scott chats with Isaac Popper of Tulane Athletics and the Uptown Update to learn a little bit more about the 2024 version of the Green Wave
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Boscoe’s Boys
Summer School Behind Enemy Lines: Tulane
This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. It's the moment of the evening, every mistake fan and joys, little down and pour a whiskey, back open the liqueur, please put your hands together and make a little noise for your favorite wildcatters, the handsome Bosco boys, Ooh, Bosco's boys! Boom, the boys are back in summer school, continues on yesterday. We started the series talking to our friends over at UT Martin, the Skyhawks. Now it is time to talk to quite possibly the smartest person we've ever had on the show of all time, he works for the Tulane ESPN, plus broadcasting the uptown update, he considers him the student insider and the Tulane Woj, welcome to the show, recent graduate of Tulane, soon to be graduate of Tulane, Isaac Popper, Isaac, welcome to the show, my friend, and again, you're gracing the metaphorical airwaves here, and I don't think we've ever had anyone on with his impressive as an undergrad degree, now you're going to be a graduate student as well, so congratulations on that and welcome to Bosco's boys. Thank you very much, Scott, I'm sure that's not true, but I really appreciate all the kind words. For sure, before we start looking at this upcoming season, I do want to touch on last season because if you look at it on paper, another 11 win season, 2nd straight AAC Championship game appearance, reaching as high as 17th in the AP poll, and back-to-back years were Tulane's putting multiple guys in the NFL draft, wouldn't you think back to it as a fan, someone who's covering the team, is that a successful season or was it AAC Championship or bus for Tulane last year? Great question, Scott. I think this is one where a lot of people are going to have differing opinions on whether it specifically was a success or not. What's definitely true is that it wasn't a failure, I'll put into a little bit of perspective for you, until the last two years that have been so successful under Willie Fritz with 22-23, Tulane had only had two seasons where they had more than 10 wins, 1931 and the undefeated season in 1998, so they only had 11 wins twice before the last two years and then they did it in the last two years, granted they got to play 14 games, but even still two very impressive seasons for a program that has really just not had much success, they only had 30 wins combined over the nine seasons that Bob Toledo and Curtis Johnson coached the Green Wave, who were the two coaches previous to Willie Fritz. So 30 wins in nine years between the two coaches and in the last two years Willie Fritz won 13 games, sorry, 23 games. Yeah, it's wild, and you mentioned Willie Fritz, he's a native of Shawnee Kansas, he has a lot of coaching roots in Kansas, he had his coaching and high school career just a mile from my house right here where I'm recording this, and Shawnee Mission North who has high school, what's the Green Wave opinion on him? What are two lane fans thinking about him? Of course, successful at Tulane, but then he leaves for Houston, was there venom towards him? Hey, thanks for all you did, good luck at Houston. What's the vibe when you bring up the name Willie Fritz around Tulane fans? It's an interesting question, again, I think some fans are still, before Willie Fritz left for Houston, plenty of fans were calling for a Willie Fritz statue, there's definitely some that still want the statue. I would say most do not want the statue anymore. I didn't know he happened to be so close to you, that's pretty cool. Last year, I think Tulane set a new standard for the program that's going to continue with John Sumrall, and they set a goal of conference championship or bus, so I feel like although last year wasn't a failure, they kind of met expectations, and I think as appreciative as fans are for the success over the last two years, and really the entire Fritz era, the conference championship game felt like something that they should win coming into it, but there were a lot of rumors about Willie Fritz potentially leaving, he had promised that he was going to stay, and then he ended up leaving right after the game. I believe it was the next, early the next morning, so a lot of fans looking back really feel like that game, they lost because the locker room just was really feeling like Fritz was going to leave them, and maybe some players already knew, I'm not quite positive about that, but with the possibility of Fritz leaving right after the championship game, I think not all players unfortunately wanted to go out and win that game as much as they usually do, and I think it was very visible from where I was watching that Willie Fritz was not as into the game as he usually is, he's a coach that typically coaches with extreme passion, and has been a very good leader to many of our players, including a lot of those players that have been drafted very early, like Taje Spears and Dorian Williams, who were third round picks, as well as players like Michael Pratt and Jacqueline Jackson, who were drafted this year. We just didn't see that in the conference championship