NEWS

At the Greater New Orleans Quarterback Club's October luncheon, the Saints owner named who is responsible for fixing the season, the state's winningest prep coach warned that unqualified agents are reaching high school freshmen, and leaders from LSU, LSU New Orleans, and Tulane described where their programs stand.

By Kim M. Braud | October 13, 2026

NEW ORLEANS - Saints owner Gayle Benson told a luncheon crowd at The Cannery on Tuesday that her team's 1-4 start is not acceptable and that she holds herself and her football leadership responsible for turning it around.

"That is not acceptable to me, and it falls short of what our fans deserve," Benson said.

She spoke at the October meeting of the Greater New Orleans Quarterback Club, now in its 88th year. The program also featured John Curtis Christian head coach J.T. Curtis, LSU football general manager Billy Glasscock, LSU New Orleans athletic director Mike Giorlando, and longtime Tulane radio analyst Steve Barrios. The club's pre-event announcement had listed Tulane athletic director David Harris. Barrios spoke for Tulane instead, and Harris is scheduled for the November meeting.

Benson: a milestone season, a losing record

Benson framed her remarks around the franchise's 60th season, a year built around anniversaries.

Twenty years ago, she recalled, the Saints returned to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, and the city remembers Steve Gleason's blocked punt and the roar that followed. This season's anniversary game against Atlanta ended in a loss. "Losing this year's anniversary game to Atlanta was disappointing," she said. "Hearing our fans' memories of that homecoming reinforced how deeply this team is woven into their lives."

The season has also honored Drew Brees, who received his gold jacket at his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in Canton and was inducted into the Saints' Ring of Honor on Sunday. Benson said watching Brees receive the jacket at the stadium bearing her late husband's name was especially meaningful to her. His legacy, she said, includes a standard of preparation, discipline, and accountability. "The best way to honor that legacy is to uphold those standards today."

She then laid out responsibility by role. "Kellen Moore and his coaches are responsible for preparing our players to perform. Mickey Loomis and our football staff are responsible for building a roster capable of sustained success. Our players are responsible for their preparation and execution. I am responsible for holding this organization accountable."

She did not announce any personnel decision.

"Words will not restore our fans' confidence. Our performance must do that."

Paris and the 2031 Super Bowl

Benson also spoke about two efforts that reach beyond the field.

The Saints play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris on October 25 as part of the NFL's Global Markets Program, which assigns teams to build fan relationships in international markets. Benson said she chose France because of its deep historical and cultural ties to New Orleans. She said the team's business staff is working with economic development leaders across Louisiana to attract international business and investment to the city, state, and region, relationships she said can create opportunities at home long after the game ends.

She said she is working to bring the Super Bowl back to New Orleans in 2031. The league has made no promises, she said, and she hopes to hear something in March. New Orleans hosted Super Bowl LIX in February 2025.

Curtis: the season, the standard, and Friday nights

J.T. Curtis, in his 58th season at John Curtis Christian with 28 state championships, opened with a joke about turning some of his Hall of Fame plaques into wins. He called the quality of local high school football the best in the state this year and predicted at least three, maybe four, state champions from the area. He said the Catholic district is the strongest it has been in his time in it, and that whoever built his schedule should reconsider, since his opponents to date are a combined 36-2.

He said he is proud of how his players have competed, including young players growing into their positions, but not pleased with games he believes his team should have won. Echoing Benson, he said correcting those errors is his responsibility.

He spoke about what losing teaches.

"It's a challenge to us as coaches to be able to teach our young men that life is not going to always be the way you want it to, and to learn to persevere."

Curtis said he expects to win every game from here forward and that the pressure is on him to project that expectation onto his staff and players.

He also objected to college football games scheduled on Friday nights. "I think Friday night ought to be left to high school football," he said, because high school players are the future of both college football and the NFL and deserve the spotlight.

He closed by asking the room to stand behind the Saints, and behind Tulane and LSU, through rough stretches. "We don't need to get negative," he said. "We need to stay focused on the big picture and a positive direction forward."

Qualified agents and NIL

When Curtis finished, a woman in the audience asked him about name, image, and likeness money in high school sports.

"It is atrocious. It is the worst that I have ever seen," Curtis said.

He drew a line between the agents professional teams deal with, whom he called qualified professionals, and the people now approaching high school families. "We have people that are unqualified that are listing themselves as agents," he said. He said they are reaching players as young as high school freshmen and their parents with promises they cannot keep. "The bottom line is they can't do anything for them, and we need to get that message out."

Curtis said the effect falls on both parents and players, who come to believe they must perform at a certain level or be left out. That is not the case, he said. Colleges will find the good players, and it is the high school's responsibility to make those players available to them.

Curtis serves on Louisiana's Name, Image, and Likeness Task Force as a Louisiana High School Athletic Association representative from John Curtis Christian. The task force is chaired by state Rep. Rashid Young, D-Homer. Curtis said Tuesday he is working with the Legislature to bring "some semblance of fairness and organization" to high school athletics and has a meeting with the state Senate next week.

Curtis testified this spring in support of what became Act 895 of the 2026 Regular Session, Sen. Patrick Connick's bill extending Louisiana's athlete agent law to anyone who represents high school or college athletes. According to the Attorney General's office, the law took effect June 9, and agents already operating had until August 1 to register with the office's Public Protection Division. The law's digest says agents must give athletes a signed written disclosure for endorsement deals, and athletes may sue agents whose conduct harms their eligibility, finances, or reputation.

