What in the wide, wide world of sports happened on Thursday?
After twelve days of practice, rest and anticipation, Tulane University most likely squandered their hopes to reach the College Football Playoff after a 48-26 blowout loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio.
This was not one of those games where ticky-tack officiating and bad bounces helped to determine the outcome. UTSA demolished the Green Wave in all facets of the game.
There have been plenty of avoidable mistakes that have nearly cost multiple games this season. Turnovers, penalties, you name it; everything came to a head against a team that at the time of the game had a losing record.
There have been far too many excuses for quarterback Jake Retzlaff’s play. His early-season blunders were expected due to his late arrival in Uptown. This was week 10.
The cleanest game Tulane played all year was the opener versus Northwestern University, a team that has rallied and now sits at 5-3. Why is Tulane regressing?
Injuries have been a huge part of the struggle. Losing linebackers Dickson Agu and Sam Howard for an extended period of time is tough to recover from. That being said, the offense has not seen many important long-term setbacks.
Retzlaff missed easy throws, had bad feet in the pocket and was timing his throws poorly. For someone who led a Power 4 team to an 11-2 record and a bowl win just last year, he has drastically underperformed.
Head coach Jon Sumrall has been dealing with rumors about coaching vacancies for nearly the entire season, and they have only swirled more after a handful of departures from renowned football programs. He claimed earlier in the week that his focus was on UTSA; it didn’t show. He was outcoached.
Allowing opposing quarterback Owen McCown to end with a statline of 370 passing yards and four touchdowns with a 93.9 percent completion rate is inexcusable for a defensive-minded head coach. The team made no adjustments, and the Roadrunners took advantage of that for all 60 minutes of the game.
Tulane played distracted. Sumrall seemed distracted. The wake-up calls have come and gone.
And now they have to go on the road to face the No. 22-ranked University of Memphis next week. The Green Wave picked a bad time to flame out. At this point, I don’t believe there is any chance that they will win the American Conference, let alone earn a spot in the CFP. It’s now up to them to prove me wrong.
