Isaac Popper Projects the Defensive Line Depth Chart

BY ISAAC POPPER

Overview:

I wrote about the Offense yesterday here. 

From my overview in yesterday’s article: The depth chart is simply my best educated guess at placing all 116 players on a spreadsheet, and I recognize that it can be an injustice to the hard-working student-athletes. There is great competition at every position group, especially with only 5 returning starters. With Kam Hamilton playing snaps at a position that he wasn’t listed at on the two-deep last season, I tried to identify some secondary positions where you could see some students play based on practice reps. As Jake and Jimmy covered the main position battles, I will cover the overall roster. I bolded returning starters and underlined returning players from last season.

Last season, 8 players played 450 snaps on defense. Of those, only Sam Howard (533) and Slim Despanie (504) returned, but I predict 8 opening day starters to be players from last year’s team. Tulane brought in a bunch of highly sought after players in multiple portal windows, however the staff has clearly succeeded in developing their in-house talent. Jalen Geiger started over Jack Tchienchou last season but played less snaps despite Jack’s first game coming against Kansas State. Jack and Kevin Adams combined for over 800 snaps last season, and Kam Hamilton started every conference game. Javion White had the 4th highest PFF grade on the team last season, and Joker Johnson’s season PFF grade was also higher than 3rd round pick Caleb Ransaw’s (as well as Johnathan Edwards and JET Award Watch List and First team Preseason All American KR Ray Pleasant). Also, potential starting CB E’zaiah Shine missed his freshman year with an injury. 

Defense:

You can read Jake's two-deep here.

Click on the photo for higher quality:

BANDIT: Tulane lost their top five BANDITS from last season as well as two others, and could end up deeper at the position than last year. Sumrall has been excited about getting Jah’rie Garner back from injury but I would expect him to play more DE due to the BANDIT room. Ty Cooper, who I saw as a Terrell Allen type, was brought in from the SEC as a potential starter here but re-entered the portal in April after three months in New Orleans. 

Harvey Dyson started when healthy for Texas Tech (Big 12) last season. He battled lower leg and foot injuries last season so only started half the season. In 52 coverage snaps, he allowed just 4 catches for 37 yards while recording multiple pass breakups and not allowing a score.

Mo Westmoreland has had multiple really good seasons at UTEP (CUSA). He has been very effective against stronger opponents, including against Northwestern. He had a sack against the ‘cats in 2023. The transfer has played 127 snaps in coverage and allowed 137 yards without a TD. Most of the yardage has come on dumpoffs though and he has improved every year. I expected Westmoreland to start but some have sky-high expectations for Dyson. I have my own high expectations for the versatile player, who has lined up in the slot as well as in the box. Mo should be a great run stopper and tackler, and is a potential sack leader. 

Jordan Norman is another transfer who has had multiple really good FCS seasons. The South Alabama transfer chose the Wave over many offers including Michigan State, Georgia Tech, and Kansas. The redshirt sophomore from Alabama could end up being a DE given the potential stars at BANDIT and his 10% pressure rate. He had a season-high 7 pressures versus Troy last season. 

Warren Roberts and Josh Brantley are highly rated class of 2025 recruits in the room, and Garner entered a year earlier. All three should see their first snaps. 

Interior Defensive Line: Defensive Tackle and Nose Tackle are positions that Tulane is 3-deep at, before including guys like Kam Hamilton who have played there before.

Santana Hopper’s 2024 PFF grade was the 4th highest among all FBS interior players. The 6’2” DE had the highest PFF grade on Appalachian State by a wide margin, a grade almost equal to Huntington’s in the Sun Belt in 2023 and in The American in 2024. Most of his snaps in his 2023 Second-team freshman All-American (College Football News) and All-Sun Belt honorable mention campaign were as an interior player. Center Jack Hollifield transferred to Tulane with him.

Tre’von McAlpine, like Harvey Dyson, transferred from Texas Tech’s defensive line. The now fourth-year player had a good season in the Big 12 in 2024 and improved as the season progressed. He was a Preseason Fourth Team All-Conference selection by Athlon Sports. His first collegiate sack was courtesy of local legend Arch Manning. He mostly lined up as a defensive tackle in the Big 12, yet projects to be the starting nose tackle.

Armondous Cooley, just like McAlpine, is a 6’3”, 305 lb interior defensive lineman. He seems most comfortable as a DT because a majority of his pressures in 2022 came against Tulane, where he strictly played out of the B-gap. The only sack that PFF credits him with that season was that game in Yulman. He sacked Pratt on 3rd down from the Tulane 7 when Wave were up 14-0 halfway through the 2nd quarter, allowing Southern Miss to only need 44 yards to get their first TD in Will Hall’s comeback win. Cooley is entering his 5th season of college football, however he hasn’t hit 500 career snaps yet due to multiple injuries.

Derrick Shepard Jr. is another NT transfer who has played both interior positions, but more of DT. He had the second-lowest missed tackle rate on UAB last season among the 14 players with 250 snaps. Under Trent Dilfer, he played more B-gap than A-gap.

Elijah Champaigne’s playing time has fluctuated over the last four years. He is one of the 4 longest tenured players, along with Slim, Bryce Bohanon, and Rodrek Williams. You may remember his big man INT to ignite the blowout at UAB, the first Tulane defensive tackle or defensive end with an interception since Quinlan Carroll in 2016. (Adonis Friloux had one later in the season). The graduate student can play all over the defensive line.

PaLanding Drammeh would probably be my bet for true freshman to play the most on defense. Greenies were given a 4th of July present when he committed on the holiday as a 6’3, 300 lb defensive lineman, flipping from Troy. Nik Alston is another top-150 in the nation DL recruit.

Eliyt Nairne is yet another transfer who has played meaningful snaps at both interior positions. He started his last 7 games at Liberty in somewhat of an Eric Hicks role. His career high in tackles came against East Carolina, who we play in Week 7 (6th game).

Defensive End: I agree with Jake that Kam Hamilton was the most underrated player on last years team. Kam was tied for the 4th most ipop’s Top Players Honorable Mentions (A weekly analysis I did; article coming soon), only behind the 3 Ms (Mensah, Makhi, and Mario). Kam played over 75% of his snaps at defensive end last year, replacing Keith Cooper, and just 10 snaps at nose tackle. Under the previous coaching staff in 2023, Hamilton lined up at the end about 30% of the time and took over 150 snaps at nose. He has now had three great full seasons, which means that this is his last ride. He navigated adversity to only miss one tackle in 2024 while starting all nine conference games. His run defense and pass rush has been elite when he plays a majority of snaps, so while DE is likely the thinnest position on the DL, that shouldn’t be a major concern. You can watch my Running it Back interview with Kam here.

Gerrod Henderson had a great fall camp in Sumrall’s first summer and took advantage of Angelo Anderson’s departure. He played over 250 snaps last season after playing just 3 across 2022 and 2023. “Gee” won American Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors vs South Florida for recording multiple sacks including a strip sack in a then career-high 20 snaps. He was one of my favorite Inside the Wave interviews last season, which you can watch here. 

Sumrall has been very excited for Jah’rie Garner and I suspect that we could see him eventually play significant snaps at DE behind Kam. Dyson and Westmoreland will both likely warrant a majority of snaps, which could also mean less time for Henderson.

Like Brantley, Geordan Guidry is another accomplished athlete from Ruston’s 2023 Louisiana state championship team. In 3 snaps at Charlotte on Halloween, he recorded 2 hurries and a QB hit. Josh Lewis is another successful three-sport freshman from Louisiana.