Tulane Football 1998 season rated best in CUSA history

[tpstulane]

http://www.sunherald.com/2014/07/22/570 ... quads.html

The Sun Herald's Patrick Magee, who has covered Southern Miss for several years, compiled a list of the top five football seasons in Conference USA history. Tulane's undefeated 1998 squad tops his list.

1. Tulane 1998 (12-0): The Green Wave fell short of earning a BCS bowl bid because it didn't beat a ranked team, but it was dominant throughout the season. With offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez calling the plays, Tulane put up big numbers and won every game by double digits. Tulane capped the season with a 41-27 win over BYU (9-5) in the Liberty Bowl and finished ranked seventh.

Louisville's 2004 season where the Cardinals went 11-1 is ranked second and Southern Miss' 2011 squad, which went 12-2, is third. Neither can compare to the Green Wave's 1998 squad, which captured the imagination of the metro area as well as the nation as the ills of the BCS bowl system came to light.
Tulane went 12-0 and easily won the Liberty Bowl against BYU. But a perfect season couldn't give the Green Wave enough strength of schedule points to figure into a BCS bowl. The system, it turned out, didn't seem fair -- particularly to the Olive and Blue nation.

[Jonathan]

What a joke!

[Houma de Wave]

http://www.sunherald.com/2014/07/22/570 ... quads.html

The Sun Herald's Patrick Magee, who has covered Southern Miss for several years, compiled a list of the top five football seasons in Conference USA

Tulane put up big numbers and won every game by double digits.

Except for Louisville, who we were very fortunate to beat 28-22...proving you gotta create a little luck to go undefeated.

[tpstulane]

http://www.sunherald.com/2014/07/22/570 ... quads.html

The Sun Herald's Patrick Magee, who has covered Southern Miss for several years, compiled a list of the top five football seasons in Conference USA

Tulane put up big numbers and won every game by double digits.

Except for Louisville, who we were very fortunate to beat 28-22...proving you gotta create a little luck to go undefeated.

We had the best offense in the country but our defense was lacking.

[sader24]

The defensive stats were fairly skewed bc of how far we were always ahead. We'd sit on the ball I. The 2nd half and the other team would throw every play. Cincy we were up 52-14 ended up 52-34. SMU we were up 31-0 ended up 31-21. Memphis we were up 41-10 ended up 41-31. BYU we were up 34-6 and 41-13. Defense was the reason we beat USM 21-7. We were up on Houston 48-13. The only game I remember the defense having problems was at Army. They beat the sh*t out of Chris Redman in that Louisville game and got the stop at the end. They were responsible for those 2 wins against USM and Louisville when King had the broken hand. They weren't great but they were better than ppl realize.

[IM42lane]

The defensive stats were fairly skewed bc of how far we were always ahead. We'd sit on the ball I. The 2nd half and the other team would throw every play. Cincy we were up 52-14 ended up 52-34. SMU we were up 31-0 ended up 31-21. Memphis we were up 41-10 ended up 41-31. BYU we were up 34-6 and 41-13. Defense was the reason we beat USM 21-7. We were up on Houston 48-13. The only game I remember the defense having problems was at Army. They beat the sh*t out of Chris Redman in that Louisville game and got the stop at the end. They were responsible for those 2 wins against USM and Louisville when King had the broken hand. They weren't great but they were better than ppl realize.

Tulane beat USM 21-7. The defense scored a TD on a pass interception (pick six), and that D held USM in check all game. Shaun King was out for most of that contest with a broken wrist. The D had to step up to win, and it definitely did.

The D also had to step up to beat Louisville on its final drive of the game. The Tulane D kept Redman and a very dangerous L'ville O out of the end zone with time running out for Tulane to hold on to a 6 point victory. Again, the D had to step up to win, and it definitely did.

That D was good enough for Tulane to be UNDEFEATED in 1998. That is OUTSTANDING to me, period.

[IM42lane]

The defensive stats were fairly skewed bc of how far we were always ahead. We'd sit on the ball I. The 2nd half and the other team would throw every play. Cincy we were up 52-14 ended up 52-34. SMU we were up 31-0 ended up 31-21. Memphis we were up 41-10 ended up 41-31. BYU we were up 34-6 and 41-13. Defense was the reason we beat USM 21-7. We were up on Houston 48-13. The only game I remember the defense having problems was at Army. They beat the sh*t out of Chris Redman in that Louisville game and got the stop at the end. They were responsible for those 2 wins against USM and Louisville when King had the broken hand. They weren't great but they were better than ppl realize.

Tulane beat USM 21-7. The defense scored a TD on a pass interception (pick six), and that D held USM in check all game. Shaun King was out for most of that contest with a broken wrist. The D had to step up to win, and it definitely did.

The D also had to step up to beat Louisville on its final drive of the game. The Tulane D kept Redman and a very dangerous L'ville O out of the end zone with time running out for Tulane to hold on to a 6 point victory. Again, the D had to step up to win, and it definitely did.

