Green Wave Host East Carolina Saturday
Sep 3, 2001 | Football
Sept. 3, 2001
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EAST CAROLINA AT TULANE
September 8, 2001
2:30 p.m. CDT
New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana Superdome
FACTS ON THE WAVE
2001 Record: 0-2
2001 C-USA Record: 0-0
Head Coach: Chris Scelfo
Alma Mater/Year: NE Louisiana '85
Record at Tulane/: 10-15/3rd
Overall Record/Years: Same
Football SID: Donna Turner
SID Phone: 504-865-5506
SID Fax: 504-865-5512
SID e-mail: dturner1@tulane.edu
Website: www.TulaneGreenWave.com
FACTS ON THE PIRATES
2001 Record: 0-1
2001 C-USA Record: 0-0
Head Coach: Steve Logan
Alma Mater/Year: Tulsa '75
Record at ECU/Years: 59-45/10th
Overall Record/Years: Same
Football SID: Craig Wells
SID Phone: 252-328-4522
SID Fax: 252-328-4528
SID e-mail: wellscr@mail.ecu.edu
Website: www.ecupirates.com
THE SERIES
Overall: East Carolina leads 3-1
In New Orleans: Tulane leads 1-0
Last Meeting: ECU 37, Tulane 17, Sept. 16, 2000 in Greenville
First Meeting: ECU 38, Tulane 28, Nov. 2, 1991 in Greenville
Of Note: The home team has won every game played in this series with the lone previous New Orleans meeting a 33-16 Tulane win in 1997. The teams have played three times as conference foes, the last two years in Greenville. ECU leads in C-USA games, 2-1. The home team has outscored the road team 160-68, in the four game series.
TULANE HEAD COACH CHRIS SCELFO
In his third season as the Tulane head coach, Chris Scelfo, one of the youngest head coaches in NCAA Division I-A, has a career record of 10-15. A 1985 graduate of Northeast Louisiana University (now Louisiana-Monroe), Scelfo began his coaching career at his alma mater and made coaching stops at Oklahoma (1986-87), Marshall (1990-95) and Georgia (1996-98) before becoming Tulane's head coach. A native of New Iberia, La., Scelfo has already surpassed the two-year victory total of every Tulane coach since 1966 except two and he is one of just three TU coaches to see an increase of three or more wins between their first and second seasons.
TULANE-ECU GAME NOTES
"The Most Important Game"
As Chris Scelfo says (weekly), "the Most Important Game on the schedule is the next one," and for Tulane (0-2), that is this week's conference opener with East Carolina in the Superdome. The Green Wave has not played host to ECU since the 1997 season but will start conference play with the Pirates for the second straight season.
Welcome 'Dome
Tulane's home opener is also the first of three straight September home games. All-time, the Green Wave is 68-82 (.453 winning percentage) in games played in the Superdome, which dates back to the 1975 season. Tulane is in its 27th season playing in the Superdome. A year ago, the Green Wave went 4-1 at home, falling only to Southern Miss at home while defeating C-USA foes Houston, Cincinnati and Memphis, and Navy. Since the beginning of the 1997 season, Tulane is 17-5 (.773) in games played in the Superdome.
League Openers
In its five seasons in Conference USA, Tulane is 3-2 in conference openers. The Green Wave opened C-USA play, and its season, with Cincinnati in 1996, '97 and '98, claiming victory each year. Last year, Tulane opened conference play in Greenville in the second game of the year and fell by a 37-17 score. In 1999, Tulane met eventual league champ Southern Miss in Hattiesburg in the C-USA and season opener and fell by a 48-14 score. All-time, Tulane is 12-22-4 in conference openers as they were 9-20-4 in SEC openers from 1933-65.
Home Openers
In 107 years of football, Tulane is 63-40-4 all-time in home openers, including a current streak of four straight wins in its first home game of the year. The Green Wave has defeated Cincinnati (24-19) in 2000 and in 1997 (31-17), SMU (53-19) in 1999 and Navy (42-24) in 1998 in its last four home openers. The Wave's last loss in its first home game of the year came in the 1996 season when Tulane fell to Rice 21-14.
Conference Calling
In four seasons, the Green Wave is 16-14 all-time in Conference USA play, including a 6-0 record and league championship in 1998. After adding a seventh conference game a year ago, the league will have an eight-game schedule next season. In 1996, teams played five league games and the number stood at six from 1997-99 until moving to seven last year. The league has expanded to 10 teams with the addition of TCU this season. South Florida, a I-A independent this year, will become C-USA's 11th football member beginning in 2003.
C-USA Slate
With the addition of TCU to the C-USA fold, Tulane is 40-52-2 versus teams that currently comprise Conference USA.
Schedule Turnaround
In contrast to 2000, when Tulane played its last three games of the year at home (and won them all to finish 6-5), this year's schedule is front-loaded, with three home games in September in addition to the two early road contests. Beginning October 6, the Wave will play just two home games and five away contests, including four of the last five games of the year on the road.
Slate of Winners
Tulane plays by far its toughest schedule of the Chris Scelfo Era in 2001 as the Wave will take on nine teams that posted winning records in 2000, including six bowl teams. Only two teams on this year's schedule posted losing records a year ago. In all, the 2001 opponents went 78-61 last season.
16 and Counting...
That's the number of freshmen -- 11 first-year players and five redshirts -- who have seen action for Tulane in the first two games of the season. Entering this week, freshmen Brandon Spincer (LB) and Brandon Rottmayer (DE) have already started a collegiate game while Tra Boger (SS) and Bobby Hoover (TE), are listed as the starter or co-starters at their respective positions. Last week, seven true freshmen saw action on defense for Tulane, including Spincer, Rottmayer, Boger, Jay Ashton, Darren Sapp and DL Wallace "Bam" Mateen and LB Chris Williams, who made their collegiate debuts versus LSU. Another three true freshmen -- Hoover, Laine Sambrooks (TE) and Carl Davis (WR) played on offense for the Wave.