game, so obviously we lose that game, we don't meet our goal, and then the military bowl was a little bit, I wouldn't call it a disaster, I think the expectations were set once Willie Fritz departed for Houston, but after that departure, there was a little bit of chaos with him talking to players and trying to bring them to Houston, and we really rolled out a little bit of the third teamers I guess, and guys that hadn't really played all year, were getting catches like Speedy Rogers, who's now gone, a lot of the guys ended up transferring were the players that played in the military bowl, so did not go well for us, and that was another loss, but many people feel like this could have easily been a 12 win season or 13 win season with the conference championship game, based on the fact that they won 11 of their first 12 games in the regular season. Yeah, no, I hear you, that is a tough one. This wasn't on the outline, so forgive me for spraying this on you, but what was the opinion immediate thought when John Summerall got hired again, two great seasons at Troy, great pedigree down in the Southeast with all of his assistant coaching, you know, stops in Kentucky, he was at Tulane once upon a time, stops at Ole Miss, back to Kentucky, so was this like, hey, this is the guy when the opening showed up and how excited are you guys to bring in someone who has proven he can win conference championships in the Sunbelt? Great question, so that's how I felt when John Summerall was hired, I said, you know, after I'd been researching all the potential candidates that Tulane may bring in the coaches that they did bring in an interview or rumored to bring in an interview, I decided that John Summerall has to be the guy that they hire, he was an assistant coach at Tulane before moving over to Troy, and he had extreme success at Troy, really doing about as well as Willie Fritz did at Tulane as he did in Troy. I don't think the fans quite realized right away, some of the fans who live in uptown or live in New Orleans, I think remembered how much of an effect John Summerall had on the players, even when he was just really a position coach about a decade ago, and they were very excited about Summerall coming back, I don't think the current students really knew too much about Troy or John Summerall, and weren't as excited about that, especially with the possibility of Tulane hiring an assistant coach, which was a possibility, so I would say that immediately the fans were not necessarily pumped about John Summerall, but now almost every single fan is super excited, they feel like John Summerall is the guy. I said at the time that I think it was going to be an upgrade from Fritz to Summerall in the new era of NIL, transfer portal, all the different realignment changes, and I think a lot of people have really come to that conclusion now. Obviously, we haven't seen John Summerall coach in Tulane, however, the transfer portal class that he brought in is arguably the best ever in Tulane history. Yeah, and again, I think he's a great coach, I think he was a great hire. Before I start asking a little bit more about this upcoming season, I want to give a shout out to our friends over at Charlie Hussle clothing company. This June, right now we are having the third annual college roadshow. This year's college roadshow focuses on the iconic big eight conference, which of course includes our Kansas State Wildcats joined Charlie Hussles. They take a trip back in time and relive the glory days of the big eight all while releasing some amazing new gear that K-State fans will love. So, Charlie Hussle co-on social media platforms, Twitter and Instagram for daily product launches, including a brand new K-State bomber jacket that you will not want to miss. Charlie Hussle, vintage made fresh, I can't wait to see it, got some big eight gear as well. Isaac, you have no idea what the big eight is because, you know, you're just a young kid, but I remember growing up, you know, that was my conference. I remember when the big 12 was formed and it was all downhill from there. So, you know, well, heck, you probably, when the American was formed, that was a few years before you went to college, right? A little before that, big eight before my time, obviously, I know about it. American conference is about a decade old at this point and I just graduated this May. Yeah, well, I love the American and, you know, that might be something the next time we have you on might talk a little bit more about the American conference because I think there's some great football being played down there, but let's start focusing on this upcoming football season for the Tulane Green Wave with the best logo, I think, in all of college sports, the Fighting Wave and then you've got the cool ones with the birds. I might need you to help me get in contact with whoever designs all the Tulane's uniforms and stuff because, again, also some of the best uniforms and all of college sports. But again, I'll try not to geek out on the uniforms where a couple months past spring ball where about a month out from, you know, preseason summer can't be getting. Where are the expectations for Tulane this year? You mentioned at the top, hey, it's conference championship, game or bust. Is it still going to be that