Tulane opens season with 52-0 rout of Southeastern Louisiana | Game reactions, takeaways

[Music] what's up what's up it is Friday August 30th 2024 this is Louisiana Verso I'm Jared Roser and college football season has officially kicked off in Louisiana including a couple of programs already getting their first wins of the season on Thursday night I was at yulman Stadium on Thursday with two lane and a 52 to nothing opening of the John Summerall era against instate Southeastern Louisiana and I think you know a lot to to like about what you saw from the Green Wave I'm going to talk a little bit about that now you can also check out uh this kind of week one preview episode of podnas with Daniel Hawks that uh we're recording on Friday where we'll kind of look back at the uh the two-lane win the ULM win and look ahead to LSU in the cun and some other stuff to watch around the country this weekend but I mean starting Uptown again 52 to nothing against South Eastern Louisiana it was not only the opening of the John sura era as head coach of the Green Wave but also the opening of the darien menah era at the helm of that offense the red shirt freshman quarterback uh his first college game action and and that was the big storyline uh you saw all three of those two-lane quarterbacks that we talked about after the scrimmage with the little takeaways video but Mena took the first snaps and did really well I think you know further ran with his opportunity to be that first guy out there he completed 10 of 20 10 of 12 passes for 205 yards two touchdowns coach Sall talked about afterward really anticipated a lot of throws well was was making throws before the throws were open uh just kind of anticipating what his receivers and the defense were doing Daren talked a lot about his confidence level and I think that's been evident with him anytime you've seen him through I mean throughout the leadup to earn this opportunity as well as throughout the game last night I thought you saw a lot of confidence in him from the team too early on with some of his third down conversions his second or third third down conversion uh I mean they went EMP set on a third and three and and he hit Y Keith Brown and stride eight yards down field and just I mean made some nice plays both with his arm and legs and also again with his his mind and his handle on that game and that offense for a guy that was was in there for the first time and so really exciting for him also saw kind of a role developing for Tai Thompson the transfer from Oregon he only threw four passes completed two of them for 17 yards but his first couple of snaps they immediately give it to him to go run he ends up with four carries for 23 yards and two touchdowns and so it seems like when they get down there inside the Red Zone certainly inside the 10 you're going to see Ty Thompson and his big body and athleticism and some of the things he can do with his legs become a big piece of this Green Wave offense um I think one of the other really encouraging takeaways for tlane just kind of leaving the stadium Thursday night was a 52 nothing win a shut out the First Time The Greenway have had an you know a season opening shut out of an opponent in quite a while and all these positive takeaways but both sumall and the players on Thursday night were very emphatic of you know we played all right this was not up to our standard gonna take a win be happy with a win never not celebrate a victory because they're hard to come by in you know at this level of college football but at the same time they know Kansas State comes to town next week they know they're up to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks and they know they have big goals in terms of a conference Championship and then you know other things that could come into play from there and so they're not satisfied with what they saw particularly looking at a couple of penalties they had a penalty on sou Eastern's first third down uh to start the game that extended the Lions drive and and kind of put some pressure on the two-lane defense early uh a couple of other untimely penalties and and Mis cues and they got saved by another penalty at one point where Dante f let a punt return get away from him muffed muffed the ball but ended up being a a penalty against Southeastern and and kind of saved that two-lane Miss q and so a couple of different things I know you know Tyler grubs talked about he'd like to see that defense tack a little bit better coach somal talked about wanting to get a little bit more pressure on the quarterback and I'll talk more about Eli Sawyer and that Lions team here in a second as well but all in all for the the first game of a new era in terms of your new coach staff your new quarterback and a lot of new faces in General on both sides of the ball I thought an encouraging start and then that much better to hear that kind of objectivity coming out and realizing that there are bigger things in front of this team and that they're not satisfied and so I do look to them to to play a lot better next Saturday morning when the wild cats are in yulman stadium for what should be a really notable game on a national scale um but I I like a lot of the takeaways from from what you saw on on Thursday night as well um mean