Tulane head coach Willie Fritz is a program-builder, and he has the Green Wave on the right track after leading them to a bowl game last season. The breakthrough bowl appearance wasn’t enough to fully satisfy Fritz, though, as he decided to make some widespread offensive changes for 2019.
Enter new offensive coordinator Will Hall, who will have Tulane pushing the tempo next season after the team finished 69th in total offense. Hall built some highly successful offenses as the head coach at West Georgia on the Division II level. After an ill-fated season as the offensive coordinator at Louisiana, Hall spent last season as the tight ends coach for Memphis.
Tulane lost a good chunk of last season’s roster, but they do return LSU-transfer quarterback Justin McMillan, who seems tailor-made for this offensive system. It also returns a pair of running backs in Darius Bradwell and Corey Dauphine who combined to rush for nearly 2000 yards last season.
There’s some intriguing pieces in place for Fritz to potentially get the Green Wave back to a bowl game in 2019, but not nearly enough to remain competitive against Auburn.
The talent-gap will be too great, and the Tigers shouldn’t have too much of an issue dispatching Tulane in their home opener.
Pick: Auburn 45, Tulane 10 (2-0)