Editor’s note: Aidan McCahill entered retirement this season after three years playing for Tulane Football. 

Last week, New Orleans experienced record high heat, with temperatures reaching 102 degrees on Wednesday. While many college football teams across the country have indoor practice facilities, Tulane University does not enjoy that luxury. 

“It’s been a battle,” center and team captain Sincere Haynesworth said, yet he seemed to relish the adversity. “Honestly that’s how I would want these practices.”

Certainly not a typical response, but the Tulane Green Wave is not a typical football program. It is one that has faced unusual adversity for years. 

Haynesworth, who has been on the team since 2019, remembers when “Tulane” and “football school” were not synonymous. “I had a lot of people when I committed to Tulane ask me, ‘Why would you go there?’” he said. 

Tulane’s historic turnaround, going from 2-10 and Hurricane Ida to 12-2 and a Cotton Bowl Classic victory is now common knowledge among Tulane students, yet many do not know the program was almost canceled — once in the 1980s and again after Hurricane Katrina. 

Now it seems those days are behind the Green Wave. Following last year’s Cotton Bowl victory, the Tulane Athletics fund grew by 40% and expanded donor support, according to athletic director Troy Dannen. Some of that money has gone into a new sports medicine facility and locker room for the team, but Dannen said that money is being invested in all sports programs as well. 

What was the catalyst that sparked the 360 turnaround? Certainly not the talent — the only major loss was defensive lineman Jeffrey Johnson to the University of Oklahoma. Both quarterback Michael Pratt and Haynesworth agree the reason was changing the perception of what Tulane football could be, which ultimately started with players stepping up and leading. 

I spent three years on the team, and can attest to this. Even benchwarmers like myself took their role seriously. The energy from everyone in practice went from “How can I find a way to get through these 3 hours?” to “Our leadership is giving their all to be great, what can I do today to help fulfill that?”

One issue Tulane has faced is coaching turnover, with many coordinators seeing it as a launchpad to a bigger-name program. Pratt has now been coached by a different offensive coordinator in each of his four seasons at Tulane, while the defense has had three in that same time span. 

“You learn a lot of different perspectives … so your knowledge of football and your IQ goes up a lot,” Pratt said. “But it is very tough going season to season, not really being able to work on the little details and perfecting your game.”

Luckily for Pratt, he has had plenty of experience with this year’s offensive coordinator, Slade Nagle, who has been in the program since 2016. “That’s kind of the biggest thing going into this year is not having to learn all that new stuff for the most part, and really being able to dial in.” 

Head Coach Willie Fritz has been the one source of stability despite flirting with coaching at the Georgia Institute of Technology last year. When asked about what he looks for in hiring new coaches, the answer is simple: “I try to find good guys … guys that I think are going to be good role models and mentors to our student athletes.”

One of those guys, hired after Tulane’s 2-10 season from Louisiana Tech University, was strength and conditioning coach Kurt Hester. Arguably speaking, strength coaches reflect the heart and soul of the program, tasked with instilling work ethic in players early on and spending long hours in the summer and after practice with the players.

Hester remembers coming in trying to earn players respect rather than make changes right away. “Give me two weeks to earn your trust,” Hester said. After two weeks, players bought in. 

According to Pratt, Hester is best at treading the fine line between strictness and fun and cracking jokes while pushing players to their limit. He is also creative with workouts and tries to give players that edge on game day no other team will have. 

One of these workouts is “The Great Surge,” a three-hour team building exercise in the middle of the summer, where players draft their own teams and compete in grueling activities including sled-pushing and kettle bell drags. Hester maintains that competition is not the point — rather, the goal is to see how players react psychologically.  Another technique he has employed this summer is conditioning with weighted vests and beanies, in order to mimic full pads and the heat trapped in a helmet.

Looking ahead, the question is whether or not a culture of winning will continue. “It’s something that takes a lot of care,” Haynesworth tells the younger guys. Pratt agrees, “You got to do things the right way. And that doesn’t just count for football. You got to go to your classes, you got to handle your business as a man, but really just be intentional with everything that you’re doing.”

Tulane has potential. Despite losing key veterans such as Dorian Williams, Nick Anderson and Tyjae Spears, expectations are still high. This week the team plays the University of South Alabama before facing off against No. 22 ranked University of Mississippi. After practicing nearly all spring and summer, Defensive back Jarius Monroe could not have put it better, “I finally get to hit somebody else. Yeah, that’s exciting.”

The week two matchup may be more publicized, but Fritz does not like to look ahead much. “The last 10 workouts, we’ve just locked in on South Alabama,” he said. 

Walking through the upgraded locker room, players are constantly reminded of this with “1-0” posters on the walls, a mantra Fritz shouts throughout his day reminding players to focus on the nearest task at hand. Still, it is a nice change to see a growing breed of Tulane fans looking ahead, glimpsing at forecasts of cooler weather and conference supremacy.