Tulane Getting a Kick Out of The New Legs
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Usually, when you are talking about a football team's kicking game, it's because there's not much else to talk about. Just think back to the Cairo Santos days, a young man who would go on to kick in the NFL, when Tulane's best record during his four years was 7-6 in 2013. If you look back at his other three years, the Green Wave was abysmal. Santos was the best thing to talk about.
Not so this year.
Under head coach Jon Sumrall, Tulane finds itself back in the thick of things at the top of the American Conference again, riding a 5-1 record at the time of this writing and a 2-0 league mark. Both the Green Wave offense and defense are clicking and it seems like everything is pointing to an early November showdown in Memphis against the Tigers for the right to host the American Conference championship game.
And that kicking game....
A couple of youngsters decided Sumrall and his staff were their cup of tea and they each came to New Orleans in the Summer, one from Illinois and the other from WAY across the pond to the West.
Patrick Durkin was a wet-behind-the-ears freshman last year when he was asked to kick for the Green Wave in its last three regular season games, then the American Conference championship game and Gasparilla Bowl contest. The native of Plainfield, Illinois on the southwest side of Chicago went 16-for-16 on extra points in that time, but was a pedestrian 2-for-4 on field goals. You could tell, though, that he had a leg. Durk's kickoffs sailed into and out of the endzone regularly.
Alec Clark made a stop or two before settling at Tulane this Summer. The native of Swan View, a suburb of Perth in southwest Australia, played the 2024 season at Marshall, kicking in all thirteen of the Thundering Hurd's games, averaging a little over 42-yards a punt. The Aussie transferred to Southern Miss in the Spring of 2025, but changed his mind and moved his skills 115-miles South to put his leg to use for the Green Wave.
Enter 2025
These two young men aren't just putting their legs to good use. They can literally flip the field in favor of the Green Wave.
"It gives you a lot of confidence," coach Jon Sumrall answered when asked about these two young men. "I think (Patrick) Durkin has come a long way....And Alec (Clark) has been an invaluable addition. He's (Clark's) really quick with the ball in his hands."
Durkin has put the ball through the uprights every time Sumrall has asked him to trot onto the field for a three-pointer. He is 13-of-13 field goals, far and away the most in the American Conference. He is second in the nation, behind only Hawaii's Kansei Matsuzawa. Durkin's longest tre sailed through over the crossbar from 50-yards away against South Alabama. He is 16-of-17 on extra points.
"I'm really pleased (with how well I'm kicking)," Durkin said, "(but) I'm really pleased with the team's success. We preach in the special teams room, that we can't have off games. Every game, we have to have the offense's or defense's back and execute at the highest level."
Clark is averaging 46.16-yards per punt, only a yard off the leader in the American Conference. His 70-yard bomb is the second longest this season in the league. Because of his overwhelming hang-time, opposing teams are averaging only 3.6-yards per return of his 25 punts. The biggest difference, though, is touchbacks. For all the distance Clark can conjure out of his punts, only three have bounced into the end zone. There are no statistics available for individual punting on the NCAA site at this time.
When asked about his success thus far this year, Clark didn't point to his punting skills, instead talking about how he wants to lead in the special teams room, especially with the two freshmen he works with day-in and day-out.
"I think what I'm most proud of is helping out Patrick (Durkin), (deep snapper) Jason (Arredondo) and all the other guys in the room," Clark said. "Jason is a true freshman, and he's doing an amazing job. He's making my job easier than what it has to be." Clark holds on extra point and field goal attempts. "And Durk, the season he's having at the moment..."
So, when the Green Wave are in need of a foot up, they know exactly where to turn.
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.