August 2005 NewsStand
Sep 18, 2005 | General
Sept. 1, 2005
August 31, 2005
ValleyCats player affected by storm
Troy (N.Y.) Record
The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina have reached the Capital Region's local professional baseball team, the Tri-City ValleyCats. ValleyCats shortstop Tommy Manzella, who was selected by the parent Houston Astros in the third round of June's amateur draft, is from New Orleans, where the hurricane struck and the Gulf of Mexico coast...
August 30, 2005
Katrina puts sports in its place
Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger
SEEMS an almost annual occurrence, doesn't it? Football season approaches. Everyone is undefeated. Optimism abounds. Your season tickets have arrived in the mail. You've planned your football weekends, your tailgating, your travel...
August 29, 2005
Spincer a Tulane big hitter, defensive foundation
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Who says you can't go home again? Don't tell that to Brandon Spincer, whose Tulane football journey has taken him from linebacker-to-safety-and back to linebacker...
August 27, 2005
Punting is solid with Green Wave
New Orleans Times-Picayune
At Tulane, there's the punting game, the dependable unit, the model of consistency, the benchmark for special teams success. And then there's the kicking game...
August 26, 2005
Tulane football: defensive backs
New Orleans Times-Picayune
When Tulane senior Sean Lucas returned for fall camp this month, he was expecting to be back at his old position. After moving from cornerback to safety last season because of injuries, Lucas hoped to return to cornerback after working all spring at the position. During the summer, he prepared himself for his final season at that spot...
Tulane football: defensive backs
New Orleans Times-Picayune
When Tulane senior Sean Lucas returned for fall camp this month, he was expecting to be back at his old position. After moving from cornerback to safety last season because of injuries, Lucas hoped to return to cornerback after working all spring at the position. During the summer, he prepared himself for his final season at that spot...
August 25, 2005
LINEBACKERS: Leadership qualities easy to find
New Orleans Times-Picayune
In the midst of the August heat, and in the heat of an intense football drill, Tulane senior linebacker Anthony Cannon screamed an order at his slacking freshmen teammates. Freshman Jordan Ellis, inspired by the defensive leader, screamed back: "Yes sir!"...
August 24, 2005
Tulane football: Offensive line
New Orleans Times-Picayune
While going through the daily meetings with his offensive linemen, Tulane assistant coach Don Mahoney expects his wide-eyed freshmen to be scribbling wildly in their playbooks, taking notes as they go through every movement of every play...
Tulane WR Smith is out for season
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Tulane received official word Tuesday that receiver Fred Smith will not play this season. Smith, a junior from Destrehan, was slated to start at receiver, punt returner and kickoff returner, but he injured his knee last week...
Wave looking to freshmen for help
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Entering her fifth season as Tulane's soccer coach, Betsy Anderson is experiencing a bit of déjà vu. Her team has more freshmen (nine) than seniors (three), similar to the makeup of the team during her first season in 2001...
August 23, 2005
Bennett Doubtful for Season Opener
ABCNews.com
Ready or not, Tice has the final say, and it has opened the door for Moore, who appears poised to open the season as the Vikings' primary back. Moore was impressive in three starts as a rookie last season, filling in for the injured Bennett and suspended Onterrio Smith. He rushed for 339 yards and also had 198 yards receiving in those three games, all Vikings wins...
Jackson is No. 2 but trying harder
New Orleans Times-Picayune
For football players, being "one twisted ankle away" from starting is like being one number away from having the winning Powerball ticket. Jovon Jackson is a sturdy running back who will give you three yards in his sleep, but he played two seasons behind Mewelde Moore, statistically the best back to ever play at Tulane...
Kritza brings burst of energy to Tulane
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Coach, the team captain said, doesn't sleep. Coach will study and recruit and do the behind-the-scenes stuff until the wee hours. In the morning, she'll stop at a local coffee shop -- her "Cheers" -- where they might as well scream "Coach!" upon her arrival...
