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GAME NOTES: Coming off the biggest upset in Week One of the 2009 college football season, the ninth-ranked BYU Cougars now turn their attention to the Tulane Green Wave at the Louisiana Superdome on Saturday afternoon.

Backed by a stout defensive effort, the Cougars took on third-ranked Oklahoma in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium last Saturday and came away with a thrilling 14-13 win. The triumph for the Cougars was their first against a non- conference opponent ranked in the Top-10 since 1990. BYU had dropped 12 straight meetings against ranked non-conference foes, so many believe this has opened the door for the Cougars to be the team to crash the BCS party this year, even though that it still several months away.

Tulane, which won the first meeting between these two squads by a 41-27 score in the 1998 Liberty Bowl but then lost by a lopsided 70-35 score in August of 2001, began a three-game homestand to kick off the 2009 campaign by falling hard to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in Conference USA action last Friday night by a score of 37-13. Following this game, Tulane also hosts McNeese State in two weeks and doesn't hit the road until October 3rd when it challenges Army at West Point.

The Green Wave have the luxury of playing five of their first six games of the season at home inside the Superdome, but that also works against the squad because it means it will close out the regular season with three straight on the road and five of the last six bouts away from home.

Against Tulsa last week, one of the top-scoring teams in the nation a year ago, the Green Wave could not get any consistent offense. Perhaps most troubling for the team was a total of just 39 net rushing yards on 34 attempts.

The passing attack was a bit more consistent, even though it was being handled mostly by sophomore quarterback Joe Kemp.

"I'd be lying to you if I told you that first and second series I wasn't a little nervous," Kemp said of the experience. "But that's just something I have to fix. I came in at halftime and told myself that I have the ability, we've been doing this in practice, that coach Toledo and coach Dodd had faith in me...it was just a matter of calming down and going out there and executing."

Kemp converted 16-of-26 passes for 278 yards and a score, but he was also intercepted once and sacked five times, which accounted for minus-39 yards.

Even though Tulsa was limited to just a field goal on its first possession, the Green Wave wouldn't be as lucky on defense the rest of the way as the Golden Hurricane scored TDs on the next two possessions and cruised to the win. Safety Chinonso Echebelem tallied a team-best 12 tackles and forced a fumble, but it wasn't nearly enough to derail Tulsa.

As for the Cougars, who jumped 11 places in the most recent AP Poll, they remained calm even after allowing Sam Bradford to toss an eight-yard TD pass to Ryan Broyles at the 4:56 mark of the first quarter.

Quarterback Max Hall maintained his composure as he completed 26-of-38 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns, the most critical of those going to McKay Jacobson with only 3:03 remaining in regulation. BYU managed to come up with just 28 yards rushing on 33 attempts, and yet the Cougars somehow controlled the ball for more than 37 minutes.

But as good as Hall, who was named the Walter Camp National Player of the Week and Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week, and the offense performed in the national spotlight, it was the defense that garnered much of the attention.

Junior free safety Andrew Rich made a name for himself by posting five tackles, one TFL and a pair of forced fumbles as he was named the MWC Defensive Player of the Week.

"I thought our defense was outstanding," BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall noted after the thrilling win in the opener. "Our defense made the critical plays at the critical times."

That defense also served to knock out the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who went down on his throwing shoulder while being leveled by Coleby Clawson late in the first half.

With all the focus coming down on the Oklahoma game, coach Mendenhall now has to get his team back on track for Tulane.

"I think it shouldn't be too difficult to keep the team focused since it's only our second game. The magnitude of the win, I'm not sure if anyone knows what that was or what it is yet."

Although he was held out of the Oklahoma matchup, running back Harvey Unga shows up as a starter on the most recent depth chart for the Cougars, which means the team will not have to lean so heavily on Hall to make it all happen this time around. Unga needs just 37 more receiving yards to become the ninth player in BYU history to have posted at least 1,000 career receiving yards and another 2,000 yards on the ground, so that should say a lot about how much value he carries with him when he comes out of the huddle.

Nevertheless, assume that Hall will again shoulder the majority of the weight from here on out, just as he has done in previous seasons. Last year, he ranked first in the MWC in both total offense (313.2 ypg) and passing efficiency (157.2) so it is in his nature to be a leader for this group.

What the Cougars have to be most pleased about is how it went about stopping a Sooners team that was first in the country last year with an amazing 51.1 ppg. The scoring defense for BYU in 2008 was rather adequate, giving up 21.9 ppg to rank third in the conference and 39th nationally, but it took a huge leap with its efforts on Saturday night.

As for the Green Wave, they have now scored a total of just 26 points in the last three games dating back to last season. The running attack last season generated a mere 118.4 ypg to rank 10th in C-USA, an area which BYU probably won't have to pay too much attention to once the Cougars move out to a sizeable lead this weekend.

Also working against Tulane is the team's inability to get a strong defensive push at the line of scrimmage and disrupt plays before they can begin. Of all the programs in the FBS, the Green Wave ranked dead last in tackles for loss a year ago with less than four per game.

Being out on the road again and trying to get back to reality might be a little tough for the Cougars this week, but just know that coach Mendenhall will keep his troops on point and ready for action no matter what.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: BYU 49, Tulane 7