU (Oklahoma) "owning" TU (Louisiana). We beat them in 2013 solidly, and were the better team (by far) that year. We outplayed them in every aspect in 2014 and lost on some freak plays at the end of the game. We lost a very tight and close game that (in my opinion we should have won) in 2015. And we got beat solidly last year---the best year Tulsa has had in a while, and a year that was the beginning of our rebuilding. Anyone who thinks these players remember back before 2013 is about ready to buy some beachfront property in Nevada.

This is, and has been, a close series over the past 5 years. Tulsa is down this year and we are up. If we play as we should expect, we'll win. End of story. If we don't, well it won't be the first time.

[Yankeewave]

is this game on tv? nevermind, see its on ESPNU, Tulane's website kept timing out before.

[sprout1550]

Prof, I disagree. To me, this is a corner turning game. It is a game we should win on paper. It is a game that will put us at 3-2 and well on way to a bowl. It is the kind of game where we have come out flat and played miserably so many times in the past. I expect different this time, and when I see that difference, and we win, we will have turned the corner. It may only be one of many corners that we need to turn, but it is, IMO, one of those....

[wavedom]

Prof, I disagree. To me, this is a corner turning game. It is a game we should win on paper. It is a game that will put us at 3-2 and well on way to a bowl. It is the kind of game where we have come out flat and played miserably so many times in the past. I expect different this time, and when I see that difference, and we win, we will have turned the corner. It may only be one of many corners that we need to turn, but it is, IMO, one of those....

This.

[PeteRasche]

Prof doesn't consider any game more important than any other until it comes down to mathematical elimination from being able to get to 6 wins. And even then he starts talking about possibilities of bowling with 5 wins.

Tulsa is a big game just like Navy was a big game: a game where a win would indicate a step forward compared to previous years and a sign that things aren't "same old Tulane". Navy would have been a huge step, this would be a smaller step, but a step nonetheless. "Corner turning" is semantics. If we want to show progress, at some point we HAVE to start winning games like this. For years we've had games like this, failed, shrugged, and then looked at the next game as another chance to turn a corner. How many times are we going to let that continue before we finally say, "alright, it's unacceptable to lose a game like this and still believe we're moving forward"?

And more than anything, a conference game. All conference games are, by definition, "big".

[WaveProf]

Pete, I dont expect you to remember (or even read) everything I post. I do expect you to not blatantly make things up.

I don't believe I've ever talked about 5-7 bowling other than to say that no one should be proud of such a bowl. I may have once or twice said that we arent in a position to turn down any such bowl, but I've certainly never pondered the math liklihood of getting such an invite.

I very much do consider some games "big" games. I certainly built the Navy game up as a big game--though one we should have expected to win. I intimate above that THIS is a big game in terms of bowl math. I simply dare argue it isn't a corner turner or "marquee" win. Rather a win we should expect, and may need come bowl math time.

USF and Memphis and Houston are also "big" games. They would also be "corner turning" wins.

And if you look at your middle paragraph it basically agrees with everything will thing I've said in this thread (and elsewhere) about the Tulsa game other than debate over the term "corner turning" which you yourself call semantics. So you are simultaneously making fun of my opinion and reinforcing it.

[Baywave1]

Well I'm channeling my inner Fritz and it tells me to have a good team, you have to win games so it might as well start this week.

Anyway Tulsa is beatable. Having a fully healthy Banks and Brantley would help too. If Tulsa wins, it will be close. No rout. If Tulane wins, it could be a rout. See you Saturday.

[WaveProf]

Well I'm channeling my inner Fritz and it tells me to have a good team, you have to win games so it might as well start this week.

Anyway Tulsa is beatable. Having a fully healthy Banks and Brantley would help too. If Tulsa wins, it will be close. No rout. If Tulane wins, it could be a rout. See you Saturday.

+1

And if we play like we did against navy and Oklahoma I think we win in that rout.

[Wavery]

Line now at 4.

Regardless of over the hump, turning point, must win, etc... Lets just beat the doody out of these guys and move on. I'm tired of walking away from these types of games broken hearted thinking shoulda, coulda, woulda...

[Roller]

Too many people seem to analyze upcoming games on the basis of how we've done in the past decade and a half, holding their breath that perhaps we really have turned a corner. Dwelling on where we were does not help us advance.

If we really have turned a corner, then what happened in the past is no longer visible. We have to look at what lies before us.

Tulane has made a multitude of changes in the past couple of years, and they are all positive changes. I prefer to see us as on the path to glory than to dwell on the idea that we are trying to climb out of the pits. The Wave needs to approach this game with the intention and confidence of running roughshod over them. We are much better than they are, "Negative Nellies" notwithstanding.