Tulane Defense, Freshman Running Back Show Up Big in 31-14 Win Over Tulsa
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Tulane has been waiting on some breakout moments for two of its finest: The Green Wave defense and freshman running back Javin Gordon. Both came through in Saturday's American Conference opener in Oklahoma, as the Wave dumped Tulsa 31-14.
Tulane Defense Bent, but Rarely Broke
After an opening Tulsa salvo, marching 75-yards to tie the game, the Green Wave D turned up the heat. All told, the Tulane defense accounted 15 tackles for losses, adding up to 51-yards behind the line and made life miserable for Golden Hurricane redshirt freshman quarter Baylor Hayes. He was forced into five hurries and an interception, while being sacked six times. All this while holding the Tulsa vaunted run game that piled up over 200-yards against Oklahoma State to 92-yards for the game.
"I thought our guys up front fit things well," Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said after the game. "I thought the traditional running game with the running back we controlled well....If you can win at the line of scrimmage, which I think we have the ability to (do) and you can control the run game, they ran for 2.4 yards a carry, that's a recipe for success. But, the defensive front, I did really feel them a lot today."
And Then There was Tulane Freshman Running Back Javin Gordon
Gordon led all rushers in the game, toting the ball 15 times for 78 yards, scoring his first, second, and third touchdowns of the year, including a sneaky strong 25-yarder for a score.
"He was the one that got to lead the Hullabaloo in the locker room just now," Sumrall said. "15 carries, 78-yards, three touchdowns for a true freshman. For anybody, it's good. For a true freshman, man, I'm very impressed with the way he's playing. He's a physical, gritty, hard-nosed runner. He's a really smart guy. He's very detailed...and I'm not surprised because he does it every day."
"It was fun going out there to battle with my boys," Gordon said in his first postgame interview. "And it was it was a battle. I ain't going to lie. We just been preaching all week, setting the standard, being the standard. Coming off of last week's loss, we dwelled on it that night, but we had to move on. Then we came out this week, first week, conference play, and came out and handled business."
The true freshman averaged 5.2-yards per carry, leading Tulane to 4.3 yards a pop on the ground as a team.
The Tulane Defense Bottles Up the Tulsa Running Game
Meanwhile, Tulsa senior running back Dominic Richardson, who piled up over 140-yards last week against Okie State, could only muster 48-yards on 14 carries. As a team, the Golden Hurricane averaged 2.4 yards per run.
"Coming off a loss like Ole Miss, we knew that wasn't our standard," redshirt junior defensive lineman Santana Hopper said after the game. "So I felt like we had to come out here and prove something and did that today."
Bye Week Follows, Then a Thursday Home Game against East Carolina
The Green Wave get a chance to rest and recoup for a bit, with a no game this Saturday, then back at home against East Carolina on an ESPN Thursday prime time game.
"It's kind of a mini-bye because it's not a 14-day bye. It's a 12-day bye because we play on Thursday," coach Sumrall declared. "So, what we'll do, they'll be off tomorrow (Sunday). Monday will be just liftings and meetings and a little bit of a walkthrough. No real practice, per se. We'll practice Tuesday, Wednesday for about an hour roughly with the big guys. We might let the youngsters play a little bit more. And then Thursday, Friday, give them a little bit of a break, get their legs back underneath them hopefully."
And there's good reason for that schedule.
"To be very transparent, we got a very beat up football team," said Sumrall. "I don't know if you saw the injury report before the game, but it was long. I had like 20 dudes miss practice this week. We're beat up. I mean, our team has been through a gauntlet, schedule-wise, and they're just very fatigued. So, we've got to be smart about getting the work we need to get and still getting better, but we have to have healthy, available bodies to go play on game day."
After a bye this Saturday, Tulane will host East Carolina on Thursday, October 9th at Yulman Stadium for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.
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.