Tulane

Tulane's football team has been through a lot the past three weeks. Hell, they've just been a lot of places the past three weeks. Tulane left New Orleans on August 28 with enough equipment for their road game against Southern Miss scheduled for the next Sunday. They headed to Jackson, Miss. to ride out the storm and spent the week practicing at Jackson State and watching their city flood. After the game with Southern was postponed, they made their way to Dallas, where they spent the next week pondering the situation in New Orleans and the future of their season. Tulane made the decision to play the season that week and since then Tulane has moved again, this time to Louisiana Tech, their new home for the fall semester.

Tulane left campus with game tape of Southern, limited practice gear and their away uniforms. And the last article I read, they didn't have any game tapes of MSU.

Tulane will have emotion on their side for Saturday night's game at the Independence Bowl. But that's not all. Tulane's offense is led by a new coordinator and returns just about everyone from an offense that improved throughout the year, including QB Lester Ricard who missed the second half of last season with an arm injury. Although the lack of practice time and the emotional drain of the past three weeks will be surely be felt. On defense, Tulane has three new linebackers expected to start and their defensive line wasn't anything special last season, meaning State should be able to run the ball. Tulane does have a very solid secondary, which doesn't bode well for an MSU passing attack that was abysmal last weekend.

State needs a fast start to quell some of the emotion on the Tulane sideline. I envision a lot of running between the tackles on offense and I think the MSU defense will come to play, still trying to prove to everyone that they are for real this season.

If State doesn't win this game, Croom will lose a lot of support for what he's doing and the program will be staring 1-4 in the face with UGA, LSU and Florida next on the schedule. State needs to win the games they are favored to win this year to show progress, not only to the current players and fans, but to recruits who are considering giving four years of their lives to this program.

The bottom line, MSU wins 28-13.

The patch above will be worn by all Tulane athletics teams throughout the 2005-06 academic year. Tulane University president Dr. Scott Cowen charged Tulane athletes to "carry the torch, be the face and represent the name" of the University for the upcoming seasons while its students, faculty and staff remain displaced from New Orleans.