Football Earns Dominant 52-6 Homecoming Victory

Saturday, November 9

NEW ORLEANS

3 p.m.

Tulane University

8-2 , 6-0

Temple

2-7 , 1-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Temple

Tulane

Football Earns Dominant 52-6 Homecoming Victory

Nov 9, 2024 | Football

Box Score

FINAL STATS
ESPN HIGHLIGHTS
POSTGAME SUMRALL PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTGAME MENSAH PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTGAME HUGHES PRESS CONFERENCE
POSTGAME AGU PRESS CONFERENCE
PHOTO GALLERY (BY PARKER WATERS)

NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane football team (8-2, 6-0 AAC), behind 153 yards on the ground from Makhi Hughes, ran the winning streak to seven in a dominant 52-6 victory over Temple (2-7, 1-4 AAC) on Saturday at Yulman Stadium.

Hughes ran for his 153 yards on 19 carries plus had two rushing touchdowns, all in barely more than one half of play. Ty Thompson ran for 75 yards on his six carries. Trey Cornist picked up 48 yards on his seven carries. Arnold Barnes III scored a pair of rushing touchdowns plus had 27 yards on the ground. Darian Mensah was efficient in going 14-for-21 for 262 yards and two passing touchdowns. Mario Williams led the squad in receiving yards with 94 on four catches. Dontae Fleming totaled 54 yards on a pair of catches. Alex Bauman had a receiving touchdown and two catches. Shazz Preston made his first collegiate catch count as he raced 53 yards for a touchdown.

The defense was well balanced with Jalen Geiger, Rayshawn Pleasant, Caleb Ransaw and Kevin Adams III all recording three tackles. The team also had a sack from Patrick Jenkins, Gerrod Henderson, Matthew Fobbs-White, Adin Huntington, Adonis Friloux and Javon Carter. Lu Tillery recorded a pair of pass breakups.

Tulane racked up 589 yards on offense with 327 on the ground and 262 through the air while limiting Temple to 158 total yards. The Green Wave also had 26 first downs to just five for the Owls. Tulane also limited Temple to 1-for-13 on third down. The Tulane offense, who came into the game ranking second in the nation in time of possession, controlled the ball for 39:03.

Tulane scored first as Hughes rushed it in from the four to put the Green Wave up 7-0 with 10:16 remaining in the first quarter.

The Green Wave extended the lead to 14-0 as Shazz Preston hauled in a 53-yard touchdown reception from Mensah to increase the lead with 11:03 remaining in the second quarter.

Tulane added another score as Arnold Barnes III scampered it in from the two to put the lead at 21-0 with 5:14 remaining in the opening half. The big play on the drive was a 46-yard reception by Mario Williams.

Hughes scored his second touchdown of the game as he rushed it in from the two to put the Green Wave up 28-0 with 1:45 remaining until the break.

Barnes III made it two touchdowns in the game as he rushed it in from the five on the team's first drive of the second half to put the Green Wave up 35-0 with 8:11 remaining in the third quarter.

Alex Bauman broke the end zone next for the Green Wave as he hauled in a six-yard pass and fought his way into the end zone to put Tulane up 42-0 with 5:23 left in the third quarter.

Patrick Durkin made the first field goal of his career next as he knocked in a 24-yard attempt to put the Green Wave up 45-0 with 14:15 remaining in the game.

Ty Thompson showed off the speed as he raced to the end zone on a 50-yard rush to put the Green Wave up 52-0 with 7:24 left in the fourth.

Temple added a late touchdown as Terrez Worthy went 75 yards to make the final score 52-6.

Next, the football team gets on the road to take on Navy (7-2, 5-1 AAC) on Saturday, November 16, at 11 a.m. in a game that will also be shown on ESPN2.

NOTES:

- Makhi Hughes' 153 yards rushing was his seventh game this season with 100+ on the ground. He has now run for 100 or more yards in 14 games in his Tulane career to rank fourth all-time on the school's list. He is one 100+ rushing game from reaching Tyjae Spears (2019-22) and Matt Forte (2004-07) for second.

- Hughes has now run for 1209 yards this season to move into fifth all-time in a single campaign. He topped Eddie Price's (1948) 1178, Mewelde Moore's (2002) 1138, Eddie Price's (1949) 1137, Darius Blackwell's (2018) 1134 and Dontrell Hillard's (2017) 1091 on the day. He is 169 yards from reaching himself in fourth place (1378 yards in 2023).

