The Green Wave wrapped up a largely successful 2025 campaign roughly one week ago. Here's a look at some of the team's best qualities, and where things can be improved heading into next year.
The 2025 season was a historic one for the Tulane Green Wave.
A victory in the American Conference Championship Game. An appearance in the College Football Playoff. Countless players honored throughout the season for their talents on the gridiron.
The Green Wave stood out in some major areas, while also struggling a bit at times. Here's a look at Tulane's strengths and weaknesses as the season has officially come to an end.
Strength: Tulane put together a well-balanced rushing attack.
It's always nice to have multiple strong running backs -- and a rush-savvy quarterback -- on your team.
The Green Wave saw significant contributions from freshmen running backs Jamauri McClure and Javin Gordon throughout the season, with the pair combining for 1,056 yards and seven touchdowns on the year. Meanwhile, quarterback Jake Retzlaff led the team with 129 carries, 634 yards and 16 touchdowns.
All three were difference-makers on the ground for their team, and if one had a tough outing, the others were there to pick up the slack. While Retzlaff is expected to move on, McClure has confirmed his return to Tulane next season, with Gordon likely following suit.
Strength: The Green Wave defense ranked in the top 10 nationally in forced turnovers.
The Green Wave did an outstanding job of turning defense to offense with its 25 total turnovers on the year -- putting them tied for sixth nationally.
The team snagged 15 interceptions on the year -- averaging just more than one per game -- and recovered 10 fumbles. Jaheim Johnson led the way with four interceptions, while Javion White had three of his own. In total, eight different defenders brought down at least one pick on the season. Meanwhile, 10 different defenders each grabbed one fumble recovery throughout the season.
That kind of production is hard to replicate, but Tulane seems to be pretty consistent. Next year could be interesting.
Weakness: Tulane was among the worst in the nation in total penalties.
Former head coach Jon Sumrall often harped on how undisciplined his team played, and the number of penalties the Green Wave had certainly backed that up.
Tulane ended the year tied for 123rd out of 134 FBS teams in total penalties, with 96 penalties through 14 games for an average of 6.9 per game. Additionally, only five teams had more penalty yards than the Green Wave's 895.
Considering the fact that this team won its conference title and reached the CFP for the first time in program history, these penalties weren't too hard to overcome. However, the lack of discipline could have led to some much bigger problems, and it's something that needs to be addressed in the offseason.
Weakness: The Green Wave struggled to stop drives at times.
It was a major issue in Tulane's CFP game against the Ole Miss Rebels: if there wasn't some sort of turnover, the team just couldn't stop downfield drives.
Throughout the year, the Green Wave struggled to stop third and fourth down conversion attempts. It allowed opponents to convert fourth downs roughly 57.6 percent of the time -- putting them tied for 85th nationally -- and came in 69th in FBS with a 39.6-percent third down conversion percentage.
While those numbers put somewhere in the middle of the pack in college football, there's plenty of room for improvement. The defense will need to tighten up heading into next season and find a way to be consistent.