Tulane Green Wave Star Defender Learns His NFL Coaches for Senior Bowl
In this story:
The Reese's Senior Bowl is a major showcase for players looking toward the NFL dDraft, and the Tulane Green Wave has a defender headed to Mobile, Ala., who garnered attention from scouts all season.
Defensive back Caleb Ransaw was valuable for Tulane football as a veteran player in the secondary at spear, or nickel, and was invited to the Senior Bowl in November.
Ransaw learned on Wednesday that he'll be coached by two NFL defensive back coaches as part of the American roster for the showcase: the New York Giants' Mike Adams and the Indianapolis Colts' Brent Jackson.
The week in Alabama is more important than the game itself, which features truncated coverage and teammates who never played a down of college football together. When the practices begin on Jan. 28, Ransaw will have a week to soak up insight from Adams and Jackson.
The last four players who attended the Senior Bowl from the Green Wave fared extremely well. It changed their trajectories.
In 2023, running back Tyjae Spears was the dominant point of every conversation all week and soared into the third round of the NFL Draft, where he was taken by the Tennessee Titans. Linebacker Dorian Williams joined him a few picks later in the round and now plays considerably for the Buffalo Bills.
Wide receiver Jha'Quan Jackson joined quarterback Michael Pratt in Mobile in 2024. The Green Bay Packers selected Pratt in the seventh round. He now resides on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Spears' team drafted Jackson one round earlier, reuniting him with his former teammate in Tennessee.
Jackson, in particular, was a relative unknown heading into the Senior Bowl in terms of national coverage and was hampered by an ankle injury that kept him out of the end of the 2023 season. He soared up draft boards due to his time at the Senior Bowl and received rave reviews from his position coaches.
Those endorsements matter in a week where networking and interviewing with NFL coaches and general managers. Forming a relationship with the coaches leads to a better environment on the practice field and an opportunity to soak up additional advice should players take it.
Ransaw finished the 2024 season at Tulane with 33 total tackles, four tackles for loss, one sack, and three pass breakups. He missed their conference game against the Rice Owls due to a hamstring injury but was otherwise a key presence on the field for the football team.
His experience was critical to forming a sense of cohesion in the team's secondary last season.
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