Freshly Minted #24 Tulane Travels to Temple in Possible Trap Game
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The Green Wave football team finds itself in a position its been before. Tulane is ranked in both the AP Top-25 poll at #25 and the USA Today Coaches poll at #24. In addition, the Wave find themselves in the College Football Playoff top slots, edging in at #24 this week. This isn't the first time this has happened.
Last season, Tulane entered the last week of the season ranked #17 by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. The Green Wave played Memphis in the season finale in Yulman Stadium before 25-thousand-plus. The Tigers handed the Wave a 34-24 loss in a game that was not as close as the score indicated. Tulane headed to New Jersey the next Saturday for the American Conference championship against Army and lost by three touchdowns.
Which is why when we asked football coach Jon Sumrall Wednesday about being back in that top number his answer was short and succinct.
"Tell everybody, Jon Sumrall is not interested," obviously not wanting to talk about this at all.
At Tuesday's media conference, he was a little more loquacious, but still to the point when he was asked if his team was one of the Top-25 teams in the country.
"I don't know," Sumrall began. "I watch us play, and I watch whoever we're getting ready to play. After that, I don't really know who else is out there. I'll just be very candid: there are some days I think we're one of the bottom twenty-five teams in the country, watching us play. We're an average team. Every six or seven days, depending on the schedule of the week, we get a chance to promote ourselves or embarrass ourselves. We've done (both) before."
Temple is Better than their Record Indicates
In order to stop what happened last year, Sumrall believes it begins Saturday in Philadelphia against a solid Temple team.
"They're a good team," Sumrall said scouting the Owls for us. "They've been in every game. They lost a one-point game to Navy. They lost a one-point game to Army. They've been in a lot of close game."
When referencing Temple, Sumrall points right at the 2nd year coach K.C. Keeler.
"I have a lot of respect for K.C.," Sumrall effused. "They seem to do things the right way. I tell my team all the time, it takes what it takes to be successful. They aren't eight different ways. There are only two: the right way and the wrong way. They seem disciplined, detailed, tough, and physical. They play hard for each other. They care about each other, it looks like. They've established really quickly what I think is a winning culture.
Temple Seems Like a Mirror of Tulane, Offensively
"They're very well coached offensively," Sumrall said. "At times, I feel like I'm watching ourselves, a little bit. They've got good players, a good scheme, they protect the football. We have to be really, really good doing our job well, leveraging the football, and playing with good vision, because they give you a lot of shifts and motions and swappers. So you have to have clean eyes, keep your eyes where they're supposed to be."
Compared to the Florida Atlantic game last week, where they snap and throw quickly, Temple is more of watching for the movement and making sure it doesn't change what the Tulane D is supposed to do.
"This week, it's more about getting your cleats and your eyes set and make sure you don't get lost in the sauce," he says motioning with his hands.
Temple Offense Has Good Talent, Too
It starts with the Owls quarterback, Evan Simon, who is averaging only 184.7-yards per game, but has an incredible touchdown to interception ratio of 22-TDs to 1-INT, one of the top two ratios in the country.
"Their quarterback makes good decisions," Sumrall said, "with where to go with the football. (With those touchdown to interception numbers) He's got to lead the nation in that category."
He's close. U Conn's Joe Fagnano has thrown 25-touchdowns only one interception this season, leading the nation.
One of Simon's biggest targets, and we mean that literally, is 6' 6" tight end Peter Clarke, who has 26-catches, the longest of which is for 50-yards.
"He's got a big catch radius," Sumrall told us. "He's a big human, long arms, catches the ball all over the place. (All of) their receivers are good. One of their receivers (JoJo Bermudez) is also their punt returner, probably the best we've played all year."
Tulane is in Philadelphia to take on Temple at 2:45 Saturday afternoon in a game that will be televised on ESPNU and the Tulane Radio Network.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.