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The Green Wave are, first and foremost, a man to man team. Like everyone else in college football they have a multitude of coverage scheme's, but man is where their hart is. Even when they play zone they do so with an aggressive mentality, pressuring receivers at the snap and contesting every throw.
The dangerous nature of the Bearcats receivers has really spooked (pardon that pun) teams out of playing man, or even quarters against the Bearcats. Tulane isn't likely to try to change what they do because of the explosiveness that the Bearcats have on the edge. They will run a lot of man, and a lot of their go to zone schemes, cover 2 and cover 4.* What they run isn't as important as how they run it, with a lot of aggression.
* which plays like man on vertical routes that the Bearcats favor
The Green Wave defense is built to cover more than it is built to do anything else. They have four really good defensive backs; Cornerback Perry Nickerson and Lorenzo Doss, Safeties Sam Scofield and Darion Monroe. Between the four of them they have 7 interceptions and 5 passes broken up. They will challenge the Bearcats receivers on the vertical routes that Gunner Kiel favors.
Eddie Gran and Darrin Hinshaw probably looked at the film and were giddy because that is the kind of match up that the Bearcats want. UC will take their shots any time they can get Chris Moore, Johnny Holton or Mekale McKay in one on one coverage. Those looks have been few and far between in recent weeks as teams have dropped further, and further back to take away the deep ball, South Florida in particular. That is why Shaq Washington had such a monster game against the Bulls, they conceded the intermediate area of the field in favor defending deep with depth. It didn't work out so well.
Tonight's match up will be an interesting one because it isn't exactly common to have one team's strength on offense in direct competition with the defenses's strength. But that is what we will have tonight, best on best.