I talked to Frank Scelfo Tuesday afternoon. He wondered if had the longest tenure of anyone who coached at Tulane, so I looked it up and found out his 11 years (under three coaches) from 1996-2006 was the third longest consecutive stretch behind Greg Davis Jr. (12) and someone from the olden days with 13. Here's what he had to say in the interview:
On coming back to play Tulane:
“It’s going to be good. I’ve got great memories of being there. It was 11 seasons. That might have been the longest tenure in the history of Tulane football. I gotta be close. Some great memories. I haven’t seen Yulman Stadium yet. I’m looking forward to doing that. I made some great lifetime friends while I was there in New Orleans, so it’s kind of mixed emotions going back. I want to win. I prepare to win, but I pull for the Wave. I’ve always been a Wave fan my entire life because of the family, but not this Thursday.”
On relationship with Sumrall:
“I really don’t know him that well. I’ve talked to him a couple times and we’ve texted back and forth. I know this—everywhere he’s been they’ve hired him back as the head coach. The next stop will be Kentucky, so once Stoops retires, he’ll be at Kentucky.”
On bouncing back this year:
“We feel good. We weren’t that far off last year. The wins and losses really is not my concern. It’s always about how we perform and how we stack on games week after week after week. Are we getting better or are we getting worse? Our guys played hard last year. I didn’t do a good job managing our team as well as I could have, and I take full responsibility for that.”
On his saying Southeastern would use three quarterbacks:
“It’s kind of like you’ve got three pitchers ready to go, one starter and a couple in the bullpen, and we’ll see how long the starter can go. You always gotta be ready. The next guy’s gotta be next man up.”
On differences and similarities between three QBs:
“They’ve all got good arms. Eli’s a little bit more familiar offensively with the whole system. They’ve all got different skill sets. That’s the main difference, so there might be some things that are more geared towards them individually, but for the most part our offense can run through all three.”
On Damon Stewart, the third quarterback, being at fourth school in four years:
“He’s been here since the summer and has done a good job assimilating within the team. That’s one of the positives of being able to bounce around is that those guys have met a lot of people and learned how to make friends with different types of people and fall into the culture of other teams, too.”
On first-team All-Southland pick (wide receiver, returner) Darius Lewis:
“All those return yards are hidden yards. He does a great job of getting those for us. He’s definitely a weapon for us and he’s got a chance to pick up 10, 12, 15, 20 yards on a punt return, and that’s huge when you look at flipping the field.”
On having played Miss St. and South Alabama tough for long stretches last year:
“You go back and forth with your talent level and each year it’s a different team. The competitive character of our team last year was good. We just didn’t get things done. I think that competitive character’s still here within the culture of our team, and because of that you always have a chance. We don’t go into a game preparing to keep it close. We’ll look up at the end of the game for the scoreboard to find out what it says, and I know it’s coachspeak, but it’s just the way you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to play each play individually and move on to the next.”
On what people are left at Tulane from when he was there:
“Liz Devlin-Ziegler is up in the AD’s office, and she was such a great friend during my time there. In fact I coached her son here the last couple of years at Southeastern. He was born while I was there, which is pretty cool. And then Dr. Greg Stewart is the team doctor. He was our team doctor then. He still takes care of me when I call him. He’s just a really good friend. That’s about it. I don’t know if there’s anybody else there. I know they redid the Wilson Center and walking into the stadium, I haven’t been here, so it’s going to be cool to see.”
On whether he wanted an on-campus stadium when he was at Tulane:
“You get mixed on that. The Superdome was a good place—70 degrees and sunshine every game. It lended itself to what we were doing at the time, which was throwing the football. Our kicking game was always good. We had great punters and kickers, so when you look at those things, but it’s also when you have an on-campus stadium the student body is a lot easier. The fan experience possibly with tailgating, but I know we had some great tailgaters when you look at some of those guys we had. I don’t know. I have mixed feelings about that because I really liked the dome.
On biggest memories of Tulane:
“The couple of years under coach Bowden we went 7-4 and 12-0. Chris took over and O1 we were 6-5 and then 2002 winning the Hawaii Bowl going out there on the island and beating a really good Hawaii football team. Lynaris Elphage, who’s now a local high school coach, took the game over with a couple of punt returns. And then the Katrina team was our best team. We had geared it up after ’02 when they had talked about dropping the program because of the recruiting and the guys that were coming back. Lester Ricard was coming into his own and had that six-touchdown game against UAB at Tad Gormley Stadium and things were just clicking for us in camp when she raised her ugly head and roared into New Orleans.”
On how good Southeastern has been for him:
“It’s been great. This has been good. I’ve been embraced and the community embraces the college. It’s a college town. It’s not like a big city. Other than Louisiana Tech everywhere I’ve been has been a big city, but I really enjoy the small-town feel of everything. You see people in the stands that you know. You see them in church on Sunday. You see them in the restaurants. You see them in town and at the grocery store. That’s a big plus. At some point in time in your career, you’re not sure what you want to do and you keep looking for things and I know that I found it here.”
On Anthony Scelfo being first-time OC:
“He grew up in this game so it’s not something that’s foreign to him. He grew up playing it, grew up in the locker room with me traveling everywhere I’ve traveled, been on planes and buses and sidelines all throughout his life as young as he can remember, and then he played at a high level at Tulane and obviously baseball, too, so he can handle everything that you throw at him. He’s a bright mind. He’s aggressive. He likes to do some things, and I’m looking forward to seeing it unfold. I’m happy to see him having the success at practice and the development of the players. Probably the best thing is his relationship with our guys. That’s what he really does a good job with. He’s very relatable to them and open and honest with them.”
