Tulane Football Recruit Earns First Ranking in Strong Wide Receiver Class
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The Tulane Green Wave football team is building an impressive class for 2026, as the program has up to 17 commits.
While the goal is to find talent over star rankings, the latter still matters, especially when evaluating the strength of recruiting classes in different levels of college football.
Previously, an unfortunate trend with Green Wave commits was that players often lost stars upon committing to the program, usually over Power Four offers.
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For the second time this offseason, a Tulane football recruit has received a rankings bump.
Wide receiver Keyshaun Coleman, who is from Mississippi, has received his first rating on 247 Sports, increasing from zero to three stars with a score of 87.
Coleman now jumps to the No. 5 wide receiver prospect in his state and the No. 22 overall prospect.
Arguably, on paper, that makes this wide receiver class a program best.
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In the 17 commits for the class of 2026, only one player is unranked. Fifteen players have three stars, and wide receiver Trez Davis is the sole four-star commit.
After recently landing three-star receiver Brayden Allen on Wednesday, his commitment moved the Green Wave into a top 75 recruiting class, slotting in at No. 74, right below AAC rival Memphis Tigers.
With the updated ranking for Coleman, Tulane surpassed the Tigers and the Boise State Broncos, one of their biggest threats to the Group of Five college football playoff slot.
The Green Wave now have the No. 67 recruiting class in college football.
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The system of rankings only goes so far, and they aren’t really that predictive.
For example, quarterback turned tight end Ty Thompson, who was the highest-rated player in program history, lost the quarterback competition and subsequently converted to a new position where he has excelled.
But his ranking was ultimately based on quarterback play.
The last two starters, Michael Pratt and Darian Mensah, had fewer stars than Thompson.
However, perception is important to reality in the sport. Unfortunately, preseason rankings often have a greater influence on teams' seasons than they should.
Recruits want to join a star-studded program. Previously, Tulane had to focus on other factors to entice recruits, such as the education opportunity and strong culture.
Those things still matter, but it’s much easier to persuade top recruits to choose the Green Wave when they have a top 70 recruiting class in the nation.
It shows how much things have changed for a program that used to penalize players in the rankings system for committing to Tulane.
Now, it’s considered a strong enough decision to award two unranked recruits three stars for their decision.
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Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com