If you are an LSU football fan, the 2018 edition should be one of your all-time-favorite teams. Think about it. When’s the last time you can say an LSU football team overachieved? That certainly wasn’t true in the Les Miles era. As much success as Miles had (two BCS title games, two SEC titles, one national title), there was always that queasy feeling inside that this litany of Top 5 recruiting classes should have accomplished more. The overachievers, this season, are many. Tailback Nick Brossette, banished to the bench after last year’s fumble on the opening play in an upset loss to Troy, led the SEC in rushing touchdowns with 10. Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, allegedly too tiny to be an effective back in best league in the land, is averaging 4.96 yards a carry. He has five rushing touchdowns.

Hope you enjoyed the bye week, because when your Saints get back to work this Sunday, they will enter the most important three-game stretch in the 2018 season. At the bye, New Orleans looked like the second-best team in the NFC. Quarterback Drew Brees, who broke the NFL record for passing yards in a career, was off to a very fast start.  Brees had thrown 11 touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He led the NFL in both completion percentage (77.9) and quarterback rating (122.3). Saints running back Alvin Kamara had five rushing touchdowns, and running back Mark Ingram scored on two runs in his return in a Monday night victory over Washington. The Saints defense improved significantly after a season-opening loss to Tampa Bay. That loss looks more like an outlier with each passing week. And, head coach Sean Payton is beginning to get contributions from the top of his 2018 draft class. Defensive end Marcus Davenport has two sacks and a forced fumble, and wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith has two touchdown receptions. So, the black-and-gold arrow is pointed up.

That Joe Chango is the head football coach at Country Day is a very good thing for the school. Give the credit to director of athletics Mike McGuire. And since McGuire is also the boys’ basketball coach, give the assist to science teacher Don Hattier, who worked at St. Charles Catholic with Chango in the late ’90s. So, when Country Day was searching for a football coach after the 2014 season, McGuire said Hattier recommended Chango. McGuire said Chango, then an assistant coach at Jesuit, made a huge impression in his job interview. “Joe played at a small school,” said McGuire. “He understands that you have to play both ways.” On a Friday night at Newman, Chango said the Cajuns dressed out 32 players against the Greenies. The Cajuns were on the cusp of their first loss of the season. They trailed 28-7 in the third quarter, and 31-14 in the fourth. 

Personnel moves can either sink or elevate an NFL franchise. In 2003, the Saints spent two first-round picks on defensive tackle Johnathan Sullivan. In 36 career games, Sullivan produced 1.5 quarterbacks sacks.

The call happened on a Monday afternoon after a Saints’ win over the Cleveland Browns. “Drew Brees almost cost us the game,” said the caller, who professes to be a football expert. “I am not sure he has it anymore.”

If any coach in college football understands the value of talent procurement, it is LSU’s Ed Orgeron. On a Saturday in Auburn, Alabama, Orgeron’s career record climbed above .500 (34-33) with a 22-21 win over the nation’s then seventh-ranked team.

Was it really that much of a surprise?  After years and years of out-of-town owners, and years and years of empty seats, our Triple-A baseball team is departing, no later than September 2021. That’s when the Baby Cakes’ lease with the Superdome Commission expires.

In his appearance before the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation Quarterback Club, former Saints right tackle and rookie play-by-play man Zach Strief answered the question before it was even asked.

Sunday night, the purple-and-gold sky will either be falling or there will be unbridled optimism by a somewhat fickle LSU fan base. Their Tigers open the season Sunday night against the University of Miami in Arlington, Texas. 

On a recent local TV show, Tulane University’s director of athletics Troy Dannen detailed one of the reasons why he hired men’s basketball coach Mike Dunleavy. “Our basketball program needed shock paddles,” said Dannen.

It was the last hurrah before the start of the football season. My wife Robin and I headed to Europe, a sojourn we had planned for a few years. Rob likes to cruise, meet new friends, check out some history, and she says she even likes spending time with me. Go figure.

In the midst of an unbeaten season in 1998, Tulane’s head  coach Tommy Bowden and LSU director of athletics Joe Dean were guests of the New Orleans Quarterback Club. Bowden was taking questions from the audience: “Why doesn’t LSU play Tulane in football?” Bowden simply bent the microphone over to Dean. The crowd chuckled. The question at the time seemed relevant. Especially when the Green Wave, in 1997 and 1998, won 19 games and lost four. Jog ahead 20 years. Tulane director of athletics Troy Dannen said LSU and the Green Wave will not play baseball in the 2019 season. Dannen said it is likely the clubs will play one game, the Wally Pontiff Classic at the Shrine on Airline, in 2020.

At the LSU caravan stop in Metairie, the official line was transfer quarterback Joe Burrow has to come to fall camp and win the job. But, behind the curtain, there’s always a back story. And, that story is LSU coaches are very impressed with the former Ohio State Buckeye. They are impressed with his skills and his leadership abilities. Perhaps, for one of the most offensively starved fan bases in the Southeastern Conference, there is light.

That former LSU coach Les Miles is no fan of his successor is no secret. Miles made it official recently during an appearance on a Houston radio show. Miles was reacting to a comment made in the spring by head coach Ed Orgeron. Orgeron was quoted by The Advocate when asked about the LSU offense: “I ask the fans to be patient. We are not where we need to be, but we’re going to get there.” Miles reacted, telling the Houston radio host the following: 

This week, the Saints wrap up their offseason with mini-camp at the club’s Metairie facility. Coaches will do what they always do. They will coach their players hard and make sure that no detail is missed. But, there is something else that Saints head coach Sean Payton must coach against this summer and throughout the season. And, that is the notion that somehow the success of 2017 will carry over.

At Tulane University, the time has come for the school to fix its baseball problem.  Since 2008, Tulane’s once flagship athletic team has reached the NCAA Tournament twice. The reason why is something that has persisted through the end of the very successful tenure of Rick Jones, through the brief and successful tenure of David Pierce, and now through two years of current head coach Travis Jewett.

It was a tell-all visit by a free-agent quarterback. When Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow stepped on campus at LSU in mid-May, Tigers’ head coach Ed Orgeron was telling all about his personal evaluation of the quarterbacks currently on campus.

He could have departed 25 years ago for a Division I head coaching job, but he’s glad he stayed. Delgado baseball coach Joe Scheuermann is now 32 wins shy of 1,000. “Not many junior college baseball coaches get 1,000 wins,” said Scheuermann. “That all of those wins are at Delgado, makes it even more special.”

The draft-day hysteria began early when a reporter from the in-house NFL Network said the Saints were making calls to other teams about possibly trading up in the first round. Ian Rappaport reported that the Saints were interested in “likely a quarterback to be the heir apparent to Drew Brees.”

There’s tangible evidence that Tulane football is ready to turn the corner – a big, wide turn toward respectability. Winning has been an elusive endeavor Uptown. Since winning eight games and the Hawaii Bowl in 2002, the Green Wave has had one winning season. Since 2002, Tulane has won three or fewer games in seven seasons.