A year after reaching a coveted bowl spot, Tulane is poised to do it again.
The Green Wave last season earned a Cotton Bowl berth and an eventual win against Southern California as the highest-ranked Group of Five team in the nation. They began this year’s College Football Playoff rankings as the top-ranked G5 team again, settling in at No. 24 in the initial ratings revealed Tuesday night.
Tulane will put that ranking on the line Saturday afternoon in a game against East Carolina at Greenville, N.C.
The teams enter the contest at opposite ends of the American Athletic Conference standings. Tulane (7-1, 4-0) have won six in a row and sit in a tie for first place in the AAC, while the Pirates (1-7, 0-4) are tied for last after dropping four in a row.
“The only game you can focus on is the game this week,” East Carolina coach Mike Houston said. “They’re very dialed in on that, and I’m very encouraged by their attitudes, so (we’re) excited about the game this weekend.”
The Pirates are coming in off a 41-27 loss to UTSA in which they were outgained 515-366 in total yardage. The East Carolina pass defense was particularly egregious, surrendering 395 yards and four touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Tulane coach Willie Fritz knows his team, fresh off a 30-28 win at Rice, also needs to maintain its short-term focus because it has more on the line in the big picture.
“We’ve just got to work on us,” Fritz said Tuesday. “Improve on offense, defense, kicking game. … There’s been some times where I’ve said, ‘Wow, we’ve got a chance to be pretty darn good.’ But there’ve been some other times where we’ve had to fight, scratch and claw to get the outcome we want.”
Last weekend, the Green Wave had trouble shaking the pesky Owls, despite outgaining them by nearly 200 yards. Tulane star quarterback Michael Pratt tossed two touchdown passes and added another score on the ground.
East Carolina knows it likely will have to slow down Pratt (1,384 passing yards, 14 touchdowns) to stand a chance at emerging with the victory.
Given the Pirates’ struggles on defense, that will be a tall task.
“He’s one of the top quarterbacks in the country, and I told him this summer that I was disappointed to see him returning,” Houston said. “We have a challenge against him.”
On the other side of the ball, East Carolina’s shaky offense, ranked 12th out of 14 teams in the AAC in scoring, figures to have trouble contending with Tulane’s second-ranked defense, which allows just 332.8 yards a game.
For context, last year’s Cotton Bowl champs allowed 360.4 yards per game.
The statistical improvement has come by committee, as this year’s unit has yet to produce a conference player of the week honoree.
Still, there is no shortage of talent on that side of the ball, as leading tackler Jesus Machado (63) and ballhawk Lance Robinson (four interceptions) loom large.