'Sluggish' Tulane bothers Scelfo
New Orleans Times-Picayune
After canceling a weight-lifting session Saturday, giving the team Sunday off and canceling Monday morning's workout, Tulane coach Chris Scelfo would have liked to have seen a little more pep in his players. Instead of a nice, crisp, enthusiastic workout, the Green Wave looked a step slow in areas at its 2 ½-hour practice...
August 22, 2005
Green Wave awaits leader to emerge
New Orleans Times-Picayune
About six months ago, Tulane offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo put the wide receivers on notice. The Green Wave had just finished spring drills, and Scelfo wasn't totally pleased. He went into the workouts wanting to see which of the receivers wanted to step into the void caused by the departure of Roydell Williams and Chris Bush...
August 21, 2005
Dad relives through Wave quarterback
New Orleans Times-Picayune
As he watches the young man in the No. 8 jersey move behind center, take the snap, drop back, and throw the football, Rev. Lester Ricard can't help but think back to the days his 21-year-old son was an 8-year-old, standing in the front yard of their home in Pine Grove...
Backfield battle is enlivened by Ducré
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Last Monday, when Tulane released its depth chart, running back Christian Ducré wasn't listed. But that might change. Ducré, a freshman from Fontainebleau High, had an exciting week of broken tackles and breakaway runs, capped with a standout scrimmage Saturday morning...
Healthy alternative - Cannon's goal is to overcome two offseason surgeries and gain backup role
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Just like last season, Tulane junior quarterback Nick Cannon finds himself in a heated battle with two other players. But the difference this time is Cannon is attempting to establish himself as the Green Wave's No. 2 quarterback, a position that has proven, the past few seasons, to be a very important spot...
August 20, 2005
Traveling salesman
New Orleans Times-Picayune
First-year Tulane basketball coach Dave Dickerson is ready to use his experience as a top recruiter to bring the Green Wave the talent it needs to become a consistent winner...
Tulane poised for more success
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Shhhh, quiet. Listen. No, really. Listen. Hear that sound -- or, perhaps more accurately, the lack of it? It's calm, and, for the first time in a long time, it's surrounding Tulane's football team at the opening of a season. No waves are battering the Wave, not right now, anyway, with the program set to enter a season in as good a shape as it maybe ever has been under Coach Chris Scelfo...
Tight ends - With a new year brings renewed hope
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Tulane was in a scrimmage drill this week when a tight end, like a No. 88 locomotive in cleats, shot out of the trenches. He chugged about 15 yards, engulfed the football with his hands and kept in stride until a heap of cornerbacks pushed him down...
Tulane receiver Smith sidelined
New Orleans Times-Picayune
How bad was Fred Smith's injury? They used the "R" word. While there hasn't yet been an MRI on the Tulane receiver's injured right knee, coaches are fearful that Smith will have to redshirt 2005...
August 19, 2005
Uncommon depth will keep pressure off Tulane newcomers
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Tulane coach Chris Scelfo has to be pinching himself these days to make certain he's not daydreaming. Can he really believe what he sees, or is this just a cruel joke to make him believe there's light at the end of the long tunnel his team has been traveling?...
August 18, 2005
Polian, April III used to the scene
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Last Saturday, when their fathers' NFL teams played one another in a preseason game, Bobby April III and Dennis Polian were at Tulane football practice, paying their dues. For them, the glory of the NFL is far away, even though they were raised in the league's locker rooms and their last names might raise eyebrows in football circles...
August 17, 2005
Dependable Trio - Wave linebackers strong
New Orleans Times-Picayune
It's about 4:30, and the not-so-surprising afternoon thunderstorm has left steam rising from the artificial turf at Tulane's practice field. It is hot and humid, and the shirt Tulane defensive coordinator Eric Schumann is wearing is partly drenched with perspiration after 30 minutes on the field...
Tulane defensive end looking to rebound
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Billy Harrison was barely out of high school when he began making tackles for Tulane, darting past offensive linemen carefree. His sophomore year, though, was sobering. The defensive end made only 16 tackles in 2004, including 10 in one game...
