The Final Tulane Spring Football Practice Sees Heavy Hits, Expanded Quarterback Competition
Welcome to this special edition of the Green Wave report from On SI Tulane. I'm Doug Joubert. Saturday Tulane football wrapped up its spring practice sessions with a mix of scrimmage and one-on-one competition in front of Green Wave fans in Yulman Stadium.
Pre-Scrimmage Observations
Though no official numbers were released, between 1,500 and 2-thousand were in the stands to watch the practice unfold.
A slightly breezy, mostly overcast Saturday morning, but every now and then partly cloudy kind of morning on the final day of Tulane spring football. Temperatures hovering near 73 to begin with.
A slew of high school recruits on hand at the spring spring scrimmage Saturday. At least 60 high schoolers and their families are in attendance.
Also making an appearance for the first time in a few weeks, former LSU head football coach Ed Orgeron.
Out for the scrimmage and in jerseys with no pads were, on offense, wide receivers Garrett Mmahat and Gabe Daniels and on defense, defensive back. Myrone Jean and defensive lineman Armandous Cooley.
A full dazzle of zebras on hand for the final scrimmage of Spring. Yeah, dazzle. Look it up.
Thank You
On a personal note, it was truly humbling to meet and greet so many of you who follow us both on our YouTube channel and On SI. Thank you for your support.
Back and Forth the Day Went
The first touchdown of the day was a 38-yard go route from quarterback Dagan Bruno to wide receiver Antwaun Parham.
On SI Tulane Analysis
We think the quarterback competition is deeper than the two leading candidates, Semonza and Chriss-Gremillion. Truth be told, we didn't see much seperation between the two as Spring has progressed. However, we saw drastic leaps by redshirt sophomore Dagan Bruno incremental improvement in true freshman quarterback Trace Johnson. Even coach Will Hall alluded to having four candidates going into the fall in our post-scrimmage interview with him.
If Bruno continues to improve at this pace, there is no doubt in our mind that he could be competing for the starting roll come Fall practice.
Red Zone Lockout
Easily the most exciting portion of today's Scrimmage and practice sessions was the final 15 minutes of what coach Will Hall calls red zone lockout. The offense gets the ball at the 20-yard line of the defense and tries to punch it into the end zone while the defense tries to hold them out. Each possession counts as points for either the offense or the defense. At the end of the day, the offense won on a last second pass into the end zone from Zeon Chris-Gremillion to tight end Gabe Lovorn. Coach Hall and quarterback Kadin Semonza, will talk about that at length in our interviews.
Speaking of interviews, head coach Will Hall begins, followed by linebacker Chris Rodgers, and the two men competing for the starting role at quarterback: Kadin Semonza and Zeon Chris-Gremillion. You can see them all by clicking on this link. There are dozens of other videos available on our YouTube Channel.
We hope you've enjoyed this special edition of the Green Wave report as Tulane football wraps up its spring practice. Our next regular edition of the Green Wave report will run Monday at 4:00 p.m. when we look back at the final Spring practice of year one of Hall Ball, more losses in the transfer portal for the Green Wave, and analysis of the weekend baseball series in Boca Raton. We hope to see you then.
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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.