By GEORGE MAHL

Question: What were you doing on the weekend of Oct. 13-14 , 2001.

I don’t blame you if you can’t remember.

Some of you may have been raking leaves in your yard. Others may have been enjoying a walk in the park with family members. I remember watching the Yankees begin their ascent toward another World Series appearance.

Not only did that weekend mark days six and seven of the United States’ attack on Afghanistan, but it was also the last time the Saints, Tulane, and LSU all won their football games on the same weekend.

That was until this past weekend. It was so hard to believe that I actually pinched myself to see if it was true or not. I really did not think much of it during the weekend. Mainly because I was almost certain that with Tulane not playing well on the road and the Saints playing against a Super Bowl-caliber team like Tampa Bay, it simply was not going to happen.

The only thing I was sure of was that, hopefully, LSU would simply roll over an overmatched Citadel team. However, when the Green Wave rolled into Houston on Saturday and chalked up an impressive victory – it was their first Conference USA road victory in more than a year – I started thinking that, well, maybe it could happen. Then again, it still seemed unlikely.

With LSU doing as they pleased with The Citadel two of the three pieces of the puzzle were complete. Despite getting beat, I thought The Citadel played pretty well. Losing by a score of 35-10 to LSU is nothing to complain about, if you are a small school. It sure is better than getting beat 77-7 by Florida or Florida State.

Then came Sunday.

It was up to the Saints to pull off the hat trick. I noticed during one of the critically acclaimed National Football League pregame shows that one of the analysts picked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to represent the National Football Conference in next years Super Bowl. I figured that with Tampa Bay having a new coach (Jon Gruden) and a new offense that his team would steam roll over the black and gold. I have never been so happy to have been wrong in my whole life. Well, by 6:45p.m, the rare occurrence was complete. I then went outside to see if the moon was blue or if it was snowing.

My only complaint is my alma matter, Nicholls State, was trounced by North Texas, 23-0.

GEORGE MAHL is a staff reporter whose primary responsibility is sports.