The Green Wave began their season at home today with a resounding 20 point win over the B1G 10’s Northwestern. The day was characterized by Tulane’s relentless aggression on the defensive side of the ball. In all, Tulane forced five, count em, five turnovers and kept the Wildcats from ever reaching the endzone. In fact, Northwestern only crossed the 30 yard line once in 60 minutes of play. Tulane felt in control from the opening whistle and broke Northwestern’s will with takeaways on the way to victory. Let’s get into the recap:
The first drive of the game was only 3 plays and yet it foreshadowed what was to come for the next few hours in uptown New Orleans. On the first play from scrimmage, Texas tech transfer Harvey Dyson treated future NFL draft pick, Caleb Tiernan, like a turnstile on the way to a strip sack. This had shades of the opening snap of the 2023 AAC championship game.
The wave was not able to come away with the football on the Dyson strip, but the turnover beads would come out shortly thereafter. Joker Johnson became the first recipient of the beads on the first of many bad throws from Preston Stone.
There was a lot of offseason talk about who would replace the 3 members of the 2024 wave secondary that made NFL rosters. It was Jaheim “Joker” Johnson that rose to the occasion first. If the former Hammond standout keeps playing like this, I am going to need a lot more joker GIFs. Drop your favorites in the comments for future use.
Tulane’s first offensive possession of the 2025 campaign was set to begin at midfield after the pick. Tulane’s new QB1, Jake Retzlaff, had his first chance to show the Wave faithful what he could do, and he did not disappoint.
After two uninspiring plays, it was 3rd & 9. Retzlaff established a reputation at BYU for being clutch in big moments and this reputation rang true here in his first test at Tulane. Jake delivered a 3rd down strike to his new WR1 Omari Hayes for 15 yards to move the sticks. He went back to Hayes once more before leaning on Maurice turner to get the ball down to the red zone. Gone are Mensah, Makhi and Mario, it’s now the Retzlaff, Turner and Hayes show.
Joe Craddock reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out an excellent play call for the first touchdown of the 2025 season. Retzlaff to a wide open Justyn Reid on the naked boot. Save that one for later, obscure trivia buffs. 7-0 Green Wave after one offensive possession.
The Wave defense was once again swarming on the second possession of the game. They manufactured a quick three and out to get the ball back to the offense. Tulane countered with a three and out of their own. The first and second of many frustrating dropped passes came here on second and third down. I attribute this to Retzlaff still being less than 40 days into his Tulane tenure. He will continue to grow with regard to timing and chemistry with receivers which should cut the drops down. The kid throws the ball with a lot of zip and the pass catchers are still acclimating.
Northwestern led an incredibly long (13 plays 7+ minutes) and monotonous drive on their third possession. This was probably the only drive of the game where Stone looked even remotely capable. Northwestern’s Chicago bears sized offensive line had a good series and the Wildcats came away with three. Shout out to Chris Rodgers making a nice stick on 3rd and goal to keep our endzone untouched. 7-3 Wave
Retzlaff returned to the controls here in the second quarter and engineered another nice drive highlighted by a 33 yard catch and run by Justyn Reid. The Southern Miss transfer was a big contributor in the passing game throughout the afternoon.
The long play to Reid set up the Wave in the red zone yet again. Tulane dropped not one but two touchdown passes on the ensuing three plays and had to settle for a field goal. It’s frustrating but as stated above, there’s reason to believe this will get cleaned up. Good to see Patrick Durkin confidently banging them through the uprights after last season. It looks like the kicking woes have been solved. As someone who attended the Army game last December, this was quite the refreshing sight. Durkin was a captain today and a difference maker. 10-3 Wave
Preston stone doing Preston stone things on his next drive. Another forced throw, another green wave pick. The highlight is in the Dyson tweet above so here’s the Tulane football account paying tribute to our second beads recipient Kevin Adams.
Tulane was set up in great field position with the turnover, but the offense sputtered. Much like the first drive, Retzlaff was called upon to come up clutch, this time on fourth and long. Retzlaff found Zycarl Lewis for the 11 yard conversion and kept points on the table. This was Zycarl’s only catch of the game, but it’s clear #15 has chemistry with #12. Look for Lewis to make a larger impact in the coming weeks.
Future Sunday player Adin Hubbard derailed this drive with a big sack of Retzlaff. This was the only time Hubbards name was called today and for that our guy Derrick graham deserves a lot of credit. A weird declined penalty here on third and long set up Patrick Durkin for a 41 yard field goal. He drilled this one and you could feel the collective heart beat of green wave nation calm down to a healthy level. Folks, we’ve got a kicker. 13-3 Wave
Death, Taxes and Preston Stone interceptions. I considered this for the title of the blog but saved it for my loyal fans that made it 1,000 words down. If you made it this far, I’ll buy you a beer at the Duke game. Stone threw his first of two picks to Javion White. Nice toe tap here, can tell this kid was a stud receiver in high school.
At this juncture, I was happy with how Tulane had played, but the scoreboard did not reflect the dominance on display. Tulane had moved the ball well and generated three turnovers but only led 13-3, but then it happened. With under 2 minutes left in the half, Jake Retzlaff got LOOSE.
The highlight of the day for Tulane fans came in the form of a 69 yard touchdown run as Jake Retzlaff went untouched to the house. I’ve watched this highlight about 20 times, I’m sure you have too. If you had any questions about Retzlaff being labeled a dual threat QB, press play on the above one more time. Retzlaff topped 100 yards rushing with this run and sent wave fans at Yulman and across the world into a frenzy. If Daniel jones is vanilla Vick, perhaps Jake Retzlaff can be Caucasion Cam Newton. 20-3 Tulane headed into halftime.
I won’t bore you too much with a recap of the second half. The defense was awesome forcing two more turnovers and pitching a second half shutout. The offense will continue to grow and improve. I’d be lying if I said I was satisfied with 3 points in the second half, but we just beat a power 4 team by 20 points. This one was over as soon as Jake broke loose and it was nice to relax all second half long. The takeaways from this one are simple, the defense is downright dominant, and the offense is a work in progress. This team cannot be satisfied with good because it has the potential to be great.
As always, we win, we sing.
Tulane Football Blog 
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