That D was good enough for Tulane to be UNDEFEATED in 1998. That is OUTSTANDING to me, period.

The Liberty Bowl game against BYU showed me that D was a very significant factor for Tulane to be UNDEFEATED in 1998. DB Michael Jordan intercepted a BYU pass for a pick six which started the scoring for Tulane in that game. All of a sudden, you looked up and Tulane was leading a Levell Edwards BYU team 41-13 late into that game. BYU has always had a great passing game to run up a big score on anyone in the country, and here is the Tulane D holding that club to less than 20 points well into the latter part of the second half. BYU scored two TD's late in that game to make it 41-27, but by that time, the outcome was definitely in Tulane's favor.

QUIT running down that 1998 Defense! It was also UNDEFEATED along with that excellent Offense!

[tpstulane]

I guess they spent a lot of time on the field because our offense would score so fast. Our D did win those USM and UL games to keep us unbeaten. That's for sure.

[jonathanjoseph]

The defensive stats were fairly skewed bc of how far we were always ahead. We'd sit on the ball I. The 2nd half and the other team would throw every play. Cincy we were up 52-14 ended up 52-34. SMU we were up 31-0 ended up 31-21. Memphis we were up 41-10 ended up 41-31. BYU we were up 34-6 and 41-13. Defense was the reason we beat USM 21-7. We were up on Houston 48-13. The only game I remember the defense having problems was at Army. They beat the sh*t out of Chris Redman in that Louisville game and got the stop at the end. They were responsible for those 2 wins against USM and Louisville when King had the broken hand. They weren't great but they were better than ppl realize.

Yep.

[RobertM320]

I didn't want to start a new thread, but here's a really indepth article about our 1998 season with regards to BCS rankings, etc. Long read, but well done.

http://saturdayblitz.com/2016/09/09/mid ... apple-news

[tpstulane]

I didn't want to start a new thread, but here's a really indepth article about our 1998 season with regards to BCS rankings, etc. Long read, but well done.

http://saturdayblitz.com/2016/09/09/mid ... apple-news

Wow great article! Thanks for posting!

[tufinal4]

The BCS formula in those early years was ridiculously stacked. You had to finish top 6 to force an at large bid, not top 16 (& highest ranked non-BCS conference) like in later years. If the top 16 rules later applied had been applied in 1998, Tulane would've received a BCS auto bid.

Even in spite of that, a BCS bowl was free to extend an at large invite to Tulane if they wanted to, and the Sugar Bowl kept Tulane on hold for 3 or 4 days before releasing them to accept a Liberty Bowl invite as CUSA champ. There were Sugar Bowl committee members who were Tulane alums who lobbied hard for it, but ultimately didn't carry the day.

[lurker123]

The BCS formula in those early years was ridiculously stacked. You had to finish top 6 to force an at large bid, not top 16 (& highest ranked non-BCS conference) like in later years. If the top 16 rules later applied had been applied in 1998, Tulane would've received a BCS auto bid.

Even in spite of that, a BCS bowl was free to extend an at large invite to Tulane if they wanted to, and the Sugar Bowl kept Tulane on hold for 3 or 4 days before releasing them to accept a Liberty Bowl invite as CUSA champ. There were Sugar Bowl committee members who were Tulane alums who lobbied hard for it, but ultimately didn't carry the day.

If Cowen had simply sued for antitrust after that happened in 1998 by about 2004, the cartel would have been busted and Tulane would have made a zillion dollars in damages in the meantime. As concerns lawsuits being "uncollegial," it didn't exactly ruin UGA's or OU's athletic programs and reputation to bust up the NCAA TV cartel in the '80's through litigation.

[DfromCT]

We had the best offense in the country but our defense was lacking.

We had an opportunistic defense. Gave up lots of yardage, but also had a knack for creating key turnovers. I particularly remember a pair of them in the USM game, one of which resulted in a touchback for Tulane when USM was literally going across the goal line. Tim Carter and Michael Jordan are names that come to mind.

But clearly, the Offense was what drove the ship. Rich Rod had them playing so well that the BYU team, ranked 5th in the nation in total defense coming into the Liberty Bowl, was just a speed bump.

[RobertM320]

This was already posted in another thread

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5867

[DfromCT]

Tulane beat USM 21-7. The defense scored a TD on a pass interception (pick six), and that D held USM in check all game. Shaun King was out for most of that contest with a broken wrist. The D had to step up to win, and it definitely did.

The D also had to step up to beat Louisville on its final drive of the game. The Tulane D kept Redman and a very dangerous L'ville O out of the end zone with time running out for Tulane to hold on to a 6 point victory. Again, the D had to step up to win, and it definitely did.

That D was good enough for Tulane to be UNDEFEATED in 1998. That is OUTSTANDING to me, period.

King took most of the snaps in the USM game, taking them all in shotgun formation (and one step to his left to catch the snaps with his right hand.) He finished 14-25. Jeff Curtis did come in for a series when Tulane was backed up against our goal line and threw a surprising 30 yard pass out of the end zone. But King played at least 90% of that game.