Tulane Green Wave Leap Toward Top 25 In Latest College Football Power Rankings
The Tulane Green Wave and first-year head coach Jon Sumrall have officially clinched the program's third consecutive season of bowl eligibility with their 45-37 victory on Saturday over the North Texas Mean Green.
While the score makes the contest look much closer than it ever actually was, the Mean Green scored 13 of their points in garbage time, well after the Green Wave took their foot off the gas and was coasting to victory.
It was another dominant showing from Tulane, something that everyone has grown to expect from the Group of Five program this season under Sumrall, one that has seen the school receive top 25 votes for the AP poll on more than one occasion.
This latest occasion has also seen the team shoot up The Athletic's college football power rankings that Chris Vannini does for the publication every week, rocketing to 34th on the list after ranking 48th last week.
Quarterback Darian Mensah put on a strong showing, throwing for 175 yards, three touchdowns, and only one interception on 10 of 13 passing, but it was running back Makhi Hughes that led the charge on Saturday.
Hughes ran the ball with ease, totaling 195 yards and one touchdown on 30 carries, setting a new single-game career-high for the star back and raising his own draft stock in the process.
The schedule became a much easier prospect this weekend, too, as the Green Wave's lone remaining undefeated opponent to come can no longer call themselves undefeated as the Navy Midshipmen dropped their contest in a blowout.
Saturday showed that the Midshipmen can be beaten, a sentence that no one in the last 50 years ever thought they would read, much less write, and coach Sumrall and Tulane are sure to take notes to help fight toward an undefeated conference schedule for a spot in the American Athletic Conference Championship game.
That game is still weeks away, however, and there are still four games left on the calendar for the Green Wave, with their next coming on Thursday in a short-week contest against the Charlotte 49ers, though Vannini has that team ranked 105th in his power rankings.
While on paper it looks to be an easy matchup, you can never count any team out in college football, especially on a short week.
Tulane has continued to power through adversity this year, however, and this short week should see the team do no different.
