The Current

It's game week. Tulane kicks off with South Alabama on Saturday, and this is our debut episode of The Willie Fritz Show on The Current. This show will post every Wednesday morning during the season. Today, Coach Fritz previews the match-up with the Jags and shares some stories of his old friend Sam Pittman, the newly minted head coach of Arkansas. Plus, conversations with Green Wave kicker Merek G...

Andrew Allegretta, Steve Barrios and Jimmy Ordeneaux from the Tulane Sports Network look at the key questions leading into the 2020 season. How will Keon Howard do as the starting quarterback? Who will the breakout stars be? How many games can the Wave win? Can an AAC team make the College Football Playoff in 2020? Plus, much more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Pri...

Hometown Heroes: In conjunction with our NOLA Built campaign, The Current will feature interviews with impactful members of the Tulane Athletics family who hail from greater New Orleans. Our first conversation is with Gene and Matt Forte. Gene played for the Wave in the 70s, and then decided to raise his family on the Northshore. His son, Matt, was an overlooked recruit who blossomed into one of t...

Senior joker Patrick Johnson jumps on the podcast to discuss the challenges of playing in a pandemic. Patrick and other Green Wave football upperclassmen had an honest, thoughtful conversation with athletic director Troy Dannen this preseason. That group left encouraged and motivated by the way Tulane has cared for its student-athletes. Plus, getting the defensive line back to 2018 levels, players...

AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco joins The Current to discuss the biggest questions facing college athletics as we get closer to kick-off. Just this week UNC and NC State went online-only for classes. While Notre Dame paused in-person classes. Meanwhile in the AAC, Tulsa stopped football practices after 8 members of the program tested positive for COVID-19. Our conversation ranges from eligibility adj...

Quarterback Keon Howards jumps on the podcast to discuss the stress created by the hovering uncertainty in college football. Plus, Keon hits on the opportunity in front him and what he hopes - as an individual and team - to prove during the 2020 college football season. Then, special teams analyst Chris Couch joins the conversation to talk about an offseason study he did on Wil Lutz and Thomas Mor...

Andrew Allegretta talks with head football coach Willie Fritz and head men's basketball coach Ron Hunter about how their teams are approaching the uncertainty in college athletics. Obviously, football's time is running thinner than basketball. The Big Ten and Pac-12 are out for the fall. The Big 12, AAC, Sun Belt, and C-USA (as of this recording) have all reaffirmed their desire to play. Coach Fri...

College athletics continues to twist and turn. Some players are opting out. Some programs are punting on the fall. And all the while, those inside conferences and athletic departments are doing everything within their power to create a safe and sustainable operation for college football. Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen joins the podcast to share what he knows at this moment in time. Plus, sec...

Andrew Allegretta talks Tulane Green Wave football with Phil Steele, author of the most comprehensive yearly college football preview magazine. Topics include his evaluation of QB Keon Howard, the importance of getting the defensive line back to 2018 levels, and his view on the job Willie Fritz has done in Uptown. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at htt...

A pair of baseball conversations on this episode of The Current. Up first, Joey Mellows - a.k.a. "Baseball Brit". Last year, Joey spun a wheel and randomly became a Tulane Green Wave fan, documenting his journey on social media. Andrew & Baseball Brit discuss his trip to New Orleans and his passion for baseball. Then, Andrew talks with Dr. Mark Hamilton, the 2006 Conference USA baseball player...

Andrew Allegretta and Gus Kattengell discuss the biggest moments and biggest calls of the Green Wave 2019-2020 season. Calls are pulled from football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball. These are the four sports Andrew and Gus broadcast on the Tulane Sports Network. This podcast was paired with a social media series on the Tulane Athletics Twitter and Instagram accounts. See Priva...

As the calander flips to early July, the conversation around college football and COVID-19 has seen increased queasiness. Every effort is being made to play football on schedule this fall, but as the country sees an uptick in cases, there's an ever-changing discussion on how to do so as safely as possible. The Athletic's Chris Vannini joins the podcast to shed light on the current feelings inside...