a lot of guys getting involved on both sides of the ball raan Pleasant the the young maybe not so young anymore cornerback from West Monroe blew the game open with an interception return for 100 yards right before halftime it was 14- nothing at that point the lions were trying to threaten and slice that lead in half and instead raan Pleasant blows the game open I thought Cameron Hamilton the uh defensive lineman from Zachary was big had a tackle for loss Force fumble the force fumble that kind of ended that first Southeastern drive and got that defense off the field and as much as they want to see that defense play better I think what we've seen leading up to the season you know talking to players seeing the way that the performance went in that scrimmage that I had a chance to take in live seeing this season opener that as much as the defense is still kind of coming into its own and and finding its um you know Finding its stride jelling together with a lot of new transfers there and and trying to get to what it hopes its ultimate identity will be the early identity is even when there is some Bend they find a way to buckle down and make timely plays and get off the field as you saw with the uh the force fumble by Cameron Hamilton recovered by Sam Howard and then the Ron Pleasant interception and really nice return where you saw his return skills that are going to make him a big piece of this uh this special teams unit as well for the Green Wave and so I thought positive again to to see that as the the open you score touchdowns on six of your first seven possessions and then add the Jacob Barnes field goal late and so score on seven of the eight possessions and the the two drives that South South Eastern was able to sustain a little bit you come up with big plays to get off the field um we'll see next Saturday morning against Kansas State obviously a much different opponent and that'll be a big uh a big test for for two lane as a whole as well as Darren Mena as as exciting as as of the things we've seen thus far have been you know looking at it specifically from the the Mena standpoint Thursday night and the leadup to the season all those things are really almost kind of like a a first progress report of first quarter where you're not even to the the first quarter grade yet or the you know the semester grade or or full season and so very early on I just kind of getting a feel for this team but I think that early feel in terms of what you saw on the field starting out on Thursday night as well as the way that they um kind of reflected on it in the immediate wake of that game was all really positive again for South Eastern um you know you you hope those guys another Louisiana program right there across the lake out in Hammond that they shake back strong um you know T Lane will be certainly one of the tougher opponents that they face a team that is a you know a realistic G5 playoff Contender type team and so um you get that early test against a high quality program there Eli Sawyer who had the chance to start this game and we saw you know two of the three quarterbacks for the Lions Eli Sawyer completed 14 of 19 passes for 99 yards and uh and had that interception right before half up until that interception I thought he played fairly well you saw some flashes there with uh with Martin the the running back gaining 68 yards on uh on 13 carries you you had some some nice plays Darius Lewis in the passing game they had the the tight end Kate klier I thought made a couple of nice catches big plays in the return game from uh from Brandon Hayes and Company and so um you saw moments for that Lions team as well to be encouraged Caleb Proctor I thought was big on the front line he ended up leading the team with six tackles had some some moments where he was able to create some nice disruptive push from the middle KK Reno had a couple of big tackles too the former Catholic New Iberia standout and that list kind of goes on in terms of what you saw from uh from the Lions but again we're judging two Louisiana teams against one another so every positive for one is a a negative for the other um as much as you want to see more pass rush and better tackling from tolane give some credit and some spots to to Southeastern for holding its own against that level of competition and uh you know the same time kind of when there were some some issues for tolane um and and they had to to kind of manage their way off the field and and get out of some things South Eastern was doing a good job in some spots applying some pressure we'll continue to watch these teams throughout the season certainly next weekend that aforementioned two-lane vers Kansas State game is one of the biggest games to watch not only on a Statewide level but on a national level and so make sure you keep up with Louisiana vers all y'all hoping to get down to yulman at some point during this week and do some more midweek interviews with the Green Wave and Coach sual and Company and planning to be in that number on Saturday morning against the Wildcats for which should be a real fun one scheduled to kick off at 11: as always I'm Jarrett Roser and I appreciate you all taking the time to tune in this is Louisiana verse all y'all and until next time youall have a great one [Music]