MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / September 13, 1999

“There are wolves the nation over. And there are all species of ’em.Elsewhere the wolves howl the night long. In Baton Rouge and Louisianathey howl all night and all day.”Those were the departing words of LSU head football coach Bernie Moore in 1947. And 52 years later, they still ring true. Just ask Gerry DiNardo. OrChris Scelfo.

If DiNardo was not on the hot seat with alumni and LSU fans before the season he certainly is now. And this after a 29-21 win against San JoseState. It wasn’t pretty enough for Tiger fans who have become spoiledover the years.

There were some good things to come out of the game and some bad things.

The running game looks solid with Rondell Mealey and Domanick Davis.

Freshman wide receiver Jerel Myers turned in an impressive performance, especially getting to the ball on the 40-yard toss from Rohan Davey that led to the clinching touchdown. Davey was solid and showed poise,especially for his first game. The defense was aggressive in the first half,something that was not the case all too often a year ago.

But the quarterback situation is still unsettled. Craig Nall stilloverthrows too many receivers, a trend that plagued him last year. Thekicking game, which looked solid in the first half, remains a question mark after two missed extra points in the second half. Short passes,especially over the middle, hurt the Tigers in the second half as they did in 1998. And like a year ago, LSU was slow to make adjustments ondefense after San Jose State made them at halftime.

LSU will look to make corrections against North Texas tonight, the Tigers’ final tuneup before opening SEC play next week against Auburn. But onething that was overlooked in all the ugliness of Saturday’s game was that the Tigers made the plays, both offensively and defensively, they need to in order to win. That was not the case a year ago.The wolves are howling at Tulane for the first time in almost two years.

For the first time since Nov. 15, 1997, the Green Wave came out of a gamewith a loss Monday, dropping a 48-14 decision to Southern Miss. The losssnapped a 13-game winning streak and was the Wave’s fourth-worst opening game defeat.

Tulane, which did not turn the ball over in its last five games of 1998, had two Monday, both leading to USM scores. The Green Wave defense wasriddled for 483 yards and the offense, so prolific last year, was held to 269 yards, 15 rushing.

Tulane is a young team – eight players were making their first starts.

They will gain more experience tonight at home against SMU. But last year,in which the Wave went 12-0, over made the wolves in the Superdome hungrier. Welcome back to Louisiana, coach Scelfo, where the wolves willhowl no matter the situation.

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