It is very rare that absolutely everything goes right on any given Saturday in the fall. Yesterday was one of those days as we got to consume one of the most comprehensive beat downs I have seen in some time. Pure and utter domination from the Green Wave. These are the fun ones to write.
I said to friends before the game that if we could force 2 punts all game, that would be enough for our offense to win. Tulane kicked off and immediately forced a 3 and out in seemingly 3 seconds. I’m all for nascar offense, but it doesn’t look so good when your offensive possessions are over in 20 seconds.
Tulane’s return to Yulman began at their 31 and boy did Darian look happy to be back uptown. First play from scrimmage, he connected with a wide open Alex Bauman for 35 yards. Mario may be his favorite target but Bauman is always there for the young QB. With a small dose of Makhi, Darian effortlessly guided the wave down the field for a 69 yard drive punctuated by a Hughes walk in touchdown. Nice.
Allegedly USF got a first down on their second offensive possession. In my head, it was another nascar 3 and out. Fact remains they punted after holding the ball for less than 2 minutes, again. Somebody tell Alex Golesh that time of possession is actually a good thing.
Darian returned to the field after arguably the best drive of his Tulane career. The wave picked up right where they left off, gaining 10+ yards on seemingly every play. Whether it was Makhi, Ty, Dontae or Yulkeith, every one was getting chunks. This drive was paid off by Dontae’s first touchdown as a Wave.
Fleming is a guy who deserves everything he’s getting this year. He won Rusty Whitt’s offseason trident award for hard work and it’s paying off on the field. Keep that football Dontae, you’ve earned it.
The defense forced 2 lightning speed punts and Mensah led two touchdown drives without facing a 3rd down or throwing an incomplete pass? I must be dreaming, don’t wake me up! 14-0 wave and it feels like this one can easily be 100-0 at this rate.
The next couple drives followed suit with USF sprinting to the line of scrimmage only to go absolutely nowhere. Their longest drive of the first half to this point lasted 2 minutes and 29 seconds and went 11 yards. Shout out to the defense, saw some different combinations up front and it appeared to pay serious dividends. Parker Petersen and Gerrod Henderson take a bow.
I heard a lot about this team that kept it close with Bama for 3 quarters. I saw ZERO evidence of that team existing in New Orleans yesterday. The wave played great but man did USF look awful. If this is one of the top teams in the conference, maybe the pac 12s paltry offer of loose change in the couch wasn’t so bad.
After a field goal drive, the USF defense finally forced a 3 and out from the Wave offense. A chance for them to get back in the game only down 17-0. The bulls moved the ball into Tulane territory before turnover machine Tyler Grubbs knocked the ball loose from Nay’Quan Wright. Who else but Big Play Ray with the recovery to snuff out what minuscule momentum USF had. It was rumored Tyler might not play yesterday. The kid is a warrior, and I couldn’t be happier that he chose to transfer to Tulane last year and stay for this season with the new regime.
Mensah showed off his underrated mobility on the next drive picking up a 3rd and 9 with his legs to keep the drive alive. Ty is the better runner but don’t mistake Darian for immobile, the kid eludes sacks with the best of them. Another underrated Mensah talent is bringing in wild snaps from Vinny. Murphy was spraying them yesterday and Mensah just hauls in each and every one with the catch radius of a young Odell Beckham Jr.
The next play was the play of the game for me. After a back breaking 3rd and long conversion from Mensah, he finds the best receiver in the conference for a 53 yard tuddy. There wasn’t a white jersey within a mile of Mario Williams. Williams has been an absolute god send from the portal and has already topped his yardage output from his first season at OU and second season at SC. This kid can flat out fly.
Mario’s TD made it 24-0. A dominant start from Tulane where everything possible was going their way. USF got the ball back needing points to even make this a semblance of a game. They had possessed the ball for less than 7 minutes to this point and the half was nearly over.
USF gained one first down before being saddled with another third and long. This felt like their 15th 3rd and a mile of the game and it was still the first half. Gerrod Henderson had an excellent speed rush on the outside and finished it off with a strip sack. Can’t say enough about Henderson’s performance on the edge yesterday. The defense needed a spark in the pass rush and he was that guy. I’d like to see him start at bandit going forward.
Tulane took over at the USF 29 after the strip sack and it took all of 30 seconds for Mario to find the end zone again. It just does not get any better than this.
Shout out to close friend of the blog, Maddy Hudak, for her reaction above to this 3rd Darian Mensah first half TD. Maddy is all of us, just in complete awe of the beat down of biblical proportions going on at Yulman stadium. Everything is awesome.
USF scored at the end of the half. I wanted to shut them out. This was legitimately the only drive of the game that wasn’t pure dominance from Tulane. I hate to be petty, but with all the talk I heard from South Florida fans this week, I wanted to give them nothing. That said 31-7 at half felt prettay prettay prettay good. Darian Mensah was a sparkling 12/14 for 242 yards, and 3 tuddies at half. Worth noting one of the two incompletions was an easy drop from Makhi. The California kid was in complete control.
Few quick stats from the first half
Yards
Tulane 327 USF 148 (73 before their single touchdown drive)
Time of possession
Tulane 20:03 USF 9:57
Sad excuse posts on Twitter
USF 432 Tulane 0
Tulane received the ball and seemed content to run on every play with the huge lead. Shaadie had a couple of nice totes on this drive but it eventually led to a punt. I would’ve liked to see Mensah continue to embarrass their defense, but obviously it didn’t really matter.
USF led their only other scoring drive of the game on their first possession of the second half. The commentators on the call for this one were total bozos and it was never more evident than on this drive. We’ve got to find a way to stop getting 11 am kickoffs on ESPNU to not only fill the stadium but also listen to people who know what they’re talking about. You know it’s a good day when your only gripes are about somewhat errant snaps and uneducated commentators.
Tulane got the ball back up 21 and if anyone thought this was primed to become a game in the second half, you thought wrong. Mensah and Ty engineered a masterful 12 play 75 yard break your will drive to go up 38-10. I’ll never get tired of tweeting Touchdown Tulane.
Everything Craddock called worked yesterday. It felt like the green wave gained 10 yards on every play no matter who was running, catching or throwing the football. The Craddock master class resulted in 540 yards that easily could have been 600 if not for some sportsmanship shown by the green wave sideline. You have to go back to the AAC championship in 2022 to find a game that the wave notched more yards on O. Awesome start to conference play for Joe on O.
What more is there to say really? Tulane’s offense is awesome. Darian mensah’s QB rating at Yulman stadium would be #1 in the nation (224.5). He had the best Qb Rating in all of college football yesterday and that includes Milroe’s instant game of the year performance
Tulane leaves Saturday as the class of the American conference. When that Twitter graphic “did we really lose that badly” drops expect USF to look somehow even worse than they did on the field. We will have to wait a while for our next true test, but I hope to see you all in person in Annapolis. Soak it in wave fans, this is as good as it gets.
We win. We sing.
Tulane Football Blog 
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