2 weeks Ago
NEW ORLEANS, La. — The Tulane Green Wave football team had their penultimate practice session Thursday ahead of this weekend’s spring game. Despite the second transfer portal window for college football opening on Wednesday, Tulane football didn’t appear to lose any focus , with one of the better offensive performances of the spring.
It’s been a notably new group of faces; one even head coach Jon Sumrall admittedly struggled with in the winter workouts and had to print shirts with player names on them. Yet, there’s been a degree of consistency in each competitive session that feels like it comes from a culture of accountability that requires player leadership. Sumrall went through the list of top-end leaders on Thursday, highlighting receiver Bryce Bohanon, left guard Shadre Hurst, linebackers Sam Howard and Makai Williams, safety Bailey Despanie, running back Maurice Turner, and Shazz Preston.
He ultimately believes all players should view themselves as leaders on the team, highlighting a story of when former running back Matt Forte visited the team last year. “When Matt Forte talked to the team last fall, he asked the team who in here sees themselves as a leader, and about half of them raised their hand,” Sumrall said. “He asked, why didn't everybody raise their hand? Everybody has to lead themselves.
We talk all the time about leading yourself really well, and that's the first level of being a leader. Wake up, brush your teeth, and make your bed. It's a start.
We still have to cement the whole team. That will happen through the summer.” While the summer workouts aren’t structured like practices in spring and won’t be open to reporters, it’s a critical time for teams to gel and form chemistry.
It’s all but an essential offseason period when looking at the timeline of the portal windows and solidifying who will be taking the field together in the fall. “This is a weird time we're all in football where it's like, we have a portal right now open, and it feels like going back to December, and we had a portal open,” Sumrall said. “You're really starting to forge, who are your pillars right now of leadership, but you reinforce all that in the summer.
That's when you go to the games with that whole group, and some guys that started here in January have already decided to move on, and we'll have some guys show up here in a few weeks and have to get everybody to kind of jell." There may be new leaders that the team picks up in the transfer portal. However, it’s clear how much valuable time has already gone by with the current members throughout spring, and that will be an important trait to cultivate ahead of fall camp.
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