Navy will exchange its blue camouflage for a helmet and pads as it faces off against Tulane football 12 p.m. this Saturday in Annapolis, Maryland. 

The Tulane Green Wave (2-4, 1-2 American Athletic Conference) will fight to rise out of the losing rut by reducing its penalties in its game against the new American Athletic Conference member, Navy (4-1, 2-0 AAC), this Saturday. CBS Sports Network will broadcast the game.

This will be the first time since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina displaced Tulane athletics, that the Green Wave will play in the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The game will be Tulane’s third consecutive game against a nationally ranked or receiving votes team.

“As we started the season, the one thing we preached was keeping our kids together through this stretch,” head coach Curtis Johnson said. “Navy always plays outstanding … We have to play better.”

The Tulane coaching staff is looking to minimize the mistakes from last week. Johnson expressed his disappointment Tuesday about the performance of his team against Houston. He has made the decision to sit out the players this week that are continuing to make the same penalties each game.

Johnson remains optimistic of Tanner Lee’s fast concussion recovery and would like to see him on the field as quickly as possible.

“I’m praying that he is 100 percent,” Johnson said. “He’s progressing well. He hasn’t quite been cleared on the concussion protocol yet, but again, I’m praying that he’s ready to go. He did some work with the first team, and he threw the ball, but he can’t have any contact yet.”

Navy brings a special offensive style to the field with many unbalanced sets. The Navy Midshipmen offense usually consists of the option and they tend to run the ball considerably more than passing. The team has averaged 335.4 rushing yards per game this year and Tulane has averaged 98.5 rushing yards. The Midshipmen only average a total of 57.4 passing yards per game and Tulane has an average of 198.7 passing yards.

Johnson compared the Georgia Tech and Navy offenses during his Tuesday press conference. He believes his team can successfully compete against Navy if the Green Wave can match up properly.

“Here’s the difference: Georgia Tech, [in their formation], isn’t as dynamic as Navy,” Johnson said. “Navy gets in all of the formations … Navy just poses a lot of matchup problems. If we can lineup with them, we’ll have a good chance of playing with these guys.”