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Tulane Re-Opens Quarterback Competition at Critical Time
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- Tulane Re-Opens Quarterback Competition at Critical Time
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
While a team would like to have their starting quarterback wrapped up by conference play, things aren't as simple this year for the Tulane Green Wave as they look to choose between continuing with Kadin Semonza or throwing their true freshman, Trace Johnson , fully into the fire.
One could argue that they have had better rooms than this season, and most wouldn't disagree. But can the argument be made that the last two quarterback competitions didn't involve a good bit of luck?
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Former coach Jon Sumrall didn't recruit Darian Mensah ; he didn't recruit Kai Horton either, who was one of the other guys in the quarterback competition. That staff brought in Ty Thompson to compete alongside Horton, with Mensah really being an afterthought until his fall camp validated flashes shown in the spring.
Willie Fritz and his son, Wes Fritz, were the ones responsible for finding Mensah via videos posted on social media. Mensah is now a Heisman favorite with the Miami Hurricanes .
Then there was last season, which initially started as a three-way battle between Semonza, Donovan Leary , and TJ Finley . Finley was let go by the program due to off field stuff involving charges of possessing a stolen item.
Semonza and Leary couldn't cut it in spring. So, the program brought in Brendan Sullivan .
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Then Jake Retzlaff basically dropped out of the sky into their laps.
Do they make the College Football Playoff without Retzlaff? Do they beat the Duke Blue Devils – a critical victory involving conference champs that season – without his four rushing touchdowns?
Will Hall inherited Semonza, and he really inherited Trace Johnson from Sumrall's staff as well, who initially recruited him – though Hall's staff convinced him to stay committed and early enroll.
This year's staff really only brought in Zeon Chriss-Gremillion, which didn't pan out.
But it's hard to criticize this quarterback room in full without giving perspective to the last two seasons that saw the starter come out of nowhere with no real fallback plan.
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There isn't one this year either. It's Semonza or Johnson at this point. The bye week comes at a critical point in the junction for this staff to make that call.
The non-conference slate is largely a time to work out the kinks and find out what a team is made of ahead of the season-defining conference slate.
Once American Conference play begins, the foot is on the gas pedal and won't come off. There are no bye weeks left, and their conference play starts off with tough tasks against Army and the Memphis Tigers.
So, this is really the time to evaluate and perhaps make a hard call. That decision will say a lot about how the team views itself.
