4 takeaways from Kansas State and therefore, 4 things to look for against Oklahoma

The early part of any season is always the most fascinating, to me. We spend all spring, signing day, both transfer portal openings, summer workouts, and fall camp thinking we know so much about our team, the opponents, and the landscape. And yet, every year, certain developments surprise us. By November, we have such a good idea of what each team is, but its in the early games of September that everything starts to come into focus. For example, it wasn't until week 2 of 2022 that Makhi Hughes took over the role as the primary running back for the Green Wave. In 2020, Michael Pratt wasn't the starting quarterback until week 4. The 2018 Green Wave looked like a disaster in September and early October, before rallying to a 5-1 finish to the season. Conversely, in 2019, Tulane had the highest number of votes in both the Coaches and AP polls, of anyone not in the top 25 (meaning that while not ranked, they were ranked as the 26th best team in the country). From that moment on, they lost 5 of their remaining 6 regular season games.

Only 9 of Tulane's 22 starters from the 2023 team remain (Alex Bauman, Shadre Hurst, Josh Remetich, Rashad Green, Makhi Hughes, Eric Hicks, Patrick Jenkins, Tyler Grubbs, Bailey Despanie). Clearly, there is much to learn about a team with a variety of new parts on both sides of the ball. Here are 4 things that we learned about the Green Wave in their 34-27 loss to Kansas State, and 4 things we may see, this weekend against Oklahoma.

1. Rayshawn Pleasant is making his move at outside corner.

We commented on the postgame podcast after the season-opening victory against Southeastern that Rayshawn Pleasant had a lot of strong reps, in addition to the obvious interception returned for a touchdown, and that he would continue to push starters Johnathan Edwards and Micah Robinson. Fast-forward 9 days and it was Pleasant, not Edwards, drawing the start opposite Robinson (while Caleb Ransaw remained in the slot). Pleasant ended up playing 36 of 58 snaps, on defense. Clearly Jon Sumrall and Greg Gasparato are offering opportunites to a number of players at both outside corner positions and both safety spots. It should be noted, on the other hand, that Caleb Ransaw was the only Green Wave defender to play all 58 snaps. Here is how the breakdown shook out at corner and safety, Saturday:

Rayshawn Pleasant -- 36 snaps

Micah Robinson -- 32 snaps

Lu Tillery -- 26 snaps

Johnathan Edwards -- 22 snaps

Jack Tchienchou -- 43 snaps

Bailey Despanie -- 39 snaps

Kevin Adams II -- 19 snaps

Jalen Geiger -- 15 snaps

I expect that they will continue to tweak this rotation and personnel groupings until they find the right combination. What is clear, however, is that Ransaw will continue to be a mainstay at slot corner. Health pending, my guess is that Despanie, Pleasant, and Robinson will be near-every down players by the time all is said and done.

2. Kameron Hamilton continues his dominance in a small sample size

Readers will remember from our season preview that Kameron Hamilton had the third best pressure rate of any Tulane defender in 2023. He generated a charted pressure on 11.8% of his pass rushing snaps, which was a figure behind only Deal and Hodges. Two weeks ago against Southeastern, he registered not only a sack but forced a fumble that the Green Wave recovered. In Saturday's game against Kansas State, he played only 19 snaps, but registered 2 pressures (on 12 pass rushing snaps). As Tulane continues to struggle to get pressure, through 2 games, Hamilton may be called upon more and more frequently. To be clear, it hasn't just been on the interior that the Wave have struggled to generate pressure, so there may be more blitzing that we see on Saturday from Tyler Grubbs, Sam Howard, and Caleb Ransaw.

3. There may not be a running back rotation, and Makhi Hughes may be a vital piece of the passing game, moving forward

Makhi Hughes separated himself from the other running backs clamoring to replace Tyjae Spears in August and September of 2023 for two reasons, above all others; reliability and ball-security. On Saturday, he dominated not only the snap-count but the number of touches available to Tulane running backs. Check this out:

Snaps among Tulane running backs:

Makhi Hughes -- 57 (out of 71 snaps from the Tulane offense)

Arnold Barnes -- 10

Shaadie Clayton-Johnson -- 4

Touches of the ball among Tulane running backs:

Makhi Hughes -- 26

Arnold Barnes -- 5

Shaadie Clayton-Johnson -- 2

Unfortunately for Arnold Barnes, he fumbled on one of his 5 touches, Saturday. Against tough opponents like Oklahoma, offensive coordinator Joe Craddock may not be able to take that risk, much as he would love to keep Makhi Hughes fresh as the season goes on. There may also be an opening for Clayton-Johnson, who has proven to be effective over and over, to earn more snaps. His biggest issue has been availability and avoiding injuries, which leads into the "reliability" conversation, mentioned above.

Interestingly, Hughes hauled in 6 receptions on all 6 targets, Saturday. Not to toot our own horn, but we wrote this in the season preview regarding running backs, back on August 19: "It’s also fair to wonder whether new offensive coordinator Joe Craddock will get him move involved in the passing game, after he saw just 12 targets a year ago." Great play-callers figure out in whose hands they need to get the ball, and work backwards from there to find the "how," but the "why" with Hughes is obvious. I would be somewhat surprised if Hughes doesn't continue to be utilized as a weapon out of the backfield, in the passing game.

4. Darian Mensah has been a monster in the intermediate area (defined as 10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage)

Through 2 games, Darian Mensah has attempted 14 passes that were targeted somewhere between 10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Pro Football Focus defines this as their "intermediate" area, with "deep" passes being those that went 20+ yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and "short" throws being those that went 0-9 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Of Mensah's 14 attempts, he has completed 10 of them, for an insane 71.4% completion percentage. They totaled 195 yards (13.9 yards per attempt) and resulted in 3 touchdowns and his lone interception of the year (in the moments that followed the game-tying touchdown pass being taken off the board for offensive pass interference) on a down that arguably never should have been played.

Mensah will be required to be accurate in that 10-19 yard strike zone, again, on Saturday, as my expectation is that Oklahoma will continue to play with a variety of very, very high shells, be it cover 2, cover 3, cover 6, or quarters, etc. The philosophy there is that the Sooners are not interested in allowing to be beaten on just one play -- they will try and force opposing offenses into 8-10 play drives, should they desire to make it into the redzone. The bet, so to speak, is that the more plays and offense runs on a given possession, the more opportunities there are for offensive penalties, drops, fumbles, inaccurate passes, etc. Conversely, there are no opportunities "later in" a possession to stall or turn the ball over when an offense hits a 75-yard pass for a touchdown on the first snap of said possession. Fortunately for the Green Wave, it appears as though Oklahoma's strategy may allow openings for Mensah, Williams, Brown, Bauman, and Fleming to do some considerable damage and create some explosives.