Tulane’s football team is going through a range of emotions as they prepare to play No. 2-ranked Oklahoma.
More than half of the team’s 85 players come from Louisiana or Mississippi, so for them, the effects of Hurricane Ida go far beyond having to practice in Birmingham, AL, for a few days.
One player reported that his grandmother’s roof had collapsed.
“They’re all helping each other out,” head coach Willie Fritz said on Monday after practice — before the news was announced that the Green Wave’s season opener had been moved from storm-ravaged New Orleans to Norman. “We’ll get through this.”
Fritz said the team’s two-hour practice at Legion Field on Monday was a welcome aside from all the team has been through.
“Probably the best distraction is football,” he said. “I’ve been doing all sorts of things other than football the last 24 hours. So it was great to get out there on the practice field and practice. I’m sure our guys feel the same way.”
The Green Wave left New Orleans on Saturday before Ida made landfall with sustained winds of 150 mph. The team watched Sunday’s storm coverage from the safety of their hotel in Birmingham. The school on Monday closed campus until Oct. 11, delayed the start of the semester two weeks and will be staging online classes only until then.
“Even though we’re an unbelievably prestigious university, we’re a blue-collar program,” Fritz said. “Our guys are adapting well. They’re doing a super job of understanding this is the hand we’ve been dealt and we’ve gotta deal with it in a positive manner.”
All the last-second adjustments and schedule changes are nothing new for Fritz.
“We’re just kind of rolling with the punches right now,” he said. “I’m very lucky with my background. I’m an old a juco coach so this is no big deal. Heck, I drove the bus to four national championship games. I’ve done the laundry and taped ankles and lined the fields. I’m used to this. Our guys understand.”
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