{"id":38244,"date":"2015-08-15T15:55:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=38244"},"modified":"2015-08-15T16:02:34","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T21:02:34","slug":"2015-tulane-green-wave-football-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2015-tulane-green-wave-football-preview-38244\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Tulane Green Wave Football Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tanner<\/a>
Tanner Lee is coming off a disappointing year and will have to rapidly improve to avoid holding back a talented offense.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tulane Green Wave<\/span><\/strong>
\n Head coach: Curtis Johnson<\/strong>
\n 2014 Record: 3-9; 2-6 AAC<\/strong>
\n 2014 Bowl: N\/A<\/strong>
\n 2015 Returning Starters: 6 offense, 7 defense<\/strong><\/p>\n

Odds to win 2016 CFB Championship: +990000<\/strong>
\n Odds to win 2015 AAC Title: +10000<\/strong>
\n Regular Season Wins: Over 4 (+105), Under 4 (-125)<\/strong>
\n Bet these prop bets at 5dimes and receive a 20 percent deposit bonus!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tulane’s RB group should be able to propel the offense, but it’s going to need a lot more from Tanner Lee to approach respectability.<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Tulane Green Wave is as good as QB Tanner Lee, but last season that wasn\u2019t very good, especially in the latter half of the season as it dropped five of its final six games.<\/p>\n

Tanner Lee made his anticipated debut as a redshirt freshman QB last season but the results were disappointing. Tulane went just 2-6 in ACC play and ranked 107th in total offense and 121st in points. The team failed to score 14 or more in eight of the last nine games, too, a fitting cap on a disappointing season.<\/p>\n

Lee was also a huge part of the problem with his interception issues (14 last year), and he only threw 12 TDs on the year. He threw for 262 yards and three TDs against Tulsa in the opener but defenses were able to confound him quite often and his receiving corp was mostly inexperienced freshman struggling to get open.<\/p>\n

Compare sportsbooks here!<\/a><\/p>\n

These guys are now experienced for sophomores and should improve on that basis alone, but the improvement has to be vast given just how poor it all worked out last season. WR Teddy Veal led the team with 40 catches for 381 yards and TE Charles Jones and Trey Scott both were key offensive fixtures in spring, so expect a lot of TE sets this season for Tulane.<\/p>\n

The RBs ranked 91st nationally last year but should be far better with an improved OL that can create some holes. The best three backs are Lazedrick Thompson, Dontrell Hilliard and Sherman Badie. Badie rushed for 688 yards at 5.7 yards per carry, while Badie was good for 533 yards and four TDs. He also had three runs of more than 70 yards on the season.<\/p>\n

Defensively Tulane returns its key starters. It should be a lot more like its 2013 numbers when it ranked No. 22 in the nation in yards allowed. Last year, it was 55th. The biggest key will be finding a replacement for Lorenzo Doss, the CB who declared for the draft after picking off 15 passes in three NCAA seasons.<\/p>\n

See live college football betting lines here!<\/a><\/p>\n

Darion Monroe was a 4-star recruit in 2012 and is back for his fourth season at S. Sophomore CB Parry Nickerson made 51 tackles last year and led the team with six INTs. At LB there is Nico Marley who stands just 5\u20199\u201d and 200 pounds but led the Conference as Co-Freshman of the Year as he had 13.5 tackles for loss and was a huge energy player in the Green Wave \u2018D.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Wave are also good at tackle where they have junior Tanzel Smart, who had 47 stops and could be a pick for All-AAC this season. Sophomore Sean Wilson mans the other corner. The ends are weaker though with Royce LaFrance\u2019s inconsistency and LaFrance also missed spring with academic issues. He has to be there, and good.<\/p>\n

Losing third-year sophomore Jarrod Franklin in spring is a loss that most might not have noticed readily, but he could still make a big contribution in nickel sets. \u00a0His continued recovery is worth monitoring as he could be a key part of keeping the defensive attack versatile. \u00a0He’s placing with a brace now but doesn’t appear to be overly encumbered by it.<\/p>\n

The kicking game was weak for Tulane last year, but special teams are a priority for the Green Wave this year. Kicking was abysmal last year, missing half of the 16 attempts, and the solution may be found in senior walk-on Trevor Simms, who has great range but middling accuracy.<\/p>\n

Andrew DiRocco missed a 21 harder that could have won opener against Tulsa and he was rattled ever after. Incoming freshman P Zach Block could help punting units a lot. On returns, Badie may be used so that the team can improve in an area it ranked second-to-last nationally in last year. Punting teams were also poor, allowing Peter Picerelli to average just 37.8 yards per punt.<\/p>\n

The Wave should be slightly better this year, but only slightly. The team is gaining experience and will continue to improve in through next season most likely. Lee really has to become competent and he was anything but for most of last season. He passes the eye test, initially, but a poor OL didn\u2019t do him any favors and his accuracy just wasn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n

The RBs are an interesting group of combining talents and the Wave may have a reasonably good rush game this season. That will help a lot in the AAC and having a top-25 defense would round this all out to a pretty good team. The thing is, the defensive improvement may not be quite that great, and the likely scenario is that the unit ranks around 35th nationally. Even that improvement, however, should be good enough to push Tulane to the \u2018over.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tulane coach Curtis Johnson said “We’re on the rise.” We agree with that.<\/p>\n

Prediction: 5 wins<\/p>\n

Consider getting in on the winning with our season pick plans for the 2015 College Football Season!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tulane Green Wave Head coach: Curtis Johnson 2014 Record: 3-9; 2-6 AAC 2014 Bowl: N\/A 2015 Returning Starters: 6 offense, 7 defense Odds to win 2016 CFB Championship: +990000 Odds to win 2015 AAC Title: +10000 Regular Season Wins: Over 4 (+105), Under 4 (-125) Bet these prop bets at 5dimes and receive a 20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":37846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[9126,9125,6904,9106,7621],"class_list":["post-38244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-aac-championship-betting-futures","tag-aac-season-football-previews","tag-college-football-betting-futures","tag-ncaa-football-championship-odds","tag-tulane-green-wave-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38244"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38249,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38244\/revisions\/38249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}