With 68 players returning from a championship roster, Tulane's preseason outlook doesn't match what the numbers say about this team.
Perception in college football matters more than just about any other sport, and the perception of the Tulane Green Wave has never really seemed to have any sticking power year to year despite their landmark success for four seasons running.
It’s not enough to just win football games. Frankly, it’s often not even enough to win a game 20-0 knowing a team completely dominated an opponent.
Flash makes the headlines and running up the scoreboard certainly matters as much as people wouldn’t like to believe it so.
That gets compounded when it comes to the perception of the team playing those games.
When a team is a consensus favorite, they’re not just expected to win. They’re expected to do so in a dominant fashion.
The Green Wave were a consensus favorite last season, a perception bolstered by the last-minute addition of a former Power Four starting quarterback in Jake Retzlaff.
With what was highly thought to be former coach Jon Sumrall’s final season – correctly so – it put a few more eyeballs on the Wave as fans and college football media started to follow a future SEC coach more closely as well as his team.
So, winning wasn’t just enough for Tulane last season. Without the flashy scores, a lot of their wins were seen more as flukes or luck that would eventually run out.
The consensus, now, seems to be that that luck has massively run out, despite a coach all but hand-picked by the players who make the team and who stuck around to fight for Will Hall.
While the American Conference did away with preseason polls a few years back, there’s enough rankings and preseason publications to go around to get a sense of how the conference is viewed heading into this season and who the favorites are.
It’s decidedly not the Green Wave for reasons unknown.
That’s despite a 43-13 record since 2022 that is tied for sixth in FBS football, nine-plus win seasons for four years running, a 29-3 record in conference play, four straight title appearances and two championships – most recently as last season – a victory in the Cotton Bowl and a berth to the College Football Playoff.
And importantly, while not a ton are starters, they return a core of 68 players.
A lot of teams in the conference, including their conference title opponents North Texas Mean Green, can’t say the same.
So, perception might favor them this season.
Perhaps just winning is enough, and it should be.
