Tulane’s Historic Season Topped Biggest FBS Turnarounds In 2022

Before Willie Fritz arrived in 2016, Tulane last had consecutive winning seasons in 1997 and 1998 with Shaun King at quarterback.

Only once had the Green Wave appeared in back-to-back bowl games, and that was 1979 and 1980 under Larry Smith and Vince Gibson, respectively. Tulane has played in four bowl games the past five seasons, including three in a row from 2018 to 2020. A loss to Nevada in the 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl prevented what would have been a third consecutive winning season as Fritz’s squad finished 6-7.

The Green Wave capped off a memorable 2022 season with a memorable comeback in defeating USC in the Cotton Bowl. The end result was a 12-2 mark that followed a 2-10 campaign. No team in the Football Bowl Subdivision had ever won 10 more games than the previous season. When figuring the numbers in the loss column, a difference of eight, the turnaround this season was nine games.

Led by the Green Wave, here are the biggest turnarounds of 2022.

Tulane 9-Game Turnaround (2021: 2-10/2022: 12-2)

The 2021 season got off to a difficult start with Tulane being uprooted and two home games being relocated due to Hurricane Ida. Things did not get any easier for a team that lost eight straight at one point, with five of the defeats by at least 18 points.

The Green Wave more than made up for a disappointing 2021. With many starters back, including quarterback Michael Pratt and running back Tyjae Spears, they got off to a 3-0 start that included a 17-10 win at Kansas State, the fewest points the Wildcats scored all season.

The Green Wave took a hit in the loss column when they fell to visiting Southern Miss before a 27-24 win in their American Athletic Conference opener at Houston. Tulane tied the score in the final minute of the fourth quarter and won it in overtime. Everything took off from there for a team that won eight of nine conference tilts, including a championship game win over UCF, which dealt the Green Wave their only conference defeat in the regular season.

As the highest-ranked (No. 16) Group of Five team in the final CFP rankings, Tulane advanced to a New Year’s Six bowl and proceeded to make history in Arlington. They finished No. 9 in the AP.

6.5 TCU (2021: 5-7/2022: 13-2)

Gary Patterson spent nearly two decades guiding the Horned Frogs to unprecedented heights before he was let go late last season, the program’s second 5-7 campaign in three years. Sonny Dykes moved 40 miles west across the Metroplex, leaving SMU to take over at TCU. Nobody could have expected what followed: a 13-win season and a national championship game appearance.

While Dykes received his share of coach of the year accolades, Max Duggan was the face of a team that ran the table in the regular season. What is intriguing about the year Duggan had, is that he was not TCU’s starting quarterback to open the season. The job belonged to Chandler Morris, who sustained a leg injury in the second half of the opener at Colorado. Duggan came on to lead a couple of scoring drives and proceeded to have a season in which he was second in Heisman voting.

An overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 championship did not prevent TCU from making its first CFP appearance. The Horned Frogs took advantage of miscues in outlasting Michigan in a semifinal before the disaster against Georgia in the national championship game, which was the first time the program played for it all since winning the national title in 1938 with Heisman winner Davey O’Brien at quarterback. The 2022 Davey O’Brien winner as the nation’s top quarterback? Max Duggan.

6.5 Washington (2021: 4-8/2022: 11-2)

Consecutive road losses in October to UCLA and Arizona State were the Huskies’ only setbacks in Kaleb DeBoer’s first season in Seattle. It was a season that was capped by defeating Texas in the Alamo Bowl.

The Huskies served notice in November when they defeated Oregon State and Oregon in consecutive weeks. Both those teams had 10-win seasons. A healthy Michael Penix, who transferred from Indiana, was the nation’s leader in total offense while placing second in passing yards.

Washington, which played only four games during virus-wrecked 2020, was coming off a messy 2021 that included the firing of coach Jimmy Lake.

6 Troy (2021: 5-7/2022: 12-2)

Jon Sumrall’s first season as a head coach seemingly could not have gone any better. An assistant under Neal Brown for three seasons (2015-17) at Troy, Sumrall returned to his native Alabama after serving as co-defensive coordinator at Kentucky. He recruited a few of the veteran Trojans, so he had some familiar faces to tap into with which to get his message across after the program was stuck at five wins each of the previous three seasons.

The Trojans were able to put a tough 1-2 start, that included a loss at Ole Miss and a loss at Appalachian State on a Hail Mary, behind them rather quickly. A win against visiting Marshall was the first of 11 straight victories. It was a stretch that included a Sun Belt championship win over Coastal Carolina and a Cure Bowl win over Conference USA champ UTSA.

The Trojans, who entered this season having been ranked only once, for all of one week in 2016, entered the bowl season ranked in both polls and the CFP. They checked in a No. 19 in the final AP poll.

6 USC (2021: 4-8/2022: 11-3)

The Trojans spiraled to 4-8 in 2021 with Clay Helton being let go after a Week 2 loss to Stanford. A couple of days following a season-ending setback at Cal, Lincoln Riley was welcomed to Southern California with open arms. A host of transfers came on board, including Heisman winner Caleb Williams and 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison.

Only a mid-season, last-minute loss at Utah spoiled a perfect regular season. The Utes got in the way again in the Pac-12 championship game, which knocked the Trojans out of the CFP. They still went to a New Year’s Six bowl, which they seemed to have locked up only to blow a late 16-point lead to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl.

In the larger picture, it was a big-time season for a program that won 11 games for the first time since going 12-1 in the Rose Bowl-winning season of 2008 under Pete Carroll.

6 Ohio (2021: 3-9/2022: 10-4)

Frank Solich’s contributions to the program cannot be overstated, and they continue to be felt. The MAC’s all-time winningest coach (115 victories) stepped down in the summer of 2021 with offensive coordinator Tim Albin taking over. Albin first worked under Solich at Nebraska 20 years ago before reuniting in Athens in 2005. After a rough 2021 that included three losses by three points or less, Albin guided the Bobcats to 10 wins to match the program record from 1968 and 2011.

Ohio had to make do in the MAC title game and the Arizona Bowl without quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who was sixth nationally in pass efficiency. After losing to Toledo in the conference championship, the Bobcats rebounded with an overtime bowl victory against Wyoming. It was a rather dramatic finish to a memorable season as Nathaniel Vakos drilled a 56-yard field with four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to force overtime.