The Tulane Green Wave find themselves in a fairly clear position: Win and you’re in the American Conference’s title game.
The Green Wave, who remained at No. 24 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night, will host the Charlotte 49ers Saturday night in New Orleans in a matchup that could be the first of two giant steps in their season.
First off, Tulane (9-2, 6-1 American) must take care of the hapless 49ers (1-10, 0-7) before getting ahead of itself and worrying about the conference championship game, which will be a home game for the higher seeded of the two opponents.
Because the Green Wave are in the CFP Top 25, unranked North Texas and Navy, both with one conference defeat and not part of a three-way tiebreaker with Tulane, would cede the home game to the Green Wave and travel next Friday in an attempt to spoil the party in New Orleans.
In his past four seasons — two at Troy, two at Tulane — coach Jon Sumrall has posted a 41-11 record and become a hot commodity as vacancies have popped up at Power 4 schools, particularly in the SEC.
He has also been named one of the 24 semifinalists for the George Munger College Coach of the Year Award.
Rumored as being courted by a number of SEC schools, Sumrall is trying this week to keep his squad focused on Charlotte.
“As soon as you think we’ve got nine wins, that means we’re going to get 10, that’s when you’re going to get beat,” said Sumrall on Monday. “You have to earn it, and the only way you earn it is by preparing the right way and giving great effort. I’m probably going to coach these guys harder this week than I have all year.”
BYU transfer Jake Retzlaff has thrown for 2,426 yards with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has also rushed for a team-high 565 yards, while Shazz Preston has 33 catches for 539 yards and four scores.
Charlotte enters the meeting having dropped eight straight decisions after beating Monmouth 42-35 on Sept. 13 in Week 3.
“They do a lot of different things,” Charlotte coach Tim Albin said of Sumrall’s team on Monday. “There’s a lot of different personnel groupings on offense. You name it, they have it. They want to run the ball and have great play-action stuff. Defensively, the front seven is really solid.
“It’ll be a huge challenge for us, but we’re going to try and play spoiler and get better.”
Grayson Loftis has 1,275 passing yards to go with eight TDs and seven interceptions. Javen Nicholas has grabbed 56 receptions for 700 yards and five scores.
The 49ers will be playing their second consecutive game against a potential CFP squad after losing 35-3 at No. 4 Georgia last week in front of over 93,000 fans — the largest crowd Charlotte has ever been a part of.
The North Carolina school also left with a $1.9 million paycheck for the nonconference affair — the largest it has ever received and the most handed out by the SEC powerhouse Bulldogs.
