New Orleans, LA – Exploding to an exciting finish, RB Maurice Turner burst 74 yards with 5:26 left to play to defeat Southern Miss, 24-21, last Saturday. In a game played by two teams with 1-2 records depleted in talent through the transfer portal, we couldn’t have selected a more competitive game. Turner totaled 200 yards on the day. Southern Miss, more impacted by the portal with most of last year’s defense following Charlier Huff to Memphis, actually led after three quarters. 

We give Eagle HC Blake Anderson credit in making this team play hard to win despite the exodus of many key players and its former staff. On the other hand, our impression of being at Tulane’s Yulman Stadium for the first time gave us more respect for head coaches who recently came through Tulane. They left behind opportunities to allow this program to continue to thrive after much success in recent years.

Good first half action

A sack of QB Landry Lyddy by DE Ed Smith forced a punt to start Tulane from their 30.  Green Wave QB Kadin Semonza hit WR Anthony Brown-Stephens on the run for a 47-yard TD.  In the second period, Lyddy displayed his accuracy on a 61-yard drive culminating with a 32-yard catch by WR Davis Dalton to tie it, 7-7. Dalton displayed good hands and effort on several catches. He led the Eagles with 75 yards on four snags this evening.

On its next possession, Tulane went to its ground game starting from its 25. At the Southern Miss 47, Maurice Turner shed a tackle at the line of scrimmage before heading all the way to the end zone. It put the Green Wave back on top. In response, Southern Miss mixed passes and runs well to get down to the Tulane 14. From there, Lyddy connected with WR Mario Sanderson (5 receptions, 69 yards, 2 TDs) on a down-an-out in the end zone to even the score at 14-all. Neither team could move to score again in the first half. Southern Miss could attribute some to that to their punter, Dusty Zimmer.

Appropriate award in the future?

He averaged 41.9 yards per boot overall, but four of these in the first half sailed for at least 50 yards.  He also placed punts effectively inside the 20 on other attempts. And think of this, the trophy awarded annually award to the best college punter each year is the Ray Guy Award. It honors the skills of former Southern Miss punter Ray Guy who went on to continue a great pro career. The Oakland Raiders drafted Guy in 1972. Maybe Zimmer, only a freshman, can follow in his fellow Eagle punter’s footsteps.

Southern Miss challenges Tulane

To start the third, the Eagle defense allowed only three yards before forcing a Green Wave punt. Lyddy (18 for 29 yards, 243 yards, 3TDs) went right to the airwaves.  A 41-yard toss to AJ little and a 16-yard completion to Dalton brought Southern Miss to the Tulane 22. Lyddy fired a pass to Sanderson who turned completely around in the end zone to make the grab falling down. The Eagles took their first lead, 21-14. On its next series, Tulane drove to the 32 where Kadin Semonza got stopped on fourth down. Southern Miss eventually punted back.

The Green Wave rolled all the way down to the nine of the Eagles for a first down. Semonza (12 for 24, 129 yards, 1 TD/ 1 INT) attempted a pass to the far-left corner of the end zone. However, SS Landon Sylvie picked it for the Eagles. They could get nothing going and punted away. Tulane got rolling again, making it down to the USM eight. On fourth and seven, HC Will Hall elected to go for three. Cooper Helmke converted successfully from 24 to trail Southern Miss now, 21-17, with 8:35 remaining to play.

Tulane Green Wave looking to roll

The Eagles went back on the move. At the Green Wave 26, Creight Wilbanks came in to extend the USM lead, but his kick from 43 was no good. The Wave took over. On its second play, Turner took the hand-off, slithered through the line, and broke a tackle.  Near midfield, two defenders collided on him at the same time falling off and allowing him to continue on a 74-yard touchdown jaunt for a 24-21 lead.

Not giving up, Southern Miss drove 72 yards to the Tulane three for its only third down of the drive. Lyddy’s next pass to Walton came up short.  Wilbanks came in for the chippy of 20 yards. Freshman DE Josh Lewis came up big though for Tulane. He blocked it! It sent the Eagles 110 miles back to Hattiesburg from the Battle for the Bell, 24-21. The intense game played by two teams coming in with 1-2 records ended in exciting fashion for the home team.  Great fight here to the finish, generally what we always look for in the matchups we select!

