Tulane barely survived its Thursday, Oct. 9 showdown against East Carolina, winning 26-19 in a messy game from the Green Wave.
Although Tulane moves to 5-1 on the season and 2-0 in the American Conference, head coach Jon Sumrall — a popular name with regard to Power Four coaching vacancies — was more than a little displeased with the Green Wave’s showing in his postgame interview.
After the game, Sumrall didn’t make Tulane run wind sprints a la Fran Brown. But he hoarsely expressed his discontent with the down-to-the-wire finish.
‘We’re a really sloppy football team that finds ways to win games,’ Sumrall told ESPN on the field after the game. ‘And I’m gonna lose my mind because we’re so immature. We’ve gotta grow up fast. I’m glad we won. I’m not happy with how we played.’
Indeed, Tulane made its life difficult at every turn. Despite Jake Retzlaff’s arguable best game of the season, Tulane saw East Carolina go 10-of-19 on third down, and the Green Wave got penalized 11 times for 96 yards. A fourth-quarter fumble also nearly did Tulane in after going down 16-12 in the second half.
Even on the final series, Tulane put East Carolina in Hail Mary territory with two pass interference calls.
Sumrall himself isn’t without culpability. With Tulane on the East Carolina 4-yard line with 35 seconds left, the Green Wave scored (with the Pirates’ blessing), giving East Carolina the ball one last time instead of setting up kicker Patrick Durkin, who has not missed this season, for a potential walk-off field goal.
As Tulane continues to play with playoff aspirations that were reinforced with the win, it will need to tighten up. Memphis, South Florida, and North Texas are all legitimate contenders in the American Conference (Tulane only plays Memphis this year out of that group), while James Madison and Old Dominion loom in the Sun Belt and Boise State looks on from the Mountain West.
For the time being, however, Tulane lives to fight another day.