With Tulane facing a rare second road game in six days, coach Jon Sumrall is relying on one of the core values in his teachings to get past the brutal stretch of schedule — toughness.
It is what he is all about.
“He legitimately sets the tone for toughness in our program,” said linebackers coach Tayler Polk, who served as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss under Sumrall before rejoining him at Troy and Tulane the past three years. “Every single team that I’ve been a part of with him, they’re tough, and that’s an underrated quality of football. Tough teams win.”
Tulane (6-2, 4-0 American Athletic Conference) has won five in a row entering its Halloween night matchup with Charlotte (3-5, 2-2), which nearly upset Memphis at Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
The Wave had to be tough to beat better-than-expected UL in searing Lafayette heat after consecutive losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma in September. The Cajuns (7-1) have not lost any other game.
The Wave had to be tough to overcome a flat performance against Rice off an open date, flipping the switch with a 14-0 fourth quarter at Yulman Stadium earlier this month.
And the Wave will have to be tough to handle business in Charlotte as the only FBS team this season to play back-to-back games in opponents’ home stadiums on a Saturday and the following Thursday.
Sumrall expects nothing less.
“First off, I’d say toughness is a talent,” he said. “We talk about it all the time. I’m such a believer that toughness travels. Tough teams find a way to win. Tough teams don’t back down.
"I talk a lot about being smart tough, not dumb tough. I’m not interested in beating our chests. It’s just being mentally resilient, fighting through adversity and never backing down. Our guys have practiced that way. They’ve really embraced that core value.”
Sumrall quotes Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo — who once famously wore a helmet to a team practice and had his players work out in football pads — that “players play and tough players win.” As with Izzo, whose Spartans teams usually lead the Big Ten in rebounding, it is more than just talk for Sumrall.
Former Tulane coach Willie Fritz’s teams were tough, too, but the massive roster makeover in the transition to Sumrall could have softened the Wave after two successful years if players had not adapted to the culture.
Sumrall and new strength and conditioning coordinator Rusty Whitt, a Green Beret, began instilling their own brand of toughness before spring practice started with what they called the gauntlet. Players had to wake up before 5 a.m., head to Yulman Stadium and complete three rounds of a series of drills at stations within 50 minutes. If one player messed up any detail, the entire group had to do punishment up-downs. If the group failed to finish in time, everyone had to come back the next morning and start over.
“You basically had to do everything perfect,” tight end Alex Bauman said. “You had to work as a team to get every drill done. We had to come together as a team, and that speaks to the toughness. It’s not the most fun thing to do, but you are getting trained.”
Safety Jack Tchienchou, a Troy transfer, already had played for Sumrall and worked under Whitt at their previous gig.
“It’s real difficult waking up that early and getting yelled at and the whistle’s blowing in your face,” Tchienchou said. “But once you get through it, you kind of realize how good it really was for the team and the benefits it has.”
Sumrall admitted he was not sure how tough the group was at the end of spring drills. After bringing in 11 scholarship transfers in the summer — eight of whom have started at least one game — he had to re-emphasize the culture.
“You just embody it every day,” he said. “I’m a firm believer players are going to emulate the actions that coaches have. If you prepare, practice and train soft, you’ll play soft. If you prepare, practice and train hard, you can play tough. You don’t ever rise to the occasion; you follow the level of your training. We try to train tough, and our guys embrace that.”
Sumrall knows when to back off, too. It is detrimental to practice physically in a short week, so his emphasis before the Charlotte game has been on mental preparation.
“It’s about being ready to go the next day, being detailed at practice, having that energy and enthusiasm,” linebacker Tyler Grubbs said. “Our toughness shows in the details within the Monday and Tuesday practices, the walk-throughs, being so confident and detailed that when it comes game time, we all have that energy because we’ve prepared so well.”
Grubbs injured a knee in practice three days before Tulane’s AAC opener against South Florida, sat out the next two days, then led the team with six tackles and a forced fumble after deciding to play on game day.
Bauman was carted off the field with an ankle injury at UAB but missed only one game, returning to start and score a touchdown against North Texas last Saturday.
Sumrall pointed to Grubbs, Bauman, linebacker Sam Howard and running back Makhi Hughes as embodiments of the team’s toughness.
“When your best players and your leaders take on that trait, other guys follow it,” he said. “When your best players are also your toughest guys, it makes for a really good combination for your team.”