Tulane RBs Forte, Jackson form 1-2 punch
Baton Rouge Advocate
Tulane's running back position was split about as evenly as possible last season. Jovon Jackson and Matt Forte each rushed for exactly 624 yards. Jackson had 125 carries, Forte 140...
August 16, 2005
McGee proves he's no pushover with Wave
New Orleans Times-Picayune
When Chris McGee reported to Tulane as a freshman in 2001, he was, by standards set for offensive linemen, small. He weighed 235 pounds. "It was a glaring deficiency," Green Wave offensive line coach Don Mahoney said...
Freshman tackle Danel leaves Wave because 'heart wasn't in it'
New Orleans Times-Picayune
A week ago, Tulane offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo felt Tom Danel would be in the running for a key backup position on the offensive line. On Monday, Green Wave coach Chris Scelfo confirmed that Danel, a 6-foot-7, 314-pound freshman from St. Thomas Aquinas in Hammond, is no longer on the team...
August 15, 2005
Greener Pastures
New Orleans CityBusiness
It will be almost 30 years to the day that Tulane University's football team started playing games in the Louisiana Superdome when its 2005 home schedule kicks off with a Sept. 17 date against Mississippi State...
Pepper must show he's worth his salt
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Yes, you have read this story before. It was about two years ago when you sipped your morning coffee and read about Barrett Pepper, Tulane's new kicker. He had a successful high school career, the coaches were high on him and he was going to be vital in the upcoming season...
August 14, 2005
Tulane offense has found its Forté in rushing attack
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Say that again? Surely that comparison of a budding sophomore to arguably Tulane's best running back ever would seem blasphemous by some. Right?...
August 13, 2005
Warrior mentality - Michael Purcell
New Orleans Times-Picayune
The black brace Michael Purcell wears on his right leg is a constant reminder of the last surgery that nearly ended his football career. Altogether, Purcell, a redshirt junior from Dripping Springs, Texas, a small community just west of Austin, has had four surgeries since arriving at Tulane. Each surgery has resulted in talks with Tulane doctors about his giving up football...
Tulane's Ricard a potential star
Memphis Commercial Appeal
When he thinks back now to last season, his first as Tulane's starting quarterback, Lester Ricard shakes his head and laughs. "Last year, when we played Mississippi State (in the opener), I almost passed out because I was so excited," Ricard recalled. "Everything was going 100 miles per hour." It was Sylvester Croom's Mississippi State debut, and Starkville's Davis Wade Stadium was rocking before a national television audience...
August 12, 2005
Wave needs to fill voids
New Orleans Times-Picayune
The returning Tulane player with the most receptions is -- drum roll please -- a running back. A year ago, Tulane was led by receivers Roydell Williams and Chris Bush, who combined to catch 89 passes. A distant third was running back Matt Forté with 20. Both Williams and Bush are currently in Tennessee Titans camp...
August 11, 2005
Wave looking to fill key spots on line
New Orleans Times-Picayune
It was a routine Tulane coach Chris Scelfo had been through many times -- the first day with the entire football team on the practice field. And as first days often go, Wednesday's early-morning workout produced some positives...
Tulane broadcaster Kelley leaving for Hornets job
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Sean Kelley, Tulane's radio play-by-play announcer, has been hired by the Hornets, and former Hornets radio voice Bob Licht has been selected the Hornets' television play-by-play announcer...
August 10, 2005
Scelfo's stay at TU worthy of praise
New Orleans Times-Picayune
How does a college football coach get ready for another season? If you happen to be Chris Scelfo, you and wife Nancy spend your vacation going from city to city, watching your 11-year-old son, Joseph, a first baseman for the Belle Chasse Cardinals, play close to 60 baseball games...
Expectations have Wave players focused
New Orleans Times-Picayune
With more than an hour remaining before veteran players were scheduled to report, Tulane coach Chris Scelfo should have realized the 2 p.m. deadline was needless...
Veterans report to Tulane's preseason camp
Baton Rouge Advocate
Tulane's varsity arrived Tuesday afternoon for the start of fall football practice, featuring the deepest and most experienced group of players in coach Chris Scelfo's seven seasons...
