The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly from Tulane's 34-21 Win Over North Texas
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Tulane football took control in the 2nd quarter of the American Championship game and never looked back in their 34-21 victory over North Texas in Yulman Stadium. Here is what we saw that made this game good, bad, or ugly.
The Good
The Tulane defense played its best all-around game of the season. Pressuring UNT's talented young quarterback Drew Mestemaker, sacking him five times, limiting the big plays, and hitting. Not just hitting. Hitting hard. Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said in the media conference afterwards that football is still a very physical sport. North Texas found that out the hard way.
Take away those losses for kneeling in victory formation at the end of the game and Tulane has over 200-yards rushing as a team. Doing that kept the ball out of the hands of that very talented Mean Green offense. The Green Wave had three drives of over 6-minutes, one of them almost hitting the 8-minute mark, and during those drives, the Wave mixed up the pass and run flawlessly.
If you didn't believe before now that Tulane had found its running back this year, then you saw it for yourself this game in Jamauri McClure. The redshirt freshman piled up 121-yards on his 22-carries. One particular carry that ended in a rugby scrum that pushed the ball all the way inside the North Texas 10, should bring goose bumps to any Tulane fan.
The special teams for Tulane this year is absolutely special. Sure, kicker Patrick Durkin missed a 50-yarder, but he more than made up for it with his two makes from 30-yards out, his flawless extra points, and his kickoffs. Alec Clark was his usual "Ray Guy" self with his booming punts. However, we have yet to talk about the special teams themselves. Recovering a muffed punt, blanketing coverage of returns, and extra mileage on returns of its own made this game, well, special.
A packed Yulman Stadium makes Tulane almost unbeatable. The Tulane student section staying until the end of the game makes it unforgettable. Please enjoy the moment when the student section and most of the rest of the stadium empties onto the turf of Yulman.
Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff played within himself: not forcing the ball into coverage, knowing where his pocket protection was at all times, and, probably most importantly, letting the Tulane run game control the contest. It was his best performance as a Greenie.
The Bad & The Ugly
We have mentioned this, perhaps ad nauseum, but the officiating in the American Conference is embarrassingly bad. One call in particular occurred during the muffed punt by North Texas. Some believe that interference by the Tulane punt coverage team should have been called. Some have speculated the Tulane player was blocked into the UNT player. Others say the Mean Green punt receiver wasn't even near where the ball landed and was waving people off. The media in the press box was divided. What do you think? If you watch the replay from the 3:31 mark of the YouTube video, you'll see something even more disturbing: an official is literally right where the punt receiver is. No call. Either there was no foul or the official is off in Never-Never Land. We are hoping its the former.
Then there was the fumble through the end zone by Chris Rogers on his interception return. Was it a touchdown? You can blame ABC-TV for not having cameras positioned on the goal lines. However, any way you put it, the ever lengthening time officials are taking to look at replays, the extra "meetings" in the middle of the field along with lengthy explanations to coaches on the sidelines, and just downright missed calls in general, make this something that must be fixed by the American and fixed before next season.
The good news out of all of this is that Tulane will play in the College Football Playoffs in two weeks.
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.