Tulane Green Wave Receive Votes in First Top 25 Ranking
The Tulane Green Wave football program is ushering in a new era and it looks like they'll have to prove themselves in order to earn some more respect around the country.
Associated Press released their debut preseason Top 25 poll on Monday, which is the biggest gauge used to determine where a team stands before the College Football Playoff begins releasing their rankings.
Jon Sumrall's first Green Wave team will start the season unranked. They did find themselves in the 'others receiving votes' section, so they weren't shut out completely.
The votes all came from one writer, Creg Stephenson of the Alabama Media Group, who ranked them as his No. 21 team in the country. No other AP voters had Tulane in their Top 25.
The Green Wave were also left unranked in the final poll from the 2023 season, so this shouldn't come as too big of a surprise. They were last ranked in the Week 14 poll at No. 22 in the country.
No schools from the American Athletic Conference made it into the initial rankings for this season, but both the Memphis Tigers and UTSA Roadrunners received more votes than Tulane.
It was always going to be considered a tough task to follow up the success that Willie Fritz has had over the past couple of years, so Sumrall probably expected that this would be the case.
There should be enough talent on the roster to compete in his first year, though, which is likely why they still walked away with some recognition (albeit very minimal).
A common theme among the transfers that they brought in were guys that were expected to breakout in other places but didn't really get a chance to shine.
That really reigns supreme in an offense that will feature guys from schools like Oregon, USC, Alabama and LSU. If they reach their potential, they could be very good.
Sumrall is known for his defenses, however, and there should be some excitement about the group they have.
Patrick Jenkins is one of the best players in the country at defensive tackle and they're returning a great linebacker duo.
The secondary will look very different, but have some players with more experience coming over.
Whether they deserve to be unranked will take a few weeks to feel out, but Sumrall could have an easy 'chip on the shoulder' motivator for his team after being overlooked among the top tier of college football.
DYLAN SANDERS