Finally, football season has arrived at all levels

NEW ORLEANS – Football season started Tuesday.

No staring gun was fired, no games were played and there was no official proclamation.

But the transition from preseason camp training to preparations for season openers was unmistakable.

The high schools have completed their scrimmages and jamborees and a full schedule begins Thursday and carries through Saturday.

No. 24 Tulane plays its opener against South Alabama on Saturday night in Yulman Stadium, and No. 5 LSU plays No. 8 Florida State in its season opener on Sunday night in Orlando, Florida.

The New Orleans Saints don’t play their opener until September 10, when they face the Tennessee Titans in the Caesars Superdome, but they played their preseason finale this past Sunday and concluded training camp by forming their 53-man regular-season roster Tuesday afternoon.

The most tangible sign of the impending start of football games that count came in the form of the first monthly luncheon of the 85th year of the New Orleans Quarterback Club at The Cannery.

The panel featured Saints and Pelicans principal owner Gayle Benson, Tulane head coach Willie Fritz, LSU administrator Verge Ausberry, John Curtis Christian head coach J.T. Curtis and St. Martin’s Episcopal head coach Kevin Dizer.

The group of speakers attracted a larger crowd than normal as optimism, which always runs high as August becomes September, is running a bit higher than normal.

The Saints hope that the arrival of free agent quarterback Derek Carr will help them bounce back from a 7-10 record in Dennis Allen’s first season as head coach and end a two-year absence from the NFL playoffs.

Benson called this “a special time for football in Louisiana” and said she “fully expects the Saints to be back in the playoffs this year.”

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Fritz is beginning his eighth season after leading the Green Wave to arguably the most memorable season in program history in 2022.

Tulane finished 12-2 after winning the American Athletic Conference championship and defeating USC in the Cotton Bowl. The Green Wave were ranked No. 9 in the final AP poll in January and have been named the preseason favorite to repeat at AAC champions.

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A common theme among the speakers was the value of proven quarterbacks to the high expectations for each team represented.

Curtis congratulated Benson on the signing of Carr, Fritz cited the Green Wave’s “great quarterback” in Michael Pratt, who figures to become the school’s all-time leader in touchdown passes and passing yards early in the season, and Ausberry noted the value of Jayden Daniels to the Tigers’ championship aspirations.

Ausberry, a former LSU linebacker, is in his 22nd season working at the school, which has national aspirations entering head coach Brian Kelly’s second season. Kelly’s first Tigers finished team finished 10-4, won the SEC West and routed Purdue in the Citrus Bowl at the same time that Tulane was winning the Cotton Bowl.

Fritz placed his tongue in his cheek as he thanked Ausberry for LSU’s lopsided bowl victory that led local fans to “stop watching and turn to our game.”

Ausberry said the Tigers expect to play their opener as scheduled Sunday evening after the impending threat from Hurricane Idalia clears the area.

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Curtis, whose defending Division I state champion Patriots open the season against Central Lafourche on Friday at the stadium formerly known as Zephyr Field, is poised to become the winningest coach in football history this fall.

He enters his 55th season with 615 win and needs six to tie and seven to break the record held by John McKissick of Summerville, South Carolina. Curtis has led his school to a record 28 state championships, including the Division I title in 2022.

Curtis glossed over the impending historic accomplishment, saying “it just means you’re old and getting older.”

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Dizer, who was head coach at Riverside Academy from 2018-21, is beginning his first season as St. Martin’s head coach.

The Saints are coming off their first trip to the state semifinal and feature one of the most sought-after recruits in the country in junior running back Harlem Berry.

Dizer recalled his Riverside team playing St. Martin’s when Berry was a freshman and thinking Berry was just a speedy one-trick pony after watching film.

“But 300 yards later,” Dizer said, “I could see he was the real deal.”

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Later Tuesday, the New Orleans Saints held their first practice since trimming their roster to the regular-season limit of 53.

The most surprising moves were the release of defensive back Bradley Roby, the trade of kicker Wil Lutz to Denver in favor of keeping undrafted rookie Blake Grupe, and the release of veteran punter Blake Gillikin in favor of Lou Hedley.

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Allen called the decision to release Roby “extremely difficult.” With Roby’s departure, second-year player Alontae Taylor and Ugo Amadi, a fifth-year veteran that the Saints signed as a free agent, are the candidates to be the starting slot cornerback.

The specialists are “four guys who are NFL caliber,” Allen said, and “we decided to go with the young guys.”

New Orleans reportedly will receive a seventh-round draft choice from the Broncos

“Wil was a good kicker for us for a while,” Allen said. “Obviously that was a tough decision. We had a chance to get something of value and we had another kicker in the building that we had confidence in.”

Grupe’s only miss of the preseason came from 60 yards in the preseason finale.

“It’s been a wild ride,” Grupe said after practice. “I just tried to take advantage of every opportunity. I knew I had to bring it every day because there was a guy who has been here and done it. I couldn’t have asked for a better guy to compete against or learn from.”

Hedley, a 30-year-old rookie who was an Australian Rules football player and punted for the University of Miami, said he had the utmost respect for Gillikin and predicted that Gillikin would “go on and have a great year with someone else.”

The Saints also released two former LSU players – running back Darrel Williams and wide receiver/return specialist Jontre Kirklin – and former Tulane linebacker Nick Anderson.

On Wednesday, NFL teams can start filling out their 16-player practice rosters, which Allen called a “process that never really ends.”

The coach added that any decisions to put someone on injured reserve likely would happen next week. Players had to be on the active roster after Tuesday’s deadline in order to be eligible to return from IR during the season.

When asked if recently signed veteran linebacker Jaylon Smith, who was released after playing well in the last two preseason games, was a candidate to be re-signed, Allen replied “absolutely.”

The coach also said “the last game was important” for 36-year-old tight Jimmy Graham, who sat out last season and made the Saints after catching three passes and scoring a touchdown Sunday.