The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Tulane vs Memphis
In this story:
Friday night, the fortunes of Tulane's football team took a turn for the better. After a debacle in San Antonio a week ago, the Green Wave was able to kick start their offense and defense en route to a 38-32 victory on the home turf of 22nd ranked and American Conference rival Memphis. Here's what we saw that was good, bad, and ugly.
The Good
The first half. It was the best first half put together by the Green Wave this year. As ugly as things were a week ago, they were fetchingly good-looking in that first thirty minutes: 364-yards of total offense, 284 of which were off the arm of quarterback Jake Retzlaff, two 50-plus long bombs for touchdowns, and a rushing game though not as strong as we would like it was enough to keep the Tigers honest. Defensively, three-and-out on the first series for Memphis, along with three sacks, and consistent harassment of the opposing quarterbacks made this a solid effort.
Going into a lion's den (yeah, we know they're the Tigers) and coming out with a victory is better than good. Tulane could have folded after last week's loss to UTSA. Instead, the Green Wave came out like gang busters and almost knocked the stripes off Memphis. Yes, they came back to make it close (too close, if you ask us), but who won? Yeah, that team some of you were giving up on after a trip to San Antonio.
We talked about this game being one that would define the Sumrall era at Tulane. Yes, the Wave was gritty and tough, the way their coach as described them so often in the past. We believe this game also showed tenacity and gumption. It showed a strength that Sumrall's teams had not in the past two years. It was impressive.
The Bad
As soon as we were ready to start up the bus, the second half happened. The once-powerful offense from the first half could only manage a field goal. The defense did get three more sacks in half number two, but they gave up 15-points and an "if the receiver had only turned to the outside instead of the inside" pass that fell incomplete inside the Tulane 10 with just under two minutes on the 4th quarter clock.
Something is wrong at ESPN. At first, we thought it was our television. Then, the "sports leader" posted the logo that something was wrong with the audio from Liberty Bowl stadium. Not picking here, but there were problems with both nationally televised ESPN games in Yulman Stadium this year, and we've seen it happen time and again at the smaller venues. In other words, we don't think you'll find this many issues at some game in the Power 4 conference.
The Ugly
Maybe it was just us, but the quality of officiating in the American Conference is almost inexcusable. Calls at Liberty Bowl stadium were questionable on both sides of the field. Both coaches should be making phone calls to the American Conference Supervisor of Football Officials, Bryan Platt, on Monday. If it wasn't an obvious catch that was called incomplete then "backed up" by the officials watching on that tablet on the sidelines, it was a fumble that wasn't one, but was (but really, it wasn't). This is not that "we're complaining because we lost" kind of judgement. Last week, it was a phantom offsides on a blocked field goal that cost Tulane against UTSA and could have been the turning point in the game. This week, each side could complain, and not just for complaining's sake.
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.