Tulane Green Wave putting Kansas State loss behind them to focus on Oklahoma

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -During the past weekend, Tulane Green Wave welcomed their highest-ranked opponent in the history of Yulman Stadium, Kansas State.

In the second week of the 2024 college football season, the Green Wave faced off against the No. 17 ranked Kansas State Wildcats from the Big 12 conference. Despite a hard-fought battle, they ended up on the wrong side of a 34-27 final score.

Although they suffered a defeat, there were some notable positives to be gleaned from the match. Quarterback Darian Mensah put on an impressive performance, throwing for 342 yards and two touchdowns.

Despite Tulane's quarterback Michael Pratt having thrown for more yards in a single game than ever before in his collegiate career, Mensah was not inclined to celebrate this accomplishment.

Expressing his feelings, Mensah told Guerry Smith of NOLA.com, "That’s pretty cool, but it just hurts. 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."

Next week, the Green Wave is set to face another significant challenge as they prepare to take on the Oklahoma Sooners, who are competing in their inaugural season as part of the SEC.

This upcoming game presents another chance for Jon Sumrall’s team to secure a victory against a ranked opponent.

Sumrall emphasized, "Everybody’s hurting, and I want them to know like, hey, we’ve got your back, keep your head up, no pouting. 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."

They are gearing up to face a highly motivated Sooners team, who narrowly escaped an upset in Week 2 against the Houston Cougars, prevailing with a 16-12 win despite being heavily favored by four touchdowns.

Former Tulane head coach Willie Fritz is now at the helm of the Houston program.

Looking ahead, tight end Alex Bauman, who delivered a two-touchdown performance against the Wildcats, acknowledged, "Now we have to take a step back and we’re playing Oklahoma and we have to handle adversity. 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."

During their previous visit to Norman, the Green Wave came close to causing a major upset. Despite being 32-point underdogs in a game relocated due to Hurricane Ida, they narrowly lost 40-35.

None of the starters from that game are still on the team, and only 17 players from the roster at that time are currently active. Nevertheless, this is a skilled team that demonstrated in their game against Kansas State that they can compete with teams from power conferences.