Perry Clark took over the Tulane men's basketball program after one of the more turbulent times in college basketball history. What unfolded was an unlikely story. The first-time head coach led the Green Wave to six 20-win seasons and three trips to the NCAA Tournament in the early 1990s. Why would he take a job after a program had been disbanded? How did he elevate the program? And why did he lea...

Green Wave pitcher Braden Olthoff was electrifying in the pandemic-shorten 2020 college baseball season. The California-native went 4-0 with a 0.32 ERA and 47 Ks. He finished near the top of several NCAA pitching statistics, which earned him All-America honors. After not being selected in the truncated MLB Draft, Olthoff will return to Tulane in 2021. He joins Andrew Allegretta for a conversation...

Green Wave football welcomed two new assistant coaches in the off-season. Byron Dawson will coach the defensive line and comes to Uptown after a successful tenure as the head coach of Evangel Christian in Shreveport. Josh Christian-Young is the new defensive backs coach - with a focus on the safeties. He spent the past handful of years on the staff at Army. But Coach CY goes back more than a decad...

Green Wave football begins voluntary summer workouts on June 15th. Head coach Willie Fritz and team physician Dr. Greg Stewart explain how it will work to run a football program amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Our conversation with Dr. Stewart begins at the 32:00-minute mark and addresses the operational and safety protocols Tulane has established for the health and well-being of the student-athlete...

Jake Gautreau left Tulane in 2001 as one of most decorated Green Wave athletes in history. The Texas-native finished his Tulane career with 58 home runs, a .344 batting average, and 7 All-American honors. Gautreau and his teammates lifted the Wave to the College Worlds Series and helped establish Tulane as an elite baseball program in the country. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy an...

Jeff Duncan and Larry Holder are two of the most respected and knowledgable sports writers in New Orleans. They discuss their perspective on where the Tulane program has been, where it's going, and the most interesting Green Wave stories they've every covered. Plus, an outlook on the 2020 Tulane football team. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https:/...

Quarterback Shaun King will go down as one of the greatest athletes in Tulane Green Wave history. A record-setting performance in 1998. A second-round draft pick in 1999. And a Super Bowl Champion in 2003. King talks with Andrew Allegretta about his career at Tulane - including a conversation about how close 1998 came to never happening. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californ...

Our on-going series "Uptown Legends" visits with some of the most influential members of the Tulane Green Wave community. Former quarterback Steve Foley led the 1973 football team to a 9-3 record, including the hallmark win over 8th-ranked LSU in Tulane Stadium. Foley went on to play in the NFL for more than a decade with the Denver Broncos. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Cali...

Former Green Wave defensive tackle Tanzel Smart has gone from under-recruited to an NFC Champion. The Baton Rouge-native joins the podcast to discuss his football journey. And college football has gone through an analytics revolution in the past decade. ESPN's Bill Connelly developed his SP+ system to better evaluate teams across the country. SP+ predicts Tulane to go 5-7 and miss a bowl game in 2...

College baseball is dealing with as much uncertainty as any NCAA sport. What will roster size look like in 2021? What about transfer rules? How will a new-look MLB draft impact player decisions? Tulane baseball coach Travis Jewett touched on all those topics. Plus, favorite moments from a shortened 2020 season and stories from his coaching career. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy an...

Offensive coordinator Will Hall discusses Darnell Mooney's selection by the Chicago Bears, the offense for 2020 and stories from his playing days. Plus, secondary coach JJ McCleskey talks about being teammates with Pat Tillman and his son, Jalen, signing with the Atlanta Falcons. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-...

Gabe Feldman is the director of the Tulane Sports Law Program and Associate Provost, NCAA Compliance. He's also one of the leading experts in the country on Name, Image, Likeness legislation for college athletics. We talked big picture issues in sports and college sports - including the legal impacts of COVID-19, NIL, sports gambling, and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C...

Tulane men's basketball has signed a trio of significant transfers recently. Men's basketball coach Ron Hunter joins the podcast to discuss the impact of Ryan Murphy, Oton Jankovic, and Gabe Watson. Plus, updates on the roster and the scheduled game in China vs. Washington. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-inf...