If one just glanced at the final score of Tulane vs Ole Miss, it looked like just another ho-hum blowout in the first round of the playoffs. For Florida fans tuning in to catch a glimpse of Jon Sumrall, they were probably hoping for a little bit closer of a game to instill confidence that Sumrall is the man for the job now that he will set up shop in Gainesville full-time.
But in reality, this game was closer than the scoreboard indicated. That doesn’t mean all was perfect for Sumrall. With that in mind, these are the things Florida fans noticed about Sumrall during Saturday’s loss to Ole Miss.
Opened flat on defense
We had said prior to the game that if Tulane could just get a couple of stops early on defense, the mood in Oxford could start to get a bit tense, and the recipe for an upset would start to build.
Oops.
Ole Miss shredded Tulane on the first two drives and scored a touchdown in three plays, and followed it up with a touchdown in four plays.
For as fiery and intense as Sumrall himself is, it didn’t seem like Tulane was prepared to come flying downhill to make any tackles on those first two drives. The Green Wave eventually settled in to close out the first half before the onslaught restarted in the 2nd half.
Not afraid to go for it
There are two types of mentality one could have in a game like this:
- Do everything to just keep it close and respectable.
- Go all out for the win, even though it might open up the possibility of a blowout.
The final box score wasn’t as lopsided as the score itself, as Tulane did have 421 yards of offense. But unfortunately, the Green Wave were 0-4 on 4th down and had three turnovers, including a fumble off a school-yard trick play.
Two of the failed 4th downs came when Tulane could have kicked a field goal, and one came when they were already down 34-3 from inside their own 34-yard line.
End of half management
This one is 100% nitpicking, but it is a sequence we feel could have been cleaned up. With 2:52 left in the first half, Tulane ran the ball on 2nd and 10 from their own 33-yard line and got two yards. There were still 11 seconds left on the play clock when they snapped the ball.
There was then a three-second difference between the game clock and play clock for 3rd and 8, where Tulane did try to pass but got sacked. That triggered the two-minute timeout, and Tulane punted the ball.
The issue is that by snapping it so soon on 2nd down, Tulane had to snap the ball on the north side of the two-minute timeout rather than have the 3rd down play after the two-minute timeout had already occurred. This ultimately saved Ole Miss from having to use a timeout of its own.
It’s a little detail that didn’t even wind up mattering because Ole Miss wound up fumbling on its next possession, but fair is fair given how much we hammered Billy Napier for his clock management going into halftime.