Tulane Green Wave Rolled in Durham

For the second time in the three weeks, the Green Wave squared off against an ACC opponent, this time leaving the friendly confines of Uptown New Orleans for Tobacco Road to take on the Duke Blue Devils in the team's final tuneup before returning to AAC play.

Unlike the Wave's performance against Georgia Tech September 6th, where Tulane seemed to feed off the energy of the Yulman Stadium crowd and hung tough with a potential ACC contender, Saturday's game against the Blue Devils showed that the Green Wave, who fell to 1-3 by virtue of a 47-13 shellacking at the hands of Duke, have a long way to go.

"We came in with a good game plan," said Tulane quarterback Tanner Lee, "The thing is that we kept doing things that keep you from winning football games, which is making turnovers and committing penalties."

Lee, a Jesuit High product, completed 14-of-35 passes for 160 yards on Saturday, which also included three interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns.

Along with sloppiness on offense, Tulane's special teams unit looked just as bad.

"Before the game our deep snapper couldn't perform," Tulane coach Curtis Johnson said, "so we had some issues with snapping the ball."

Along with that, freshman Teddy Veal muffed a punt that would give the Blue Devils a short field in the third quarter as Duke was trying to pad their 24-13 lead.

"We have to mature earlier," Johnson said of the numerous mistakes the Green Wave made during the game.

One of the few bright spots of the day for Tulane was the outstanding play of freshman running back Dontrell Hillard, who scored his first touchdown in the first quarter to tie the game to even up the score. He would conclude the day with six carries for 30 yards.

Another running back with a productive day for the Green Wave was redshirt sophomore Lazedrick Thompson, who finished the day with 125 yards rushing on 19 carries. He would also have a touchdown of his own in the third quarter, a 4-yard run.

Up next for the Green Wave is a trip to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where they will take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, their final non-conference game of the season.

Game time is set for 11:00 a.m. Central.