Tulane Green Wave Named Among Most Impressive Football Teams in Week 5
When the dust settled on Week 5, the Tulane Green Wave provided one of the most impressive performances in college football — at least according to College Football Live.
The site ranked the Top 10 most impressive performances for the week and the Green Wave (3-2, 1-0 in ACC play) were ranked No. 5 after their 45-10 win over the USF Bulls.
Tulane did plenty to leave their coaching staff and fans impressed in the victory.
The Green Wave racked up 528 yards in total offense, redshirt freshman quarterback Darian Mensah threw three touchdown passes and Dontae Fleming had his biggest game of the year as he caught seven passes for 128 yards and a touchdown.
Who were the most impressive performances this weekend? Here are my Top 10! pic.twitter.com/BSDT6MDQLE
— College Football Live (@CollegeFBonX) September 29, 2024
Mario Williams caught four passes and scored on two of them. Running back Makhi Hughes added two touchdown runs.
Tulane’s defense held USF to 201 yards of total offense and forced the Bulls into two turnovers.
It even led Tulane coach Jon Sumrall to troll a USF Barstool account after the game. The account called out Sumrall for hyping up his players before the game and Sumrall kept the receipt, replying to the account after the win with “Good.”
Sumrall heaped praise on his team after the victory, especially Mensah.
“(It was his) most complete game for sure,” he said. “He stepped up in a big way. He's growing right in front of our eyes. I think my most exciting thing was watching him tuck the ball a couple of times and go get the first down on a scramble.”
Tulane was the only American Athletic Conference team to make the list.
Topping the list was Kentucky, which went into Oxford, Miss., and pulled off a Top 10 upset when the Wildcats defeated Ole Miss. This was two weeks after Kentucky nearly pulled off a home upset over Georgia, who lost to Alabama on Saturday.
Given that performance, Tulane appears to have the goods to reach the conference championship game for the third straight year.
In 2022, they won the title, went to the Cotton Bowl and defeated USC. Last year the Green Wave hosted SMU but lost that game.
The Green Wave will take the next step toward trying to make a third straight title game when they travel to UAB on Saturday. It will be their second meeting with the Blazers since UAB hired former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer to be their head coach for the 2023 season. Tulane won last year’s meeting.
