The Tulane football team (1-0) started the season and the Jon Sumrall era with a resounding 52-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana (0-1) on Thursday night at Yulman Stadium.

Darian Mensah, in his collegiate debut, started at quarterback for the Green Wave and went 10-for-12 for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Fellow signal-caller Ty Thompson ran for a pair of touchdowns and 23 yards on four carries. He also threw for 17 yards. Wide receiver Mario Williams led the team with his four catches for 124 yards with a long of 68. He also had a 13-yard rush. Tight end Alex Bauman totaled two catches for 26 yards and a touchdown. Wide receiver Yulkeith Brown tallied two catches for 23 yards and a touchdown. Running back Makhi Hughes led a balanced rushing quartet with 59 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. Shaadie Clayton-Johnson ran for 48 yards on four attempts. Trey Cornist ran for 33 yards on three carries. Jamauri McClure ran five times for 28 yards. Arnold Barnes III ran for 23 yards and a touchdown on six carries.

Safety Bailey Despanie led the defense with a game-high eight tackles. He also had a stop for loss. Defensive lineman Kameron Hamilton totaled four tackles, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble. Safety Joshua Moore had four tackles. Linebacker Sam Howard picked up four tackles, a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery. Defensive back Rayshawn Pleasant had a pair of tackles and a 100-yard interception touchdown return. Safety Chase Green totaled two tackles including a stop for loss. Defensive lineman Parker Petersen registered his first career sack. Defensive lineman Elijah Champaigne, Chris Rodgers and Geordan Guidry also each had a tackle for loss.

Placekicker Jacob Barnes put up 10 points on the day with seven made extra points and a 38-yard field goal.

Tulane racked up 472 yards of offense in the game. The team had 241 yards rushing and 231 yards passing. The program went 6-for-8 on third downs and were 7-for-7 in the red zone.

The Green Wave defense limited Southeastern Louisiana to 201 yards of offense in the game (102 rush and 99 passing). The Tulane defense were able to turn away a pair of red zone chances from the Lions. The defense had a pair of sacks, eight tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and a 100-yard interception return touchdown in the contest.

After a forced fumble from Hamilton and a recovery from Howard to turn a potential scoring drive from Southeastern, Tulane scored first as the team marched down the field on a 76-yard drive that was completed on an 11-yard pitch-and-catch from Mensah to Yulkeith Brown with 3:30 left in the opening stanza.

The Tulane offense doubled the advantage the ensuing drive as Hughes rushed it in from two-yard out to finish off a 10 play, 72-yard drive and give the Green Wave a 14-0 lead with 9:45 remaining in the second quarter.

The Tulane defense got on the board in a big way as Pleasant returned his interception in the end zone 100-yards to put Tulane up 21-0 with 42 seconds remaining in the opening half. The 100-yard interception return was only the second of that length in the history of the American Athletic Conference behind Josh Hawkins of ECU against Tulsa on October 17, 2015. The 100-yard interception return also tied David Hebert's school record set in 1971 against Rice.

The halftime break did little to slow down the Tulane offense as Thompson scampered in from eight yards out at the 11:20 mark of the third quarter to finish off a seven play, 75-yard drive and put the Green Wave up by four touchdowns, 28-0, early in the second half.

Barnes III got into the act next for Tulane as he rushed it in from a yard out to cap off a six play, 57-yard drive and extend the Green Wave lead to 35-0 with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter.

The Tulane offense kept rolling as Mensah connected with Bauman to finish off a three play, 85-yard drive to put the lead at 42-0 with 14:59 remaining in the game.

Thompson ran in his second touchdown of the game, this one from four yards out, to finish up a six play, 47-yard drive and increase the advantage to 49-0 with 10:02 left.

Jacob Barnes completed the Tulane scoring with a 38-yard field goal, the first of his Tulane career, to put the Green Wave up 52-0 with 2:06 remaining. The drive covered 11 plays, 67-yard drive and 5:37 of clock time.

Next the football team welcomes in No.18 (AP)/No. 17 (Coaches) Kansas State for an 11 a.m. game on Sept. 7 at Yulman Stadium