The Tulane Quarterback Battle is Over. The Quarterback Battle is Not Over.
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"I'm a man of my word," Tulane football coach Will Hall answered a reporter Saturday after his team's "soft scrimmage." Hall was asked the date of the release of his two-deep depth chart, and, most importantly, his starting quarterback.
"I said what, Doug?" referring to yours truly who asked the same question a week ago.
"Monday," I replied, meaning Monday, August 24th.
"I said I would name one Monday," Hall replied with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "One thing you can count on me: you may like me or you may hate me, but you'll never say I lied to you."
After Saturday's final scrimmage of Fall practice, Hall talked to the media on hand, and was then followed by the two quarterbacks who received the most snaps on the day: junior redshirt Kadin Semonza and transfer senior Zeon Chriss-Gremillion.
You can view all three complete interviews on our YouTube channel.
Down to a Pair
Semonza and Chriss-Gremillion had equal amounts of snaps at Saturday's finale for Fall scrimmages, both taking 22-apiece. It was what they did with those snaps that will go into Hall's decision of who his starter will be come September 5th in North Carolina against Duke.
In an offensive display of more runs than passes, both QBs had their moments.
Semonza led the offense to a pair of field goals in his twenty-two snaps: a 36-yarder by Ohio State transfer kicker Jackson Courville and a 29-yarder from the leg of Cooper Helmke.
Zeon's first possession had his team running five plays before having to give it up on downs. Since all but one of those plays was a running play (the other was a shuffle pass that lost a yard), Chriss-Gremillion was given another chance. On his fourth play of this drive, his deep pass down the middle was a jump ball between receiver Gabe Daniels and safety Chase Green. Green won, picking off Zeon deep. Chriss-Gremillion's next possession was an 11-play drive that led to another short field goal by Courville from 26-yards away.
Freshman Trace Johnson and sophomre Dagan Bruno took the rest of the snaps for the morning.
Who is the Tulane Starter?
Two weeks ago, I boldly predicted Semonza would be the starter for Tulane against Duke. Then, two days later, Zeon had a field day, running for a pair of touchdowns against a Wave D that has been very stingy with those kind of things.
Again, it was back to two competing for that top spot.
Each of these quarterbacks has their strengths and weaknesses and showed them in Saturday's final scrimmage of the Fall:
- Semonza: not a runner, but can run; can work through progressions quickly and accurately; has an amazing touch on out routes; not as accurate on deep routes; seems to have one bad pass in each practice that hurts his numbers; works his way around the pocket like he has almost a sixth sense.
- Chriss-Gremillion: outstanding athlete; glides when he runs (like a gazelle); can absolutely hum the football (sometimes maybe too hard to his receivers); did zone-in on his targets earlier, but has gotten better; maybe gives up too early on his route-runners to tuck the ball and run himself.
Neither quarterback has taken the bull by the horns and claimed the starting position. It is not for a lack of trying. It's almost like one will take a couple of steps forward then no movement at all, then the other will do the same.
Hall was asked what will lead him to his decision on his starting QB.
"Drive us to score. Don't turn the ball over," Hall replied. "We tell our quarterbacks, 'There are going to be five plays a game where you're going to have an opportunity to help us win the game.' Every play in the game, the quarterback has the opportunity to lose the game. So you have to play within the system, take what the defense gives you, and whenever those five plays come, you have to be opportunistic and have the ability to take advantage of that."
I am not Will Hall, and have never pretended to be. I will never have his football acumen.
But something is telling me the former MAC Freshman of the Year is the guy who will be named the starter on Monday: Kadin Semonza.
Unless Hall puts the word or between Semonza's name and Chriss-Gremillion's.
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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.