No. 22 Green Wave riding a wave of success under Fritz

By Richard Dean CORRESPONDENT

Tulane’s appearance is the first time in seven years a ranked opponent has played inside Rice Stadium. Former Sam Houston football coach Willie Fritz is in his eighth season at Tulane, which is bowl eligible for the fifth time in six years.

On a five-game win streak, Tulane is ranked No. 22 by the Associated Press and shares the top spot in the American Athletic Conference. Saturday is the 37th game of the series and first between the teams since 2013 and the first meeting when one comes in ranked.

Here are five things to watch as the Owls vie for their fifth win of the season and attempt to go 3-1 in the league:

Tulane is real deal

Tulane is 6-1 overall and 3-0 in AAC, going 18-3 over its past two seasons. Ole Miss handed the Green Wave its lone loss, 37-20 in week 2. Tulane is reigning conference champions and knocked off USC 46-45 in last year’s Cotton Bowl. Tulane has a seven-game road win streak, the nation’s third-longest behind Georgia (13) and Michigan (9).

“They do everything well,” Rice coach Mike Bloomgren said. “They are a well put together football team. This is the best American team we’ve played from top to bottom. They are so talented. I’m fired up that we’ve put ourselves in position to make this a big game.”

Unique offense

Rice has ability to score quickly as well as sustain long drives. That fits well going up against Tulane’s defense. At Tulsa, the Owls had three drives that took under a minute to score and two drives holding the ball for more than eight minutes. In the second half against the Golden Hurricane, the Owls held the ball for nearly 23 minutes, outgaining the home team 166-9 in the third quarter.

Though the Owls still rank last in rushing in the AAC, the numbers have risen in recent weeks. The Owls average 92.4 yards rushing but some of that low number is because of Rice’s prolific passing attack, which averages 319.9 yards per game.

QBs in spotlight

The game displays two of the AAC’s top quarterbacks — Rice’s JT Daniels and the Green Wave’s Michael Pratt. Both play in a pro-style system. The coaching staff gives Pratt, who is comfortable in their system, a lot of leeway at the line of scrimmage to change the call.

Daniels is coming off his fourth 300-yard passing game of 2023, throwing for 342 yards at Tulsa, completing 14 of his final 15 passes. Over seven games, Daniels has eclipsed 2,000 passing yards, throwing 17 touchdowns on 155-of-243 passing with five interceptions. Pratt has thrown for 1,121 yards and 12 scores on 80-of-113 passing with two picks.

Pratt is the AAC Offensive Player of the Week after accounting for 264 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-28 victory over North Texas. he has thrown for at least one touchdown pass in 39 of his 40 career games.

“He’s really good and so is our quarterback,” Bloomgren said. “We’ve got two great quarterbacks going in this game and two good football teams.”

Run game

Dean Connors’ careerhigh 120 rushing yards (three touchdowns) last week was the first 100yard game by an Owl in two seasons. Connors, who scored on runs of 54, 10 and 2 yards, is developing into a complete player and Rice’s feature back under first-year running backs coach John Settle and offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo.

Even though Tulane has a good passer, it is committed to the run game and Pratt will get carries. Pratt added 70 yards rushing, including a 19-yard score in the final minutes to seal the win over North Texas, to go with 194 passing yards. Tulane has run for more than 100 yards in 92 of its past 96 games.

Tulane’s defense is active and plays well against the run, allowing just 2.68 yards per carry, sixth-fewest in the nation. No Green Wave opponent has rushed or passed for more than 40 yards on one single play this season and the defense has gone 28 games without allowing a 100-yard individual rusher.

“They do not make mistakes. What they do is try to put enough pressure on you to force you to make mistakes,” Settle said.

Special teams

Fritz places a high emphasis on special teams. The Green Wave ranks second in the AAC in net punting (41.1), punt returns (14.2) and kickoff returns (24.1).

Rice also takes pride in that unit. The Owls are third in the league in kickoff returns (21.2) and fifth in punt returns (10.6). Two games ago against UConn, Quinton Jackson returned four kickoffs for 114 yards with a long of 41.

Despite one kick going out of bounds to start the second half at Tulsa, Enock Gota has been a strength on kickoffs. Geron Hargon is the quarterback of the Owls’ punt team.