Star Tulane Football Transfer Highlights Value of Relationships in Recruiting

NEW ORLEANS, La. — Tulane Green Wave football head coach Jon Sumrall has called the defensive line room deeper and potentially more talented heading into the 2025 college football season.

With so many additions, the standouts are new by the day, but Appalachian State Mountaineers defensive lineman Santana Hopper has frequently flashed with pressure in the face of the competing quarterbacks.

Linebacker Dickson Agu spoke of his excitement to play behind stars like Hopper on Tuesday and that he immediately flashed when joining the program.

“He popped out quick when he got here,” Agu said. “His shock and shed is crazy. It's nothing we've ever seen before. Harvey [Dyson], he's crazy too from Texas Tech. We got a whole bunch of new dudes, and they're showing that they could play quickly on this D-line. It is what we needed after losing so many D-linemen last year.”

It’s an impressive feat for a Group of Five program to have such a deep room in the trenches, and it sticks out how many players wanted to join a loaded group.

However, the choice for Hopper was simple, as another example of a player who was guided by someone that had a connection with his future head coach.

“There were many connections here,” Hopper said. “It wasn't a big change with the football side of things. My last coach used to coach with Coach Sumrall, my D-line coach at App. He coached with Coach Sumrall at Troy. He was telling me how they were just good people up there, and I was pretty much sold when I came on my visit.”

Hopper’s previous defensive line coach, Eric McDaniel, only spent one season with Sumrall as head coach. The impression was lasting enough for him to send his player there through the transfer portal.

While quarterback TJ Finley is currently suspended from the program, his high school coach had a connection with Sumrall that helped the recruiting process along. Kadin Semonza’s former head coach was on Tulane’s staff when Sumrall was co-defensive coordinator.

As much as NIL and the bottom line drive transfer portal movement, Sumrall and the Green Wave are a strong reminder that relationships matter just as much to building a culture that attracts incoming competitors.

There’s also a clear standard that the players pick up on, something Hopper said he hadn’t really experienced at the collegiate football level to this degree.

“It's something the school brings to me that I wasn't used to having,” Hopper said, focusing on technique and fundamentals. “Everything about here is a big standard on details, being the best you can be. If you can't get right, you're going to get left. I just fell in, accepted the process, and how everything goes. Ever since then, it's just every day I stack more and more and just feel like I just get better and better.”

Arguably, a football team is as good as its play on the line of scrimmage.

The pass rush has challenged competing quarterbacks Kadin Semonza and Donovan Leary and the newer offensive line they’re still formulating in front of them.

As they figure out the trenches on offense, they can be confident that they’ll be tested by a defensive line with the potential to have a breakout season.

🚨GIVEAWAY ALERT🚨

As Tulane’s baseball season rolls, we are giving away two tickets to the April 29 home game against Nicholls!

The seats are front row directly behind home plate!

To enter all you need to do is retweet this post and give us a follow! Winner announced Sat.
— Tulane on SI (@TulaneonSI) April 15, 2025