Sumrall on Tulane vs Ole Miss in the College Football Playoffs
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Tulane learned on Sunday it was tagged as the 11th seed in the College Football Playoffs and will be heading to Oxford again, this time to take on the 6th seeded Ole Miss Rebels on December 20th at 2:30 in the first round of the CFP. Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, his coaches, their families and the entire Tulane squad met in the Glazier Family Room to watch the unveiling of the brackets that showed who the Wave would be playing in their school's first trip to the playoffs.
After the unveiling and celebrations that ensued, Sumrall met with the local media to discuss what to expect over the two weeks of preparation. He said he and the new Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding are long time friends.
"Pete Facetimed me last night," Sumrall began. "I was watching the ACC and and Big 10 games at home. We're great friends. I have a good relationship with him (Golding), known him a long time. I'm very happy for him." Golding was named the new head coach of Ole Miss with the departure of Lane Kiffin to LSU. "He's got a great football mind. Look, they won't miss a beat."
It's the second time these two teams have met this season. The first was an Ole Miss shellacking of the Green Wave in late September. Sumrall obviously is hoping for something different this time around.
"I hope we're mentally tougher than we were that first go," Sumrall reminisced. "We didn't respond to some things right in that game. When you play a team like Ole Miss, they're going to make some plays. They've got dudes. So, for us I think it's as much about, not to be cliche, but control the controllables. Let's be where our feet are. Let's do our job better. We dropped a couple of passes early, had opportunities to convert on third down, we didn't play our version of football. I feel like we're a better team (than Tulane was in the first contest on September 20th). I think we're a more consistent team, but we have a real challenge in (Ole Miss)."
What made this all the more special for Sumrall, though, was watching his team's reaction to the announcement, especially those who have stuck around since that 2-and-10 season in 2021: folks like Bryce Bohannon and Bailey "Slim" Despanie.
"I'm so proud of those guys," Sumrall effused. "Between Bryce and Slim, they were true freshmen on a 2-and-10 team, and now they've had 42 or 43 wins, getting ready to go play in the CFP. Like, wow! How cool is that for those guys? It's a testament to their leadership, because they've been a part of the culture that's really shifted this program in the right direction."
Sumrall said he has had time to look back how things started in Uptown two years ago when he became the head coach of Tulane.
"I was reflecting this morning. It's been almost two years ago to the day, in that same room (the Glazier Family Room), when I said we're going to go to the College Football Playoff," Sumrall recalled. "So, for us to do that in two years is pretty cool, especially with the roster turnover." Tulane had 60 new players on this year's squad. "There were a lot of pieces that weren't on the team when I said that at that time, (but) they've bought into the vision and made it happen, because we have great player-leaders."
Tulane's 1st round College Football Playoff game against Ole Miss will be on Saturday, December 20th at 2:30 p.m. in Oxford, Mississippi at Vaught Hemingway Stadium. It will be telecast on TNT and HBO-Max.
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.