Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.
2022 Recap:
This Tulane team had a hell of a year last year. The Green Wave Finished at 12-2, 9th in the country, a Cotton Bowl Win and AAC Champions. One word when it comes to the 2022 Tulane squad is balanced. They were balanced in both offense and defense did their jobs. Also their offense was a great mix of rushing and passing. They lost twice and were able to revenge that one loss to UCF in the AAC Championship game. Tulane was the best and most exciting group of 5 team in college football last year.
Head Coach:
Head Coach Willie Fritz has been a mainstay at Tulane for seven years. It has been an up and down tenure in Nola for Fritz, with 4 years of being bowl eligible and 3 years of being bad. That is to be expected at a group of 5 school. Fritz should be the example for all G-5 schools AD’s and fans. You’re not going to win ten games every year and go to a big bowl. But if you can go bowling every other year and once in a while hit a magic recruiting class, where guys over perform you can shoot up the rankings for an amazing run. That is what Fritz has done at Tulane. He has won 3 bowl games and has been to 4. Tulane is usually in play for the top of the AAC, if they have an off year they jump back to the middle and top of the conference the next year. This is a fun college football preview, it is fun when the team is good.
Key Players:
Senior QB Micheal Pratt is back after his terrific season last year. Pratt had 3,009 yards on 63.6% completion percentage, 27 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He was very good at leading his team up and down the field with the help of his running game. The Green Wave will need to replace Tyjae Spears and his 1,581 yards rushing. He averaged 6.9 yards per carry and had 19 touchdowns, also added 22 catches for 256 yards and 2 more touchdowns. Spears was electric for Tulane and will be very hard to replace in the backfield. Iverson Celestine and Shaadie Clayton will split the load this year. Both did contribute last year and between them had 639 yards, and 2 touchdowns in small roles. The Wave do have WR’s coming back to help out Pratt. Jha’Quan Jackson and Lawrence Keys who combined had 63 catches for 850 yards and 5 touchdowns will be the leaders for the younger receiving room The defense has a lot of work to do in replacing their top 5 lead tacklers and top 2 sack leaders. A bright side coming back to Tulane is Jarius Monroe, the teams leading man with 3 interceptions last season at cornerback.
2023 Prediction:
This college football preview has been a love fest for last years team, but how will Tulane answer their best season ever? I think at their ceiling this team can win 10 games with this schedule. I also see if their defense does not play well they can win 7. South Alabama should not be overlooked game 1, they are up tempo and can score. Ole Miss will be a tough one to get even at home. Southern Miss beat them last year, so you can’t sleep on them. And I just like ECU this year. Those are tough games in an AAC conference in which every single team improved this season. I like their wins right at 9 and expect their win total on the books to be 8.5.