Tulane Green Wave Bonds Emerging in Time for Rare Road Test at Charlotte

The Tulane Green Wave have a uniquely difficult road stretch on a short week, and they may have found the equalizer through buy-in and team brotherhood.

Credit: Parker Waters - Tulane Athletics

As the Tulane Green Wave hit a season stretch that will test them mentally and physically on a short week at Charlotte, they’ll need to center themselves in critical moments.

They've encountered adversity on the field, save for the hurricane that altered preparation ahead of Oklahoma. Back-to-back road games on Saturday and Thursday present a unique challenge of extraneous factors and additional mental and physical strain.

It's crucial to build the team's mental toughness before these moments—that's meant having young guys on the field in critical situations as early in the year as possible.

Against Kansas State, freshman safety Jack Tchienchou's playmaking ability thrust him into meaningful snaps, while sophomore Kevin Adams continued to creep onto the field as his counterpart.

Six opponents later, Tchienchou led Tulane with eight solo tackles against North Texas, saving a crucial breakaway run with a tackle similar to the one Adams made to bring down Dean Connors to prevent a touchdown against Rice. Adams recovered the fumble on special teams.

They've closed out several contests since Week 2, and Tchienchou sees how that time on task built toughness and bonds. 

"Coach Gas (Gasparato) tells us, you're not young after the spring season. You're not a young guy anymore. Kevin and I have taken it on like it's our job to come in and not lose a step or lose pace. We can't afford to have a drop-off in big games. I think we've just continued to raise the bar, and then the older guys in front of us have started leading us by a good example, and so we're just able to keep that going."

Veterans Jalen Geiger and Bailey Despanie have been paramount models for the two players to learn from. There was no better display of the team's core values than Despanie stepping up on the sidelines following his ejection for targeting at Oklahoma. I recall him embracing the young players next in line and several moments of in-game coaching that translated quickly.

"His experience is something you can't teach," Tchienchou agreed. "He's able to help me even on the field to let me know and alert me of things that he thinks may be coming. And even if it doesn't happen, it stays in the back of my head, and I'm able to make plays going forward from things he's helped me on."

Geiger spoke earlier in the year about the temperament of the young defensive backs and pointed to Tchienchou in particular as a young, real leader. 

"Even though he's young, he's still going to step up, he's going to talk. I think all of us have that connection with each other. We all hang out outside of football, so we all just know in these big moments, these tough moments, we know we have each other's back."

One level up, the Green Wave linebackers display equal bonds of brotherhood. Despite Sam Howard not transferring to Tulane until this summer, Tyler Grubbs couldn't believe how seamlessly they connected, a sign of ultimate culture fit on the roster.

"With Sam coming in, it is difficult to build relationships when things are going so fast. You can't really have these great building bond relationships when you're worried about this and that. It is hard to sit down and talk to somebody. But me and him, for some reason, have connected very well. We see a lot of things the same way. It’s special to be able to have somebody that's a leader like that next to you that sees the same things that you see and that wants that greatness."

"I think our friendship and the way that we push each other kind of infects in ways on our team, everybody seeing how we push each other. It's a great show of leadership for everybody else. So having him next to me every game and throughout this leadership role that we have is special."

When faced with adversity, Tulane's response is universal: Good. That only works as far as a team-wide buy-in throws it. They won’t be immune from those moments on Thursday against the 49ers. But they won’t have fresh legs or enough diligent preparation to leave this up to schemes on the field.

It’s critical that the Green Wave players look to each other as brothers and lean on that competitive edge to equalize the playing field at Charlotte.