Tulane, No. 9 LSU Battle for The Rag in the 98th Installment of the Historical Football Rivalry
Oct 30, 2009 | Football
Oct. 30, 2009
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane football team makes its shortest trip of the year this Saturday and renews the oldest rivalry in school history when the team busses the 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to take on No. 9/9 ranked LSU at Tiger Stadium in the 98th edition of the rivalry. The contest will kick-off at 7 p.m. Live audio of the game can be heard on WIST-AM 690, the official flagship station of Tulane football.
The Tulane-LSU rivalry game will be available to watch on a pay-per-view basis on TigerVision, LSU's school in-house pay-per-view network. Kickoff for the LSU-Tulane game on Oct. 31 in Tiger Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m. The TigerVision pregame show starts at 6:45 p.m. The cost to purchase the game will be $34.50.
Residents in Louisiana can purchase TigerVision through their local cable television system or through The Dish Network or DirecTV. Cable customers are reminded that they must have digital cable capabilities to order the games. Residents outside the state may purchase the TigerVision broadcast through ESPN's Game Plan package. The ESPN Game Plan package will be blacked out in Louisiana.
Tulane (2-5, 0-4 C-USA) will look to snap a two-game skid and also attempt to register its first win against LSU since a 31-28 victory in Baton Rouge in the 1982 season finale. Saturday's game marks the Wave's third road game of the season and Tulane is 1-1 following a 17-16 win at Army on Oct. 4 and a 43-6 loss to Conference USA rival Southern Miss last week. The LSU match-up will be the final non-conference game of the year for the Wave and Tulane is 2-1 in non-league games in 2009. LSU marks the third nationally ranked opponent for the Green Wave this season and Tulane is 0-2 after falling to No. 9/12 BYU (54-3) and No. 23/23 Houston (44-16).
Senior running back André Anderson rushed 19 times for 92 yards and a touchdown last week at Southern Miss. Anderson's rushing total gives him 1,639 for his career, which moves him into 12th place in the Tulane record book. He surpassed Jovon Jackson, who rushed for 1597 from 2002-05, for 12th place and trails Terrence Jones (1,761 from 1985-88) by 122 yards for 11th place in Tulane career rushing yards.
Senior flanker Jeremy Williams has evolved into one of the nation's top all-purpose players this season. Williams is averaging 130.3 all-purpose yards per outing, which ranks sixth among Conference USA players and is 44th nationally. Williams is averaging 94.6 receiving yards (662 total), 3.5 rushing yards (95 total) and 22.1 per kickoff return (7 returns for 155 yards) per contest. He has touched the ball 80 times for 912 yards for an average of 11.4 yards per play.
Redshirt-freshman quarterback Ryan Griffin started for the first time last Saturday at Southern Miss and became the first rookie to start under center for Tulane since Scott Elliott started at Rice on Nov. 12, 2005. Griffin finished the day 21-of-33 for 158 yards and an interception.
Senior safety Chinonso Echebelem leads the Wave in tackles with 10.0 per game (70 total; 42 solo), which ranks fourth among C-USA players and 15th nationally. Echebelem has four games with 10 or more tackles this season, including a season-best 13 vs. No. 23 Houston. He leads all C-USA players and ranks second nationally in forced fumbles with four. He is the first Tulane defender to force at least four fumbles in a season since Israel Route had four in 2006.
LSU (6-1, 4-1 SEC) jumped out to a 5-0 start and ranked as high as No. 4 nationally before the Tigers suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of top-ranked and defending national champion Florida, 13-3, at home on Oct. 10. Following a bye week, LSU dispatched Auburn, 31-10, last week. The Tigers have not lost a non-conference home game since Conference USA member UAB slipped out of town with a 13-10 victory in 2000.
Sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson spearheads the LSU passing attack, completing 112-of-176 attempts (.636) for 1,258 yards and nine touchdowns against just three interceptions. Senior running back Charles Scott leads the ground game with 347 yards on 85 carries (4.1 ypr) and has two scores.
Junior Terrance Toliver has proven to be the team's top receiving threat with 34 catches for 442 yards and three touchdowns, while senior Brandon LaFell has hauled in six scores. Junior linebacker Kelvin Sheppard has a team-best 57 tackles (27 solo), including 4.5 stops for lost yardage.
Saturday's game marks the 98th all-time meeting between Tulane and LSU and the Tigers lead the series, 66-24-7, and has won the last 17 games with TU, including the last 10 meetings at Tiger Stadium. This is the oldest rivalry for Tulane. The two teams first played in 1893, the first football season for each school. Tulane and LSU met in November of that year, with the Greenies winning that game 34-0.
Tulane's last win in the series came in 1982 when the Green Wave capped a 4-7 season with a 31-28 upset of the Orange Bowl-bound Tigers. TU trailed 28-24 late in the fourth quarter, but quarterback Mike McKay found fullback Reggie Reginelli open in the flat on fourth down for a 31-yard game-winning touchdown.
One of the biggest Tulane win in the series came in 1981 when the Wave downed LSU, 48-7. TU blocked a punt to set up a touchdown and recovered another block in the end zone for another score. Tulane Hall of Famer and longtime NFL tight end Rodney Holman capped his career with a touchdown reception in that ball game.
Tulane and LSU played every year from 1911-94 (with the exception of 1918 when LSU did not field a team due to World War I). The teams played single games in 1996 and 2001 and began a 10-year, home-and-home deal in 2006. However the contract will end this season as both Tulane and LSU have mutually agreed to discontinue the football series following the 2009 campaign. The two teams will play one more game in New Orleans at a future date.
The winner of the Tulane-LSU game traditionally received a banner known as "The Rag". The Rag is decorated half Tulane and half LSU with each school's logo on the respective sides. The Rag exchanged hands with each team's victory from the first game of the series in 1893 until 1981. The original "Rag" was lost between LSU's victory in 1980 and Tulane's win in 1981. Some speculate that "The Rag" was delivered to Tulane following the Green Wave's 1981 victory, but was destroyed in a fire at the Tulane Student Center prior to the 1982 game. A replacement flag was created in 2001 and was present in 2008 at Tiger Stadium.