On five Tulane defensive starters who were not on team at end of spring drills:
“Yeah, but they’re five really good players. Adin Huntington is a great player. Everybody knows that, so we’ve got to account for him. You gotta game plan for a guy like that and that’s what we’ve done. We’ll put our best foot forward and see what happens.”
On coming back to play Tulane:
“It’s going to be good. I’ve got great memories of being there. It was 11 seasons. That might have been the longest tenure in the history of Tulane football. I gotta be close. Some great memories. I haven’t seen Yulman Stadium yet. I’m looking forward to doing that. I made some great lifetime friends while I was there in New Orleans, so it’s kind of mixed emotions going back. I want to win. I prepare to win, but I pull for the Wave. I’ve always been a Wave fan my entire life because of the family, but not this Thursday.”
On relationship with Sumrall:
“I really don’t know him that well. I’ve talked to him a couple times and we’ve texted back and forth. I know this—everywhere he’s been they’ve hired him back as the head coach. The next stop will be Kentucky, so once Stoops retires, he’ll be at Kentucky.”
On bouncing back this year:
“We feel good. We weren’t that far off last year. The wins and losses really is not my concern. It’s always about how we perform and how we stack on games week after week after week. Are we getting better or are we getting worse? Our guys played hard last year. I didn’t do a good job managing our team as well as I could have, and I take full responsibility for that.”
On his saying Southeastern would use three quarterbacks:
“It’s kind of like you’ve got three pitchers ready to go, one starter and a couple in the bullpen, and we’ll see how long the starter can go. You always gotta be ready. The next guy’s gotta be next man up.”
On differences and similarities between three QBs:
“They’ve all got good arms. Eli’s a little bit more familiar offensively with the whole system. They’ve all got different skill sets. That’s the main difference, so there might be some things that are more geared towards them individually, but for the most part our offense can run through all three.”
On Damon Stewart, the third quarterback, being at fourth school in four years:
“He’s been here since the summer and has done a good job assimilating within the team. That’s one of the positives of being able to bounce around is that those guys have met a lot of people and learned how to make friends with different types of people and fall into the culture of other teams, too.”
On first-team All-Southland pick (wide receiver, returner) Darius Lewis:
“All those return yards are hidden yards. He does a great job of getting those for us. He’s definitely a weapon for us and he’s got a chance to pick up 10, 12, 15, 20 yards on a punt return, and that’s huge when you look at flipping the field.”
On having played Miss St. and South Alabama tough for long stretches last year:
“You go back and forth with your talent level and each year it’s a different team. The competitive character of our team last year was good. We just didn’t get things done. I think that competitive character’s still here within the culture of our team, and because of that you always have a chance. We don’t go into a game preparing to keep it close. We’ll look up at the end of the game for the scoreboard to find out what it says, and I know it’s coachspeak, but it’s just the way you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to play each play individually and move on to the next.”
On what people are left at Tulane from when he was there:
“Liz Devlin-Ziegler is up in the AD’s office, and she was such a great friend during my time there. In fact I coached her son here the last couple of years at Southeastern. He was born while I was there, which is pretty cool. And then Dr. Greg Stewart is the team doctor. He was our team doctor then. He still takes care of me when I call him. He’s just a really good friend. That’s about it. I don’t know if there’s anybody else there. I know they redid the Wilson Center and walking into the stadium, I haven’t been here, so it’s going to be cool to see.”
On whether he wanted an on-campus stadium when he was at Tulane:
“You get mixed on that. The Superdome was a good place—70 degrees and sunshine every game. It lended itself to what we were doing at the time, which was throwing the football. Our kicking game was always good. We had great punters and kickers, so when you look at those things, but it’s also when you have an on-campus stadium the student body is a lot easier. The fan experience possibly with tailgating, but I know we had some great tailgaters when you look at some of those guys we had. I don’t know. I have mixed feelings about that because I really liked the dome.
On biggest memories of Tulane:
“The couple of years under coach Bowden we went 7-4 and 12-0. Chris took over and O1 we were 6-5 and then 2002 winning the Hawaii Bowl going out there on the island and beating a really good Hawaii football team. Lynaris Elphage, who’s now a local high school coach, took the game over with a couple of punt returns. And then the Katrina team was our best team. We had geared it up after ’02 when they had talked about dropping the program because of the recruiting and the guys that were coming back. Lester Ricard was coming into his own and had that six-touchdown game against UAB at Tad Gormley Stadium and things were just clicking for us in camp when she raised her ugly head and roared into New Orleans.”
On how good Southeastern has been for him:
“It’s been great. This has been good. I’ve been embraced and the community embraces the college. It’s a college town. It’s not like a big city. Other than Louisiana Tech everywhere I’ve been has been a big city, but I really enjoy the small-town feel of everything. You see people in the stands that you know. You see them in church on Sunday. You see them in the restaurants. You see them in town and at the grocery store. That’s a big plus. At some point in time in your career, you’re not sure what you want to do and you keep looking for things and I know that I found it here.”
On Anthony Scelfo being first-time OC:
“He grew up in this game so it’s not something that’s foreign to him. He grew up playing it, grew up in the locker room with me traveling everywhere I’ve traveled, been on planes and buses and sidelines all throughout his life as young as he can remember, and then he played at a high level at Tulane and obviously baseball, too, so he can handle everything that you throw at him. He’s a bright mind. He’s aggressive. He likes to do some things, and I’m looking forward to seeing it unfold. I’m happy to see him having the success at practice and the development of the players. Probably the best thing is his relationship with our guys. That’s what he really does a good job with. He’s very relatable to them and open and honest with them.”
On five Tulane defensive starters who were not on team at end of spring drills:
“Yeah, but they’re five really good players. Adin Huntington is a great player. Everybody knows that, so we’ve got to account for him. You gotta game plan for a guy like that and that’s what we’ve done. We’ll put our best foot forward and see what happens.”