Soul Searching: A Scandurro Story

BY TIM SCANDURRO

Football teams, like businesses and families, work best when they have an identity.  The good ones have consistency and dependability, a personal or team brand that can be trusted and leaned on in good times and in bad times.  Especially when things are chaotic and threatening, you need qualities that you can lean on even when all else fails.

We have a lot of football season left to play, but it’s hard to put your finger on anything that Tulane is doing reliably well after four games, with the possible exception of explosive plays in the run game.  When you’re 109^th in total offense and 125^th in total defense, there’s nothing surprising about that observation.

Will Hall owned that in his press conference after we rallied to beat Southern Miss Saturday night.  He used the words ‘pitiful’ and ‘ridiculous,’ respectively, to refer to our offensive execution and the four penalties we had on punt returns.  But he also talked about the championship heart of his team, the culture and belief that has allowed us to pull out two nip and tuck games at Yulman Stadium in September.  That quality, he said, is the hardest thing to build and we are grateful to have it. 

We all wish it was something more tangible, like 500 yards of offense a game or holding the opponent under 250.  You can touch those numbers on a sheet of paper and you can see them play out in a game.  The intangible heart of a team is more elusive to identify.  It can only be measured when all the chips are down.

Fans usually don’t want to hear it.  “We can’t keep doing this.  If we were any good it wouldn’t have come down to that.”  But the numbers don’t lie.  Since 2023, we are 13-1 overall, and 8-0 in conference play, in one score games.  The fact is that we HAVE kept doing this with different coaches, different quarterbacks, different players.  Anyone who’s ever been in the big moments in sports or business or life knows that there’s a different quality that comes out in those who triumph in those moments.  They can slow down their heartbeat, focus on what they can control, attack the moment and shape the outcome by a combination of unshakeable faith and resolute will. 

So be mad at how we’ve played and focus on all the reasons why we aren’t a very good football team right now.  I won’t argue with you and the numbers bear that out.  But heart and resilience and toughness and belief when your back is against the wall are things you can’t learn in  film sessions.  You can try and picture those moments,  you can try and prepare for those moments and you can visualize being successful in them.  But everybody does that.  A team with a championship heart lives it in the fourth quarter of football games when many in the stands have stopped believing.  Thirteen out of the last fourteen times that we have been down to our last strike, we have found a way to survive.  Coach was right, it’s a very hard thing to build.  But once you’ve built it, it’s also a very hard thing to tear down.  There’s a reason why we are the only football  team in America, ever, to appear in four straight conference championship games.  We have so much to correct and so much to get better at, but the identity of this team and this program right now is not its offense or its defense.  The identity of this team is its heart and soul.  Until the rest gets here, I’ll take it.

By the way, the only blemish on that 13-1 record was against Kansas State and its imported Big 12 officiating crew.  Still not over it.

On to my game observations:

1.        I don’t know if Trace Johnson will get the nod or not at quarterback in West Point, but there he was on Mo Turner’s 74 yard game winning touchdown run, 50 yards downfield and managing to bother the pursuing defender who ended up trying  to punch the ball out of Turner’s hands as he crossed the goal line.  Did that hustle and the split second the defender had to break stride to avoid colliding with Johnson make the difference?  Maybe not.  But it didn’t hurt. 

2.        I love the motor that Warren Roberts plays with.  He’s too small, but he gives some of these lumbering tackles fits with his quickness off the edge and he does everything at 100 miles an hour.  On a team desperate to produce more turnovers, he’s got the only one we’ve forced, in the opener at Duke.  There will be more where that came from.

3.        The winning first down from Dagan Bruno was a thing of beauty at so many levels.  The creativity of the play call and the use of the player, the seal Reese Baker got on the edge, the lead block from Johnnie Daniels on the corner, and Bruno’s perfect read on a play which he probably ran thousands of times in his John Curtis days. I had visions of the old Vince Lombardi chalkboard clip when he talked about the Packers sweep.  “We’re trying to get a seal here, and a seal here, and we’re going to try and run this play in the alley.”  Beautiful.

4.        We have to communicate better in the secondary.  When USM started stacking and bunching receivers and using motion in the pass game, we seemed to have a lot of problems identifying assignments.  The secondary is supposed to be the strength of our defense and needs to play better as a unit.

5.        In game one we had some trouble getting 11 guys on the field a couple times. New guys, new staff, first game, not ideal but OK.  In game four, we shouldn’t be getting an illegal substitution penalty on a key defensive series, we shouldn’t have to call a timeout coming out of another timeout on defense, and we shouldn’t have two running backs running into each other trying to take the same handoff or a receiver running an in and the quarterback throwing an out on a key third down.  Clean it up.

6.        Ryan Mickow can struggle some in pass protection against quicker guys, but he’s an underrated mauler in the run game and he has a nasty streak.  I thought Shadre Hurst took that nastiness with him to Houston but we still have it.  Baker and Bock played well also.  Some of the run struggles, as Mo Turner admitted, were on the backs not hitting the proper gap.

7.        I texted some folks four possessions into the game that our defense looked like the ’85 Bears.  The wheels then proceeded to come off the wagon.  I knew better; that was a little bit on Tayler Polk but mostly on me. 

The bye week is always a time for self-scouting, personnel evaluation, and overall adjustment and recommitment.  It could not possibly have come at a better time for this football team as we head into a season-defining three game stretch. The intangibles we have are essential, but it wouldn’t hurt to start seeing some more tangibles either, starting in two weeks. 

I saw a nature documentary once about an old lion who led his pride.  Every year he had to fight off younger lions trying to take over his role.  Every single year, and usually more than one.   A proud old lion, I learned, can’t survive without a strong beating heart.  But to be King of the Jungle he also needs sharp teeth and claws, and the ability to use them. 

Such is also life for the defending conference champion.   On October 10 on the banks of the Hudson, the first challenger awaits his opportunity.  Win that one, and then we get talented Memphis on a short week.  Win THAT one, and then we get media favorite UTSA.

If we’re going to roar again come December, it’s go time.