with that transition with all the transfers and a new coach or is it like, okay, hey, we'll give Summer all one year before he has that sort of expectation? I love the uniform and the logo hype because we have the best logo, the best uniforms and college sports. So it's great to hear that from an outsider, especially someone in the power four. Oh, if anyone disagrees, send them my way. I'm not kidding. I'll fight on your guys's behalf. Like, if it's not number one, it's top five. It's amazing. Sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. But if anyone tries to argue with them, send them my way. Thank you. Appreciate that. In terms of expectations, it's conference championship or bust. That's the sentiment around the team right now. And they want to have the G five spot in the college, well, playoff. The talk out of John Summerall's mouth is college football playoff. That is where the goals are this season. I don't think you'd be a failure. If in year one of John Summerall era, they go, let's say 10 and four and have a chance to play in the conference championship game when they host Memphis on Thanksgiving in the season finale and fall to Memphis in a close one and end up going like 10 and four. I really don't think that would be a disappointment considering that we've only had double digit wins in five seasons, the four seasons I mentioned earlier, as well as 1934 when they were in the SEC. It's year one. I would say this is high expectations as you could almost possibly get for a first year head coach. But considering John Summerall's success in his first two years as a coach at Troy and the current success of the green wave, as well as the recent portal additions and the amount of players that John Summerall was able to retain on the green wave and not only the amount of players, but the caliber of players being able to retain rookie of the year in the conference, Makai Hughes, and a lot of key players on the defense, as well as many talented players in the offensive line, just says that Tulane should on paper have a great season. So SMU's moving on to the ACC, is it Memphis, is UTSA's, seen as another rival to possibly win the AAC? Who else is going to be in that conversation with Tulane? That's funny that you asked because the uptown update was just polling about this on social media this week. I personally believe that Memphis is still the rival despite all of the realignment. I think Memphis has been our rival for both football and basketball. And I think that they will continue to be the rival. A lot of people were debating which of the new teams will become our rival, but I think as long as Tulane and Memphis are in the American conference, that is the rivalry. The conference knows it, which is why Tulane and Memphis is the Thanksgiving Day game this year on national television, and that game most likely will decide who is in the conference championship game, and potentially who will host the AAC CCG. I love it. I love it. All right. The next one, where are you guys feeling the most confident before preseason camp starts? What spot on the field? There can be a couple, but where are you sitting here in June thinking, all right, you know, by the time the season rolls around, I have no worries about these spots on the field. I'd say I have no worries at wide receiver running back in offensive line. I'd say people are probably talking about the wide receiver group the most Tulane brought in Mario Williams from USC, our Cottonball hero, considering he muffed the kickoff or punt. I believe it was a kickoff. Went out of bounds at the one-yard line, giving Tulane the chance for one of the best comebacks in sports history, as well as Sean Preston, a five-star wide receiver from Alabama. And we retained Yokeeth Brown, who was a very underrated player for us this season. We also just brought in a wide receiver from LSU, which is not really being talked about too much, but I do think he could also make a big impact this season Kai Preen. So I really think wide receiver is probably the strongest position group for Tulane. This probably is the best wide receiver group in Tulane history. It's pretty deep. A lot of players came back that were bench wide receivers for us last season. And we have a freshman named Sean Nicholas that I don't know how much time he'll see against Kansas State, but he's being talked about as a potential starter, despite just being a freshman, I believe he's six feet. And then at running back, you've got Mackay Hughes coming back. He was one of the best running backs in college football last year, the best rookie or sorry, freshman running back last season. And then offensive line, Tulane has five dominant players on the offensive line this season. They bring back a couple guys just brought in two transfers. Derek Graham had transferred to the power four away from Troy, but after just a few months in the power four, he actually entered the transfer portal again and is coming over to Tulane following John Sumrall just after a few month break. And they brought in a player named Vincent Murphy, who will probably play center but might play guard as their transitioning, shot Dre Hurst, who didn't allow a sack all season last year for Tulane and played in most games starting a majority of games for Tulane