ABC26 Sports

Four weeks after a 54-3 shellacking at the hands of BYU, there is a pulse for Tulane football.

The Green Wave can win its third straight game by defeating Marshall Saturday at the Superdome for homecoming. That hasn't happened since the Wave defeated Navy, Army, and TCU, all in November of 2004.

A Wave win Saturday in the Dome is imperative. After Marshall, Tulane hosts Houston, then travels to Southern Miss and LSU.

Houston suddenly looks human after a 58-41 loss to UTEP. And, Southern Miss has lost its starting quarterback, Austin Davis, for the season with a torn ligament in his left foot.

Tulane's best chance to win in those trio of games after Marshall may be against the Golden Eagles.

If Tulane beats Marshall, and can win one of the next three, the Wave would sit with a record of 4 wins, 4 losses.

The final four games are: UTEP (Sagarin rating 102) , then road games at Rice (143), Central Florida (99), and SMU (108).

Six wins makes the Wave bowl eligible.

At his Tuesday press conference, head coach Bob Toledo said Tulane finally got some luck. A field goal attempt by Army that would have won the game in the final seconds pushed wide right. Said Toledo, "All I can say it is about time we got something."

Now, the Wave has to follow up. At home.

Florida has a great defense. There's no question about that. But, LSU's offense is a mess. It has been all season long.

Did you expect anything different from what you saw in the first five games?

Jordan Jefferson again held on to the ball too long. Jefferson was sacked five times. But, in fairness to Jefferson, he is a quarterback playing behind a poor offensive line, and a running game that is almost non existent.

Maybe Les Miles hasn't recruited well enough up front. Maybe coaching is the issue. But, with this offense LSU will have difficulty beating every team left on the schedule except for Tulane.

Over the last ten seasons, LSU elavated itself to the elite in college football by doing two things: running the football (to set up play action pass) and playing great defense.

The Tigers are again doing the latter. Holding Florida to 13 points and 327 total yards was a spectacular effort.

All wasted by a putrid offensive effort. A 5-0 start by LSU hid some of the Tigers offensive warts. They were all exposed tonight by a terrific Florida defense.

With just under six minutes to play, Hornets rookie guard Marcus Thornton drove to the basket, scored and was fouled.

His three point play tied the game at 88 with 5:53 to play. The play was indicative of Thornton's style as he fearlessly attacked the basket. Head coach Byron Scott clearly likes Thornton's ability to shoot threes and couple that with drives to the basket. Scott said he understands as a rookie that Thornton will make mistakes defensively.

But, clearly Thornton gives the Hornets something in very short supply since they moved to New Orleans 7 and a half years ago. And, that is a slashing two guard.

Other observations from a 108-96 win over Indiana. Back up point guard Bobby Brown will make a nice contribution. Brown can shoot the spot up three and clearly can break down defenders off the dribble.

Center Hilton Armstrong, while still not a good finisher, is improving in that area. Armstrong played solidly, and with Emeka Okafor likely to play somewhat limited minutes as the season tips off, a solid contribution from Armstrong is needed.

And, Peja, could benefit from fewer minutes coming off the bench. He had his stroke back Saturday night, hitting 6 of 9 three pointers.

Ed Daniels
New Orleans Arena
Saturday 10 17 09

Coaches get upset all the time, especially after bad losses. Sometimes they say things that later they find to be truly regrettable.

Tulane coach Bob Toledo had one of those moments Saturday night after a 44-16 loss to Houston.

Toledo criticized Tulane fans, saying there was "no homefield advantage". He also said there was nobody in the stands. I was there Saturday, and I can vouch for this: nobody in the stands was close. There may have been 1,500 Tulane supporters actually in the seats.

At his Tuesday presser, Toledo apologized. There was no doubt the orders for that apology came from his superiors, either in the school or in the athletic department.

I like Toledo's frankness. And, I like him personally. But, I wonder if he stepped on the wrong toes on Saturday October 17th .. and how much that misstep will cost him, later.