Five Burning Questions as Tulane Spring Football Begins
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The Will Hall era begins for Tulane football on Monday, March 9th as the new Green Wave head coach welcomes 97-athletes to Yulman Stadium for their first taste of Hall Ball.
ON SI Tulane will provide daily coverage of Spring Training every day the Green Wave have a session. Be looking out for our report every afternoon on the day of the fifteen sessions the Wave work. Tune in to our YouTube channel for videos, interviews, analysis and more each afternoon. Our report from Day 1 will premiere at 4:00 p.m., Monday, March 9th here ON SI Tulane.
As Hall and his coaches prepare for their first session on Monday morning, these are the five things we're thinking about for the 2026 version of Tulane Football.
#1: Will Hall's Offense and the Tight End Position
Hall likes the pro-style offense. He used it as the offensive coordinator at Tulane under Willie Fritz and carried that over to Southern Miss as the Golden Eagles' head coach. We'll talk about USM in a bit. He admitted to us that he has an affinity for tight ends in his offense. Here is our story and interview with him about it. Hall and his coaches went out to find athletic players at that position to add to those already on the roster. There are seven listed on the Spring roster, one less than was on the 2025 inventory.
#2: Who's the New Tulane Quarterback?
Last year's starting quarterback wasn't even on the roster at this time in 2025. Tulane lucked-in to Jake Retzlaff. We don't see that happening again any time soon.
According to Hall when we talked to him at the end of January, he likes what he sees from the younger players, who are in development, comparing one or two of them to a Darian Mensah or Michael Pratt-type of impact player. Hall thinks they are the future for the Tulane football program.
In 2026, though, Hall believes his starting quarterback will come from one of two players: redshirt junior Kadin Semonza or Houston transfer Zeon Chriss-Gremillion.
Semonza transferred from Ball State last season after being recognized by the MAC as the Freshman of the Year. At 5’ 11”, 196-lbs, the California native is not your prototypical pro-style quarterback. However, in his first full college season, he ended up throwing for 2,904 yards and completing 64.4 percent of his passes
Chris-Gremillion is more of that NFL, pro-style build, standing 6’ 3” and weighing in at 210. The Baton Rouge native started out at Louisiana-Lafayette, playing for two years and averaging well over a 60% completion rate. He rarely has a planned rush in his past seasons, preferring to be in the pocket and slinging the rock. The redshirt senior transferred to Houston last season, hoping for more playing time. He appeared in four games last year playing more of a mop-up role in big wins or in already decided defeats.
#3: The Wave Kicking Game
Going from the dynamic duo of Alec Clark and Patrick Durkin are some huge shoes to fill for punter and place kicker. In their reliable places, Hall has a New Orleans native on the roster for punter and a transfer along with a roster returnee to look at for kicker.
Jesuit graduate William Hudlow is the only punter listed on the Tulane roster. An all-district performer for the Blue Jays, the redshirt junior has not punted in a game for the Green Wave.
Tulane has two kickers on its roster: Zach Marini and Jackson Courville. Marini has no college experience, coming in as a redshirt sophomore. He hails from the Seattle area. Courville transferred from Ohio State after a stint at Ball State. All of the redshirt junior’s game experience was with the Cardinals, where he hit 11-of-13 field goals, his longest from 52-yards.
#4: The Running Game…
…and we don’t just mean running backs. Hall’s offense is based off the success of the run. Sound familiar?
Gone is the go-to back early in the early 2025 season, Javin Gordon. Last season’s leading rusher, Jamauri McClure returns for his redshirt sophomore year, along with redshirt senior Maurice Turner. Turner was slated as the feature back going into 2025, but an ankle injury against Northwestern, where he picked up 88-yards on 14-carries, kept Turner from ever being himself after that.
The TU coaches loaded up with transfers in the portal
Transplant from Mississippi State, Johnnie Daniels, carried 108-times for 540-yards for the Bulldogs in 2024 and only saw limited action in 2025. Daniels asked for and received his release from Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby and joined the transfer portal, ending up at Tulane
Oklahoma State transfer DJ Dugar played enough in his true freshman year to receive what would amount to a participation trophy. The speedy redshirt freshman back was a prep standout in his hometown of Leander, TX, dominating high school defenses at Glenn HS with nearly 4,000 career rushing yards, 48 TDs, and school records for single-season and career marks, earning Rivals' No. 30 national running back ranking.
And Edna Karr alum Jaylin Lucas comes back to New Orleans for his redshirt senior season. The 5’ 9” 175-pound scatback can absolutely scoot. He started his career at Indiana, earning All-American honors in 2022, before transferring to Florida State. Lucas is known for his speed and is a dynamic kickoff returner. In two seasons with the Hoosiers, he rushed for 546 yards and four touchdowns.
However, none of these guys will get anywhere without good Tulane line play. In addition to the eleven Wave offensive linemen returning, Tulane coaches brought in five new faces, including Boston College transfer, Ryan Mickow, standing 6’ 7”, 317 pounds, and Mercer portal signee Gavin Marks standing 6’ 3” 305. Mickow is a redshirt junior, Marks is a sophomore. Hall talks about running backs and both offensive and defensive lineman here.
#5 The Intangibles
- Yes, Jon Sumrall handled leaving Tulane about as well as it could have been handled. See Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin for the exact opposite way of how to handle a coaching change.
- Yes, Will Hall is a name that is recognizable to Tulane fans, but more importantly to the Wave players who were on the roster in 2025.
- Yes, Hall only had a few spots to fill from those who left in the transfer portal, which means most Green Wave players who could stick around, did.
- And yes, he’s the son of the most successful high school coach in Mississippi history.
But...
The two most important facts Tulane fans know about Will Hall that count for them is 1) he was very successful here at Tulane as an offensive coordinator, and 2) he flopped badly as a head coach at Southern Miss.
Hall has said to the fans in general and to us in our interview with him in January that he has learned from his mistakes and that he truly believes he is the man for the job at Tulane. His predecessor, Jon Sumrall, felt that way about Hall as well.
Hall gets to prove it starting Monday morning at his first Spring practice session as the head coach of the Tulane football program.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.