Football Earns 34-3 Road Victory over Charlotte

Thursday, October 31

Charlotte, NC

6:30 PM

Tulane University

7-2 , 5-0

Charlotte

3-6 , 2-3

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Tulane

Charlotte

Football Earns 34-3 Road Victory over Charlotte

Oct 31, 2024 | Football

Box Score

FINAL STATS
ESPN HIGHLIGHTS
POSTGAME SUMRALL PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTGAME HUGHES PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTGAME ROBINSON PRESS CONFERENCE
PHOTO GALLERY (BY JOE VOGAN)

CHARLOTTE, NC – The Tulane football team (7-2, 5-0 AAC) made it a Happy Halloween for all the Green Wave fans with a resounding 34-3 road victory over Charlotte (3-6, 2-3, AAC) on Thursday at Jerry Richardson Stadium.

Makhi Hughes led the offense with 117 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns on the ground. Darian Mensah was efficient is going 21-for-29 for 214 yards. Yulkeith Brown hauled in seven passes for 53 yards. Mario Williams totaled six catches for 96 yards. Dontae Fleming picked up 35 yards on his three catches.

Jacob Barnes led the special teams' as he hit two of three field goals.

Jack Tchienchou led the team with four tackles. Tyler Grubbs tied of the team lead with four tackles. He also had a tackle for loss and pass breakup. Micah Robinson totaled three tackles and interception return for a touchdown. Adin Huntington, Dickson Agu and Kameron Hamilton all had sacks for Tulane.

The Green Wave rolled to 431 yards in the game including 217 on the ground. The program also had 29 first downs compared to just 12 for Charlotte. The 49ers were held to a total of 189 yards in the game. The Green Wave dominated time of possession with 42:09 compared to 17:51 for the 49ers.

Tulane scored first as Barnes knocked in a 34-yard field goal to cap off a 20 play, 80-yard drive and give the Green Wave a 3-0 lead with 2:00 left in the first quarter.

The Green Wave went up two scores just before the half as Hughes rushed it in from the one to cap off a 14 play, 76-yard drive with 1:45 remaining in the first half.

The 49ers would draw to within one score as Stephen Rusnak hit a 29-yard field goal as time expired in the opening half to put the score at 10-3 at the break.

Tulane opened the second half with a 10 play, 59-yard drive that was finished on a 34-yard field goal from Barnes to again put the Wave up by two scores, 13-3, with 9:36 left in the third quarter.

The Tulane defense put some points up for the squad next as Robinson picked off an errant pass and returned it for a 21-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 20-3 with 8:27 left in the third quarter. The touchdown interception return was Tulane's sixth of the season.

Tulane started the fourth quarter with a Hughes one-yard rush for a touchdown. It was his second rushing touchdown of the game and put the Green Wave up 27-3 with 14:08 remaining.

The Green Wave added a late touchdown to the advantage as Shaadie Clayton-Johnson rushed it in from the five to finish off a seven play, 47-yard drive to make the final score 34-3.

Next, the football team returns home to host Temple on Saturday, Nov. 9, at Yulman Stadium at 3 p.m. on ESPNU.

NOTES:

- Makhi Hughes went over 1,000 yards rushing for the second time in as many seasons for Tulane. He is just the third running back in school history to accomplish the feat twice in a career following Mewelde Moore in 2001 (1421) and 2022 (1138) and Eddie Price in 1948 (1178) and 1949 (1137). In the game he ran for 117 yards and two touchdowns…He is the first Tulane player to accomplish the 100+ on the ground and at least one touchdown in four consecutive games since Tyjae Spears during the 2022 campaign from 11/17/23 – 1/2/24. It was his sixth 100+ game of the season. His 13 career 100+ plus rushing games ties him with Eddie Price (1946-49) for fourth all-time at the school.

- Hughes' two rushing touchdowns gave him 11 on the season. The total places him tied for eighth at Tulane in a single season along with Darius Bradwell (2018), Orleans Darkwa (2019 and Eddie Price (1949).