On The Watch
Four Tulane players have been named as candidates for five national awards this preseason. Last week, senior quarterback Patrick Ramsey was named one of just 20 candidates for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award given to the nation's top senior quarterback. Ramsey previously was named to the Watch List for the Davey O'Brien Quarterback Award. Junior kicker Seth Marler -- a semifinalist last year -- is on the list for the Lou Groza Award, given to the nation's top kicker. Running back Mewelde Moore, the Conference USA Freshman of the Year last season, is one of just three sophomores on the Watch List for the Doak Walker Award while senior punter Casey Roussel, who finished last year with the sixth-best punting average in the nation, is on the Watch List for the Ray Guy Award given to the nation's top punter.
Fit As Four Fiddles
Despite playing a no-huddle offense that features over 40 passes a game (96 in two games so far this year) and almost always a three- or four- wide receiver set, Tulane relies nearly exclusively on just five receivers in a game. So far this year, those five primary receivers used have been seniors Terrell Harris and Zander Robinson, sophomores Roydell Williams and Nick Narcisse, and freshman Carl Davis. Versus LSU last week, the five receivers combined to catch 18 passes for 292 yards with three players (Williams, Harris and Robinson), each catching a 40-plus yard pass and all going for more than 79 yards on the night. On the season, the four starters (Harris, Williams, Robinson, Narcisse) have caught 67% of the passes (32 out of 48 total completions) for 83 % (467 yards out of 559) of the passing yards. As if that isn't enough, Robinson also serves as one of the Wave's starting kickoff returners. After a tremendous camp, late signee Davis made his first career catch, a nifty 23-yard grab, versus LSU.
More for Moore
Fresh off a summer playing minor league baseball and a record-setting rookie year, Mewelde Moore proved that his freshman year was not a fluke with a career-high 176 yards on 22 carries in the season opener at BYU. He followed that up with 65 yards on 22 carries (corrected from press box totals) and a team-leading seven catches for 51 yards in the LSU game. Through two games, the super sophomore is averaging 184 all-purpose yards per game. Moore opened the scoring at BYU with a career-long 75-yard TD run and added a pair of receiving TDs to match his touchdown total of a year ago. His 252 all-purpose yards in the BYU game were one of the top tallies in school history. He has six 100-yard rushing games in his 11 career starts and passed the 1,000-yard mark in career yards. Last year's East Carolina contest was a "coming out" party for Moore as he gained 131 yards as a freshmen to earn a spot in the starting line-up. (For more on Moore, see page 5.)
Savvy Senior
Tulane offensive tackle Corey Sewell made his 36th career start versus LSU last week, returning to his right tackle spot after working at left tackle the previous week. The resilient senior from LaPlace has started every game of his career, beginning with the first game of his freshman year in 1998 through last week. Last season, Sewell played every play except for six during the year -- 891 snaps.
Different Senior Stories
While the Tulane offense features veteran senior starters like Sewell (36 starts), Patrick Ramsey (23) and Torie Taulli (23) as well as four other of their classmates (Chrys Bullock, Terrell Harris, Zander Robinson, Charles Caldwell) starting, the defense offers a contrast as just three seniors -- LB David Dorsey, DE Glenn Lemoine and CB Trey Godfrey --are listed ANYWHERE on the two-deep as juniors, sophomores and freshmen dominate the line-up on that side of the ball.
Tailgating Returns
After a successful debut season, the "Tulane Tailgate Area" returns for all Green Wave home games this year. A centralized area for tailgating has been set aside on top of the southwest parking garage at Gate G of the Superdome, complete with live music, interactive games for the kids, face-painting, food, appearances by the Tulane cheerleaders and mascots, merchandise sales, and the Tulane pregame radio show. Groups can reserve spaces, along with tents and tables, and can bring their own food or secure food from the on-site vendors. All Tulane fans are invited to the area to soak up some pre-game college football atmosphere.
Marler on the Money
With his first field goal of 2001, a 26-yarder versus LSU, Tulane kicker Seth Marler continued his streak of perfection from inside the 40-yard line. The junior is now 11-of-11 from inside the 40 since the end of the 1999 season. For his career, Marler is 14-for-14 on field goals of less than 30 yards.
Camp Hammond
The Green Wave spent 16 days practicing in Hammond, La. during the preseason, returning to New Orleans on August 18th. For the last several years, Tulane has travelled across Lake Ponchartrain to hold preseason drills in Covington, La., but this was its first "camp" in Hammond, where Tulane used the facilities of Southeastern Louisiana University. Ninety players, as well as the coaches and trainers, managers, video and strength staffs, lived in the dorms, met in the classrooms of the business school, ate in the cafeteria and used the locker rooms, training room and fields of the Southeastern athletic program.
Taking the Lead
At the conclusion of preseason drills, five players were elected the 2001 permanent team captains by their teammates. Senior quarterback Patrick Ramsey was elected a captain for the second consecutive season while his offensive senior teammates wide receiver Terrell Harris and Torie Taulli were also selected. On defense, a pair of juniors were elected team captains -- defensive end Floyd Dorsey and strong safety Terry Fontenot.
Coming Attractions
Next week, Tulane enjoys its first, and only, open date of the 2001 season before welcoming new opponent UCF to the Superdome Sept. 22. Another first-time opponent, Southern (Sept. 29), will be Tulane's foe in the first-ever Big Easy Classic meeting in New Orleans.
