Tulane Green Wave New Coach Has 'Steady' Stock Watch Through Four Games
While the Tulane Green Wave would have liked to grab at least one victory out of their two Top 25 matches, their belief in the head coach should not change with two losses.
Morgan Moriarty of Bleacher Report recently released a stock watch on first-year head coaches around college football and Green Wave head man Jon Sumrall received a 'steady' evaluation.
"Tulane had a pair of tricky non-conference opponents, going on the road to play Kansas State and Oklahoma early in the season. Tulane looked competitive in both contests, and beat Louisiana 41-33 to start 1-0 in conference play." said Moriarty. "Getting back to the AAC title game for a third straight season will be a definite goal for Sumrall in Year One."
The biggest expectation for the regime is that they were going to have the defensive side of the ball fairly ready to go from the jump, given the experience and reputation that Sumrall has for that side of the ball.
They've now given up more than 30 points in each of the last three games, which is not ideal, but the energy is definitely there
In the second half of the Sooners game, it looked like a flash into the future of what the defense could look like on a week-to-week basis. They've kept the fight going while still being a little bit less efficient than they were
The biggest compliment is that they just don't look like they are completely lost, which is sometimes all that can be asked of a group four games into a new look staff.
On offense, things seem to be coming together a little bit slower.
Darian Mensah has had plenty of bursts of greatness under center so far, but has also been expectedly shaky. Once Mensah can get a little bit more comfortable in his role, operation of the offense should look a bit smoother than it has so far.
There are certainly times this season where it has seemed as though they had no hope in moving the ball.
Even in a 41-point outburst against the Ragin Cajuns, thanks in part to the defense and special teams, Mensah was just 11-for-17 with 83 yards on the day.
Makhi Hughes has done a bit of heavy lifting so far, which should be expected of one of the team's top returning players.
Overall, it hasn't been perfect, but they look like a solid group in the first year of a coaching tenure so far.
