Tulane's Hall Sees Great Strides in the 2026 Linemen & Running Backs
Shortly after Will Hall was introduced as the new head coach at Tulane, On SI Tulane had a chance to sit down to do an exclusive, one-on-one interview before Spring camp ever opened.
The start of the Fall version of Hall Ball begins Wednesday, so we are looking back at that interview to give us a chance to see where we stood before any of us saw Hall's processes. This is the fourth of the five parts we put together.
Today, what Hall believes is the hallmark of Tulane's resurgence: linemen (on both sides) and running backs. Though the transcript is below, this portion of the interview can be found on our YouTube channel.
Is there is there a transfer or a recruit that you're saying we need this position to really step up this year for us to succeed?
I think those three O(ffensive) linemen, you know, Gavin Marks at center, Riley Rushing at guard, and Ryan Mickow at tackle. I think bringing those three guys in on the O line coupled with what we were able to retain allows us to what we think is have the best offensive line in this league again. That's kind of where Tulane has really made the turn from being a program that can get to bowl games and wins to being a championship program is in the trenches relative to our level. We've been very good over the last few years.
Then when you flip that over to the D(efensive) line, bringing in a guy like Ed Smith (IV) who was great at South Alabama, bringing in a guy like Reshad Sterling back home from Houston, I just think you're adding pieces that allows us to dominate the line of scrimmage again.
I think running back was a place we felt like we weren't dynamic enough last year. Jamauri McClure came on at the end of the year. Retaining him was huge. But then to add Johnnie Daniels and Jaylin Lucas and then you get Mo (Maurice) Turner back healthy who was our starter at the beginning of the year. So we retained Jamari and we added three and then DJ Dugar. So we added four dynamic pieces. We think we're going to be way more explosive at running back than what we were.
It's almost like you uh almost like you have the the deck is stacked. How do you play all those cards?
It's hard to do. That's a good deck to play though.
This Wednesday, the Green Wave open Fall Practice. We'll be there to give you the information you need, so make sure you join us here.
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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.