Tulane Green Wave Football Kicks off ‘The Gauntlet’ To Build Mental Focus

Tulane Green Wave football team begins an important offseason program designed by their director of strength and conditioning for mental toughness.
Credit: Tulane Athletics
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The Tulane Green Wave is in the midst of offseason workouts designed to build bonds and strengthen the team before making a run at the college football playoffs next season.

Rusty Whitt, the director of strength and conditioning, launched an important program for Tulane football on Monday — the Gauntlet.

Its aim is to eliminate mental errors, establish accountability, and illuminate leaders who will spearhead head coach Jon Sumrall's vision of his player-led team.

Whitt detailed the Gauntlet's importance to Tulane on Sports Illustrated last December as the second installment kicks off Wednesday.

"The mental errors— those are wins and losses," Whitt said. "You remind the players that every mental mistake is a blown assignment during a game. The key players, like the Shadre Hursts of the world, need to have enough of that accountability to bring the other guys along with them."

Returning star free safety Jack Tchienchou believes it helped instill toughness as a core value when speaking to reporters last season.

"Toughness is in everything, so when we lift and you may not want to, you've just got to be tough and get through it," Tchienchou said. "When you're tired, you have to be tough and get through it. It's really a mental thing rather than physically being tough. When you're mentally strong, not a lot of things can break you, so that's what he really tries to harp on."

Tchienchou mentioned their workouts, the games against the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners that punched them in the mouth, and the gauntlet as key experiences where the team saw its potential and came together. That doesn't underscore the difficulty of the Gauntlet.

"It's really difficult waking up that early and getting yelled at and the whistle's blowing in your face," Tchienchou said. "But once you get through it, you realize how good it was for the team and the benefits it has. I was up close to 4:50 am every morning for that."

The team begins a challenging day filled with grueling physical tasks early in the morning. If the team commits a mental error, they must repeat the Gauntlet the following day. It took the Green Wave players several days to beat it last season.

Ultimately, it's the type of thing that shows a team who its players are made of and who steps up as leaders when things get tough. The Tulane football team's response to this year's Gauntlet will give Sumrall a lot to work with this offseason.


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Maddy Hudak
MADDY HUDAK

Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com