Tulane Routed by Texas-San Antonio, 48-26 as Green Wave Drops their First Conference Game
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Final Score: UTSA 48 - Tulane 26
On a week when their coach was talking about limiting distractions, the Tulane football team was a distraction unto itself. In uncharacteristic style, the Green Wave offense looked completely out of sync, turning over the ball three times, while the Wave defense had no answers for the Texas-San Antonio passing game en route to a 48-26 loss for the Wave.
"It's a disappointing loss," Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall said after the drubbing. "It starts with me, and it really ends with me, too. I've got to have the team ready to play better. As a coaching staff, we've got to do better. I asked the guys to look in the mirror and see what we can all do to be better. The scoreboard matters, but the way we played is frustrating."
Wave Offense Couldn't Find its Rhythm
Quarterback Jake Retzlaff couldn't get things together for most of the game, going 14-for-28 through the air for 194 yards and a touchdown, throwing two interceptions and finding him and his receivers not on the same page on a regular basis. Tulane resorted to trickery to pick up a touchdown in the 2nd half, as wide receiver Jimmy Calloway hit on a flea flicker to Omari Hayes from 42-yards out.
Even the Tulane rushing attack couldn't put together any consistency. Besides Retzlaff's game-opening 39-yard run, the Wave couldn't get the run game going.
"The first drive, was really good offensively," Sumrall told us. "Then I really felt like we could never stay in rhythm."
The UTSA Offense Was a Juggernaut
Part of that can be attributed to a Road Runner offense that scored on five of their first six drives, putting on a passing show that kept the Green Wave defense on its heels.
After expecting a ground-and-pound run game, the Road Runners instead did their damage through the air. Texas-San Antonio quarterback Owen McCown was nothing short of brilliant: 31-of-33 through the air, 370-yards and four touchdowns. The junior signal caller led UTSA to five scoring drives out of six in the first half, finding wide open receivers who were breaking away from coverage or running free behind the TU defenders.
"Their quarterback played lights out," Sumrall admitted. "Fantastic game by that kid. Great game by him, not great game by us."
Tulane Defense Couldn't Get that Rhythm Right, Either
This was a game of one step forward, two steps back. It seemed that every time the Green Wave was getting some sort of syncopation on defense and felt things were going right, something would reverse course for TU.
"I felt like it was the story of the night, almost," Sumrall opined. "Every time we felt like we were going to create a negative play or two, they found their way out of it."
The same wasn't happening for the Tulane offense though.
"We could just never get traction," Sumrall surmised.
Distraction is Not the Problem for Sumrall
Distraction was the word of the week for Tulane, and not just the rumors swirling around Sumrall as rumors spread about Power 4 teams being interested in him. Add to that the hostile environment of the Alamodome and UTSA's almost magical homefield advantage, and you have a load of things to fill players' minds. Sumrall, though, didn't agree with the distraction theory.
"I don't think the team was distracted," Sumrall said looking frustrated. "I know I'm not. I'm kind of tired of people asking me questions about, 'Are y'all distracted?' Distracted by what? If we have any distractions going on, I don't understand it. We're in the middle of a really challenging conference schedule, and it takes your full focus. your full effort, and your full energy to be the best you can be."
This One's Going to Hurt, but It's Going to be a Quick Turn Around
For Sumrall, a loss like this means pain, and he believes that's good.
"We need to feel the pain for this one for a little while," Sumrall admitted. "This should hurt. It should sting. This should suck, and it does. Then we have to move forward. We've got a pulse (in the conference race), which means we've got a chance. We still have a lot to play for, and we still have a lot in front of us."
The Green Wave will be back on the road a week from now when they travel to Memphis, Friday, November 7th to take on the Tigers in another prime time matchup.
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.