Tulane’s 2023 football schedule to provide plenty of challenges

Tulane is the league favorite in the revamped American Athletic Conference. The defending champions are certainly worthy of that.

The Green Wave has a talented roster returning, including quarterback Michael Pratt back for another year.

With Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston now in the Big 12, the expectation is Tulane will be playing to determine the top dog in the AAC when it hosts Texas-San Antonio in late November on the final weekend of the regular season.

However, the schools who are moving up from Conference USA to The American are solid. UTSA and the others will also have lots to prove in their new league.

UTSA has built an outstanding program under head coach Jeff Traylor, who is 30-10 in three seasons. His Roadrunners are 15-1 in league play the last two seasons. Along with back to back C-USA titles, Traylor won three state titles and reached two more championship games as a high school coach in the state of Texas. the man can flat out coach.

The Roadrunners are led on the field by 24-year old quarterback Frank Harris, who threw last season for 4,063 yards and 32 touchdowns.

UAB has posted six consecutive winning seasons. In the offseason, the Blazers made an interesting head coach hire in Super Bowl winning quarterback Trent Dilfer, who was coaching high school football in Nashville.

North Texas is 11-5 in Conference USA play the last two seasons. The Mean Green have played in three consecutive bowl games.

Rice will not have the best roster in the league, but the Owls could have one of the best quarterbacks. West Virginia transfer JT Daniels, who also spent time at USC and Georgia, is expected to be QB1 in for the new AAC school out of Houston.

Then there’s Florida Atlantic, the place where former Texas coach Tom Herman will try to jump start his career. Herman is a quality coach with a 54-22. At Texas, he was fired with a mark of 32 wins and 18 losses. At FAU, winning in recent years has been frequent.

As for outside of the league, Tulane has some tough games.

Last season, South Alabama won 10 games, most for the school in its brief FBS history. Head coach Kane Wommack has his top quarterback, top running back and two top receivers returning.

Southern Miss upset Tulane a year ago, eventually winning the program’s first bowl game since 2016 under head coach Will Hall.

Ole Miss is 23-13 in three seasons under Lane Kiffin, one of the best play callers in college football.

By the way, Memphis is still in the league. They are always a tough out, especially at home in the Liberty Bowl where they host the Wave this fall. Tulane’s last win in Memphis was exactly 25 years ago.

The Tulane 2023 football schedule seems, under further review, appears to be far more daunting than anticipated. If Willie Fritz’s team is to orchestrate an encore stellar season, they will definitely have to earn it.