Head Coach: Jon Sumrall is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Green Wave with a 9-5 record. They reached the AAC championship game, and even found themselves in the College Football Playoff hunt until Thanksgiving. It was a good first season, but 2024 was the first time Sumrall didn’t win a conference championship as a head coach so it was a disappointment by his standards. It will be fascinating to see what they do next.
Program Outlook: Tulane’s recent evolution as a program has been remarkable. Only in 2018 did they begin to start winning, and things didn’t truly take off until 2022. Just years later Tulane is one of the elite brands in the AAC and a team you must consider one of the favorites to win the conference each year and it doesn’t feel like they’re slowing down any time soon.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Tulane ranks 59th in the country returning 56.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings.. What is weighing Tulane down the most is their offense was absolutely raided by the portal, they lost QB Darian Mensah, RB Makhi Hughes, and their top 3 receivers. Thus Tulane had to use the portal for reinforcements. Key players starts with the QB battle, Ball State transfer Kadin Semonza will battle it out with Brandon Sullivan who was previously at Northwestern and Iowa. Semonza has already produced some exciting plays in camp, he could be a really good player. Illinois transfer Donovan Leary will be part of the competition too. They have a multitude of options at RB, there’s transfers like Maurice Turner, and Arnold Barnes III returns but watch for freshman Jamauri McClure who has received rave reviews this offseason. The defense is loaded, the defensive line is led by Kam Hamilton on the inside who seems primed for a big year and they have some portal help in Santana Hopper (App State) and Mo Westmoreland (UTEP). Sam Howard will lead an excellent linebacker core. The secondary will be led by their safeties Bailey Despanie and Jack Tchienchou. The question marks begins with their receivers. There’s really no telling how it will shake out, Shazz Preston is a talented receiver who’s had some hard luck but a breakout from him would go a long way. The offensive line is another unit that will need to be sorted out. Corner is another big question mark, Tulane made a late spring portal pickup getting a guy the staff was familiar with in Troy corner LJ Green, but there’s not a lot of experience next to him.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Tulane’s schedule is difficult but awesome at the same time. The Green Wave get home opportunities against Northwestern and Duke (along with a chance at revenge against the program that stole Mensah.) Tulane will have road games in the Mardi Gras battle at South Alabama and a game at Ole Miss. Tulane has a balanced AAC schedule facing 4 of the top teams and 4 rebuilding ones. The challenge will be that Tulane has their 4 toughest tests all in a row. This schedule could very likely get in the way of Tulane’s playoff hopes and in general will force this team to really learn on the fly.
Final Thoughts: There’s a lot of trust being put into Sumrall and Tulane’s program as a whole. The Green Wave’s challenges this offseason haven’t been talked about a lot, and they have a big hill to climb but this is a program and coaching staff that can do it. Whether this is simply just a solid team or the best in the conference will be determined by how all the parts come together.
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