April 21, 2007

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NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane football team completed its first spring campaign under head coach Bob Toledo this morning with a 56-play scrimmage under sunny skies and a slight breeze at the Westfeldt Practice Facility.

Tulane's offense and defense each had shining moments and both battled to a stalemate. The Green Wave produced 249 yards of total offense, while the TU defense forced two turnovers, held the Wave's rushing attack to 99 yards, registered five sacks and blocked one field goal attempt.

"I thought we did a lot good things and there were a lot of good individual efforts," Toledo said. "The defense did a great job of keeping the offense out of the end zone for the most part. Offensively, we had to fumbles, but we didn't throw any interceptions, and we missed on some plays. But it's always hard offensively to have any consistency and continuity when we are playing so many players. We played three quarterbacks and that is really difficult. But I'm not going to worry about that. Once we get the players that are going to play and we tailor the offense to their ability we'll be fine."

Senior running back Ade Tuyo provided the biggest highlight of the day for the TU offense when he took the handoff, broke a pair of arm tackles and galloped down the right sideline for a 44-yard touchdown scamper. Tuyo led the rushing game with 66 yards on seven carries for a 9.0 average per rush, while sophomore Andre Anderson totaled 34 yards on eight carries.

Junior Scott Elliott completed nearly 67-percent of his pass attempts, hitting 8-of-12 attempts for 80 yards. Elliott's longest throw of the day was a 16-yard strike to senior Gabe Ratcliff, who also led the Green Wave receiving corps with three receptions for 39 yards.

Sophomore Anthony Scelfo was 4-of-7 for 44 yards, while redshirt freshman Kevin Moore was 3-of-7 for 26 yards. TU's quarterback trio combined for a 15-of-26 (.577) effort for 150 yards.

Defensively, sophomore Cody Sparks broke up two pass attempts and recovered a fumble, while Corey Sonnier blocked a 37-yard field goal attempt by sophomore Ross Thevenot. Senior Carlis Jackson, junior Jordan Ellis and sophomore James McMurchy each led the Tulane defense with three stops apiece. McMurchy also registered a tackle for lost yardage.

Junior Evan Lee provided the "lick of the day" when he charged up from his linebacker position and held Anderson to no gain with an echoing hit.

"My main goal for today was to come out of today's game healthy, which we basically did. We really wanted to keep things simple. We did run a lot of different formations and didn't show many things. We wanted to let them play and see what they were capable of doing and have some fun today. Everyone that was capable of playing did so and we wanted to be able to evaluate the kicking game and offense and defense," Toledo said.

"I thought the defensive line did a nice job and the running backs ran really hard. I was really please with them. (Frank) Morton and (Avery) Williams did a nice job on the defensive line and I thought Tuyo and (Ray) Boudreaux did some nice things," Toledo added.

Tulane will play its first game under Toledo when the Wave opens the 2007 campaign at the Louisiana Superdome against Mississippi State on Saturday, September 8 at 6:00 p.m.

Season tickets for the 2007 Tulane football season are now on sale through the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office. Adult sideline seats are $200, while adult end zone seats are $100 and youth (under 18) end zone seats are just $80. For more information, contact the Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE.