When their teams play Thursday or Friday games, football coaches tend to change the day of the week when they are talking, referring to Monday as Wednesday and so forth to keep everyone on track as if it were a Saturday game. This week I have had to work a day in advance for The Advocate because of weather concerns, and I fell victim to that thought process when I talked to Jon Sumrall on the phone after practice and asked him what time the team was flying to Oklahoma "tomorrow." My brain already thought it was Thursday. Oops. He explained they weren't leaving until Friday, and I had to explain to him why I had made the mistake.

But enough rambling minutia on my part. Tulane practiced early this morning at the Saints indoor facility because the Saints were practicing later this morning at the same site, so the length had to be reduced to about an hour. I did not see a single second of practice this week--Mondays never are open and the last two days were indoors because of approaching Francine--which is also true of the last time Tulane traveled to Oklahoma in 2021, when the team practiced in Birmingham the whole week. Something about Oklahoma being on the schedule produces the worst in Mother Nature.

Here is what Sumrall said when he called me:

"They (the Saints) moved their practice up, but in turn we moved ours up, too and sort of frontloaded our day. We met yesterday on what we were going to do in today's practice. Now we're at the hotel and the guys are doing some academic work for the next couple of hours, so we were able to get to the Saints and get not a full practice. We probably cut our practice down by about half, but we at least got something done."

On if he is comfortable with what happened with practice time the last two days:

"Yeah, ideally you'd like to get everything you'd normally get, but if you get told you have from 7:45 to 8:45 to practice in here, then you figure out instead of an hour and 20 or an hour and a half or whatever, we get 55 minutes and what's mandatory after warming up, which takes about 10 minutes, and then after that, we pared it down to what's most needed. Look, we got enough work in to be sharp and be prepared."

On potential for upper 90s temperature for Oklahoma game:

"From a mental standpoint our guys are a little bit used to that. There is a physical piece where we haven't got that heat this week. Usually we're the ones that are probably most used to that climate, where the last few days here we have not gotten that kind of conditioning. That is maybe a slight concern, but the biggest thing is making sure our guys are hydrated and ready to go. A week ago yesterday was the hottest practice we had all training camp, so it's not like we haven't had one in a while, so we've had some of that. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a factor."

On Dontae Fleming locking up Kansas State DB the entire time while Alex Bauman ran about 20 yards for a touchdown:

"Every Monday we do a not our standard tape and a setting the standard tape on the review of the game. and that Monday setting-the-standard reel had that play for a reason. We showed it to the whole team and said, hey, look, this is what team football looks like. If you don't have the ball in your hand, you go make a block and you go sustain a block. I'm very proud of Dontae. Obviously week 1 he didn't have the performance he wanted. I was very proud of his response week 2 and I have a lot of faith in him and trust in him because of how he's wired and cares. It's important to him, and to see him make that sort of a selfless contribution to the success of somebody else's effort and to the team effort, we highlighted that in front of our entire team on the set-the-standard tape and made sure the whole team recognized that it doesn't matter what position you play, you can do something maybe sometimes outside your normal job description that is extra effort to help the team have success."

On schedule for Thursday:

"I'm currently crossing Canal Street to the Sheraton figuring out where can we walk through tomorrow maybe. We'll probably stay on the hotel premises tomorrow depending on how this thing hits and how many of our guys have and don't have power, we may stay in the hotel through Friday, which we're kind of working through. We've got contingency planning of what if everything goes great and what if everything doesn't go great the next 12 hours. We were in the hotel last night. We'll be in the hotel tonight. Nobody will be in their rooms when the main part of the storm is hitting. We're going to have everybody downstairs. We're going to watch a movie as a team and kind of just hang out and relax."

Tulane practiced at the Saints indoor facility today when an on-campus bubble sure would have been nice. It turns out the Wave could have practiced at Yulman Stadium, but last night's forecast indicated lightning in the area during the morning instead of the light rain with no lightning that actually happened.

Jon Sumrall, former Oklahoma receiver Mario Williams (2021) and DE Adin Huntington, who chose Tulane in a two-way battle with Oklahoma when he transferred from Louisiana-Monroe this summer, talked when the team got back to campus. I am not sure if there will be a media availability tomorrow with Francine approaching, and if there is, it probably will be just Sumrall. I already am working on getting an Engaging the Enemy. My flight to Oklahoma City leaves early Friday afternoon, which is supposed to be a beautiful day in New Orleans. Fingers crossed that nothing severe happens Wednesday or Thursday.

SUMRALL

"Just got back from practice. Getting ready for a lot of things weather related. Obviously a big game, full speed ahead. Didn't get much sleep last night and probably won't get much the next couple of nights. Trying to do as much as we can to help keep things going for our guys while being safe and being where they need to be and that sort of thing."

On plans for Wednesday:

"We were able to practice at the Saints today. Very grateful to those guys. We got a normal Tuesday practice in for the most part. Had to cut a few things just for time with travel over and travel back. Tonight we'll stay together as a team. We'll go to our team hotel the like we would the night before our home game. We'll do that the next couple of nights it looks like. Our team hotel has generators and those sort of things to keep things online for our guys hopefully. I've told them pack like you're going on a couple-days road trip, bring all your school supplies. We'll have some academic time tomorrow at the hotel and tonight, do our normal football activities as much as we can. Tomorrow's practice is going to be very dependent upon the timeline with the weather getting here. Practice isn't the No. 1 focus. Health and safety is, but we'd like to get into as much of a normal practice routine as we can, so if we can we'll try to find a location. We're working through logistics of could that be the Superdome or could that be the Saints or could it be here. I don't mind practicing in the rain. I would have practiced here today if I'd have known it was just going to rain, but yesterday the forecast had lightning at this time, so it changes. We'll try to go about an hour tomorrow if we can, which is a touch shorter than normal, but we'll trying to get something. I'm untrained meteorologist at this point in life. I think it looks like mid-dayish (for the effects of Francine to be felt heavily), so we'll try to make sure we're all in place a couple hours ahead of time."

On dealing with this before:

The first game here (as as assistant coach under Curtis Johnson in 2012) was Ike, so were in Birmingham (I heard some horror stories about the disorganized nature of that evacuation under CJ). This one's a little more unique because it's in the middle of a game week. We knew that one a little bit earlier. We knew there was the potential, but it really heightened yesterday. Normal evacuation is Birmingham, which we did that year. With the charter flight for the game (at Oklahoma), there were three or four different options talked through with our administration. I told them first and foremost healthy and safety and then what makes the most sense for the well-being of our team. As we kind of evaluated things, we felt like this was probably the best decision."

On Brett Venables' defense at Oklahoma:

"They're well coached. Brent does a great job with defense. The defensive staff's really good. They've got really good players. Good scheme and good players usually make for good football, and they're really well coached with great players. They're multiple. They keep you really guessing, keep you off balance, do a lot of different things schematically. They present a lot of challenges with what they do, and the guys they're doing it with make it even tougher. We've got our work cut out for us. People have not put up points on them this season (Houston had 12 and Temple had 3 despite Oklahoma's struggling on offense in both games)."

On Oklahoma forcing nation's best eight turnovers:

"They attack the ball carrier. They swarm. They run with great energy to the ball, and they've got guys that can make plays. They put you in a bind with what they do schematically. They put you in some pressure situations and they've gotten people into obvious pass, but they're really an attacking group. The multiplicity they present also presents problems for your offense, and playing there--this is game 3 in a row for them at home and it's a hostile environment. It's loud. I've had texts with other coaches in the league and I've texted with Chris Klieman, who we played this past week, and Chris texted this morning it's one of the loudest places you'll ever go. I've played most places in the SEC as a coach or a player, but I haven't been to Oklahoma, but by all accounts it's loud."

On message to Mensah about taking care of the ball with pass rush:

"One of his strengths is his poise and calmness and confidence in the pocket. He's got to know when the journey's over. Sometimes the show's over, just go down or get it out, and we learned the hard way on a couple of those. We had the grounding. That's a new thing for him. Everything's new for him, and then understanding hey, a 6-yard sack, while maybe not desired, is better than getting careless for the football and turning it over and giving them a touchdown. He's learning. Today at practice he had one that we were all screaming at him to hey, put the ball away. He's gonna get it. He's going to learn it. It's like being a kid and you touch a hot stove and you learn it's hot, don't touch it anymore. Hopefully he learns, hey, if I'm in traffic, put the ball away. I think he will. He's smart, he's conscientious and he's thoughtful, but there's a lot of lessons to be learned. A lot of positives, but there's some things he' needs to get better at and grow from, and I'm confident he will. I've liked his approach. The best thing about it is he's been harder on himself than I could ever be on him. That usually bodes well for being a good player when you care that much. He's gotta bounce back. He's gotta do some things better. We all do. The coaches do, too."

On having guys who played for Power 4 programs and are used to hostile environments:

"Yeah, maybe individuals have had that exposure. It's our first time as a team to handle that atmosphere, and there are a lot of individuals that haven't, so it's a new experience for everybody involved. We're a team that's never gone and done it together, and it's a place that's traditionally loud and hostile and hard to play in. We've got to be really poised with how we handle it. I think you can get over-excited about it, like you almost have to just ignore it to some degree. and control what's right in front of you. We worked today with the crowd noise in practice. I don't know if the offense could really communicate very well verbally, so we're making them have to work through some of that right now. It's a challenge for sure. It will be new for some our guys, and I don't care how many times you've been in those environments, there's still a challenge. Even as a coach, I'm like, all right, it's nice to be able to communicate at home, and when you go on the road in that kind of environment, it gets loud."

On Mario Williams having back-to-back 100-plus-yard receiving games:

"He's been extremely impactful. What, 10 catches and 250 yards (252) roughly is a pretty good two-game start. I've said this. He's worked incredibly hard. Watching him in our offseason training, I've got no doubt he's going to have the kind of success he's having because he brings it every day. He works his tail off, he's extremely competitive. The biggest thing for him as we move into this game is don't worry about the him-going-back-to-Oklahoma piece. That doesn't have any impact on you playing well. What helps you play well is do your job at a high level, focus on the details of what your job is and go execute and be the best you can be individually and help support your teammates. I'm excited for him to have that opportunity to go back to the place he started his career, but what gets you the results he's gotten, you can't focus on the logo of who we're playing. You just have to do your job to the best of your ability."

As always, the Tulane game counts double, home teams are listed first and the point spreads come from VegasInsider.com. Weak slate of games this week nationally.

Oklahoma (-14) Tulane
Florida State (-6.5) Memphis
South Carolina (+7) LSU
Wisconsin (+15.5) Alabama
Florida (+4.5) Texas A&M
Missouri (-17) Boston College
Houston (-4) Rice
Washington (-4.5) Washington State

Tulane let one get away it easily could have won, getting no help from the officials on the final drive when they called offensive pass interference on Dontae Fleming. Fleming should have tried to disengage from the DB who grabbed him, but he did not, allowing the official to throw the flag and robbing Tulane of sending the game to overtime, assuming a made extra point. Tulane definitely was not going for 2 because the extra-point team started to run on the field.

The Wave, though, put itself in position to lose by getting beaten at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and making a few too many costly mistakes. Big plays in the passing game gave it a 10-point halftime lead--Darian Mensah's 342 passing yards was better than all but one of Michael Pratt's games--but Mensah's fumble that turned into a scoop and score proved to be the difference on the scoreboard.

Oklahoma is beatable next week, but Tulane will have to fix the sloppiness that has hurt it the past two weeks and manufacture a better pass rush to give itself the best chance to win.

Sumrall, Alex Bauman, Patrick Jenkins and Mensah talked after the game. '

SUMRALL

"Obviously a heartbreaking loss. I feel for our players because they've invested a lot into preparing to have an opportunity to win a game like this. It's also a bunch that's not going to hang their heads though. Losing a game stinks. Don't like it. It's not the standard and never will be. We're not OK with losing. But I also told them we are going to respond, I have no doubt. If you have a pulse, you have a chance, and we've got a pulse, so we've got a chance. We'll keep showing up. I promise you this team will not back down. Our kids fought hard. We didn't play some detail things a certain way we needed to at certain times. We've got to coach better. It starts with me. If you want to blame somebody for the loss, don't blame the guys. Blame me."

On what explanation of refs was on pass interference call:

"I didn't get very many good explanations in the second half from the officiating. It left a lot to be desired. That's probably about all I can say. Big 12 crew in case you were wondering."

On if they considered running the ball on first-and-goal from the 2 instead of passing:

"Yeah, there was. We had two timeouts in the pocket. We considered all things. You're in a fast situation making a quick call with little time left, but we felt like our best chance was trying to get it in the end zone. You never know how things are going to play out at the end. We probably could have run it. We thought about it, talked about it with the headsets, but just decided let's take our shots toward the end zone."

On Mensah's ability to bounce back from his errors:

"Yeah, you know, the fumble there he probably got a little careless with the ball. He's got really good poise in the pocket. That's part of what makes him special. He's just got to understand that you have to protect the ball. That was a critical play. The (interception) at the end I don't even really put a whole lot of stock into it. You're trying to win the game and make a throw and you can't take a sack probably. He could have taken one, but you move yourself back and we needed to try to stay in range of making a shot there. I'm proud of the kid. In that environment he played really admirably. Does he has to get some things better? Yeah, we all do."

On message to Mensah after his scoop and score fumble:

"We have a deal in our program, if good things happen, we say good, and if bad things happen, we say good. I just looked at him and said good, it's an opportunity to respond. He's got some grit. He's got some toughness. He was maybe a little fired up ready to go respond. He's a courageous young man, and he's got a bright future. His response was the right way and he's wired the right way."

On beating themselves rather than getting dominated by the opponent:

"It's frustrating to be honest because we talked the message all week just do your job, and the first half we did a pretty good job of that for the most part. There were a couple of things on defense I didn't think we did very well. We have to get a lot better on defense. That's on me and we'll get it fixed. Look, we're a good team. We're going to keep showing up. In this game you get every seven days to either get promoted or exposed. We had some things exposed today. We had an opportunity to get promoted. We put ourselves in some situations to have success, but against a team like that you can't give them anything. They are a really good team. They are a quality team and they took advantage of some things we didn't do well."

On what changed after halftime:

"There were some momentum things. They got the ball first. They punted. We went three-and-out. Early in the third quarter it felt like a stalemate a little bit and then they hit some plays. The one that really probably more to me than the fumble was the fourth down (45-yard touchdown pass). We had a decent call on. 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."

On not sacking Avery Johnson:

"He's a hard kid to get on the ground. He's very elusive. He's athletic. It's been documented he's the fastest guy on the team. He didn't kill us with like huge chunks that went for 40 or 50, but he found a way to keep the chains moving and keep the play alive. He's a hard guy to get down on the ground. That's one of his strengths is his mobility for sure. Good player. Hat's off to him. He made it hard on us today."

On Makhi Hughes:

"Better people make better football players. Makhi is a great person, very hard working, very tough, very dependable, very consistent. You don't have to worry about him bringing effort and being ready to go. We blocked some things up for him pretty good and he showed explosiveness. He caught the ball out of the backfield well today. That was probably the thing that stood out to me. He played like a big-time player because he is. It's amazing how guys that work really hard usually play really good, and I'm proud of him. He's hurting. He's the type of guy that always feels he could have done more, but I'm proud of his effort."

On what he learned about team:

"We've got fight. I told them there's going to be adversity. They are a good team we are playing and there's going to be some things that go sideways. In the third quarter things were kind of going sideways, and we had some guys step in front of the train and say the train isn't going to keep going down the track this way, we're going to try to slow that train down. The way they responded after the third quarter was encouraging. The way we started the game was encouraging to see. There were just a lot of little things that I'm probably stuck on right now that we have to do better, but I'm encouraged with our group. I've got a lot of hope in who we can be and who we can become, and like I said, I like our team. I like our locker room. I'm grateful to be a part of this team and I love these kids. I think they love each other. They'll keep showing up and they'll fight to a better end."

On high-fiving guys on their way into locker room:

"I love these guys whether we win or lose. Don't get it twisted. I want to win. I don't like losing, but these are all fantastic young men and they're hurting. Everybody's hurting and I wanted them to know like, hey, we've got your back, keep your head up, no pouting. Nobody's going to feel sorry for us. There's people in life that have real problems. We lost a game today. That sucks, but we'll move on, we'll get better from it and we'll bounce back. I'm not OK with losing, but we'll find out more about who we are by how we respond than losing a game today."