The goal here at Wave after Wave Blog has always been to give fans young and old a place to come together and talk Tulane football. I want to link the generation of new fans that have come along with the recent success of the team to those who were here for the glory days of Tommy Bowden. If anyone has a hat from that era, name your price.
I was able to interview one of the authors of the next chapter of Wave football in Joe Craddock earlier this winter. He will hopefully serve as a symbol of our future success. I thought to myself, who would our older fans want to hear from as a symbol of our past success? Who better than the author of the best season in Tulane history, Shaun King.
All of you should know Shaun and what he did for this team in ’97 and of course ’98, but on the off chance you don’t. Let me introduce you to the Tulane Hall of Famer. Check out his Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of fame induction video here and his junior and senior stats below.
- Junior Season 1997: 199/363 (54.8%) for 2567 yards and 24 TD vs. 14 INT. 124 carries for 511 yards and 5 TD.
- Senior Season 1998: 223/328 (68.0%) for 3232 yards and 36 TD vs. 6 INT. 140 carries for 532 yards and 10 TD.
- To put it in perspective, Caleb Williams 2023 stats are as follows
- 266/388 (68.6%) for 3633 yards and 30 TD vs. 5 INT. 97 carries for 136 yards and 11 TD
If the above doesn’t lay it out quite clearly, let me tell you Shaun King was a BALLER at Tulane.
Tulane finished a perfect 12-0 that 1998 season and Shaun finished 10th in the Heisman voting receiving one first place vote over eventual winner Ricky Williams. Whoever the one journalist was that gave Shaun the nod for the trophy, feel free to reach out to me, I will happily buy you a beer.
A lot of people like to give credit to Boise State or even UCF for putting G5 teams on the map with a magical season. Thing is, Shaun and the Green Wave did it when Jared Zabransky was still trying to make his high school’s varsity team. I am not even sure if McKenzie Milton was born yet. The ’98 season was unheard of at the time.
In addition to an undefeated season in college, a super bowl ring and the best single season stats in Tulane history, Shaun possesses great insight about the game of football. I caught up with the living legend below.
What was it like to win in the SuperDome and have a big crowd there? We all know how it looks on Sundays, but most of us have never seen it on Saturdays.
SK: You know it was interesting, we had some crowds that were larger than what we have seen the last few years at Yulman but because the Superdome is so massive, I think the environment they get on campus is much better. When it’s packed, it looks packed. By the time we got to the end of the undefeated season, we were driving a pretty decent crowd. The university did a good job of including the local high school bands and getting the city of New Orleans to support us. The Saints weren’t doing that great at that time so a lot of the Who Dat Nation supported us too. For college kids who had dreams of playing in the NFL to be in an NFL locker room, it was cool. Long term, I like the stadium being on campus, I like Yulman. Once you build it, you can always add to it.
I think the 2024 team might have the highest potential for greatness of any since the 1998 team. How can they live up to these expectations?
SK: The advice I would give them is nothing that happened before you matters. This is its own chapter, the work has to be put in. The commitment to doing it the right way has to exist. Make no excuses, have no explanations. The culture has to re-establish itself. It’s a new coach, a new quarterback, a new core group. Tyjae Spears and those guys playing on Sundays aren’t there. The toughness that Coach Fritz had created is not there. I am not saying they cannot duplicate that and be an even better version but they got to go out and earn everything.
As you mentioned, there is a lot that is new. Is it all going to click? Are expectations too high?
SK: I tend to not create unrealistic expectations. My desire is that we go undefeated every year. Ideally, we can mimic UCF and put up a national championship banner. With the new College Football Playoff, if we handle our business we are probably going to get in. At the same time, no one in the American Conference is sitting still. Those other schools aren’t looking at us like they are afraid of Tulane. You have to have that chip on your shoulder. Now we are the hunted instead of the hunter. That’s an adjustment for a lot of programs. They hired the right guy in Coach Sumrall, he won at Troy and he is familiar with New Orleans. He understands the task at hand. When you bring in a highly recruited player into a program that wasn’t the one he chose out of high school, where is his mindset? How much does he want it? Don’t talk me to death. Show me.
How do you feel about high school recruiting in today’s game?
