Tulane's Hall Names a New Starting QB vs South Alabama
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"The whole building is upset," Tulane coach Will Hall said as he opened his media conference today by looking back at the Green Wave's 17-3 loss at Duke.
"We thought we played extremely tough and hard, (but) we played stupid. Credit to Duke, they played hard and much smarter than we did. They had some silly, stupid mistakes, too.
"We had our opportunities, but all those penalties, most of them self-inflicted." The Wave was penalized 15-times in the Duke game, the lion's share coming against the TU offense. "That's not us," Hall continued. "Y'all know, it's been well documented: we tackle in scrimmage more than anybody in the country. We've been a great tackling team. We've had referees here (during scrimmages) and we haven't gotten those holding calls, but we did in this game, and it's got to be addressed."
The Blue Devils opened the contest with what some would call "The Nate Sheppard Show," as the Northshore native took control in an almost exclusive run game with Sheppard as the cog of the Duke running machine, moving down the field, taking up eight minutes and scoring easily against the Wave. After that, though, the Tulane D didn't give up another touchdown until late in the game.
"After we calmed down we played better," Hall continued. "We played better defensively after the first drive with our tackling and our approach.
This is All Correctable
"The positive is we can fix that (penalties, bad tackling technique," Hall said. "It's not that we're not big enough or not good enough. The negative is we played that way. We have to own that. We have to fix that. You can delegate authority, but you can't delegate responsibility.
"It reminded me a lot of the UTSA game last year. It was like, 'Man, what are we doing?' We just lost our mind. We came back after that game and we fixed it. I certainly believe we can fix this. We have to. We better."
In that game at the Alamodome on Halloween-eve in 2025, the Green Wave was its own worst enemy then, turning the ball over an uncharacteristic four times en route to a 48- 26 loss to the Roadrunners. The following week, the Wave traveled to Memphis and defeated the Tigers there, 38-32.
QB Switch was Necessary
Quarterback Zeon Chriss-Gremillion started the game, but couldn't put together a scoring drive for the Wave. Hall and his coaches switched to junior Kadin Semonza to open the second half hoping he'd give the Green Wave a spark.
"We thought he (Semonza) functioned very well," Hall stated. "He moved the ball up and down the field, but it kept being called back, due to a fumble in the red zone or a holding penalty or some type of silly penalty. That's got to be addressed. It's got to be fixed. It's got to be fixed now. There's a lot of urgency in this building, starting with me and the leaders, because we're better than that. We know that, but we've got to show that this week."
Zeon to Sit
Hall announced the Green Wave will be starting Semonza against South Alabama this Saturday evening.
"We'll start Semonza," Hall said in answer to what the plan was for this weekend. "If he plays well, he'll stay in the game."
The decision for Hall was simple as to why he changed from Zeon to Semonza against Duke.
"We were not playing well at quarterback, and we were not winning the game," Hall stated.
With the junior transfer from Ball State in at QB, Hall thought you could tell a difference if you were in Durham.
"You could feel his energy once he got it," Hall explained. "You could feel the way we were functioning and moving. If you take the holding calls away, from what he was doing...He was operating, he was moving, he was running the ball, distributing the ball. We were making plays all over the field. He can't control another guy fumbling or if another guy holds. Our playmakers were making plays, it was just all getting called back."
"We've got to be who we are," Hall explained. "You watch us practice everyday. That's not who we are, but it was who we were this past week. Was that an aberration or is that who we really are? We've got to prove on Saturday that's not who we are. We're better than that. We play better than that on a consistent basis."
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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.