Green Wave Football Looks For Win Number Two
Sep 13, 1999 | Football
Sept. 13, 1999
NEW ORLEANS - Tulane will be looking for its second consecutive win this season, while Army looks to rebound from last week?s season-opening loss, Saturday at the Louisiana Superdome. It is the Wave?s second conference game of the season and Army?s first.
Army
at Tulane
Sept. 18 ? New Orleans, LA
Louisiana Superdome
5:00 p.m. (CDT)
Last Week
Tulane posted a 53-19 win over SMU in its home opener, while the Cadets lost
34-15 to Wake Forest at West Point.
Coaches
Chris Scelfo (NLU, 1981) is 1-1 in his first full season at Tulane. He led the
Green Wave to a 41-27 Liberty Bowl win over BYU last year in his TU debut.
Army?s Bob Sutton (Eastern Michigan, ?74) is 41-48-1 in his eighth season as the
Cadets? head coach.
Series
Tulane leads the all-time series, 4-2-1, which began in 1953. The Green Wave
has won four of the last five meetings and is 2-0-1 against Army in New Orleans.
Tulane won last year, 49-35, in West Point, as Shaun King passed for 332 yards
and three TDs and rushed for 133 yards and three more scores.
TV
The game will not be televised.
Radio
The Tulane Radio Network provides radio coverage to 20-plus stations. Ken
Berthelot (play-by-play), Steve Barrios (color) provide gameday analysis.
Scelfo Successful in Home Debut
Last Saturday?s win made Tulane?s Chris Scelfo the fourth-straight Green Wave
coach to win his first game in the Superdome.
Greg Davis defeated Chattanooga (33-19) in his home debut in 1988. Buddy
Teevens won his dome opener against Nevada (34-17) in 1992. Tommy Bowden
defeated Cincinnati (31-17) in his first Tulane home game in 1997.
Going one step farther, only Davis was able to win his second game in the ?Dome,
a 20-16 win over Kansas State on Sept. 17, 1988.
Tulane is Hot at Home
With a convincing win over SMU in its home opener last week, the Green Wave
stretched its home winning streak to seven games.
Dating back to the 1997 campaign, Tulane is 11-2 (.846) in its last 13 games in
the Superdome.
Seeking Another Winning Season
After consecutive seasons of 7-4 and 12-0, Tulane enters 1999 seeking its
third-straight winning campaign.
The Wave hasn?t had three-straight winning seasons since 1979-81.
A Conference USA Connection
After each playing non-conference foes last week, Tulane and Army face off this
week in a key Conference USA match-up.
In three-plus seasons years as a league member, Tulane has a composite 12-6
(.667) record in Conference USA games, while Army has a 2-4 (.333) mark after one
year as a football-playing member.
Streaks Stay Alive
As mentioned earlier, Tulane has won seven-straight home games as it entertains
the Cadets.
Another longer, although more obscure, phenomenon is an 18-game winning streak
against non-Mississippi teams. The Green Wave is 18-3 in its last 21 games, with
those three losses coming against Southern Miss (twice) and Ole Miss. The last
non-Mississippi team to beat Tulane was Syracuse on the road in 1997. Tulane?s
last home loss to a non-Magnolia State team was against Rice in 1997, 10 home
wins ago.
Record-Setting Day
Sophomore QB Patrick Ramsey made quite an impression in his first career start
at home. The Ruston, La., native passed for a school-record 404 yards in the win
over SMU. Ramsey connected on 32-of-49 passes with three touchdowns and an
interception.
Ramsey is the first player in the 106-year history of Tulane football to pass for more than 400 yards in a single game. He broke the previous record of 388 set by Terrence Jones against TCU in 1986.
More Records
WR JaJuan Dawson set a school, Conference USA and Louisiana Superdome record
with his 16 receptions against SMU.
Dawson?s effort, which included a 60-yard reception broke the Tulane record of
15 set by Wil Urslin against East Carolina in 1991.
