Tulane All C-USA Football

The small part of me- the part that wants to be right versus seeing Tulane win- is truly ascendent today. I promise it is a small part of me though. I'd rather have been totally wrong about Forte's inability to play I-A and my assessment that Ricard as an NFL prospect was a joke. But, the voters have spoken- or voted I suppose. You can find it here.

I don’t think any of Tulane’s selections were a surprise. Anthony Cannon was a superior college player- unyielding and dependable- who would have been an asset at just about any program in the country.

Sometimes you can look at linebackers and get myopic. You know: this ‘backer runs real well, or this one has great one-on-one cover skills. But Cannon always possessed the most significant linebacker skill: flat out tackle people. Anthony got off blocks- and don’t waste your time coming at him with a fullback. Not a big hitter- but he plays big and he plays violent. He gets to you; you go down.

Look at his numbers this year. 114 tackles in ten games. This is particularly impressive in light of the fact that no one runs a running play versus Tulane without making sure someone is assigned to block him. They’ll miss him. Some team that plays on Sunday will love him on special teams- and I imagine he'll get every chance to play for real.

The offensive line got roasted by a lot of folks this year- unfairly I thought. Yes, they were brutal to start the season– but by the third/fourth game they played pretty darn well most quarters. So it was good to see three of five get some sort of all-league recognition. The line- again outside of the first few games- really was pretty okay- and sometimes good. Tulane ran the ball against a lot of teams- particularly considering the tailbacks were "awful" (Forte) to "okay-minus" (Jackson),no one had to respect our pass attack, and Tulane played a lot of games fom behind.

Seven tailbacks made the three teams. Not one played at Tulane. Forte has appeared in 20 or so games for Tulane- and has looked like a I-A player in two, maybe three. He is, since I began following Tulane in 1987, the singularly worst RB to see significant playing time. And Ricard is the wrong quarterback in the wrong system. This year’s C-USA balloting conclusively proves this. There were a plethora of All-League players on the o-line- and you can add another at WR. The problem is Forte and Ricard. The less we see of these guys in the future, the better.