SK: At out of all the things that I despise about the game of football, high school star ratings are at the top of the list. I wish they would do away with it completely. Those rankings are given a lot of times by people who haven’t played the game, who haven’t coached the game. I am not saying they are not passionate about the game, but they don’t necessarily have the pedigree or the experience.
Building on that, I’d love to hear your opinion on someone like Ty Thompson. He had 4 or 5 stars in high school, but what does he need to do to be an elite college quarterback like you were?
SK: He has got to produce. He as all of the physical attributes. He is a big kid, you have seen him make all the throws. It is super hard to evaluate Arizona High school football. Having lived in Phoenix, they have a handful of schools that play at a high level, but the rest of the state doesn’t have the same kind of athlete. They aren’t competing with the caliber of kids week in and week out like they would in be in the south or in Texas or California.
The first question you ask is what happened at Oregon. Why’d they feel the need to get Bo Nix? Why’d they feel the need to go get Dylan Gabriel? For whatever reason, they felt like needed to get someone else. Sometimes, a kid just needs a change of scenery. I am hoping that is what it is with Ty.
It is hard to find a lot of film on him. I am watching him in the spring game and he looks good. I am thinking to myself, why do they think they need a transfer. Hopefully, we are getting a gem. Hopefully, next year people in Oregon are asking why in the hell did we let Ty Thompson go. At the same time, he has never won a game as a starter in college, let’s start small. Let’s beat Southeastern in week 1.
I think it’s fair to start small. What can you tell fans that are getting carried away with recent success?
SK: I get it, they are tasting success. Success is a great thing. College football is such a beautiful concept that brings the current and the past together. It is the glue that keeps the community rowing in the same direction in a lot of cities. I love college football, but a lot of times the expectations can get in front of the reality.
The reality is this Tulane team is a team that has not done a lot of winning games together. The pieces are coming from other places. There are two new systems, there is some work that has to be done to play winning football. Hopefully, they do it and we don’t miss a beat. If we don’t go undefeated or if we don’t win the conference, I am not going to treat it as a failure. I am going to look at it as are we getting better as the season goes on?
What was your best memory of the 1998 season and what stays with you to this day?
SK: The Liberty bowl win. That showed that it still comes down to the players. As great a job as Tommy did and Tommy’s MY guy. We wanted rich rod to get the head job and Chris Scelfo is my guy. There was so much adversity from the la tech to the bowl game. We lose our head coach and he guy we wanted to get the job is sitting there waiting to get the job and didn’t get the job. The players stayed committed to finishing the job right. There was a lot going on. Coaches weren’t sure if they were staying or if they were going with Tommy. We stayed locked in, and beat a good byu team. Rob Morris, John Tate, Reno Mahe. Their head coach now was on that team, he was the full back. If we lose that game, nobody talks about that season the same way. We still got the ace in the hole, we still got the joker any time we go on campus. Hope someone else gets one, hope it’s this year.
Which game are you most looking forward to this season?
SK: I’d love to be able to beat K state. That’s a revenge spot for them. I think a lot of coach Kleinman from North Dakota state and the job he has done at K State. They won the Big 12 a couple of years ago. For us to go in to Manhattan and win, this is going to be a game they have circled. They are gonna come in ready to handle business. I am excited about our young talented team, and that game sticks out. The big dogs have left the AAC for the most part so that one really sticks out. We start the season with 5 out of 7 on the road. We are going to find out what kind of team we have.
Who is your favorite player ever to put on the green wave uniform?
SK: Terrence Jones. Louisana Jones. He was a baller he doesn’t get enough credit for how good he was. He really doesn’t.
With Shaun bringing up Terrence Jones, it is worth plugging that Michael Arata of FTW recently reported he is doing great in his recovery from a stroke. We are all supporting him and so happy to hear that he is doing well.
What do you see as the ceiling for Tulane football in the modern era?
SK: College Football Playoff berth, absolutely. With the new 12 team tournament, the top non power 4 champion gets in right? When you talk about non power 4 teams, we are right there. I don’t know how those last two Pac-12 teams factor in (Washington State & Oregon State), but we are right there.
There you have it Tulane fans, 30 minutes with Shaun King. Let me know who you want to hear from next and we’ll see if we can make it happen for you.
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