Tulane Single Season Rushing Leaders
1. Matt Forte – 2007 - 2127 yds
2. Tyjae Spears – 2022 – 1581 yds
3. Melwelde Moore – 2001 – 1421 yds
4. Makhi Hughes – 2023 – 1378 yds
5. Makhi Hughes – 2024 – 1209 yds

- Hughes' two rushing touchdowns gave him 13 on the season. The total places him tied for third at Tulane with Orleans Darkwa (2011). He is six rushing touchdowns from tying Tyjae Spears (2022) for second on the single season list. Hughes has now scored a touchdown in 10 straight games which is tied for the longest active streak in the FBS.

- Hughes' has now rushed for 2587 yards in his career which ranks him seventh at Tulane ahead of Bill Banker's 2516 (1927-29) and 323 from reaching No. 6 Tyjae Spears (2019-22) who had 2910 in his career.

Tulane Career Rushing Leaders
1. Mewelde Moore (2000-03) – 4364 yds.
2. Matt Forte (2004-07) – 4265 yds.
3. Eddie Price (1946-49) – 3095 yds.
4. Orleans Darkwa (2010-13) – 2953 yds.
5. Dontrell Hillard (2014-17) – 2948 yds.
6. Tyjae Spears (2019-22) – 2910 yds.
7. Makhi Hughes (2023-Present) – 2587 yds.

- Hughes has run for 100+ yards in 12 out of 14 career AAC games (Only two without against FAU – 11/18/23 and USF – 9/28/24). In his career he has run for 1786 yards on 317 carries with 16 rushing touchdowns and an average of 5.63 yards per carry against league opponents. He has averaged 127.57 yards per game when playing an AAC team.

- Darian Mensah's two touchdown passes was the fifth multiple passing touchdown game in his career. He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in nine of 10 career games.

- The 158 yards allowed to Temple was the lowest surrendered by a Tulane defense since giving up 175 to Wake Forest in 2016.

- The Green Wave is 6-0 in conference play for the second straight year and the fourth time overall (2024, 2023, 1998 and 1934).

- The victory was the eighth for Tulane in the team's first 10 games. It marks the first time since 2022 that Tulane has won exactly eight of the first 10 games, but the third time in as many seasons that Tulane is 8-2 or better. Overall, Tulane is 8-2 or better for the 11th time in school history.

- The win was the first time that Jon Sumrall has won his first six 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 9-0 all-time against current AAC teams.

- The victory made Tulane 7-0 this season when outrushing the opponent.

- The win was Tulane's 16th 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 one for the all-time record of 17 straight conference game victories. Tulane's 16 straight conference wins is the longest active streak in the country.

- The win improved Tulane to 3-4 all-time against Temple. This was the first time the schools have played against each other since 2020 when the Green Wave defeated the Owls 38-3, also in New Orleans.

- Coach Sumrall improved his all-time record to 31-6 (.837). He entered the week with the fourth-highest winning percentage among current FBS head coaches behind Ohio State's Ryan Day (.875 - 63-9), Oregon's Dan Lanning (.861 – 31-5) and Georgia's Kirby Smart (.856 – 101-17).

- Since the start of the 2022 season, Tulane is now 31-7, including a mark of 26-3 (.896) when scoring first.

- The victory was the first time that Tulane has won this season when losing the turnover battle.

- Tulane has now outrushed the opposition in 28 of the last 36 games (including 22 of the last 26). In such contests, Tulane holds a 26-2 record (losses in 2022 vs. Southern Miss and 2023 vs. Ole Miss).

- Since the beginning of the 2016 season, Tulane is 50-7 (.877) when leading at the half and 52-9 (.852) when leading or tied after three quarters.

- Coach Sumrall improved his own record to 24-0 in his coaching career when outrushing the opponent.

- Tulane has now won 21 AAC games over the last three seasons (7-1 in 2022, 8-0 in 2023 and 6-0 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).

- Prior to 2004, Tulane had only won a conference game by 46+ points a total of seven times. The most recent was a 48-point victory over Mississippi State in 1949 and Tulane had never won more than one of these games in any season. In 2024, Tulane has now won a total of two AAC games by 46 points (71-20 over UAB and 52-6 over Temple).

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