Matt Forte

[tpstulane]

Thanks. Great stuff.

Yes!! Great highlights for sure!

[HoustonWave]

I always thought of Brister as a journeyman QB, but looking at his stats, he had longevity. Funny thing: His total passing yardage in the NFL is almost identical to Forte's yards from scrimmage.

Heck, he was a jouneyman before he even got to the NFL; signed with Alabama in football but then signed with the Detroit Tigers. Then Tulane, then Northeast Louisiana.

His daddy tried to have Eamon Kelly tell the Coach that Bubby should start (was it ahead of Ken Karcher or Jon English?) When Kelly refused to intervene, Bubby took his ball to another sandlot.

Eamon Kelly would have been wise to intervene on his own account on having the sixth year Son of the Head Coach start in front of Bubba. Brister was a remarkably talented QB who developed a badly injured throwing arm at camp prior the start of the 1983 season. As a result, he did not perform well against State & Ole Miss. Enter Jon English for the FSU game and thereafter English started until the NCAA struck down his appeals.
If Garth Hall (OC), had his choice Bubba Brister would have been on the field for the remainder of the 1983 season and Tulane would have one less coulda-shoulda-woulda story to tell.
BTW: Brister Senior was rightly upset about the way that Bubba's camp injury was handled by the staff.

This is easy to say in retrospect. But the facts were, at the time, the (and I know nothing about the injury) Jon English was better on Gameday than Brister was. English was trying to get the 6th year due to injuries, and it just failed. And yes, IN RETROSPECT we would have been better not getting court injunctions or whatever it was that stayed the NCAA pending appeals. But we probably don't win that FSU game with Bubby at the helm. At least not the same Bubby we saw in the first few games.

If Bubby had an injury and it was mishandled by the Coaching staff, that's something for his dad to be upset about. But being a student that was WAY into Tulane athletics, the story I remember was his father complaining about his son being benched, then transferring when the President of the University would do nothing about it.

Obviously Brister went on to have a solid NFL career, and by all accounts is a great guy and supports Tulane Athletics. I just wish his stay at Tulane didn't end the way it did.

Back to Matt Forte: I admire that he came back after his rookie year and finished his business degree. He'll be successful in the years to come. Way to go, Matt!

I remember it the same way, D. Brister just never seemed to perform well at game time. Although he shouldn’t have been on the field, Jon English did play rather well when he played. He had a kind of strange passing motion, where he straightened his throwing arm before releasing the ball.

[HoustonWave]

I always thought of Brister as a journeyman QB, but looking at his stats, he had longevity. Funny thing: His total passing yardage in the NFL is almost identical to Forte's yards from scrimmage.

Heck, he was a jouneyman before he even got to the NFL; signed with Alabama in football but then signed with the Detroit Tigers. Then Tulane, then Northeast Louisiana.

His daddy tried to have Eamon Kelly tell the Coach that Bubby should start (was it ahead of Ken Karcher or Jon English?) When Kelly refused to intervene, Bubby took his ball to another sandlot.

Eamon Kelly would have been wise to intervene on his own account on having the sixth year Son of the Head Coach start in front of Bubba. Brister was a remarkably talented QB who developed a badly injured throwing arm at camp prior the start of the 1983 season. As a result, he did not perform well against State & Ole Miss. Enter Jon English for the FSU game and thereafter English started until the NCAA struck down his appeals.
If Garth Hall (OC), had his choice Bubba Brister would have been on the field for the remainder of the 1983 season and Tulane would have one less coulda-shoulda-woulda story to tell.
BTW: Brister Senior was rightly upset about the way that Bubba's camp injury was handled by the staff.

Just another in a long line of Tulane football blunders.

Ain’t that the truth. It would be interesting to compare the list of blunders made by coaching staffs versus the blunders made by our administration. My guess is that the administrative list would be longer.

[NOLABigSteve]

[DfromCT]

Happy Birthday, Matt.

The accomplishment that stands out for me is Matt going back and finishing his undergrad degree after his rookie season.

[tpstulane]

Let the honors begin. Matt going into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
https://lasportshall.com/2022/09/14/lou ... Gl6ZiDrmYs

A former Tulane star, Forte, who starred at Slidell High School, was one of the NFL’s top dual threat running backs during his 10-year career with the Chicago Bears (2008-15) and New York Jets (2016-17). He retired at the age of 32 in Feb. 2018 with 9,796 rushing yards and 54 touchdowns while he caught 554 passes for 4,672 yards and 21 TDs for a total of 14,468 yards from scrimmage with 75 TDs.

A two-time Pro Bowler, Forte was a second-round pick (No. 44 overall) of the Bears in 2008 and became a five-time 1,000-yards rusher. In 2014, he rushed for 1,038 yards and caught 102 passes for 808 yards and is one of three backs in NFL history with 1,000 rushing yards and 100 catches in a season (LaDainian Tomlinson, 2003; Christian McCaffrey, 2018). At Tulane, Forte had a breakout season as a senior with a school-record 2,127 rushing yards and averaged 5.9 yards per carry with a school-record 23 TDs. His 4,265 rushing yards are second in school annals behind Mewelde Moore’s 4,364 yards. A two-time All-Conference USA pick, Forte was MVP of the 2008 Senior Bowl.

[tpstulane]

Jersey retired
https://crescentcitysports.com/slidell- ... NkEw56N6I4

[Dave breslin]

Really fine memories of Matt’s playing days. Class act too Happy birthday

[winwave]

Congrats to him. 83 carries for 4,265 yards at Tulane. Wow. Even better than I remembered.

[tpstulane]

[tpstulane]

Matt out there today!

[tpstulane]

Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame coming up soon.

[DfromCT]

Congrats to Matt. A class act and great Tulanian, he was a true student-athlete that returned after his rookie season to get his finance degree.

[tpstulane]

Excellent article here on Matt by LVG
https://lasportshall.com/2023/07/21/ini ... ery-level/