Tulane Green Wave Emphasizing One Important Detail Defensively vs. Rice Owls
After some shaky performances out of the gate, the Tulane Green Wave have found their form on the gridiron over the last few weeks.
Following back-to-back losses against the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners, they have reeled off three victories in a row. It wasn’t a pretty game against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, but they got the job done.
After that came two dominant performances against the South Florida Bulls and UAB Blazers to kickstart their American Athletic Conference schedule. They outscored their opponents by a total of 116-30 over those two contests, cementing their status as one of the premier G5 teams in the nation.
But, head coach Jon Sumrall is doing everything he can to ensure that his team doesn’t start believing the hype too much off the field.
He has been firm with his message to the team, as he doesn’t want complacency to set in. No matter how well they have performed in the past, the games still need to be played and anything can happen once the ball is kicked off.
An underwhelming practice this week gave the head coach a chance to hammer home the importance of staying locked in. And, as a coach always does, even in the best of performances, he found something that needs to be improved.
For the Green Wave, an emphasis has been put on limiting big plays against their defense leading into their matchup against the Rice Owls. Coming into this game, they have allowed seven plays of at least 45 yards in the last five games.
“I’m not accustomed to that,” Sumrall said via Guerry Smith of NOLA.com. “It’s something that bothers me and has not appeared much in any situation I’ve been in the last several years. It’s frustrating because that will cost us a game if we don’t get it fixed.”
Big plays are something that his former teams with the Troy Trojans successfully limited. Only three runs of 45+ yards were allowed; Tulane has already allowed five this season.
“A couple of them are schematic things we’ve cleaned up in the bye week,” Sumrall said. “A couple were guys not communicating a check and having 10 guys do the right thing and one guy not. That was without question defensively one of the big things we discussed and watched last week as a staff to pinpoint how we can improve in that area.”
Those big plays are the only real issue the Green Wave has had on that side of the ball. Despite their propensity for giving up chunk yardage, they are rank third in the ACC in total defense and fourth in scoring defense, giving up 310.8 yards and 21.8 points per game.
Nationally, they are in the top 25 of limiting 10 and 20+ yard gains as well. But, when there is a breakdown, it results in major mistakes.
“It just shows that we can be really good when we do our jobs,” defensive coordinator Greg Gasparato said. “Big plays are due to a lack of execution. It’s generally not a lack of effort. If you do your job, then big plays are eliminated. There’s no special call or magic potion.”
Fine-tuning those small issues that lead to big collapses is the last hurdle for this group maintaining their standing as one of the best defenses in the nation.
Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.