Wow! Tulane Big Underdogs to K-State Saturday
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Fresh off their first win of the season, a 28-24 victory over South Alabama in Yulman Stadium Saturday night, the Tulane football team is back on the road for the second time in three weeks, as the Green Wave, now 1-1 on the young season, travel to Manhattan, Kansas to take on Kansas State, who has skated to a 2-0 record thus far.
Apparently, oddsmakers are not thinking Tulane win over the Jaguars last weekend mean as much as K-State's unbeaten mark, as the Wave are 20-plus point underdogs to the Wildcats.
That's a lot, folks. 20.5-point underdogs to Kansas State says the oddsmakers were not impressed by the Tulane victory, nor Jaylin Lucas' impressive numbers. They may have been looking at the Green Wave tackling, which did improve from Week 1's loss to Duke, but still leaves a lot to be desired.
Looking at Kansas State
The Wildcats will be playing their third straight home game to open the season. Week 1, K-State crushed Nicholls, 71-3. Then, in game 2, the 'Cats took care of Washington State, 34-7. In both games, Kansas State featured a physical defense and an offense that is not afraid to take a shot.
The K-State offense has now reached almost 500-yards in each of its games, while allowing less than 200-yards per contest to both opponents' offenses, something the Wildcats haven't done in consecutive games in 15-years.
The team is led by someone who is new to head coaching a D-I school, but not to Kansas State itself. Collin Klein was a star player for the Wildcats, and was named the 2012 Johnny Unitas Award winner as a do-it-all quarterback, rushing and passing for double digit scores. He later joined the K-State staff, helping to lead them to a Big-12 championship in 2022. He headed to Texas A&M for two years as offensive coordinator there before returning to his alma mater.
Wave Moving in the Right Direction
After a rusty start to the season in their 17-3 loss to Duke, the Green Wave had a slow start to their game versus South Alabama, falling behind 10-0 before knocking the rust off and outslugging the Jaguars for their first win of the season.
The Tulane offense was looking for equality in the passing and running game. You couldn't get more equal than the Wave did, passing for 212-yards and rushing for 212.
The penalty bug didn't bite as badly as it did in Week 1, when the Green Wave had 15-penalties accepted against them. Saturday, they cut it by almost 75%, garnering four against USA.
The offense started slow, but found a rhythm, as we saw an offensive line jell right before our eyes, opening holes for Jaylin Lucas, who set a Yulman Stadium mark of over 200-yards and an American Conference mark of 19.5-yards per carry, and giving time to quarterback Kadin Semonza for him to complete 14-of-his-22 passes for those 212-yards and a touchdown. The junior QB rating was an impressive 159.6 for the night.
Except...
The defense still has some work to do, especially after the lower leg injury star linebacker Chris Rodgers incurred during the Jaguars' opening drive. Too many missed tackles were sprinkled throughout the game. If the D doesn't clean that up by Saturday, that 20-plus advantage oddsmakers are giving K-State will be in jeopardy.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
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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.