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It is okay to admit that you don't know much about the Tulane football program going into this week, I am in the same boat and I write about football for a living. Sure, they are in the AAC, they are a school in New Orleans and they are the Green Wave.
Outside of that, what else do we know about them?
Did you know they were part of the SEC from 1932-1965? They did not get to benefit from ESPN's constant propping up of the league as Paul Finebaum was 10-years-old when Tulane left the conference and Booger McFarland was not even a twinkle in his father's eye yet.
Tulane has had 19 players named first team All-Americans but the only two since the turn of the century have been kickers (Seth Marler - 2001, Cairo Santos - 2012).
Tulane has had its fair share of scary mascots through the years (this is the same city that produced an abomination called the 'King Cake Baby' so what do you expect) including Rusty the Pelican and a wave that was unaffectionately nicknamed 'Gumby'.
None of this has a darn thing to do with Saturday's game between Ohio State and Tulane however but when you are looking at a game with a five-touchdown spread, it can be difficult to find a whole lot to talk about when looking at the opponent. But we will attempt to do our best as we go to the Tale of the Tape on the Green Wave.
Ohio State QB/WR/TE vs. Tulane Defensive Backs
We go from light-hearted to absolutely serious when we talk about the Ohio State skill positions and what they have accomplished this season to date. Dwayne Haskins has completed 73-percent of his passes and has thrown for 890 yards, 11 touchdowns and just one interception in the equivalent of two full games of work. Ohio State has managed to spread the ball out to 15 different pass-catchers (this includes players that Tate Martell has found as well) and there is no single player that appears to be the main focal-point in the throw game. KJ Hill continues to lead the way in receptions however with 17 on the season and now has taken a slight lead in yardage with 202, besting the 201 of Terry McLaurin. McLaurin and Parris Campbell do however hold the edge in touchdowns, each having three of the 12 receiving touchdowns that the Buckeyes have amassed this season. It was an up-and-down week last week for Austin Mack who came out strong against TCU and then went through a serious case of the 'drops' before redeeming himself later with a big catch. Ohio State is not going to want that taste of a subpar stretch to linger and look for the Buckeyes to get him involved in some fashion this week. From the 'some things never change' file, the Buckeyes only have four receptions by tight ends, led by Luke Farrell's two. Ohio State likely has its deepest room since the days of having Jeff Heuerman, Nick Vannett and Marcus Baugh all on the roster, but with so many options, the tight end still is not targeted the way that many fans would like to see. There is always next year.
Could we see another team run a 4-2-5 defense against the Buckeyes? The depth chart has Tulane with five defensive backs listed, two corners, two safeties and a nickel while they have a four-man front (one player is listed as a 'joker' but is built like a defensive end and a pair of linebackers. We will learn more as the week goes on about the tendencies of the defense under defensive coordinator Jack Curtis. The secondary has performed pretty well this year in terms of just the numbers. Granted, the Green Wave went against a true freshman QB in week one versus Wake Forest (who threw for 378 yards but only two scores), a D-1 FCS school in week two and then UAB in week three (The Blazers are not a good passing team, at all). So the numbers are still kind of hard to get the full story with, especially as teams are playing varying levels of competition as they finish out their non-league portions of their schedules. Corner Donnie Lewis is a good-sized corner at 6-foot and is a leader as a senior while Jaylon Monroe is smaller at just 5-foot-9 and is not nearly as experienced as a sophomore. Nickel Will Harper will come up and hit you at 6-foot-1. Ohio State is not going to be able to just take things for granted in this game in terms of not respecting the athleticism of the Tulane secondary but the Green Wave have not faced a passing attack like the Buckeyes so far this season and likely won't see one like this until they face Houston in November. One thing that we can say in the positive about the Green Wave is that they can intercept the ball, they already have six so far this season. If Ohio State puts the ball up 45 times, will one fall into the hand of a visitor? Maybe. But at least it is a bright spot.