Darian Mensah was in no mood to celebrate Saturday after backing up his sharp debut against Southeastern Louisiana by passing for 342 yards in Tulane’s 34-27 loss to 17th-ranked Kansas State.
The yardage total in his second career game was higher than what predecessor Michael Pratt produced in all but one of his 46 appearances as a four-year starter.
“That’s pretty cool, but it just hurts,” Mensah said after a would-be tying touchdown toss was wiped out by a disputed offensive pass interference penalty with 17 seconds left. “I’m just really focused on next week. I’m proud of the way we played, proud of the way we fought, but we have a big game next week that we’re focused on.”
Part two of Tulane’s back-to-back tour of Top 25 teams occurs Saturday at No. 15 Oklahoma (2-0), which squeezed past Willie Fritz and Houston 16-12 on Saturday night as a four-touchdown favorite. The Green Wave cannot afford to dwell on what went wrong in the second half against the Wildcats in a game it led 20-10 at the break.
“Everybody’s hurting, and I want them to know like, hey, we’ve got your back, keep your head up, no pouting,” new Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’ll find out more about who we are by how we respond than (by) losing a game today.”
Facing an opponent of the Sooners’ caliber should make it much easier for Tulane to recover emotionally.
“Now we have to take a step back and we’re playing Oklahoma and we have to handle adversity,” Tulane tight end Alex Bauman said after his two touchdown catches were not enough to beat Kansas State. “We obviously didn’t have the outcome we wanted today, but the good thing is in seven days we get to play another big opponent and we have to bring it then.”
Zero starters and only 17 players will suit up from the 2021 Tulane team that nearly beat the Sooners in 2021 as a 32-point underdog in a game moved to Norman, Oklahoma, from Yulman Stadium because of Hurricane Ida. This time, Tulane will head there after winning 23 games in the past two years, changing the trajectory of the program and outgaining Kansas State by nearly 100 yards in Saturday’s loss.
“We’ll just keep our head up next week,” defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins said. “We know we could have won this game, but we kind of beat ourselves, so we know we have to come next week even stronger.”
The what-ifs went past the controversial pass interference call Saturday. With two timeouts left and with the ball just outside the 1-yard line, Tulane could have handed it off to workhorse running back Makhi Hughes.
“We considered all things, but we felt like our best chance was trying to (throw) it into the end zone,” Sumrall said. “You never know how things are going to play out at the end. We probably could have run it. We thought about it, talked it out with the headsets, but just decided let’s take our shots toward the end zone.”
What if the defense had not blown an assignment when quarterback Avery Johnson scrambled away from pressure on fourth and 1 and hit running back DJ Giddens for an improvised 45-yard game-tying touchdown late in the third quarter?
“We had a decent call on,” Sumrall said. “We just kind of busted something. It’s not on the kids. We’ve got to coach them better. We probably should have had a stop there. If we get a stop there, the game feels a lot different because we’re still up.”
There are no ifs, ands or buts about the starting quarterback, though. Although Mensah was not perfect with the fourth-quarter fumble that turned into a scoop and score, a misfire to an open Mario Williams on the next drive and an interception in the final seconds, he was plenty good enough for Tulane to win going forward.
“It means a lot when your head coach believes in you and everybody believes in you,” Mensah said. “I feel like I belong here.”