Tulane closes out home slate against UTEP

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Nov 4, 2009

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NEW ORLEANS — Sixteen Tulane seniors will play their final home game when the Green Wave meets UTEP in a Conference USA game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Superdome.

This game also marks the beginning of the final third of the season as Tulane (2-6) plays its final three games on the road. Coming off consecutive games against No. 9 LSU, Southern Miss (5-4), and No. 13 Houston, the finishing stretch against the Miners (3-5) Rice (0-8), Central Florida (5-3), and SMU (4-4) seems more manageable.

“We want to finish out with a four-game winning streak,” senior wide receiver Jeremy Williams said Tuesday at the Green Wave’s weekly news luncheon. “At Tulane, we’re not known for battling back. In the past when we’ve been put down we’ve stayed down. We want to leave here being known as a team that overcame adversity.”

Half of the seniors, including Williams, are fifth-year players who overcame a lot of adversity when they were freshmen and endured the Katrina season. All of the seniors went through a coaching change after the 2006 season when Bob Toledo replaced Chris Scelfo.

“These five years flew by,” senior linebacker David Kirksey said. “I’ve been playing football since I was 4 years old, and this is the last go-round in college. We’re hoping to end (at home) with a victory for the seniors.”

Ten of the 16 seniors are starting, including the leading receiver (Williams) the leading rusher (Andre Anderson), the place-kicker/punter (Ross Thevenot), and the top two tacklers (Chinonso Echebelem and Travis Burks).

“It’s a good group of players,” Toledo said. “There are some key people in that group that we’ll sorely miss next year. They’ve been through a lot as a team. We’re going to miss some key people off of that group, but hopefully, we’ll be able to overcome that with what we brought in recruiting-wise and what we’re going to bring in this next year.”

Toledo singled out Echebelem, who is leading Conference USA in tackles in league games and who’s second in the nation in forced fumbles (four) despite playing with a pinched nerve in his neck.

Tulane said he hopes the seniors and the whole team can win some games the rest of the way. The Green Wave finished last season with eight consecutive losses and has lost its past four this season.

“I think it is important that we now start having some success,” Toledo said. “We now stop beating ourselves. We now finish by winning a few games down the stretch here. If we can do that, it will give us a lift going into the off-season — going into recruiting — going into next season. I think if we can show progress in these last four games, then I will be pleased.

“What I told the kids (Monday) in our meeting is we’re putting everything we’ve had up to this point behind us,” Toledo said. “We can’t do anything about it obviously. But what I told them was people will remember November. And I think that is important, that we finish strong and we show people that we are improving and that we are getting better.”

Toledo, who is 8-24 in three seasons, said fans and supporters need to remain patient because he’s try to build the program from the ground up.

“I know it’s hard, it’s very frustrating, it wears on you,” he said. “I know a lot of people who have given up on us, who have given up on me, who have quit on the program. And I can’t do anything about that — hopefully, they will come back when we show them our improvement. But I appreciate the loyal people that have kept with us, that have supported us and know that we’re going through some growing pains at this point.