APBIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Tulane football players have hotel rooms with power, comfortable beds and running water. They have their computers and DVDs and a nice place to practice every day.
The Green Wave are still having to spend a week practicing away from home after New Orleans was evacuated because of Hurricane Gustav, but it’s nothing like the last time when Katrina uprooted their lives and sent them to Jackson, Miss.
“Guys don’t have the problems we had last time,” Tulane offensive tackle Troy Kropog said. “Nobody is overly worried. Last time we had to spend a few days in a gym sleeping on the floor with no power with 90-something-degree Mississippi heat.”
This time they have air conditioning and everything. Tulane’s football team arrived in Birmingham on Saturday to prepare for their game Saturday at No. 24 Alabama after making arrangements ahead of Gustav last week.
The Green Wave practiced Monday morning at Samford University’s stadium in suburban Birmingham with a cool wind and the sun tucked away behind thick but not yet ominous-looking clouds. It seemed downright pleasant considering the circumstances.
“Everything’s just feeling pretty comfortable,” Kropog said. His family had scattered to hotels in Baton Rouge, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi from Metairie, La.
Reminders of their city and state’s plight were all over the team’s hotel. Besides the 80 players, 25 football-related staffers and 10 administrators, the hotel was filled up with storm evacuees and their pets. But they’re eating lunch in Samford’s cafeteria, strolling around the mall, bowling and going to movies.
It’s a cushy situation, if not exactly peaceful, compared to 2005 and Katrina when the Green Wave played 11 games in 11 different cities, none of them New Orleans.
Defensive tackle Julian Shives-Sams said it’s “a little bit of deja vu,” but he was hardly complaining.
“It’s almost just like an away game for us,” Shives-Sams said. “We could be somewhere else sleeping on gym room floors as in years past. This is definitely an upgrade, almost like paradise compared to what we went through.”
This time they just arrived six days early at the hotel where they had planned to check in Friday night, about an hour from Tuscaloosa.
The players have spent their down time monitoring updates on the news, and even enjoying a little college football.
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“That’s what we have to go back to after all this,” said Shives-Sams, whose family evacuated from Slidell, La. “It’s always on the back of your mind but we’re trying to stay focused on the task at hand. But it’s kind of hard to keep it completely in the back of your mind. Certainly The Weather Channel is something we always stay glued to.”
Center Michael Parenton was hoping to get updates from his parents on their home in Thibodaux, La., through friends who had stayed put. Being able to watch what’s going on is one of many big changes from Katrina.
“Last time we went at least two or three days without seeing any TV at all, because we were in Jackson with the power out,” Parenton said. “Now, it’s kind of weird. We actually do have the television coverage the whole time. It’s kind of been a waiting game.”
Alabama coach Nick Saban, formerly LSU’s head man, was sympathetic to Tulane’s plight. In 2005, his Miami Dolphins had their game with Kansas City pushed up 42 hours on short notice ahead of Hurricane Wilma. They lost 30-20.
“It’s unfortunate that they have to move away from their home facilities but I’m sure their coaching staff and players will do it with a lot of maturity and prepare well for the game,” Saban said.
He said he and his wife, Terry, invited friends from Louisiana to stay at their home in Tuscaloosa or their lake house in Georgia.
For Tulane, the only holdover on the coaching staff from Katrina is running backs coach Greg Davis. With meeting rooms in the hotel and a place for team meals, the big differences are that the players don’t have class — Tulane has canceled classes for the week — and a hotel full of barking dogs.
“That would be the only thing out of the ordinary from any vacation anybody would ever go on in a hotel,” Davis said of the dogs. “There’s more here than I’ve ever seen in any hotel I’ve ever been in.”
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