Rock Solid: A Scandurro Story

BY TIM SCANDURRO

A.T.D.L.

“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not.  For it was founded upon a rock.”  MT 7:25.

Halfway through the first quarter Saturday night, Tulane was in deep trouble.  Its vaunted defense, which held Northwestern to three points and turned them over five times last week, had just been gashed on two long touchdown drives.  On one of them South Alabama used its ground game to expose some assignment discipline problems and lackluster effort, and on the second they burned Joker Johnson, our best corner, for a long touchdown when he couldn’t locate the ball.  That happens; it was thrown outside and behind the receiver just as Joker who was in phase was turning his head to the inside to find the ball. But the apparent lack of urgency chasing the receiver after getting beat was uncharacteristic, and less forgivable.  Those two touchdowns were sandwiched around a careless fumble, our first turnover of the season.

Shell-shocked.  That described both the team and those of us who made the trip to Mobile, in that moment.  There was still plenty of time, but we looked listless and unprepared for what we had run into.  Adjustments were needed, absolutely.  But schematics were only one part of the problem, and not the biggest one.

We were on the verge of a collective identity crisis, on the sideline and in the stands. This was the one game in the first month of the season that most of us had already counted, trap game warnings be damned.  Doubt started to creep in.  Maybe we just aren’t that good.  Maybe we just played over our heads last week against a bad team.  Who are we, really?  

In that moment, Jon Sumrall’s first thought wasn’t to lay into his staff or his players, as much as that may have felt good to those of us watching.  Instead he went way deeper.  “I told all of our staff, go to your players and ask them, ‘What’s your foundation?  What are you built on?’” he said later.  “And I could hear my coaches through the headset saying that to their groups.”  The master motivator in that dangerous moment appealed to every player’s pride.  Pride in the work they had put in, pride in their relationships with each other, pride in the sacrifices they had all made.  Pride in their identity.  Because when you sand this football team down to raw wood, what you’ll find are the values drilled into them from the day they get here: Attitude,  Toughness, Discipline, and Love.  That’s the foundation.

The message got through.  Over the next two and a half quarters, Tulane outscored South Alabama 33-3.  “We knew we would have adversity this season, and it happened to be today,” Coach Sumrall said.  “We looked it in the eye and fought through it.”  Mama said there’d be days like this, the song says. It’s all in how you respond.  

They actually fought through it, of course, twice. The gate opened again for South Alabama after a missed extra point in the fourth quarter, and they almost stormed through it. Only a stop on a two point conversion and an onside kick recovery preserved a narrow 33-31 win.

Make no mistake about it:  as a Tulane fan this game was hard to watch. We made almost every mistake a football team can make.  If that effort is repeated this coming Saturday night, we’re going to get soundly beaten.  But let’s look back on three plays and three players at the end of that game in Mobile. Three players who shook off adversity, responded and made winning plays.  

Jack Tchienchou, who made what would have been the game winning interception only to see it Sun Belted away by the head referee, proceeded to drop an interception and then get beaten inside for a touchdown.  He shook that off and recovered the onside kick to effectively seal the win.

Joker Johnson, whose air of invincibility had vanished on that long first quarter touchdown, was also on that onside kick return team.  He came off his line and just obliterated the one Jaguar who might have had a chance at the ball.  It was the literal definition of ‘playing for the guy next to you.’ 

Javion White made the game saving interception on the last two point try.  Asked after the game about the slow start, he said “we say if something bad happens, good.”  Remember that motto?  We wrote about it last season in this column.  It is hard-wired into our boys.  At the very end, when we had to have it, they played to their standard.

We have a heck of a challenge next Saturday night, no question, and the team in blue will make some plays.  They are both talented and well compensated, and one of them is both of those things plus intimately familiar with our inner sanctum.   One Duke pundit said yesterday that “we take what we want from Tulane,” citing both Sion James and their current quarterback.

Fair enough, but I’m not sure you can just buy what we build here. It’s not for sale.   You’re going to have to come in here and take it.

See y’all Saturday night.