Where Does Tulane's Offense Stand Through a Week of Padded Practices?

After two days of unpadded practices to begin camp on August 5 and 6, the Green Wave have certainly upped the intensity in their preparations for the 2026 season, as the opener in Durham, North Carolina against the Duke Blue Devils is now just 22 days away. We expect projected starters to become even clearer next week, as Coach Will Hall has publicly confirmed the plan to name a starting quarterback by Saturday, August 22, and certainly NCAA rules mandate that a depth chart be released at some point.

Quarterbacks:

Each has such a different skill-set, and each of the primary three scholarship players (Zeon Chriss-Gremillion, Kadin Semonza, and Trace Johnson) have had their moments to this point through camp. Johnson is remarkably impressive for an undersized true freshman, and has quite obviously surpassed Jay Beamon and Cade Scott, each of whom are second-year players and were here in 2025 (though in a different offense, that of Joe Craddock's, and not Will Hall's). The path to Johnson taking meaningful snaps in 2026 is not that hard to see, and he would not be a bad bet to be this team's starter in 2027, in my assessment. Johnson places with a great feel for the pocket, has his eyes and feet "married together" and layers the ball impressively well for someone of his age. It's easy to see how he was so successful playing at a high-level of competition in high school.

The real question as to whether Semonza or Johnson can beat out Zeon Chriss-Gremillion comes down to this; do either offer enough consistency and relaibility in the passing game to outweigh the reality that Chriss-Gremillion is a threat to score on every carry or keep? We know from Will Hall's history at Tulane and elsewhere that he wants to run the ball, and that Tulane will run with success. For our audio listeners, recall my anecdote from the field following a March practice. I mentioned to a staff member that with a healthy Maurice Turner, the additions of Jaylin Lucas, Destyn Hill, etc., that "this could be such an explosive offense." Without skipping a beat, the staff member replied, "Yep. And the two most explosive players aren't out there yet (referring to Jamauri McClure and Chriss-Gremillion)."

There was a media report from a different outlet this week that indicated that Kadin Semonza was starting to separate himself in the race for the starting job. While he is firmly in the mix, I do not think I would agree with that assessment. I have held the belief for six months that it'll be Chriss-Gremillion, and so I will stick with that.

Running Backs:

Let's start with the obvious -- on Tuesday, head coach Will Hall told the media that Jamauri McClure would be out for several weeks with a left foot injury, that should not prevent him from returning at some point in September. Sources have told us that there remains optimism in the building that he will be able to play in the opener at Duke, and to not shut the door on that idea just yet.

On a roster that we have consistently described as deep, there may be no deeper position than the running back group. For the second straight fall camp, Maurice Turner looks like as good of a player as there is on this team. It's hard to describe to those who were not able to see it often how dynamic and different he was from the rest of the running backs during camp in August of 2025, even from McClure. The injury he suffered in the 2025 opener against Northwestern robbed us all of a potentially special season, but it also made him more likely to remain at Tulane for 2026, and that's quite a silver lining.

Towards the end of the 2025 season, McClure took the bellcow role almost by necessity, as Javin Gordon faded down the stretch. Having Turner, Johnnie Daniels (who is having a fine camp, himself), DJ Dugar and superback Jaylin Lucas should obviate the need to rush McClure into action, or into a 20-touch outing.

Wide Receivers:

At this point, injury pending, I would be moderately surprised if Destyn Hill isn't an all-conference receiver. He has been both explosive and consistent, throughout camp, and could present the type of true number one receiver that the Green Wave sorely missed last year in Mario Williams' absence, though Hill provides a different skill set. No surprise but returners Anthony Brown-Stephens and CJ Lewis have had great camps, as well, to date. Some of the younger players have flashed, but if I was handicapping this today, I would expect those three to pace the receiver room in snaps and targets.

Offensive Line:

Most of what we reported from the spring seems to have a fighting chance of ending up to be how the offensive line shakes out. The critical components of that are that a few younger, mostly untested but homegrown players are taking visible strides forward (Dom Steward, Gresham Perry, and Elijah Baker, in particular), John Bock has returned strong and with a vengeance following his 2025 injury, Ryan Mickow (the transfer from Boston College) is the real deal, and Reese Baker continues to be one of the better offensive lineman in the entire American Conference.

If Steward can make the leap from reserve to starting left tackle, in his third year in the program, that would seem to be a best case, allowing for a series of dominos to fall that result in Reese Baker kicking inside to right guard, and Ryan Mickow to play right tackle. Not to be outdone, Darion Reed is still in the mix at right tackle (recall, he was the opening day starter there in 2025), and if he were to work his way into the lineup, it would make sense that Mickow would kick over to left tackle. While the staff works to find their best combination of five, it's hard to envision a scenario in which Reese Baker and Ryan Mickow aren't both in the lineup, somewhere. Bock continues to compete with Mercer transfer Gavin Marks at center, and Mitch Hodnett and Riley Rushing are still play at guard, in addition to the aforementioned Perry and Elijah Baker, above.