What Tulane head coach Willie Fritz said about facing No. 20 Ole Miss

Now the real college football season can get underway for No. 20 Ole Miss after having dispensed of Mercer last Saturday in its season opener.

The first of the remaining 11 games for the Rebels (1-0) is a trip to New Orleans and No. 24 Tulane who is also coming off a season-opening victory, beating South Alabama.

Despite the Green Wave have a little tougher test in its week one opponent than Ole Miss this also feels like the true start of the season for Tulane and head coach Willie Fritz.

A top-25 matchup, sold out Yulman Stadium — which has been that way since the summer — has all the feeling of a game where the victor is set up nicely for the rest of its season.

Tuesday saw Fritz meet with the members of the local media in New Orleans for his weekly press conference. He offered up his initial assessment of Ole Miss and what he saw on film.

“Very strong team. Big, tall, long, fast,” Fritz said of the Rebels. “Really, really took care of business last Saturday. So, we’re going to have to play a lot better than we did last Saturday.”

Fritz did note that Tulane will be without sophomore linebacker Corey Platt, Jr. in Saturday’s game. Platt was the Green Wave’s leading tackler against South Alabama with 15 —10 of them unassisted — and also recorded one of the three sacks.

Otherwise it is “all hands on deck,” according to Fritz. That includes quarterback Michael Pratt who looked to have potentially suffered an injury against the Lions but he did finish out the game.

As for the expected atmosphere inside Yulman Stadium Fritz anticipated it will be “outstanding,” and spoke to the fan’s excitement regarding the early-season matchup with Ole Miss.

“I’ve gotten a ton of phone calls,” Fritz said of people asking for tickets. “Please quit calling me. Everybody keeps wanting tickets. I say, ‘It’s a sell out.’ ‘Well all I need is one.’ ‘It’s a sell out. There aren’t anymore tickets.’ You know, that’s great. We’re very, very excited about it and so are the players.”

When the questions returned to Ole Miss and the play on the field Fritz was aware of the challenge coming.

Tulane and the Rebels last met two years ago in Oxford with the home team coming away with the 61-21 victory.

There was a lengthy weather delay as a storm rolled in during the game but afterwards Ole Miss continued to have its way with the Green Wave. The Rebels offense led by quarterback Matt Corral racked up 707 total yards (335 passing, 372 rushing) and 41 first downs.

“We had a tough time just getting lined up with the tempo and some things like that,” Fritz said. “We’ve worked on that a bunch. There’s a lot of differences. There’s a new signal caller, their head coach’s scheme, a new play caller and a new defensive coordinator and on special teams. It’s a lot of different philosophies they’re doing right now.”

The level of opponent is much improved than the Mercer defense Ole Miss faced last weekend, but the box score of its game with Tulane from 2021 is something to build off of. Quarterback Jaxson Dart threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns in just over a half of football last Saturday, nearly matching what Corral had against Tulane’s defense for four quarters.

None of that correlates or dictates in absolutes of what success Dart and the Ole Miss offense will have this weekend, but Fritz acknowledge the threat the Rebels starting quarterback possesses.

“(Dart) can run really well, too,” Fritz said. “At one point in time, people would consider that style of offense to be a passing offense. I think they were third in the nation a year ago rushing the ball. They run the ball effectively, and the quarterback is a part of that. A lot of experienced guys back there. Their second team guy is one of the best quarterbacks in the history of Oklahoma State. The third team guy is good too. They have excellent depth there.”