NEW ORLEANS — The Tulane University Green Wave has spent the past two weeks balancing football with much larger concerns for senior safety Devon Walker, who fractured his spine against the university of Tulsa.
Still, coach Curtis Johnson senses Tulane (0-2) will be ready to get back on the field when it plays host to the University of Mississippi (1-2) Saturday in the Superdome.
“We’re doing pretty good — about as well as can be expected,” Johnson said.
Walker has been transferred from a hospital to an undisclosed rehabilitation facility, but his family’s requests for privacy has prevented Tulane from discussing the extent to which Walker may be dealing with paralysis often associated with spinal injuries.
Back on campus, the school arranged for players to have counseling if they wished, and Johnson said practice has been “spirited.”
“We’ve done everything that we possibly could so that these guys can move in a direction to do what they love to do,” Johnson said.
Ole Miss seeks to bounce back from a humiliating 66-31 home loss to Texas in which the Rebels yielded a whopping 676 yards.
First-year coach Hugh Freeze is trying to get his players to take a more clinical approach to correcting the errors from that game rather than allowing any bitter emotions to linger and become a distraction from the next game on the schedule.
“You’ve just got to learn from the mistakes. We can’t let Texas beat us twice,” Freeze said. “It’s done. It’s history. It’s gone. We can’t go back and play them. We can’t go back and change anything we did in that game.”
The loss to Texas put a damper on what looked like a promising start for the Freeze regime after victories against Central Arkansas and UTEP. The last thing Mississippi wants now is to slide into a two-game skid against a team it has owned since the year George H. W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan as president.
Tulane and Ole Miss have met 70 times, dating back to 1893. The Rebels have won 42 of those games, including the past 10 meetings since last losing to the Green Wave in 1988. Tulane 19-year-old freshman quarterback Devin Powell, who will be pressed into his first start this weekend because of a shoulder injury to senior Ryan Griffin, was born four years after the last time the Wave beat the Rebels.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Powell showed promise after relieving Griffin at Tulsa.
Playing the whole second half, Powell completed half of his passes (8 of 16) for 110 yards and a touchdown. He has since had a couple of weeks to work with the first team in practice, leaving Johnson optimistic that he won’t be overwhelmed in his first start.
“He’s learned a lot in two weeks,” Johnson said. “I would be nervous playing against that defense, but he just doesn’t know any better. … That’s the good thing about a freshman. They just don’t know better.”
Regardless of how composed Powell may be, there is also the question of whether Tulane’s defense, which gave up 45 points at Tulsa, can stop an Ole Miss offense that has averaged 501 yards per game, including 245 yards per game on the ground.
“Tulsa beat them pretty good. But I have no doubt we’ll get their best effort down there,” Freeze said of playing in New Orleans. “It’ll be an emotional game for them for a lot of reasons — a chance to knock off an SEC team, so I know they will be ready.”
The Tulane defense’s biggest concerns are Rebels sophomore QB Bo Wallace and running back Jeff Scott.
Wallace has passed for 205 yards per game and is his team’s second-leading rusher at nearly 48 yards per game. Scott is averaging 103 yards rushing.
Freeze said he’s inclined to judge Tulane’s defense not by its performance in Tulsa, but how it played at home the week before in a 24-12 loss to Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights scored only 17 points on offense and finished with 151 yards rushing, even though the running game is their offensive strength.
“I watched the Rutgers game and am very impressed with (Tulane), particularly defensively,” Freeze said.
Meanwhile, if Tulane’s Johnson, a former offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints, believes he can carve up Mississippi’s beleaguered defense, he isn’t saying so. Complicating matters for Tulane is the prolonged absence of top running back Orleans Darkwa because of a high ankle sprain in August camp.
Johnson said he can only assume that Mississippi’s defense will be eager to redeem itself.
“We just have to match that intensity and play our best game,” Johnson said. “Hopefully it’s good enough.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.