Tulane — American Athletic
HC
Will Hall · Yulman Stadium · New Orleans, LA · 30,000 cap
PPA off / def
0.20 / 0.15
2025
Class rank
#64
class of 2026
Returning PPA
21%
returning production
2026 schedule
2025 results (11–3)
Statistical comps — 2025 Tulane's closest analogs
Nearest neighbors by z-scored success rate, explosiveness, run rate & havoc (offense + defense), 2015–25.
2025 leaders
Transfer portal — 2026 (20 in / 27 out)
Origins
The Sugar Bowl was built for Tulane's stadium and the team played in the first one. Left the SEC in 1966 to keep its academic standards, then went 12-0 in 1998 and 11-2 in 2022 just to prove it still could.
Founded 1834 · Founded as a medical college during New Orleans' yellow fever epidemics · first football 1893 · defined by Clark Shaughnessy
All-time record
All-time
560–660–35
1902–2025
Win %
46.0%
122 seasons played
Winning seasons
50
41% of seasons
| Best seasons | W | L | Conference |
|---|
| 1998 | 12 | 0 | Conference USA |
| 2022 | 12 | 2 | American Athletic |
| 1931 | 11 | 1 | Southern |
| 2025 | 11 | 3 | American Athletic |
| 2023 | 11 | 3 | American Athletic |
Season records from CollegeFootballData, which is why the span starts at 1902 — that is where its coverage of this program begins, not necessarily the first year it fielded a team.
Play-calling tendencies (2025 · garbage time excluded)
| Situation | Plays | Run % | Success % | Nat'l | Avg yds | Expl % |
|---|
| 1st down | 404 | 56% |
49% | 16 of 136 | 7.0 | 15% |
| 2nd down | 278 | 57% |
40% | 97 of 136 | 5.6 | 12% |
| 3rd & short (≤3) | 41 | 63% |
66% | — | 3.0 | 2% |
| 3rd & medium (4–7) | 70 | 30% |
50% | — | 6.5 | 19% |
| 3rd & long (8+) | 56 | 36% |
21% | — | 5.8 | 7% |
| 4th down | 20 | 65% |
60% | — | 4.9 | 10% |
165 drives · 38% ended in points · 7.1 plays and 42.8 yards per drive · 1.13 PPA per drive
Success: 50% of yardage needed on 1st, 70% on 2nd, 100% on 3rd/4th. Explosive: 12+ yd rush / 16+ yd pass. National rank is shown only for 1st and 2nd down, where every team has 100+ plays; the later buckets average 18-43 and a rank there would be noise.
League leaderboard →Most valuable plays (by PPA, 2025)
| Wk | Opp | Play | Yds | PPA |
|---|
| 13 | Temple |
(12:43) No Huddle-Shotgun #12 J.Retzlaff pass complete deep middle to #7 S.Preston caught … |
69 | 6.19 |
| 1 | Northwestern |
Jake Retzlaff run for 69 yds for a TD (Patrick Durkin KICK) |
69 | 5.61 |
| 11 | Memphis |
(12:42) No Huddle-Shotgun #12 J.Retzlaff pass complete deep middle to #7 S.Preston caught … |
65 | 5.24 |
| 7 | East Carolina |
Jake Retzlaff pass complete to Zycarl Lewis Jr. for 63 yds for a TD (Patrick Durkin KICK) |
63 | 5.05 |
| 12 | Florida Atlantic |
(14:59) No Huddle-Shotgun #12 J.Retzlaff pass complete deep right to #83 B.Bohanon caught … |
29 | 4.55 |
| 8 | Army |
Jake Retzlaff run for 37 yds for a TD (Patrick Durkin KICK) |
37 | 4.52 |
| 11 | Memphis |
(09:36) No Huddle-Shotgun #12 J.Retzlaff pass complete deep right to #5 A.Brown-Stephens c… |
54 | 4.18 |
| 3 | Duke |
Jake Retzlaff pass complete to Shazz Preston for 63 yds to the DUKE 2 for a 1ST down |
63 | 4.03 |