The Green Wave football team has waited two weeks, but the time has finally come. The Wave will soon begin the upward climb from the bottom of the American Athletic Conference. 

After a win and a loss against out of conference opponents, Tulane faces off against their first AAC foe, Navy, this Saturday. 

The Midshipmen started off the season 2-0 despite losing its star quarterback from 2015 to the NFL and the presumptive quarterback of the future to injury. As a result, it has had to make significant personnel changes on the fly. 

Tulane has had to make changes of their own, unveiling a completely different offense under new head coach Willie Fritz. Fortunately, their new option-style offense will leave Tulane better prepared for Navy than anyone else in the AAC. 

This Saturday, Johnathan Brantley will be acting as starting quarterback.

Navy and Tulane are currently the only AAC teams that run their base offense centered upon the option. While Tulane uses a spread-option and Navy uses the triple-option, the Green Wave defense has spent the entire training camp playing against an offense similar to the one it will see on Saturday. 

The offensive changes have also had a major impact upon rush production. Tulane running backs have gained 583 yards and seven touchdowns in the first two games. The Green Wave rushed for 11 touchdowns during the entirety of the 2015 campaign. Most of the rush totals came from the game against Southern University on Sept. 10th, as the opener against Wake Forest was almost entirely a defensive battle. 

Navy has put up impressive numbers while running the ball as well, totaling 662 yards in their first two games. As a result, Navy’s offensive capability is a major threat to Tulane’s chances this weekend.

As head coach Willie Fritz said in his remarks about the upcoming game, “you need to play as close to error free football as possible, because they wont make mistakes.”