Disruptive defense, freshman QB help spark Tulane’s urgent rebound vs. Memphis

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Tulane felt at a bit of a crossroads late Friday with a fourth-and-1 near midfield with a five-point lead and less than two minutes remaining.

The Green Wave (3-3, 1-1) sent the offense back to the line of scrimmage for a potential statement moment rather than punt and cede possession over to Memphis (5-2, 2-1) with the game in the balance.

And not only did Tullane’s statement land in front of the 20,083 home fans in Yulman Stadium, senior running back Johnnie Daniels dashed and dotted the 48-yard exclamation mark to the 31-17 victory.

“Man, I just believe in our football team — like we had to get 1 yard to beat Memphis,” coach Will Hall said. “And everything we’ve been through with all these guys, and it culminated to that moment. And, again, I think God’s plan was in that. What are we gonna do? Are we gonna punt? Are we gonna play soft? Or are we gonna be who we say we are? We say we’re the toughest program in this league. We’ve gotta get that 1 yard right there.

“We’ve got a quarterback in the game who’s a winner. We gave him a two-play check. He checked the play. Obviously it was a good check. I thought out O-line came off the ball and our tight ends came off the ball, and Johnnie took it to the house. We really don’t need Johnnie to score right there. We really need him to go down. So we have a word called, ‘Flounder,’ and obviously got to do better with that. But, again, Roll Wave.”

Memphis had moved the ball well for 488 yards — 306 passing and 182 rushing — but also struggled to protect it from an opportunistic defense led by home-state stars Dickson Agu (Dutchtown), Kevin Adams III (Destrehan) and Warren Roberts Jr. (St. Augustine).

Roberts finished with four tackles, including an early sack, forced and recovered fumble for just the Green Wave’s second takeaway of the season and a spark of more to come with seven sacks and six total turnovers forced by the unit.

“Right after the Army game, me, Dickson, (senior linebacker) Makai (Williams), (junior safety) Jack (Tchienchou), we talked to the defense on the side and just said, ‘The game’s gonna be on us. We’ve gotta win our one-on-ones the entire game,’ and that’s what we did,” Adams said, later adding: “Our leadership council, we talked about the urgency that this week had to be, and we can’t let that standard slip, and that’s what we didn’t do today.”

Agu finished with a game-high 10 tackles and a deflected pass, and Adams had nine tackles, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

Sophomore defensive back Anthony Rogers added eight tackles, and Williams wrapped up seven stops, including a sack and another for loss.

Senior defensive back T.J. Smith snatched a pivotal interception returned for a touchdown, and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Josh Lewis (Dutchtown) recovered a fumble.

Junior edge rusher Jah’rie Garner, another St. Augustine product, had two sacks, and senior defensive lineman Ed Smith IV, sophomore Geordan Guidry (Ruston) and freshman Jordyn Crites each added sack.

“When it’s pressure, it causes him to scramble,” said Adams, who consistently praised the defensive front. “And then when he scrambled, that was most of his picks and all the turnovers. So that’s what we did, make the the plays.”

Still, the Green Wave had trouble getting going offensively and fell behind early in the first and second quarters.

But a string of field goals by redshirt freshman kicker Cooper Helmke, a former St. Martin’s Episcopal standout, began scratching through on the scoreboard.

And the sparks provided by the defense and freshman quarterback Trace Johnson, making his first start, helped Tulane take control.

“We got the ball out, and that’s something that’s really plagued us this year — we know that,” Hall said. “I can’t say enough about our players on defense and how they continue to believe and fight. And then offensively, we played the true freshman at quarterback. Obviously y’all can tell he’s gonna be a great, great player, but he is young. We wanted to protect him early. We had a game plan to really try to run the ball and get him some one-on-ones to make it easier on him early.

“That was not good. That was my fault. I wanted to protect him early. After the second series, me and coach (offensive coordinator Russ) Callaway both on the headset were like, ‘Man, let’s cut him loose. Let’s let the reins go. Let’s let the horse run.’ And he made some off-schedule plays, which our football team’s been in dire need of.”

Johnson found junior receiver Destyn “Fatt” Hill (Edna Karr) for a 38-yard touchdown and a 13-10 lead, the team’s first of each, late in the first half.

A third Helmke field goal, a 29-yarder to go with 56- and 40-yarders earlier in the quarter, and a 76-yard pick-six by Smith stretched that advantage to 23-10 at the break.

Johnson finished 11-for-21 for 165 yards, a touchdown and an interception and rushed for 13 yards.

Hill’s four catches for 62 yards and a score led the receivers, and Daniels’ 55 yards on seven carries led the rushing attack.

“It was a cool opportunity,” Johnson said of the confidence to start in a critical American Athletic Conference game. “I really appreciate the staff entrusting me, but I knew what I had to do, and I’m just glad we got the win.”

Junior quarterback Marcus Stokes and the Tigers had capitalized on an explosive play, a 76-yard catch and run by sophomore Stonka Burnside, for their first touchdown early in the second quarter, but needed a more methodical drive for their next to keep alive late.

Memphis put together a 13-play, 78-yard march midway through the fourth quarter to eventually pull within 23-17 on 6-yard Jemyri Davis score from Marcus Stokes.

But the Green Wave would respond with their own 7-play, 75-yard drive and the plays on both side of the ball to put away the victory with Daniels’ run and an Adams interception in the end zone with 39 seconds to play.

Tulane improved to 3-0 at home this season and will remain in Yulman Stadium next week to host UTSA (6-1, 3-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“One of the greatest things that’s been done for this city in my opinion was getting that stadium built on this campus,” Hall said. “And I know there were so many people that had to do with it, and I know it wasn’t easy and a lot of different groups of people had to come together to make it happen. But it’s been magical. The build of this program has been so cool to see, and you can trace it back to Yulman getting built. And we’re tough to beat at home because of Yulman.”