The Tulane Green Wave are back to their regular schedule after a week of player-led meetings to prepare for the Ole Miss Rebels. Here's how that regimen could give them a psychological edge.
The Tulane Green Wave had a week of player-led practice, film meetings, and lifting sessions as the team finished final exams ahead of the College Football Playoff, where they’ll face off again against the Ole Miss Rebels in the first round on Dec. 20. The last game they played was on Dec. 5, and they finished their mini bye with sights set on an upset on Saturday. While practice is closed for interviews until Monday, head coach Jon Sumrall was back with boots on the ground after spending part of the week in Florida.
It wasn’t because he was paying attention to one job more than the other. So much of college football players lives is about routine. Think about the everyday person and how much some thrive on routine to get through about 50% of the mental and literal workload that student athletes do. It shows when they have night games on the road and struggle. Kickoff is probably around their normal bedtime. They have a regimented weekly schedule that the players have ingrained in them – which allowed them to lead the week of prep. It also shows how two weeks can throw that off, and why coach Sumrall was focused on not treating this game different than any other when it comes to their rhythm and routine.
The Green Wave can spend as much time working on schemes as they can. The secondary was out of sorts the first time they matched up against the Rebels. The wide receivers couldn’t get any separation, and their quarterback couldn’t find a single throwing window. They were out of rhythm with a lot of drops. They aren’t suddenly going to gain yards of free grass in front of them this time around. For the secondary, if anything, the receivers they’re defending might even be faster after weeks of SEC conference play and getting into game speed.
But Ole Miss isn’t infallible to falling asleep at the wheel against G5 teams. After their first bye of the year, they came out with rust, may have underestimated their opponent, and barely beat the Washington State Cougars 24-21. The Cougars led until there were 32 seconds left in the third quarter. At the college level, the ebbs and flows of the game just matter. There is undeniably an edge in the fact that Tulane played their last game in December, and the Rebels haven’t played at game speed since the Egg Bowl on Nov. 28.
So, things could be very different this time around. Will the Green Wave attack it the right way? What will be important to assess once Monday practice kicks off is the mental focus and preparation of the players, and how that mindset translates on the field. Did the week of player leadership allow for complacency, or did it allow for true growth and accountability? The coaches couldn’t get through to the players on the sideline the first time they headed to Oxford.
It became clear as the season transpired that the fire had to come from within the players. They learned that the hard way with stunned silence on the sideline in the loss to the UTSA Roadrunners. They have since found that voice and turned it into an American Conference Championship and a College Football Playoff berth.