AAC football media days notebook: tough non-conference start awaits Tulane

ARLINGTON, Texas _ While the focus at American Athletic Conference media days was Tulane’s first-ever preseason projection to win a league, coach Willie Fritz and quarterback Michael Pratt pointed to an overlooked part of the schedule.
Before the Wave can worry about defending its AAC championship from 2022, it will have to negotiate a tricky non-conference start against South Alabama and Ole Miss at home and Southern Miss on the road.
The Jaguars return 18 starters from a 10-3 team. Their only regular-season defeats were 32-31 at UCLA and 10-6 to Sun Belt champion Troy.
Tulane lost at Ole Miss 61-21 in September of 2021 at the end of its Hurricane Ida-forced, monthlong evacuation to Birmingham, Alabama, proving no match at the time for coach Lane Kiffin’s offense.
Southern Miss surprised Tulane last year at Yulman Stadium the week after the Wave upset eventual Big 12 champion Kansas State on the road.
It is a stark contrast between the Wave’s openers against Massachusetts and Alcorn State a year ago.
“There's a lot of reasons why we won a lot of games last year, but I think one of the reasons is we were able to play a lot of guys in week one and week two and figure out who to play,” Fritz said. “We knew going into the season we’d have a pretty good chance of winning those two games. We played a lot of people, it worked out and we learned a lot. We don’t have that option this year. We’re going to have figure it out before week one.”
Pratt is well aware of the early tests. Southern Miss, the weakest on paper of the first three opponents, still won a bowl game after beating the Wave 27-24 at Yulman Stadium. The Golden Eagles present the extra challenge of being coached by Will Hall, who recruited Pratt to Tulane and was his offensive coordinator in his freshman season,
“We have a tough schedule that I don’t think a lot of people realize,” Pratt said. “We’re taking it week by week and will go from there.”
Talking Cotton
Speaking in a hotel right down the road from AT&T Stadium, the site of Tulane’s dramatic Cotton Bowl win against USC, defensive lineman Patrick Jenkins reminisced about his game-turning play.
His tackle of running back Austin Jones for a safety with 3:20 left—set up by Mario Williams muffing a kickoff out of bounds at the 1-yard line—pulled the Wave within 45-39 and allowed Pratt to direct the go-ahead touchdown drive while keeping the Trojans’ dominant offense off the field. The Wave’s comeback was legendary enough that AAC commissioner Mike Aresco referenced it five times kicking off Tuesday’s interview session.
“Man, my mind was going crazy,” Jenkins said. “When I saw him (Williams) drop that kickoff return, I’m like we gotta get a safety. That was the whole mindset, and so when it happened, it was kind of shocking. My coaches made the perfect call, my team executed the snap well and I made a play. It was crazy.”
Pratt predicts a monster year for Jenkins and his line mates this season, negating the loss of the Wave’s top five tacklers. He named Keith Cooper, Jenkins, Devean Deal, Adonis Friloux (who missed 2022 with an ACL injury), Darius Hodges and Angelo Anderson as key components.
“Our defensive line is going to be amazing,” Pratt said. “We are really, really deep there.”
Raving about Roushar
On his sixth line coach in five seasons, Tulane center Sincere Haynesworth says he has become a big believer in players setting the tone themselves. He had Cody Kennedy from 2019 to 2020, George Barnett for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at the end of 2020 through the beginning of 2021 spring practice, Chris Watt for the rest of 2021, Geep Wade for a few months in 2022, Eman Naghavi for spring practice through the 2022 season and Dan Roushar since this past February.
Roushar, though, has made an impression on him like no other coach after spending 10 years with the Saints.
“I’m a huge fan,” Haynesworth said. “The attention to detail and what he expects out of us is everything to me. He brings that NFL mindset. He really brings a level of professionalism with him that we're going to benefit from greatly.”