Is this Scelfo's best coaching job?

[PonyPride]

This might be Scelfo's best coaching job

By John DeShazier
Sports columnist
New Orleans Times-Picayune

Tulane was right there at the end. That’s the amazing thing.
Against a team (Mississippi State) that had played two games and was pretty well oiled, and in spite of displaying enough rust and kinks to have warranted a need for WD-40 more than for Gatorade, Tulane was right there at the end, a snafu or two away from upsetting the Bulldogs, a moment short of claiming what would have been the most impressive victory in school history.

“There’s more pride (than disappointment),” Coach Chris Scelfo said, the 21-14 loss last Saturday still fresh in his memory. “I was very disappointed that we lost the game, but I was so proud of our coaches and players. The character of this football team is so evident.”

So evident that, entering today’s game against SMU, you have to believe that the Green Wave (0-1) is ready to post a win against the Mustangs, who haven’t had much to talk about since the days of Eric Dickerson and Craig James, days that contributed to the program receiving the death penalty due to an avalanche of NCAA violations.

For Tulane, the worst of the preparation period is over. Barring injury to a significant player or two, games won’t get much more difficult than the season opener, because there won’t be another time this season that the Wave will be similarly disadvantaged as far as game action, having not a single down of it while playing an opponent that had two games worth.

“We have no complaints,” Scelfo said, repeating the words that have become Tulane’s mantra this season. “We’re not going to use that as an excuse. We’re glad to be playing, glad to be carrying the face and the torch for Tulane University.”

They almost carried them across the finish line first against the Bulldogs. The danger, of course, will be if the Wave is willing to settle for being close.

Can’t blame the team if it would be, and it’d certainly be logical if Tulane experiences an emotional letdown sometime soon. The team understandably was jacked up for its delayed opener, undoubtedly was hyped at the prospect of hitting and being hit by players other than teammates, undeniably rode some of that emotion to a near victory over a team that probably was bigger and faster and stronger across the board.
But the chance of that lessens or, if it happens, the rebound occurs more quickly as the team settles into a routine. And now they have, because the routine couldn’t be complete for players until they actually played a game. Until then, even the seniors still were experiencing something they never dreamed of having to deal with, having been moved and shuffled and postponed until those have become words they won’t want to hear any time soon.

“We’re almost as close to normal as we can be,” Scelfo said. “A lot of things are not like home, but Louisiana Tech (in Ruston, which is where the Wave currently is housed) has done a tremendous job making us feel welcome. We’re the lucky group.”

That they are, considering the world of football into which they can withdraw daily, a time when they can concern themselves with something other than hurricanes and evacuations and disrupted lives.

Coaches actively are recruiting players, even without a home facility or campus to show them.

“Recruits can see what Tulane was before the storm,” Scelfo said. “They’ve got to have confidence that it will be rebuilt better than before, like we do.”
After the opener, you don’t doubt that he can help instill that confidence. After that kind of effort, against a team that had such a significant head start, you get the feeling that this will be Scelfo’s best coaching job.

Maybe, it already has been.