What comes next for Tulane, Southern Miss and collegefootballfan.com in Week Five

Tulane recovers with a bye next week and preps for trip to play Army (2-1, 1-1) at West Point, NY on October 10 for an American Athletic clash. Southern Miss (1-3) starts televised, Sun Belt weeknight play on Tuesday, October 6 at Troy State (2-2, 1-0). This Saturday, we at Collegefootballfan.com take our first trip ever to see Nebraska play home at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. The Huskers (4-0, 1-0) host Maryland (2-2, 0-1) in a Big Ten contest. Read our preview below.

Disappointing Observation at this Point of the Season

As pointed out in this review, we noted inferior tackling of Maurice Turner on his long TD run. Other misses too place throughout as well. In our Friday night report, we noted a lack of blocking by both offensive lines in passing situations resulting in numerous sacks. On Saturday afternoon, No. 1 Texas played No. 9 Tennessee on television watched at Spectator’s Bar in Slidell, LA close to where we stayed. Got to say, for two highly ranked college football teams in a big game, blocking and tackling on both sides of the football were inept throughout the game, to say the least. A friend and die-hard Vol fan who attended the game confirmed the same observation in person.

Both fundamentals of football seem to be lost arts. The scoring and the excitement, seem at times, to be the results of the poor quality in both blocking and tackling. Back in my high school and college playing days 50 years ago, our football coaches emphasized these were the two basics of football. Maybe overemphasized in retrospect, but their point today becomes clearer than ever. This is where the games begin and more and more, one sees that this is why and how games are won or lost.

Times have changed, no doubt

Today, players at all levels of football, high school to pro, are no doubt bigger, stronger and faster than in years past.  However, their skills in the basics are waning. Maybe because their improved physical attributes create more injuries than in the past. We understand tackling is no longer practiced as we did “in the olden days.” Maybe it’s to the point now where it isn’t part of practice at all during the regular season. Too much risk for injuries. And if tackling is not practiced, how is blocking taught?  Not sure if a safer way to practice both has been developed, but the decline of these skills certainly makes for games not played as well as they used to be – at all levels.

Fearing for the future of football

On the other hand, when it comes to college play-for-pay now, are players less focused on developing these skills? Is the risk of learning them and improving on them cause for concerns over injuries cutting short their newly offered incomes right after high school? Playing careers are completed in high school, and now they have monetary opportunities to play in college. Teenagers no longer have to wait four years for a “professional contract.” They get paid to play, why risk getting hurt?

I believe both factors addressed here cause the declines of these basic skills observed. These waning skills impact the biggest negative change I see in the college games that I attend today compared to what I watched and played in over the last 50 years. I’m afraid it will destroy our great game. I foresee futuristic games being played by individual computer operators sitting with controls operating a digital player rather than by human beings competing on a football field. Professional football will be scouting IT departments instead of football teams for talent. Why not? Artificial Intelligence looms. Robotics are improving. TV controls this sport more than ever. Combine all of these, what will people do? What’s next? Think this is crazy? Laugh about it now or at me! This world is changing so fast, I believe it’ll be hard to recognize it quicker than we can imagine.

First Tulane visit

Passed right by the Super Dome on the way to Yulman only a short ride away. Immensely bigger! Can’t believe the Green Wave played there for so long.  A paid crowd of 22,984 justifies why the Wave now plays on campus (capacity of 30,000). At least the change in density surely gives Yulman a sense of more intensity for Group of Six games than the nearby dome holding up to 76,000 if necessary.

Finding too many shortcomings and deceiving ads for prepaid parking for many venues online lately, I avoided prepaid parking for this game. Worked out well. Made a U-turn approaching heaver traffic near Yulman, and I found a school parking lot with shuttle buses not too far away for $25. Worth the money to avoid vehicular congestion aggravation on neighborhood streets, but it gave me a sense how programs like Tulane’s are necessary to develop players and coaches. The smaller stadiums, the lower budgets than the Power Fives, the smaller facilitates provide an appreciation of what coaches especially go through to achieve success and make it to the next level.

