Tulane Football Promotes Rising Staffer to New Director of Recruiting

Tulane Green Wave announced the football team's new director of recruiting as a promotion within coach Jon Sumrall's staff.

Credit: Tulane Athletics / Football

The Tulane Green Wave football team has made several in-staff promotions as head coach Jon Sumrall enters his second season as head coach.

In a time where college football requires more personnel than ever, the team announced that Offensive Recruiting Specialist Kyle Schexnayder has been promoted to Tulane Football’s Director of Recruiting.

Schexnayder joined Sumrall’s staff last season after spending time as a football recruiting specialist with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

He came to the Green Wave boasting a strong local presence as a New Orleans native who played quarterback at Holy Cross, where former players Tyler Grubbs & Josh Remetich went to high school.

Schexnayder then became an assistant coach at John Curtis High School, where several players for Tulane hail from as well.

The team hasn’t had a director of recruiting in place since Donn Landholm held the role and left when Willie Fritz departed for the Houston Cougars.

Schexnayder handled the offensive recruiting while Hunter Sims was the head of recruiting for the defensive side. Sims left for a general manager position with the Old Dominion Monarchs.

Rather than re-hiring a defensive recruiting specialist, Sumrall elected to put a director in place at the head of things.

Schexnayder becomes critical in a time where recruiting is perpetual, both within a team’s roster and scouting potential players who may become available in the transfer portal window.

College football teams are inching closer to professional NFL business models with how departments are now run. The Green Wave now have an in-house director of roster management, Kelly Comarda, to handle the NIL side of things.

Recruiting and NIL are synonymous, making Schexnayder an important partner alongside Comarda, as well as the team’s general manager, Cole Heard.

It's the latest in-staff promotion this offseason, showing a strong trend under Sumrall to grow and develop staff within to put them in places to succeed. Assistant offensive line coach Evan McKissack was promoted to lead the unit and become the new run game coordinator.

The assistants who have departed have left for greater opportunities than the staff positions available at Tulane could offer. Comarda is a returnee after heading to the Cougars to handle their NIL collective for one season, showing a third strength of Sumrall's in reeling former staffers back in.

Schexnayder was often the personnel staffer that handled the transfer portal players on visits to practice throughout the team's bowl preparation and is a young recruiter who prospects can relate to.