- Hughes has rushed for 2,434 yards in his career which ranks him eighth at Tulane, just ahead of Don Zimmerman (1930-32).

- Hughes' 1,056 yards rushing this season moves him to 10th at Tulane in a single season.

- Micah Robinson's 21-yard interception return touchdown was the team's fifth of the season. The team also has one fumble return for touchdown and two special teams touchdowns for eight non-offensive scores on the year.

- Charlotte finished with 44 offensive plays in the game, which is the second-fewest plays that a Tulane defense has surrendered since 2000.

- The Green Wave is 5-0 in conference play for the third straight year and the seventh time overall (2024, 2023, 2022, 1998, 1949, 1939, 1934). Tulane is the only FBS team in the country to start the last three seasons 5-0 in league play.

- The victory was the seventh for Tulane in the team's first nine games. It marks the first time since 1979 that Tulane has won exactly seven of the first nine games, but the third time in as many seasons that Tulane is 7-2 or better. Overall, Tulane is 7-2 or better for the 15th time in school history.

- The win was the first time that Jon Sumrall has won his first five conference games in three years as a head coach. It was his 12th straight regular season conference victory dating back to the Sun Belt Conference game he lost to James Madison while at Troy last season (9/16/23).

- The win improved Coach Sumrall to 8-0 all-time against current AAC teams.

- The victory made Tulane 6-0 this season when outrushing the opponent.

- The win was Tulane's 15th straight in AAC regular season play dating back to the 2022 season (11/17/22 vs. SMU - Present). The streak is now the third-longest in league history and only trails UCF (9/30/2017 – 9/28/19) and Cincinnati (10/2/20 – 10/29/22) by three for the all-time record of 17 straight conference game victories. Tulane's 14 straight conference wins is the longest active streak in the country.

- The game was the first time that Tulane and Charlotte have played against each other.

- All-time, when Tulane plays a school for the first time, the program is 68-50-7. Tulane is 8-4 in the last 10 years when playing an opponent for the first time and has won its last four first-time opponent games (Charlotte - 2024, Alcorn State – 2022, Morgan State – 2021 and Missouri State – 2019).

- Coach Sumrall improved his all-time record to 30-6 (.833). He entered the week with the fourth-highest winning percentage among current FBS head coaches behind Ohio State's Ryan Day (.873 - 62-9), Oregon's Dan Lanning (.857 – 30-5) and Georgia's Kirby Smart (.855 – 100-17).

- Since the start of the 2022 season, Tulane is now 30-7 including a mark of 25-3 (.884) when scoring first.

- With a turnover forced against Charlotte, Tulane has now won 26 of the last 30 games when forcing an opponent turnover.

- Tulane has now outrushed the opposition in 27 of the last 35 games (including 21 of the last 25). In such contests, Tulane holds a 25-2 record (losses in 2022 vs. Southern Miss and 2023 vs. Ole Miss).

- Since the beginning of the 2016 season, Tulane is 49-7 (.872) when leading at the half and 51-9 (.847) when leading or tied after three quarters.

- Coach Sumrall improved his own record to 23-0 in his coaching career when outrushing the opponent.

- Tulane has now won 20 AAC games over the last three seasons (7-1 in 2022, 8-0 in 2023 and 5-0 in 2024). The program only won a total of 19 AAC games since joining the league in 2014 through the 2021 season (2 – 2014, 1 – 2015, 1 – 2016, 3 – 2017, 5 – 2018, 3 – 2019, 3 – 2020 and 1 – 2021).

- The win improved Tulane to 12-7-1 all-time on Halloween. This was the first game on Halloween for the program since 2020.

- Tulane will also play on Thanksgiving this season. The last teams to play on both Halloween and Thanksgiving Day were New Mexico and Utah State in 2020.

- Tulane entered the game as one of only 11 teams in the country averaging better than 200 yards rushing and passing.

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