New Orleans — Tulane returns home Saturday to host Tulsa, after losing back-to-back road games– against Navy this past weekend and Memphis the week before.
In both of those games, the Green Wave got-out to a very slow start, scoring just 3 points in the first quarters of those two games combined. For Tulane Head Coach Willie Fritz, making sure his team is not having to battle-back from an early deficit is something he is taking seriously.
“It does concern me,” Fritz said. “That is not good. I think we are prepared well, but we have to do a good job with our openers and do a good job with execution. You cannot rely on hanging-on in the ball game and just figuring it out. If you do that against good teams, you will get behind by so much that you will not be able to catch up. We have to do a much better job in the first quarter. There are some games we played well in the first quarter and some games we haven’t.”
Saturday’s match-up is Homecoming Weekend at Tulane, as they are still on the cusp of becoming bowl eligible with a win. Tulane has not played in back-to-back bowl games since 1979-1980.
Tulane (5-3, 2-2 AAC) and Tulsa (2-6, 0-4 AAC) kick-off at 3:00 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPN2.