Dawson Surpasses 2,000 Mark
WR JaJuan Dawson, a member of the Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list, become
the fifth Tulane player in history to surpass 2,000 career receiving yards.
With 16 catches for 218 yards against SMU, Dawson is now ranked in the top five
on Tulane?s career lists for pass receptions (3rd, 163), receiving yardage (3rd,
2,286). He also stands second on the career touchdown receptions list (24), and
needs one more touchdown reception to tie Mark Zeno?s school record of 25.
Dawson needs 73 receptions and 1,440 yards to become Tulane?s career leader in those categories.
Ironically, despite catching a combined 120 passes the last two seasons, Dawson is the only member of Tulane?s all-time top 15 receivers to have never led the team in receptions.
Lighting Up the Scoreboard
Tulane?s 23 points in the first quarter against SMU were the most the team has
scored in any quarter since adding up 28 points against USL in the second quarter
on Oct. 31, 1998. That covers a span of 26 quarters. Incidentally, the Green
Wave has tallied 40 or more points in 11 of its last 15 games.
More Dawson
WR JaJuan Dawson reached a significant milestone with his 218-yard performance
last Saturday. He is just the third receiver in school history to register three
150-yard receiving games in his career. He joins P.J. Franklin and Marc Zeno as
the only players to accomplish the feat.
With his 13-yard TD catch against Southern Miss. Dawson has now scored a touchdown against every C-USA opponent, except for UAB, whom he faces for the first time in Tulane?s regular-season finale on Nov. 20.
Dawson Tough On Cadets
WR JaJuan Dawson has made a career out of playing Army. In three games against
the Cadets, Dawson has 13 receptions for 269 yards (20.7 ypc) and six
touchdowns. In 1997, Dawson caught four passes for 130 yards and three scores,
while last year he had eight receptions for 122 yards and two touchdowns.
Converse on the Charts
Junior RB Toney Converse scored three touchdowns against SMU to move into a tie
for 10th place on Tulane?s career rushing TD list with 12. It was his second
career game with three or more rushing touchdowns.
He also ranks eighth on Tulane?s career rushing list with 1,763 yards, fourth in
rushing yards per game with 70.5, and second in rushing yards per attempt with
5.562.
Converse needs 23 more attempts to join the Green Wave career top 10 in that category as well.
A Number of Firsts
Three players from the defensive unit chipped in with a trio of firsts in the
SMU game.
Sophomores Delando Davis and Meldon Barnes each recorded their first career
interception against the Mustangs, while freshman FS Quentin Brown made his first
career start.
Burnette Becomes Target
Junior WR Adrian Burnette has stepped up to become one of the Wave?s top
receivers. Burnette made nine catches for 136 yards and three TDs vs. SMU to
post his second straight 100-yard receiving game
Burnette caught eight passes for 107 yards against Southern Miss in the season
opener, marking his first career 100-yard receiving day.
Burnette's eight catches against the Golden Eagles matched his total from all of
1998, when he had eight receptions for 189 yards, including a 71-yard TD
catch-and-run at Rutgers.
That?s Rare
It?s not often that a blocked punt and a safety are recorded on back-to-back
plays, but that?s what happened in the win over SMU.
After DE Glenn Lemoine blocked a punt in the first quarter that was returned for
a score by Mitch Mouton, the Tulane special teams recorded a safety on the
ensuing kick-off when SMU?s Jeff Woods received the kick on the one-yard line
and stepped back in the end zone and downed the ball.
It was Tulane?s first blocked punt since Sept. 12, 1998, and it first safety
since Oct. 31, 1998.
Phillips Named to Butkus List
Junior LB Jerry Phillips, Tulane?s 1998 leading tackler, is on the Butkus Award
preseason watch list. He is one of 65 players named to the list, which is
presented by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando and goes annually to the
nation?s top linebacker.
Phillips, a New Orleans native, had six tackles against USM.