Great example at Tulane

In the case of Jon Sumrall moving up to Florida this season from Tulane and previously at Troy who we saw him coach successfully three and four years ago. Winning at both the programs to a record of 43-12 over four years proved his worth to move on to Florida. In an earlier article, among first-year coaches this season, we deemed him as the best coaching selection among the many made this year.  He’s already proven that at Florida with a record of 4-0 with wins already over Auburn and No. 6 Mississippi.

What makes Sumrall even more reputable though is that he didn’t leave the Tulane program in a shambles. First, he took only two players from Tulane through the portal, his punter and his kicker. Not to say other former TU players didn’t go elsewhere, notably QB Darian Mensah to Miami. In addition, he made a substantial donation to Tulane upon exiting to the Power Four program he took over to support the school’s NIL Funding. I understand the previous HC Willie Fritz who preceded Sumrall before leaving for Houston may have done something similar. Nice to see coaches donating to a school that gave them chanced to prove themselves to move up to the next level.     

Preview: Maryland at Nebraska

Both head Coaches sat on hot seats before season started.  One is cooled off; the other is hotter.  Matt Rhule of Nebraska is 4-0. Despite three wins over teams the Huskers were supposed to defeat, his latest 31-13 win over Michigan State has cooled things off for the time being. 

After a 56-3 smackdown from UCLA last week, the seat under Maryland HC Mike Locksley seems ablaze. With wins over FCS Hampton (62-0) and G6 UConn (38-14), the Terps loss to VA Tech and now at home to UCLA, the Terrapin faithful began fanning the flames once again. His 37-49 record before this season wore thin on Terrapin fans; 16-43 against the Big Ten. Surprised he lasted so long in College Park.

Two programs heading in different directions

Nebraska looks to have things under control going into this before hosting Indiana and then visiting Oregon on consecutive weeks. Led by QB Anthony Colandrea with 904 yards, ten TDs, and one INT.  RB Jamal Rule has rushed for 333 yards and five TDs. They run a balanced offense averaging 482 yards per game. Nebraska has probably faced tougher defenses already than Maryland’s. The Terps allow 25.8 ppg. Take away the Hampton (1-4) win and against inferior, non-FCS competition, that’s 31.3 ppg allowed. At least Nebraska’s FCS win came over North Dakota (4-1).

And UCLA exposed touted sophomore QB Malik Washington last weekend.  He totaled only 142 yards passing, completing 18 of 38 for no TDs, and four INTs – a far cry from devastating Hampton. Take away the 62 points against Hampton and their offensive output averages 22. 3 against FBS programs. The Huskers have allowed an average of 13.7 points thus far against the same.

Low expectations for excitement in this one

We look forward to finally getting to Lincoln after all these years. Unusual for us, we will spend Friday checking out pregame festivities downtown. But to be honest, Saturday does not look to offer a very competitive game that we usually seek. Hopefully, we’ll at least see a Nebraska team on the rise. We’ve always admired Matt Rhule’s head-coaching capabilities. We watched him turn Temple into a respectable program over the years he coached there. He coached his players to be better.  He didn’t get the blue chippers, but he won with players recruited from lower levels of high school talent that he and his staff brought the best out of.

In 2015, we witnessed him defeat Penn State and lose a close one to Notre Dame, 24-20. Attended wins against UConn and USF in 2016. Later that season, Temple defeated Navy in the AAC championship but saw him fall after to Wake Forest in the Military Bowl. Has a good turnaround going on there for the Owls

Impressed by his eventual turnaround of struggling Baylor in three years before moving up to NU.  Maybe he will turn few surprises with the Huskers in tougher Big Ten games going forward. Now in his fourth season in Lincoln, his team seems due to move up another notch within the conference.  Not an easy slate ahead, but we look forward to seeing his team play this week to give us a better indication of its future as he continues to improve this program looking to regain its past prominence.

Read more fun history of many games attended our first 42 Seasons!

If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Ugly on Amazon.com. Among 746 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person. In 2026, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!

Read the reviews on the book page and order your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales.

Capture some memories

Please buy your copy today and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe some will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did. And to us this isn’t a job. It’s our lifelong adventure!

Edited and written by Stephen J. Koreivo, member of Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and Author of “Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly.”