Tulane Football Coach Discusses Process for Adding Jake Retzlaff

The Tulane Green Wave football team added Jake Retzlaff to the roster via the transfer portal, but not without doing its homework.

Dec 28, 2024; San Antonio, TX, USA; Brigham Young Cougars quarterback Jake Retzlaff (12) warms up before the game against the Colorado Buffaloes at Alamodome. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Tulane Green Wave football coach Jon Sumrall has a fourth quarterback in his room — former BYU star Jake Retzlaff.

He’s a very late addition to the roster, as he officially joined the program earlier this month after leaving BYU due to honor code violations stemming from an accusation of sexual assault. There were no criminal charges filed, and the civil suit related to the allegation was dropped, but the honor code violations remained in place.

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Retzlaff could have stayed at BYU but sat out the first seven games of the season. Instead, he hoped to transfer somewhere so he could play right away.

He landed at Tulane. Sumrall told reporters at American Conference media days the Green Wave vetted every angle of adding Retzlaff to a quarterback room that was already crowded with three transfers.

“The situation with Jake presented,” Sumrall said to outlets including On3.com. “After doing our due diligence on the university’s side of things with everything around Jake, we got the green light to move forward. Then you check to make sure that, academically, things are, you know, a fit and that worked. And then, the football component, you have to make a decision on.”

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Sumrall has a history with Retzlaff. He recruited him out of Riverside Community College while he was the head coach at Troy. But Retzlaff passed on Troy and ended up with the Cougars.

Retzlaff joins a quarterback room that includes Ball State’s Kadin Semonza, Iowa’s Brendan Sullivan and Illinois’ Donovan Leary. Semonza and Leary joined the Green Wave before spring workouts. Sullivan joined after spring workouts.

Retzlaff figures to have an inside track to the job. He was just as productive as Semonza was last year, as he was the MAC freshman of the year after throwing for 2,904 yards and 25 touchdowns.

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With BYU last year Retzlaff threw for 2,947 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also rushed for 417 yards and six touchdowns. That compares favorably to what last year’s starter, Darian Mensah did — 2,723 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions passing, along with 132 yards rushing with one score.

He is a more capable runner than Mensah was, as Retzlaff gained 4.2 yards per carry, and BYU featured him in designed runs to the point where he had 100 carries.  

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