How Good is USA? Consorting w/ the Enemy: On SI Tulane talks to Jags Announcer

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Tulane Football Schedule 2026

Week 1 - Loss at Duke, September 5 (17-3)
Week 2 - South Alabama, September 12
Week 3 - at Kansas State, September 19
Week 4 - Southern Miss, September 26
Week 5 - OPEN DATE, October 3
Week 6 - at Army, October 10
Week 7 - Memphis, October 16
Week 8 - UTSA, October 24
Week 9 - at Charlotte, October 30
Week 10 - Tulsa, November 7
Week 11 - at Rice, November 14
Week 12 - North Texas, November 21
Week 13 - at South Florida, November 27

Each week, On SI Tulane traverses the void between the good guys and the bad guys to see what we can learn ahead of the weekend's opponent. This time, we lean towards the dark side of the force to speak with South Alabama play-by-play man JT Crabtree.

How has fall camp gone for USA so far? Were there any surprises or any disappointments that you thought maybe should have been that didn't happen?

I think what was encouraging was the fact that we've had wholesale changes on defense with our defensive coordinator, Todd Orlando. And I know we'll talk about him more here in a bit, I'm sure. But from an adjustment standpoint, it didn't seem like it was anything more than seamless.

The defense looked comfortable in the new scheme. We had new guys stepping up in a lot of different roles on defense and on offense. And the younger guys look good so far too.

And so I think all in all, camp went about as well as you can hope. The team for the most part stayed healthy. You return a starting quarterback, which at the G5 level is seemingly impossible nowadays.

Any surprises during the fall camp? I know that it went according to rule, which is good usually, but anything that just jumped out to you?

I think primarily was how, we knew younger guys were gonna mix in there, but just how many younger guys are actually contributing, not just because of necessity, but because of skill level. A guy from Baton Rouge for us, Xavius Anderson at linebacker has really jumped off the page.

And he was a guy that coming into fall camp was just, he was one of your high school signees. We weren't really expecting him to do a ton. And the guy has really filled a need for us.

This is a partial transcript of our conversation. For the full interview, please visit our YouTube channel.

He jumped right in and we had an opening at linebacker and he took advantage of it. He started this past weekend, his first career game. He looks the part physically and awareness wise.

I think Anderson's probably the biggest surprise for us. And then on offense too, at receiver, we came into the season with Anthony Eager and Brendan Jenkins and Michael Woods returning from last year's team. And so you had some experience, but beyond those guys, there were a lot of question marks.

So what do you think Wave fans should be looking for as a strength on the offensive side of the ball for the Jags?

I think primary thing is our running game. And last year, our offense was predicated rather on the run game, because we had a guy like Kentrell Bullock, who had been here for so long and had played behind so many other great running backs.

And we still return a guy like PJ Martin from New Orleans, was great at De La Salle High School. You have a guy behind him in Keenan Phillips. And Bishop Davenport, our quarterback, mixes in there as well. He can tuck it and run himself too. So I think he can run very well. He had a 50-yard rushing touchdown at a bowl game two years ago, had another one of almost 60 yards against Troy last year too. And so you add in the three running backs plus Bishop, a quarterback to run. We have four options that we're comfortable at any point toting the football out there.

Okay, let's flip to the other side. The defensive side, you have a new DC. You've already talked about that, but let's talk a little bit about some of the strengths that the defense will have coming into this season.

Well, we're hoping that what we saw in game one will continue and that's creating turnovers. Orlando's defenses are really built on forcing takeaways. His three-year average at South Florida when he was defensive coordinator there, they averaged 25 turnovers forced per season.

And in comparison, South Alabama last year only had 15.

And so in game one, you already had two turnovers forced with two interceptions. And they were by guys who didn't have big roles last year or were new. Dee Darby was a role player last year and Jalen Mosin' is a transfer from Utah. And those guys immediately made an impact. And so I'm hoping that that will continue because that was something we were not great at last year.

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