Tonight was Tulane’s first time playing a team ranked as high as number 2 since 2007. The Wave started out strong forcing a turnover on Oklahoma’s opening drive. Brantley, making his third career start, completed a seven-yard pass to junior wide receiver Jabril Clewis on the first play. From that pass came an eight-play, 65-yard drive that resulted in a two-yard touchdown run by senior running back Dontrell Hilliard giving the Wave a 7-0 lead. Tulane responded with another scoring drive after the Sooners tied the game. In nine plays, the Wave offense drove 75 yards. Brantley darted the final 14 yards to the end zone, bringing the score to 14-7 with 4:28 to play in the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the game was tied 14-14. The Sooners scored twice in the second quarter to take a 28-14 lead into halftime. In the first half, the Wave totaled 224 yards of offense. Oklahoma scored four times in the second half, including three fourth-quarter touchdowns, to reach the final score of 54-17.
With his two-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, Hilliard hit the 2,000-yard mark for his career. He now has 2,065 career yards making him the 12th running back in school history to surpass 2,000 career rushing yards. Congrats Hilliard!
“We were running inside zone quite a bit and had some nice seams,” Tulane head coach Willie Fritz said. “The few times that they would squeeze it, we would do pretty well with running the quarterback and running the ball as well. It looked good early, but they made some adjustments and started bringing more people. In the second half, it was corner blitzes and just having a few more people that we couldn’t account for at the point of attack.”
“I think this is a game that in six or seven weeks it can help you out at a little bit,” Fritz said. “Playing a quality opponent, you learn you just have to keep fighting and keep battling, I thought we did a good job of that in the first half. There’s ebbs and flows in a game, and when things aren’t going your way you just have to keep playing and fighting. That’s what we’re teaching our guys.”
Coach Fritz remains two wins away from reaching 200 for his coaching career. This may change as the Green Wave returns home to host Army West Point Saturday, Sept. 23, at Yulman Stadium. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. on CBS Sports Network.
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