The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly: Tulane - East Carolina
Thursday, October 9, the Tulane Green Wave defeated East Carolina 26-19 in Yulman Stadium before 20,035 fans. There were some good things, some that were bad, and some sort of ugly. Let's talk about them.
The Good
Top of mind, the Tulane offense was clicking. Quarterback Jake Retzlaff was finding his receivers, sometimes in very tight coverage, and able to thread the needle. One back-shoulder toss to Bryce Bohannon was a thing of beauty. Tre Shackelford getting involved with four catches for team-high 65 yards was huge. And did you hear? Twelve receivers caught the ball. Twelve...different...receivers. No body in the NCAA has done that this season. One guy threw it to eleven different guys: ECU's Katin Houser against Campbell. Retzlaff was a stellar going 26-for-36 passing, 347-yards, two touchdowns, and an off-the charts quarterback rating of 171.5. I really don't think you can ask for more from your quarterback, except figuring a way into the end zone on those field goal marches. More on that later.
Truth be told, Jon Sumrall was not just blowing smoke: East Carolina is a good team. They sure didn't look like it in the first half, though, as the Tulane defense stymied an ECU offense that was averaging well over 400-yards a contest to a measly 91-yards. But, as Gloria Estefan warned, the rhythm is gonna get you, and ECU found theirs, scoring on its first three possessions of the third quarter to take their first lead. You really can't keep that good of an offense down for long. However, the Green Wave D came back into play, limiting the Pirates to just a field goal in its last three possessions.
The Tulane kicking game might be the best we have seen in a very long time. Kicker Patrick Durkin is perfect on every field goal he has pushed toward the uprights, his longest clearing the crossbar from 50-yards out, he's 16-of-17 on extra points, and his kickoffs are almost unreturnable. How much did Sumrall appreciate his effort? The redshirt freshman led The Hullabaloo in the locker room at the end of the game. Punter Alec Clark is a beast. The Aussie from Swan View, a suburb of Perth, has been lights out, averaging 46.16-yards per punt, his longest being 70-yards. And out of his 26-punts this year, only three have gone into the end zone. Usually when you talk about having a good kicking game a lot, the way we have, you are doing it because the rest of the team sucks. Not so this year.
The Bad
Yeah, it's penalties. The Green Wave are still the most penalized team in the American Conference, averaging eight-and-a-half flags per game, at a 78.7-yards a contest clip. From talking to Jon Sumrall, we know he's not happy with those numbers. We also know the players we talk to every week aren't either. That's a start. The Wave have a few weeks to clean things against Army and Texas-San Antonio up before traveling to Memphis to take on the team considered the odds-on favorites to take the American.
That leads into red zone fails. The Wave didn't find touchdown territory until the 4th quarter. Quarterback Retzlaff and coach Sumrall were all over this, saying it is what will be worked on during that extra day of practice Tulane gets because of a Thursday game. This would have a different game if the Green Wave would have punched it in during any of those first half drives. Offensive penalties (not one, but two chop block flags) and a fumble inside the five are fixable.
The Ugly
Give credit where credit is due: the Yulman Stadium crew was prepared for any scoreboard glitches with that backup basketball scoreboard on field level in front of the student section. However, this is the second game this year that the scoreboard glitched during a televised game, showing incorrect yardage, a frozen clock, and more.
Let's be clear: the scoreboard glitches are not the fault of the folks upstairs in the booth running it. I guarantee they were the ones to come up with the idea to put up the backup scoreboard on the field. Yulman is a wonderful, intimate setting for a football game. The food is outstanding. Every seat is first class. It's easy to get into and out of the venue. The overall experience at Yulman gets high marks from everyone who experiences it.
However, it's time to get some things worked on.
1. Get the Scoreboard Fixed
It's beautiful. It doesn't work. Fix it.
2. The Sound System is Not Good
Maybe it's me, but if you're on the side with the press box, the sound is excruciatingly loud. Get more speakers on the other side of the field so you can turn it down for everyone else. Or copy what is at Turchin.
3. Sort of a wish list item, but get another big scoreboard
Yes, it'll cost money, but put up another giant scoreboard at the other end of the stadium.
Tulane's next home contest is Army, an 11:00 a.m. kickoff on October 18th. Another guarantee from me: the Yulman Stadium crew is working non-stop to try get these glitches fixed. So, temporary fixes like the basketball scoreboard may be what we have for the rest of 2025. Let's plan for 2026 having the same top-notch experience Yulman offers in every other aspect, except now on the technical side of things.
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.