How Tulane's Defense Flipped the Switch Against USF

By Jake Weinstock

It's no secret and it's objectively accurate; Tulane's defense had a really, really poor showing 9 days ago in Lafayette against ULL. The Ragin' Cajuns racked up 413 yards of total offense and 33 points en route to nearly upsetting the Green Wave, who now sit at 3-2 (1-0) with one game left before their first of two bye weeks. ULL managed 175 yards rushing on 28 carries (6.3 yards per attempt) together with 6.8 yards per attempt, through the air. The Cajuns were in the 84th percentile in yards per play and 94th percentile in expected points added per rush, but their overall success was certainly aided by penalties.

Against USF, Tulane allowed just 201 yards of total offense, and led 31-0 before the Bulls even got on the board. Here's how South Florida's first six (6) possessions went, on Saturday:

(1) 3 plays, 3 yards, punt

(2) 5 plays, 17 yards, punt

(3) 6 plays, 11 yards, punt

(4) 3 plays, -3 yards, punt

(5) 3 plays, 30 yards, lost fumble

(6) 5 plays, 15 yards, lost sack fumble

How is that possible, one week after flirting with disaster in Lafayette? USF had one of the most explosive and dynamic offenses in the G5, coming in, and had some level of success moving the ball against Miami and Alabama. Here's how:

1. The Green Wave front finally applied pressure:

Of USF's two quarterbacks' 36 combined dropbacks, 17 came under pressure, good for a mark of 47.2%. Anything over 40% is elite, with most offenses preferring to operate around 12-20%, understanding that you'll never get to 0%. Some rotational faces got additional snaps, along Tulane's front and made the most of their opportunies.

In 19 pass rushing snaps, Parker Peterson had 4 pressures, including 1 sack, and also out-hustled a USF offensive lineman to recover a fumble forced by Gerrod Henderson, who sacked Byrum Brown on that particular rep and popped the ball free, in so doing. Henderson was only credited with 2 pressures on 15 pass rushing snaps (I'll have to agree to disagree with PFF, here, he had a third, in my humble opinion). Matthew Fobbs-White, who played just 16 snaps at bandit showed he deserves some more; of those, 8 were pass rushing opportunities, and he turned them into 4 pressures. Adonis Friloux, Tyler Grubbs, and Patrick Jenkins all picked up 2 pressures, with Grubbs and Jenkins each being credited with a sack, as well. All season, the Green Wave clearly have not gotten enough from their edge rushers at both defensive end and Bandit; that was not the case, Saturday. Henderson, Kam Hamilton, and Deshaun Batiste all made the most of their opportunities at end, with Hamilton and Batiste each also picking up a pressure. At Bandit, Fobbs-White was clearly outstanding, but he wasn't alone, as Javon Carter picked up a pressure, too. On the interior, veteran Elijah Champaigne got home for a sack, let's not forget.

Coming into Saturday's game, the Green Wave had amassed just 46 combined pressures through 4 games, including one against an FCS opponent. Tulane registered 21 pressures against USF, alone. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

The pressure had both Byrum Brown and Bryce Archie in knots. Together, they combined for 9 attempted passes that traveled at least 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Of those 9 tosses, they combined to complete just 2. Now, let's not take credit away from the secondary, because...

1. Some younger players stepped up huge, on the back end:

We mentioned on the ULL postgame podcast how there was quite a lot of rotational work in the Green Wave secondary, through 4 games, but part of that certainly could be the hot conditions. Recall that both the Kansas State and ULL games were played in south Louisiana in September, outdoors, at 11:00 am, and it was quite toasty in Norman, Oklahoma for that 2:30 kickoff, as well. Against the Bulls, two players saw their snap counts rise dramatically, and those moves seemed to pay off. Rayshawn Pleasant finished with more snaps than either Micah Robinson or Johnathan Edwards at outside corner, for the first time, this season. Indeed, no Green Wave defender saw more snaps on Saturday than Pleasant. We could be witnessing him emerge as an every-down corner. Jack Tchienchou out-snapped every other safety, and was excellent in coverage. USF seemed to want to pick on Micah Robinson, targeting the Furman transfer 6 times, completing just 1 pass in so doing.

1. The gap integrity in the running game was elite

South Florida is at their best when they're able to run the ball efficiently, on early downs -- unlike other programs, they clearly struggle in both a negative gamescript and when they're behind the chains after an unsuccessful play on 1st down (defined as gaining 3 yards or less). Saturday, they finished with 25 rushing attempts for 26 yards, good for an average of 1.04 yards per attempt. Now, in fairness, in college football, sacks are counted as negative rushing yards, but still, this is a team that just 3.5 weeks ago ran for 206 yards against the Alabama Crimson Tide, who took over the top spot in the AP Poll, this past Sunday. While Tyler Grubbs played hurt and was electric in this phase of the game, as was Tchienchou, both Parker Peterson and Kam Hamilton were incredibly disruptive, up front, and we saw Caleb Ransaw play with great leverage, instinct, and quickness of the edge, after a rough outing in Lafayette, last week.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this defensive performance was that it feels sustainable. Will it be? I guess we'll find out in just 4 days, in Birmingham.