Gritty, Tough Tulane Pulls out a 24-17 Win over Army
Final: Tulane 24 - Army 17. And it was closer than the score indicates...
On a weekend of upsets, the Tulane Green Wave were not. While league-leading Memphis was upset by UAB in Birmingham last night, the Wave were able to mount a comeback that went against everything the game had dictated since shortly after 11:00 Saturday morning.
Down 17-10 with under six minutes to go in the game, the Tulane offense was faced with figuring out an Army defense that had befuddled them all game long. Then, in order to have a chance at victory, the Green Wave defense was going to have to do something it hadn't done all game: force the Black Knights offense into a three-and-out. Then, the Wave would have to score again.
That's a lot of "then"s.
But that's exactly what this Tulane team did.
Two Touchdowns in Less Than Six Minutes
After throwing his first interception of his Tulane career to end the last Green Wave drive, quarterback Jake Retzlaff led the Wave smartly down the field to even the score at 17-apiece, scoring with just under two minutes left in the game.
Then (there's another one of those "then"s), with 1:54 left on the 4th quarter clock, the Tulane defense held Army to three and out, burning all three of its timeouts in the process. After a Black Knight punt set up the Green Wave at its own 25, Tulane was faced with driving the length of the field in a minute-and-37-seconds with none of those aforementioned burned timeouts for a possible Patrick Durkin field goal to win the game.
Or not.
Another crisp drive led by Retzlaff, helped by an Army defensive holding penalty, deep in its own territory, put the Wave at the Army 26 with just over a half-minute to play. Then, (there's another one), a pass from the TU senior toward the front corner of the end zone, tipped off the defender's hands, was tipped twice more by Tulane wide out Shazz Preston before he secured a near-miraculous catch in front of the student section in Yulman Stadium for a game-leading touchdown. Army's last-ditch effort to get into the Wave end zone in the closing moments of the game came up short.
"The team is just in go-mo," Retzlaff said, referring to his favorite style of play: the two-minute drill. "There's no thinking about it. There's no 'possess the ball.' The coaches are calling plays to make yards (in chunks), and the guys are ready to make yards. It's an exciting thing for the playmakers, who feel like, 'Alright, let's just go make a play.' Everybody is ready to make plays, and that's what makes it fun."
"Coach said, 'Go make a play,' and I said 'I got this,'" Preston said about his juggling, game-winning catch in the back of the Army end zone.
A Gritty, Tough, Fighting Tulane Team
"We keep finding ways to win," Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said after the game. "This team's gritty, tough, they fight. I told them in the locker room, 'Nobody's going to question our toughness.' Now, we're not pretty. Once we get pretty, we're already tough, when you match pretty and tough together, we're going to be an ever harder out. Hey, we're not pretty. Yet. But a win, is a win, is a win."
That last drive had the markings of getting in range of a Patrick Durkin field goal, he of the 14-for-14 on the year for three-pointers, but Sumrall had different thoughts.
"We had a couple of operations on the field goals (and extra points), that I was less than pleased with," Sumrall told the media after the game. Though he wouldn't mention names, there was an issue we noticed with the snap on one of the extra points. "(Plus) the wind was pretty hard in our face (from where Tulane was driving) 11-miles an hour with gusts up to 18. Against them (Army), I felt like if we scored the touchdown and make them go the length of the field with 27-seconds left was advantageous to us."
"Coach (Jeff) Monken and are close," Sumrall told us, "and I told him after the game that, as a head coach, this is one of the most talented teams I've coached. It's the youngest, the least developed team, too. This team is trying to grow up, figure it out."
He continued, "I love these guys. I love coming to work. I love what I do. I love impacting their lives. I love seeing them grow. I (just) want it to happen faster."
Tulane has another extended week before their next game. The Green Wave will be traveling to San Antonio for a Thursday, October 30th game against UTSA.
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.