Billboard Slogan of the Week, Game Five: "Earn It"

BY TIM SCANDURRO

The latest AP poll came out this week.  Two American Conference teams are ranked in the Top 25.  Two others are receiving votes.

None of those four teams is Tulane.  The Wave did pick up some votes in the Coaches poll but are still behind the same four conference opponents.

Just a few short weeks ago, we were the trendiest pick outside the P-4 to be in the Playoff.  Now we are seen as the fifth best team in our own league.  Anyone notice that Duke has won three straight ACC games by double digits since we whipped them on September 13?  Apparently not.

Polls aren’t that significant at this time of year, and ultimately everything should be decided on the field.  Yet it still stings some, and it should.  We have lost one game to a top 5 team, badly.  South Florida has also lost one game to a top 5 team, badly.  They are ranked.  We are ‘also receiving votes,’ and in only one of the two polls, at that.

Blame the SEC.  The 2023 Willie Fritz team got a lot of respect from the pollsters even as it eked out nail-biting wins against double-digit underdogs.  The difference?  It got credibility for playing well in a losing effort against Ole Miss.  Just like USF is getting credit for beating a schizophrenic  Florida team.  Just like Memphis is getting credit for squeaking by an Arkansas program whose wheels have come off.  This 2025 Tulane team, in contrast, is getting punished for its performance against the fifth-ranked Rebels. 

So what else are the pollsters seeing, beyond the Ole Miss game?  They are seeing that we have flashed, at times.  That we have looked dominant, at times.  But an “at times” qualifier brings to mind the old adage that  there is no heavier burden than unfulfilled potential.  We haven’t played like a mature, consistent football team.  We haven’t locked in and stayed locked in.  We have yet to put it all together for 60 minutes. 

We know what it’s like to have the respect of the football world; we played in an NY6 bowl as a two-loss team.  We don’t have that respect right now.  Right now, the indictment of these outside observers is that our individual parts, alone, are better than the sum of our parts, together. That perception may be exaggerated some by our fourth quarter tendency to throttle down with a lead (or get throttled without one, as happened in Oxford).  But it’s also based on a fair chunk of painful reality.   We can complain about it, but that doesn’t do any good.  We all know there’s only one way to get that respect back.  You have to earn it. 

We are coming off a bye this week.  The conventional wisdom is that well-coached teams are expected to look improved coming off of byes.  Byes are supposed to be good for football teams, but it’s all about how they handle it.  Don’t get bye, get better, as the coaches say.  But last year’s post-bye efforts in our home stadium weren’t very good.  We managed to get by Rice, barely, and we lost to Memphis.  There was some edge missing in those two games, and we have to find it in this one.

So here we go, with another statement game on national television against a talented opponent.  We opened as a seven point favorite at home where we have been very good this season.  That tells you that the oddsmakers don’t see much of a talent gap between these two teams.   That makes this game an acid test of our development and growth as a team and a program, because ECU is coming in off a bye also.  Victory will have to be earned during the week, as well as on Thursday night.  A strong performance could catapult us into the back half of the season and return us to the national spotlight; a poor one could sink everything.  You have to love the stakes.

In the game of football, you usually get what you earn.  Which team made better use of the extra time?  Who is going to show that they are primed for the stretch run, and who is going to fall back? Who has done the work to earn the right to walk out of Yulman Stadium on Thursday night victorious?

 As we say down here, we’re fixin’ to find out.