Unlike Tulane, I am Bowl eligible!

Unlike Tulane, I am Bowl eligible! And tomorrow, "Frank Helps You Think It All Out" is looking for nine wins. But for the final Prediction "Thursday" of the year, the New York Post is forlorn- offering Tulsa -16.5 over the Green Wave. Yes, that is the same Tulsa that couldn’t beat either SMU or Rice in the past two successive weekends.

Here in Manhattan, I went to see Brian Wilson perform "Pet Sounds" the other night. In the literature, he describes his stillborn album “Smile” as a “teenage symphony to God”. I kinda think Tulane needs that sort of effort here. Mind you, I usually like Tulane in these spots where they get a big number- if just because the Wave normally can score the ball. Get 17-20 points- and the big cover gets real problematic real quick. It is hard to contentedly take a game knowing you need five touchdowns to get your points back.

Unfortunately, the Wave has sort of forgotten how to score. With Boudreaux banged up, you can downgrade the tailback situation from “bad” to “could be worst in I-A”. In his last start as a Tulane player, I doubt Ricard is going finally going to solve the riddle of how to play well for whole halves. They just been regressing on offense, haven’t really looked like they could hurt you regularly since Army.

True, Tulsa is coming off a horrid loss- and frankly, a pretty bad three week stretch. But, prior to their slide, they were getting votes for the Top 25 in some polls- and somehow looking at each loss individually seems better than looking at them as a collective: we know Houston can smoke people, Rice has got a lot going their way, and that SMU quarterback is a special kind of death.

And the Golden Hurricanes can score the ball. They scored 62 points in their last two losses- hard to believe they won’t get well into the 30s here- maybe 40s. I know the Tulane defense played real well last week- but be honest: this doesn’t really feel like “home versus bad UCF”, more like “far away at pretty good UTEP”.

Despite their recent frustrations, watching the season slip away from a championship to what passes for the New Orleans Bowl or something, I imagine Tulsa won’t be down on themselves either- home for senior day. The Golden Hurricanes should score a ton of points- and I don’t know if Tulane can get many at all. So I’ll give the 16.5 here, take Tulsa.