August 9, 2005
Another Scelfo in the mix
New Orleans Times-Picayune
After coaching with his brother the past six seasons, Tulane offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo has listened many times while his brother, Green Wave coach Chris Scelfo, addressed the parents of incoming freshmen. On Monday, when it became Frank Scelfo's turn to be one of those parents, he left the listening to wife Holly...
Give C-USA Liberty, or give it . . . Houston
Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald
Mike Slive fired the first salvo at SEC Media Days. The league's fourth-year commissioner set the agenda for future Liberty Bowls, leaving everyone with his former employer, Conference USA, dealing with the fallout. The Conference USA champion most likely will be going elsewhere in 2006...
August 8, 2005
Redskins QB Ramsey hopes this season is a Brees
CBS Sportsline
The consensus around Washington is that quarterback Patrick Ramsey is as much a sitting duck as he is a lame one. His coach isn't sold on him. The organization seems to have given up on him. And his successor is sitting to his right, awaiting his chance to step in and effectively end Ramsey's career with the Redskins...
August 7, 2005
Scelfo, Wave counting on depth
Baton Rouge Advocate
Tulane begins preseason preparations this week amid the most continuity it has had in recent memory, even as its conference sports a new look. Green Wave coach Chris Scelfo is starting his seventh season, the longest tenure for a Tulane football coach since Andy Pilney (1954-61)...
Vikings' Moore isn't planning to drop off radar
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
He tiptoed along the goal line, positioning himself perfectly to deflect the descending pigskin. Then Mewelde Moore stopped, looked calmly over his shoulder and tipped the ball before falling into the end zone...
August 3, 2005
Ricard sensing something special
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Tulane junior quarterback Lester Ricard has experienced the feeling before. In the spring and summer of 2003, prior to transferring from LSU, Ricard saw the sense of anticipation and dedication that resulted in the Tigers winning the BCS national championship...
C-USA, Liberty Bowl relationship tenuous
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Since its inception in 1996, Conference USA has sent its champion to the Liberty Bowl. But that won't necessarily happen in 2005, and the league's ties with the Memphis game may not continue past this season...
Bower, Almond determined to take Eagles all the way
Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald
Dustin Almond has seen many peaks during his career at Southern Miss. Unfortunately, the strong-armed quarterback has seen his share of valleys, too. Needless to say, the senior from Orange Park, Fla., was a hot commodity Tuesday as Conference USA Media Day concluded at the Memphis Hilton...
New teams mean extra film work for UAB coaches
Birmingham News
UAB head football coach Watson Brown and his coaching staff spent the summer watching videos. But it was hardly a summer vacation. "We spent more time in the film room probably this summer than we have at any time just because we had to look at so many different teams," Brown said...
UTEP gives league shot at berth in BCS game
El Paso Times
Conference USA's best hopes of advancing a team to the Bowl Championship Series this season appear to rest with new member UTEP, officially introduced to the conference for the first time Tuesday at the league's football media day...
Media day filled with introductions
Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch
Tuesday morning's activities at the Memphis Hilton hotel were equal parts getting-to-know-you and media day. Conference USA conducted its annual football kickoff media event, which featured six new members. Many teams and coaches never have faced off, making for eventual scouting this season throughout the league...
August 2, 2005
Standing out from the rest
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Lester Ricard passed his first test last season with an impressive showing as the starting quarterback for Tulane. On Monday, the junior from Denham Springs, La., showed up at Conference USA Media Days looking to add to his numbers while helping Green Wave faithful forget - at least for 12 games - about the last three quarterbacks to play the position before him...
Ramsey Has Grasp Of the Situation
Washington Post
Quarterback Patrick Ramsey, wearing a gold jersey and burgundy shorts, dropped back to pass yesterday afternoon at Redskins Park. An estimated crowd of 2,760 at the opening of Coach Joe Gibbs's second training camp cheered each time Ramsey unleashed a spiral downfield during 11-on-11 drills...
