Guard Adam Skidmore's last words at Tulane's media luncheon a week ago were about how he never wanted to let quarterback Ryan Griffin get hit.

Nearly the first words out of Griffin's mouth after Tulane's 55-45 win against UAB four days later were that he had not been sacked and had not even been touched in the first half.

Look no farther for proof of the dramatic progress the offensive linemen have made since the start of the season. They were historically horrible in the first four games, at least judging by statistics. In game 8, they helped Griffin set a school record for passing yards as Tulane (2-6, 2-2 Conference USA) scored its most points anywhere since 2004 and its most points in the Superdome since the finale in 1998, the perfect season.

Never mind UAB's struggling defense. That's improvement.

"The protection was great," Skidmore said. "He stayed healthy throughout the game, and that's our responsibility as offensive linemen. Knowledge of the defense was key to us -identifying the correct guys, making the correct calls and not just knowing the calls, but knowing the philosophy of the protection and how that would play out. You can do moves and technique to change a little bit to help a particular protection out.
"When you study defensive players and you combine that knowledge with the knowledge of a protection, you know how to get an edge on these guys.

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