The Burrows Report: Football is Back

BY JOHN BURROWS

Football in Uptown is officially back. Coach Jon Sumrall is back for his second season as

Tulane’s head coach and he has the program buzzing. Despite a significant amount of roster

turnover via both the transfer portal and NFL hopefuls, the culture that Sumrall built in his first season appears to have carried over. Here’s everything I have learned through the first

two weeks of spring camp:

Quarterback Battle

For the second season in a row, Tulane has an open competition at the quarterback position with three main candidates. It is currently too early to predict a winner, so I will list the three in order of jersey number. First is Kadin Semonza, the Ball State transfer and reigning MAC freshman of the year. Next has been TJ Finley, who has made stops at LSU, Auburn, Texas State, and Western Kentucky before landing at Tulane, but was suspended by the University this week. Lastly, Donovan Leary looks to take control of the offense after spending the last few seasons on the bench at Illinois. Semonza has been the most consistent of the three in very limited action. Given Semonza’s smaller size it will be interesting to see how he looks once he starts taking hits. The signal callers have long journeys ahead before one of them earns the starting job, as I expect Coach Sumrall to wait until the fall to name a starter as he did last season. Sumrall even indicated this week that it's possible that the 2025 starter is not yet on the roster.

Early Standouts

Last year I identified Shazz Preston, Jack Tchienchou, and Darian Mensah as players I expected to break out. While Tchienchou and Mensah proved me right, Preston struggled with injuries for most of the season. With that said, I am equally high on Preston going into this season assuming he can avoid the injury bug this time around. Right now, I expect Tulane to primarily utilize Shazz Preston, Omari Hayes, Jimmy Calloway, and Anthony Brown-Stephen at the receiver position.

Defensively, Wofford transfer Isaiah Wadsworth has stood out to me at the corner. Much like

Jack Tchienchou last spring, Wadsworth seems to always be involved and has recorded multiple interceptions early in spring camp. I spoke to coach Sumrall after today’s practice about Wadsworth’s impact and Sumrall spoke very highly of him. The key to Wadsworth’s impact this season will be the ability to quickly learn a new scheme. The talent is there.

At running back, Tulane brought in transfers Maurice Turner from Louisville and Zuberi Mobley from Florida Atlantic while returning both Arnold Barnes and Jamauri McClure. Once again Tulane appears to have depth at the running back position, but my personal early favorite is redshirt freshman Jamauri McClure. By the end of last season, I believe McClure was the second best running back on the roster after spending the year developing under coach Brock Hays. With that said, the position group is loaded and Tulane may have more than one correct answer in the backfield.