Unflappable: Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt comes up huge late vs. North Texas

Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt raised the ball over his head in celebration as he ran into the end zone for the decisive, tiebreaking touchdown against North Texas.

He certainly is making a habit of answering opponents’ haymakers with winning drives, doing what team leaders do.

“I think he’s one of the top quarterbacks in the nation,” Tulane coach Willie Fritz said. “There’s a lot of great quarterbacks this year, but I feel like we’ve got the best one. He makes a lot of clutch plays for us, and he certainly made a bunch of them today.”

Pratt completed his first four passes after Tulane took over at its 25 after North Texas scored its third consecutive touchdown to tie the score at 28 with 9:08 left. He then scrambled 19 yards into the end zone on third and 12, cutting to his left, avoiding a diving tackle and cruising across the goal line as the Wave won 35-28 at Yulman Stadium. 

“We had vertical routes called, and I was going to take the one-on-one to the boundary but the DB played it really well,” Pratt said. “I just saw it open up and front and took off.”

It was nothing new for him. Last November — after Cincinnati scored back-to-back touchdowns to take its first lead, 24-20, late in the third quarter of a game Tulane had to win to play for the American Athletic Conference championship — he responded with three quick completions for 71 yards and the decisive touchdown.

In the Cotton Bowl against USC, he hit Duece Watts for 59 yards to set up one touchdown and converted a fourth down with a scramble before hitting tight end Alex Bauman for the decisive touchdown as Tulane rallied for 16 points in the final 4:23 to win 46-45.

Last week, he responded to Memphis scoring three straight touchdowns to take a 21-10 lead in the third quarter by going 5 of 7 on his next two series, running for one touchdown and passing for the other as Tulane came back to win 31-21.

After his latest clutch series, Pratt pointed to Fritz.

“It’s the culture that coach Fritz has implemented here,” he said. “It’s the character of the guys he brings in here. It’s the leadership and staying composed on the sideline. No matter the situation, you have to fight all four quarters and do what you can to finish out the game.”

The longest play on the drive was Pratt’s dart to Keys for 19 yards to the North Texas 32, beating tight coverage.

“They were in a cover 2, and once I planted, I was running through windows and kept going,” Keys said. “He delivered a great ball. He was telling us it up to us and we’ve got make plays. The O-line blocked, and he threw great passes to us.”

The difference from the pre-Pratt era is palpable. The game before he came off the bench as a freshman and became the Wave’s No. 1 quarterback in 2020, Tulane blew a 24-0 halftime lead to Navy and made almost no plays down the stretch while getting shut out in the final two quarters.

Against North Texas, he made every play the Wave needed at the end, improving to 16-2 in games he has started since the start of 2022. Discarding the knee brace he had worn since getting injured in the opener against South Alabama and missing the next two games, he rushed for a season-high 70 yards on 15 carries to complement his 15-of-21 passing performance for 194 yards and three scores.

As usual, he saved his best for when it mattered the most.

“I just said keep our poise and execute each play at a time,” he said. “We had a lot of opportunities throughout the game and just had to be clutch at that moment.”