The spring football game always marks a key checkpoint for college programs, with key questions always coming from it: Where are we at on both sides of the ball? Are our players progressing according to plan? And arguably the most important question in 2025, what positions do we need to get in the transfer portal?
For better and for worse, all three questions were clearly answered for the Tulane University Green Wave on Saturday, when the offensive and defensive units faced off.
To answer the first question, boy, does our defense look good. They were swarming from the get-go: batting down passes at the line, setting the edge and putting immense pressure on the battling quarterbacks Donovan Leary and Kadin Semonza. Senior linebacker Sam Howard stood out, picking off Semonza early on and running it back for a touchdown. Redshirt safety Kevin Adams III was among many in the secondary flying around everywhere.
Whenever a defense has a dominant performance like this — the offense didn’t score until the third or fourth strings finally came in at the very end — the question is always whether it was just the defense’s greatness that led to this result or poor play from the offense. In this case, it was definitely both.
The offense really struggled — particularly the two quarterbacks. Not only were Leary and Semonza unable to put together scoring drives, but they missed receivers on easy out routes, downfield passes and at times were just late at getting the ball off. Head coach Jon Sumrall has talked through spring practices about the play of receiver Bryce Bohanon and quarterback-turned-tight-end Ty Thompson. While Thompson couldn’t play in the spring game due to a knee injury, Bohanon, returner Shazz Preston and the rest of this on-paper strong receiving group were never able to get going due to lackluster quarterback play and the locked-in defense.
That being said, one offensive standout was redshirt freshman running back Jamauri McClure, who was breaking tackles left and right for extra yardage. Sumrall postgame described McClure as a “raw talent” who has to hone in on his “football IQ” to secure playing time. With a running back room already consisting of junior Arnold Barnes III, who thrived when given the opportunity last season, running once again might be Tulane’s calling card on offense.
After the spring game, Sumrall spoke to the press about the state of the team and expectations heading into his second season at the helm for the Green Wave. While many programs have decided to cancel their spring game this year or switch it to a more traditional open practice, amidst the high turnover from the transfer portal and concerns over tampering, Sumrall reiterated that as long as he’s around, there will always be “some form of a spring game.”
Sumrall shared that we “should read nothing into who started at quarterback” and admitted that the first quarterback to get snaps today — Donovan Leary — was decided by picking a number one through 10, with the number pre-chosen to be three. “Leary picked four and Semonza picked five … Donovan [Leary] picked one off the number, so that’s why he started today.” Sumrall feels that in practices so far, Leary and Semonza have been “neck and neck” with both quarterbacks looking better on different days of practice. Sumrall doesn’t feel that anyone has separated themselves thus far in the quarterback room and will “very likely” be adding another quarterback through the portal to “make the room right and also to add competition and see who our starters are going to be.”
Sumrall also shared that in recent practices, the offense and defense switched off with who looked better, but felt that “from what it looked like today, the defense looked better.” The defense was led from the first snaps by the defensive line, who wreaked havoc in the backfield all day. “Golly, that group has a chance. To start in that group, it’s going to have to be earned. That group right now, it is eight, nine, 10-ish guys deep … That group has flashed all spring and has been very consistent with flashing.” While the defensive line might be the strongest defensive unit right now, Sumrall feels great about the state of the entire defense. “We’re in a much better holistic place defensively.”
In terms of how the roster will look, Sumrall said they will meet with all the players to determine who will stay with the team and who has decided to enter the transfer portal to find a place to play elsewhere, but hopes to keep as many guys as possible. While they hope to keep as much of this team intact, Sumrall did say that there “will be some additions coming here in the next month, roughly.”
“At some spots, we might be looking for a front-line player, and a couple of spots, it’s just continuing to build the roster the right way,” Sumrall said.