On SI Tulane Picks: Tulane vs Rice
Sign up for the weekly On Si Tulane Newsletter here.
Tulane 2026 Football Schedule
Opponent | Time/Date | Result | Score | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
at Duke | 2:30PM, 9/5 | L | 17-3 | 0-1 |
Sou Alabama | 6PM, 9/12 | W | 28-24 | 1-1 |
@ K-State | 11AM, 9/19 | L | 31-20 | 1-2 |
Sou Miss | 6PM, 9/26 | W | 24-21 | 2-2 |
OPEN | 10/3 | -- | -- | -- |
@ Army | 11AM, 10/10 | L | 20-17 | 2-3 (0-1) |
Memphis | 6:30PM, 10/16 | W | 31-17 | 3-3 (1-1) |
UTSA | TBD, 10/24 | L | 42-19 | 3-4 (1-2) |
@ Charlotte | 6PM, 10/30 | W | 38-31 OT | 4-4 (2-2) |
Tulsa | 11AM, 11/7 | L | 60-10 | 4-5 (2-3) |
@ Rice | TBD, 11/14 | |||
Nor Texas | TBD, 11/21 | |||
@ Sou Fla | TBD, 11/27 |
Saturday afternoon, the Tulane football team is a road underdog again, as the Green Wave is in Houston to take on the Rice Owls. Kickoff is set for a 1:00 p.m. CT from Rice Stadium on Saturday. Here is our take on what we think the outcome will be.
On SI Tulane Picks Tulane-Rice Winner
This is a Tulane team in turmoil. It's offense cannot get a consistent running game going while having trouble protecting their quarterback. It's defense is allowing chunk play after chunk play while also giving up century mark rushers too regularly. And what has been its bell cow, the kicking game, even had its moments last week in a 50-point Homecoming thrashing at the hands of Tulsa.
All is not good in Uptown.
Head coach Will Hall has said after every loss that he has to coach better and his team has to play better.
Football teams are told to give themselves 24-hours to enjoy a victory or suffer a defeat then to get on with the next game. According to our sources, players were still hanging their heads on the practice field on Monday.
Green Wave fans are not happy. There is a push among some of them to rent a sign on the back of a prop plane, encouraging the Tulane administration to move on from both the athletic director and football coach. That GoFundMe has already raised over $10,000.
And now, this Tulane team is going to Houston to play a Rice Owl team whose only victory was against a Houston Christian team from the Southland Conference in the opening game of the season, and the Hooties are favored.
A rushing game that can't rush. Play calling that is predictably too consistent. A defense that gives up too many rushing yards before contact is made. Opposing receivers finding seams that are too big between defensive backs and defensive backs and bandits. Too many chunk plays given up by the defense.
If you were given a recipe on how to claim victory on the road, these are not the ingredients you'd want to have for a successful outcome.
We don't think it's a stretch to say this game could decide the future of this Tulane program. What that future is all depends on the response of the Green Wave to that 50-point disaster last Saturday. From what we've seen, it's going to be a tough day in Houston for the Wave
We hope we're wrong.
Rice 28
Tulane 17
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.