Conference Championship Billboard Slogan of the Week: "Rain and Shine"

BY TIM SCANDURRO

I remember one fall afternoon as a kid when I was  a sixth or seventh grader, and  my brother and I did something that got us in big trouble.  We had some friends over to play a tackle football game in the front yard, and to get the “field conditions” right we ran our water hose on the lawn full blast for several hours.  We put our cleats on and had the time of our lives slipping and sliding around  all afternoon.  We didn’t realize we were tearing up the yard until my father got home and blew a gasket.

As a little kid and then a young man, playing football in ‘the elements’ always had a special thrill.  The ball did strange things when it got wet, and those were also the days when subsurface drainage and  proper crowns on a football field often didn’t exist.  I remember one game where a high punt landed on the ond yard line, and didn’t move.  Just plopped into a deep puddle between the hashes and stopped dead.  I never got to play in a ‘snow game’ but to this day I love watching one.

Of course I’m watching it from the warm comfort of my couch.  As you get older, the thrill of being outside in inclement weather loses its luster.  The idea of diving for a ball and hydroplaning for five or ten yards just doesn’t have the same cachet; hell it’s hard enough to muster up the energy to run out and get the mail.

But when Tulane takes the field in expected wet conditions tonight, it will be doing so for a chance to make the College Football Playoff, the new age ‘Granddaddy of them all.” If you can get there, be there.  There will be lots of drama, a spotlight national television audience game, and a very worthy opponent in North Texas on the other sideline.

I wish they were a little less worthy, to be honest.  They have the number one total offense and scoring offense in the country and the best quarterback we’ll see all year, plus they have the exact same Playoff motivation that we have.  Our corners have had some trouble in coverage this year and have been flagged  too often for our liking.  But if you watched our defense in the Charlotte game last week and the Temple game the week before that, especially up front, you got the feeling that, as the father of one of our assistant  coaches liked to say, “we comin.’”  The Kryptonite for these precision passing teams, especially ones who like to throw deep like this one does, is pressure.  We need to play this game on our toes, not on our heels.  They have an excellent running back also, but we need to play this game downhill and aggressively  on both lines of scrimmage. 

In a game like this, at home with so much at stake, we have been pretty dang good under this coaching staff.  Truthfully, we seem to have a NEED as a football team to have a challenge, to have our backs against the wall against a formidable foe, to have no tomorrow.  I think we will rise to the challenge and be ready to play. 

The other thing we will have working for us is the expected wet, chilly and hopefully a little bit windy conditions.  This is December football and the hope is we’re built a little better for it than they are.  One guy we know UNT will try and test deep is our field corner E’zaiah Shine.  He’s had his ups and downs this year but we know he has a big game in him because he had one earlier against ECU.  To beat this team we don’t need to show up rain or shine; we need to show up with rain AND Shine.  I think he’ll respond, and I think our fans will too, weather be damned.  Wear your shrimp boots if you have to, but don’t miss this one.

About 43 years ago we played another formidable opponent on a rainy night late in the year, and came away with a 31-28 upset win in Baton Rouge.  We’re an underdog again tonight.  If we come to play and that history repeats itself,  we’re going to playing with house money (and millions in Playoff money), and we’ll have  the most fun and attention as a program that we’ve ever had.  It’s our time gang.  We never thought it would get here, and I’m not talking about 30 years ago; I’m talking about 30 DAYS ago.  What a giant step we are on the verge of taking.

Can’t wait.