Tulane Coach Wants to See Confidence in His Quarterbacks

The Tulane Green Wave have their first training camp scrimmage Saturday, and their coach wants to see poise in his quarterbacks.

Credit: Tulane Athletics / Football

The Tulane Green Wave have a tall task replacing Michael Pratt at quarterback, but coach Jon Sumrall doesn’t want to overcomplicate their role in the offense.

That’s the overarching goal of Saturday’s scrimmage, the first of fall camp: execute and be efficient.

Tulane has had two weeks of practice, and they have the chance to put it all together in a scrimmage setting. Before you can run, you have to walk assuredly, and Sumrall wants to see good fundamentals over heroics.

“I don’t want anything miraculous,” Sumrall said Friday about what he wants to see on offense. “Try to clean up some things. Just execute. Be efficient. I don't want anything miraculous. Try to clean up some things. Operate at the line of scrimmage clean, communicate and line up. Protect the football. Make sure every drive ends with a kick – whether it be a punt or a field goal or an extra point.”

Protecting the football was one of Pratt’s top traits, and frankly, what wins and loses football games. Sumrall is looking for clean and efficient play this weekend, despite acknowledging some rotations of players not projected to start Week 1.

One of those places to watch is the offensive line. Sumrall told reporters that they’ll likely hold out Rashad Green and Vincent Murphy, while Josh Remetich returned to practice Friday.

The primary goal is execution, and that translates to Sumrall’s evaluation of his quarterbacks.

“They don’t have to wear an ‘S’ on their chest,” Sumrall said. “You don’t win the game with every throw. You can lose the game with a throw quicker than you can win the game with a throw. Make good decisions, operate at the line of scrimmage, communicate clearly, control what you control. Whether you're in there with an o-line that's maybe the full group or not. From a coach's perspective, we're evaluating like, hey, that stat was with maybe three o-linemen that aren't going to start or whatever it may be. But you want to see them go execute, be efficient, and be able to do what they've been coached to do: run the offense with confidence.”

The quarterback competition is one of several moving parts for the Green Wave to nail down by Aug. 29, and Saturday will give a good sense of the team competitiveness as a whole.