last year. Yeah, it sounds like it should be a pretty good offense. Are the question marks then on the defensive side of the field or where are you going to look to have answers, questions answered before the season kicks off in late August? I think all eyes are at the quarterback at this point. We've got Ty Thompson and Kai Horton coming back. Kai was the quarterback that played a few games for us last year, specifically the Ole Miss game. When Michael Pratt was out, I still believe that we would have beat Ole Miss if we had Pratt. It was a one score game with a few minutes to go. It ended up being 37-20, but that's because Kai Horton had three turnovers down the stretch in the fourth quarter. We really don't know who is going to be the starting quarterback this season. I would assume it's going to be Ty Thompson, but it's really been a battle and John Sumrall has refused to name a QB1 thus far. I don't think he's going to name a QB1 until about a week to go ahead of the season. It's definitely going to be in August when Sumrall names that quarterback and that quarterback is going to have a huge impact on whether Tulane meets their expectations or not. I think they have a really well-rounded team both on offense and defense, but that quarterback play is just a question mark. I do think defense is a strength. They've had a better defense than offense the last two years, although I do think the offense has been really strong as evidenced by putting up about 50 points in the Conble, 35 points at Oklahoma two years ago, even though they went two and 10. Sorry. Three seasons ago, I think the offense has been a strength for them. Defense of rotations is a little bit where I'm concerned. I don't know who is going to be the starting quarterback. I'm not sure who's going to be the backup safety, the backup, the third linebacker, the fourth linebacker. There's a lot of guys that are competing for those roles. I'm just not sure who it's going to be. I'd say the same thing with the second tight end. They brought in two players in the transfer portal recently and they also have a couple guys coming back, but they're really, really deep at both safety and defensive line, especially defensive tackle. It's a strong revolving door of players on the defensive line. That's how it's been the last couple of years. For example, Noah Taliancich was starting for us in the Conble at defensive tackle and last year he was probably our sixth, seventh, maybe even eighth at times defensive tackle in part due to injuries, but also in part because the defensive line has really stacked. Love to hear that. Before we get our final couple of questions in, I want to talk about our friends at Manhattan Brewing Company. The best brewery in the state of Kansas, folks, if you're not following them on Instagram and Twitter, you're going to be missing out on all sorts of fun beer releases. They just dropped a couple, well, as of recording a couple just today, you guys will be hearing this about a week after this is recorded. They're dropping new beers every week. Get ready for football season. Find what you want to have in your tailgate four pack. You know, we'll be rocking with towny wheat as the official tailgating beer of Bosco's boys this fall. Probably won't be able to get it past customs as you fly down to New Orleans for the case state to lane game. But if you're if you're doing the road trip, if you're driving from Kansas down to Louisiana, make sure you have plenty of Manhattan Brewing Company beer in the cooler. All right. Something I'm going to ask everyone we talked to. Where does this case state game rank on the schedule for most anticipated games? I know Ole Miss came to town last year. It doesn't affect the conference race, which hey, it's all about the conference race for everyone in college football. And y'all did get have the upper hand on case a back in 2022. So how is this game viewed like in the hierarchy of anticipated games for the season? I think this is a really interesting question of actually done some polling on this to see what fans think to land has three big games on the calendar this season. Obviously things change as the season goes on, you know, maybe Navy is having an incredible season with two weeks left to go or, you know, USF is undefeated when we go and play them, especially after they've had a big recruiting class. The three big games for us are Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Memphis. As I said, season finale, Kansas State, first, you know, FBS game and then Oklahoma, you know, that speaks for itself. They all have about average excitement if you take into effect how people are thinking on a scale, but Kansas State has probably is probably the most anticipated game among fans for next season. I think there's two big reasons for this. The first is that it feels like this year's Ole Miss is what somebody said, whether, you know, being that this is a home game against a powerful opponent and a team that has been a ranked team with a lot of success, not only out of conference, but also in a good conference as well. And then the second is that the Kansas State game is ahead of the Oklahoma game, that Oklahoma game potentially loses some steam if Tulane loses to Kansas State, which is obviously going to be