Tulane has taken next step with upgraded personnel

Dannen wasn’t being brash. He was correct.
    

After a visit to fall practice, a reporter saw a Tulane football team that looks more and more like a team from a Power 5 conference.
    

Head coach Willie Fritz has two talented freshman quarterbacks, early enrollee Michael Pratt and Country Day’s Justin Ibieta, backing up senior transfer quarterback Keon Howard.
    

Tulane also has two commits from the class of 2021, including Ty Keyes, a four star from Taylorsville, Mississippi.
    

At running back, redshirt freshman Tyjae Spears of Ponchatoula could be poised for a breakout. Spears played in four games last season, thus preserving his redshirt. Spears still totaled more than 300 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns.
    

Seniors Patrick Johnson, Cam Sample and De’Andre Williams are joined by junior Jeffery Johnson to complete one of the best defensive lines in the American Athletic Conference.
    

Graduate transfer Kyle Meyers, from Florida State and Holy Cross schools, add size to the secondary.
    

The biggest upgrade for Green Wave football is depth. Tulane has had nine players drafted by NFL teams since 2014. But there are more good football players on campus since the Wave won 18 games in two seasons in the late ’90s.
    

It will take talent and depth to keep pace in an underrated league. In 2019, in the College Football RPI, the American Athletic Conference ranked fourth, behind the SEC, Big 10 and Big 12. The American was ahead of the Pac-12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
    

Four American teams – Memphis, Navy, Cincinnati and Central Florida – ranked in the top 25 in RPI.
    

In that same radio interview with 106.1’s Ken Trahan, Dannen said the Green Wave had football history but not “enough recent football history.”
    

And, he is, again, correct. The last time Tulane had three consecutive winning seasons was from 1979 through 1981, when the Green Wave went to two bowl games and defeated LSU twice.
    

In 1982, Vince Gibson’s Wave finished off an unremarkable four-win season with a stunning upset of four-touchdown favorite LSU in Baton Rouge. Gibson was fired two days later, despite winning 17 of 34 games in three seasons. Since then, only Tommy Bowden has left Uptown with a winning record.
    

In the last 20 years, Tulane football fans could only wonder what consistent winning and stability might look like.
Willie Fritz appears to be providing both.
    

Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO and can be reached at [email protected].