Glasscock: "the best and the hardest job"

Billy Glasscock, in his first year as LSU's general manager after two seasons in the same role at Ole Miss, spoke days after an LSU road loss and said nobody in the program feels good about it.

"College football is changing at a speed that is hard to even keep up with," he said. He told the room he calls this "the best and the hardest job" he has ever had.

The scale explains part of it. Glasscock said LSU football has 93 full-time employees, 116 players, and 90 student workers, with the expectation of winning every game it plays. "That's what we signed up for," he said.

He described a system in which a front office, personnel staff, scouting department, and coaching staff each grade a prospect on talent, football character, personal character, and durability. Those grades set the player's value, and every roster decision affects the next one. LSU also uses what he called a "gym rat grade," built from measures such as vision testing and processing ability, to identify players suited to a schedule of road games and prime-time kickoffs.

Asked about spending on high school recruits, Glasscock said the largest contracts go to starters. "The best players have to make the most money," he said, comparing it to how a veteran employee would feel if a new hire earned more. LSU does not make decisions to win recruitments, he said, but on who a player truly is and will become, because players can leave every year. A recruit who asks for more than the rest of the roster combined is "not the right move," he said.

Asked whether a salary cap is coming, he said he did not know and saw it as a long way off, since college football has no collective bargaining.

Giorlando: LSU New Orleans, "NOLA made, world ready"

Mike Giorlando, named athletic director in May, said his message since his introductory press conference has been that LSU New Orleans has to be a major player in the city again.

The university took that name on July 1 after operating as the University of New Orleans. Giorlando said the athletic department had four full-time administrative staff on that date, including two sports information directors, and has since hired eight more, seven of them from the New Orleans area. He said campus departments, from facilities and IT to finance and enrollment, are working together in ways the campus has not seen in some time, and credited the university's executive leadership.

He said the athletic department is focused on three goals: increasing enrollment, re-engaging with the community, and becoming a resource for local high schools.

On enrollment, coaches now travel with the enrollment team to local high schools, and enrollment staff set up at every camp and team event that brings high school students to campus, where assistant coaches greet prospective student athletes and their parents.

For high schools, the department was to host its first compliance breakfast for high school athletic directors at Lakefront Arena on Wednesday, with 35 signed up. "We want to be the resource that they can depend on," Giorlando said.

He described upgrades to the arena unveiled at a sold-out basketball tip-off luncheon last Friday, including a rebranded court, an LED scorer's table, ribbon boards, and video boards. He announced the hiring of former privateer star Ervin Johnson and former LSU coach John Brady, who took the Tigers to the 2006 Final Four, as full-time assistants on the men's basketball staff.

"We are a department that's going from a transactional department to a transformational department," he said.

Two dates are next. The LSU New Orleans Athletic Hall of Fame inducts its next class on November 6 during homecoming week. The men's basketball team tips off its home opener the next day, November 7, at 1 p.m. at Lakefront Arena, at Leon C. Simon Drive and Franklin Avenue.

Barrios: Tulane's search for consistency

Steve Barrios, in his 44th year as color analyst on Tulane football radio broadcasts, said the team's biggest problem has been consistency.

Injuries have hurt, he said, including the loss of the team's leading tackler and a top running back. But inconsistency at quarterback and dropped passes have been the larger issue. As a former wide receiver, he said, watching receivers drop balls that hit them in the hands "drives me crazy."

He previewed Friday's game against Memphis at 6:30 p.m. at Yulman Stadium as a real challenge. He described Memphis as 5-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play, with a quarterback completing about 70 percent of his passes, a running back averaging about seven yards a carry, and a senior tight end he expects to be a high draft pick. Memphis leads the American Conference in sacks and explosive plays, he said.

Barrios also recalled playing on Tulane's 1970 Liberty Bowl team and being drafted by the Saints in the 14th round in 1972. He said he went on to be cut by the team three times, the last after catching a single 10-yard pass in a 1976 preseason game, and that the Saints remain his favorite team after Tulane.

Prep honors

The club recognized its recent prep players of the week, who will be honored at the year-end awards luncheon December 15.

• Week 3: Ashton Stark, receiver and defensive back, Lutcher High School, a Kansas State commitment
• Week 4: Jaelle Noble, quarterback, St. Augustine, in a 42-32 win over John Curtis Christian
• Week 5: Ty Williams, defensive back, Edna Karr, three interceptions in a 25-21 win that extended Karr's winning streak to 32 games
• Week 6: Evan Dufour, running back, St. Charles Catholic, 204 rushing yards in a 28-20 win over previously unbeaten St. James

Holy Cross defensive lineman Jaden Sterling received the club's Scholar-Athlete of the Month award, sponsored by the Sunseri Law Firm. Sterling, who said he wants to be an entrepreneur and is considering Morehouse and Clark Atlanta, thanked his mother, family, coaches, and school.

"I just want to let myself be an inspiration to my fellow athletes, or even my fellow scholars, to always keep pushing," he said.

The club meets next on Tuesday, November 17, at The Cannery, 3803 Toulouse Street, with Saints and Pelicans president Dennis Lauscha, Tulane athletic director David Harris, Allstate Sugar Bowl chief executive Jeff Hundley, and LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine among the scheduled speakers.

Kim M. Braud is the Founder & Editor of Evans Cutchmore Press, an independent newsroom covering Louisiana and the Gulf South, and the author of Financial Power for Life™, a financial literacy framework that helps people earn, protect, grow, leverage, and transfer wealth. Her reporting focuses on government, infrastructure, business, culture, and the public policies that shape communities, with a commitment to highlighting progress and the people doing meaningful work in a news landscape often dominated by conflict and crisis.

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