a very tough test. Yeah, and I know I'm looking forward to it. The last thing I'll ask you that's on the outline is if K-State fans were going to come away from one other thing, or what is one thing you want K-State fans to learn about Tulane as we're here in June, everyone counting down the days for the season to begin, what's that one thing you want K-State fans to take away from it? Think I've talked about the things I want Kansas State fans to know, one that we are having incredible success, considering we haven't had a lot of it in our long history, and that John Summerall means business. I think that this is going to be a great year under John Summerall for the Green Wave. The expectations are to be beating Kansas State and/or Oklahoma, and to win that conference championship and have a spot in the college football playoff with the new expanded format. The one thing I didn't really touch on too much is that beating Kansas State was a huge deal because we hadn't really beat ranked teams in so long, and Kansas State wasn't ranked at the time, but obviously they became ranked, excuse me, a couple weeks after Tulane's victory in Manhattan, and that was a really, really big deal. No one really expected Tulane to go in and win that game, I'm sure you guys thought that might be an easier game than it ended up being. I tell you what I thought it was, and so I'm on the K-State Online message boards, and there's someone who is a big Willie Fritz fan, actually went to high school with him, and he was talking him up, said, "Hey, K-State fans, we're acting a little bit too nonchalant about this game," and I made a bit of an ass of myself, because he said Willie Fritz is a winner, and I pointed out, well, how can he be a winner? He has a losing conference record at Tulane, and of course, you guys were coming off that two-and-ten season. A lot of that had to do with being displaced for so much of the season dealing with the hurricane, so I definitely made an ass of myself, especially when that game went the way it did, he sure let me know it, and I am now, not very happy Willie Fritz is in the big 12, so you hit that spot on. It was not a game I was expecting, and I'll tell you this, every single K-State fan I know, this is not a game that they're chocking up for a win. This is a game that is on Red Alert for all K-State fans, so I appreciate you coming on, plug any projects or anything that you have going on that you might want K-State fans to check out throughout the summer months, and how can they get a hold of you on social media if they want to chat football all summer long? Well, I will say that Tulane fans, most of them, are going to be rooting against Houston and Willie Fritz this season, if that makes you feel any better. Most people know me as iPOP stats, so that is my Twitter handle at iPOP stats. I am very approachable there, I respond to direct messages, and happy to talk about college football, you can also check us out at the Uptown Update, should be at T-Uptown Update. Well, I absolutely love it, Isaac, let's plan on getting back together that first week of September, so we can get some predictions and get a little bit more in the moments information on Tulane, I'm looking forward to it, I'm still on the fence if I'm going to be able to get down there, originally I was like no doubt I'm going to be there, the only problem is the following week I have to officiate a wedding down in Texas, so I'm taking some time off for work, so I'm like okay, can I find a way to make both things work, so stay tuned on that one, if it is, I'm going to make you hang out with me and I'll buy a beer down in New Orleans if I can get down there, but I want to thank you for your time, I hope you enjoy rest of your day and one appearance down, but we'll get you on again in the fall and then I'll send you your recurring guest koozie, how about that? Awesome, thank you Scott, appreciate you having me on, I'm a little apprehensive to say this because last year we had too many old Miss fans of the stadium, but I will say that New Orleans is an amazing city and I would highly recommend coming down, I'm curious to see how many fans you all bring. Yeah, it should be a fun one, so that's all we have for this week of Bosco's Boys and the second episode of Summer School, so for my new friend Isaac Fort Chauncey, the best dog in the world, who behaved himself, he just slept through this entire episode, so shout out to him, my name is Scott McFarland, we love you guys and go cats. ♪ Hail to the purple ♪ ♪ Hail to the white ♪ ♪ Wild cat in spirit ♪ ♪ Wild cat in fight ♪ ♪ Hail Alma Mater ♪ ♪ From sea to sea ♪ ♪ Onward forever ♪ ♪ Hail victory ♪ ♪ Mater, Mater, Mater ♪ ♪ Fight ♪ ♪ You can't stay wild cats ♪ ♪ For Alma Mater fights ♪ ♪ Glory in the combat ♪ ♪ For the purple and the white ♪ ♪ Faithful to our colors ♪ ♪ We will ever be ♪ ♪ Fighting ♪ ♪ Ever fighting for a wild cat ♪ ♪ Victory ♪ ♪ Fight, fight, fight, fight ♪ ♪ You can't stay wild cats ♪ ♪ For Alma Mater ♪ ♪ Fight, fight, fight, fight ♪ ♪ Glory in the combat ♪ ♪ For the purple and the white ♪ ♪ Faithful to our colors ♪ ♪ We will ever be ♪ ♪ I never find for a walk at the Dorico State ♪ (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. 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