The Tulane Green Wave have finally shaped their coaching staff under Will Hall, with a solid mix of returning position group coaches and newcomers.
The Tulane Green Wave finally wrapped up their “portal season,” as it’s come to been known in college football. With the transfer portal being condensed to one window in January, it pretty much forces coaching and personnel staffs to spend the entirety of that two-week span retaining, scouting, and signing players. Now that things have settled in that aspect, the Green Wave made their coaching staff official under new head coach Will Hall. Many of these hires have already been announced via various reporting outlets, but the school finally unveiled the full list on social media over Thursday and Friday afternoon.
We’ll break these down more in depth ahead of spring camp, particularly with the new coaches, but to have a running list, here is the full football coaching staff.
Coordinators
Offensive coordinator: Russ Callaway
Defensive coordinator: Tayler Polk
Special teams coordinator: Chris Forestier
Asst. special teams coordinator: Ricky Figurell
Russ Callaway is coming over from the Florida Gators, where coached for four seasons, spending three as the tight ends coach. He was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2024 and became the OC in 2025. Tayler Polk is being promoted from within as Tulane's linebackers coach the last two seasons. Chris Forestier spent the last two seasons as a special teams assistant for the Texas Longhorns, with previous stops at Houston and LSU. He looks to be bringing Figurell over from Texas.
Offensive Staff
Quarterbacks: Collin D'Angelo
Offensive line: Cody Kennedy
Asst. offensive line: Kanan Ray
Wide receivers: Carter Sheridan
Running backs: Brock Hays
Tight ends: Tyler Spotts-Orgeron
Collin D'Angelo, Kanan Ray, Carter Sheridan, Brock Hays, and Tyler Spotts-Orgeron all are returning coaches. The new additions to the offensive staff are Callaway at offensive coordinator and Cody Kennedy as the new offensive line coach. Kennedy was Hall's o-line coach when Hall was Tulane's offensive coordinator.
Defensive Staff
Co-DC/Bandits: Nate Fuqua
Defensive line: Landius Wilkerson
Spears/Asst. Pass game coordinator: Brayden Berezowitz
Safeties/Asst. Pass game coordinator: Bryan Berezowitz
Cornerbacks: J.J. McCleskey
Defensive Asst.: Bryan Whitehead
The defensive staff will be led by a new yet familiar face in Tayler Polk, who Hall promoted to defensive coordinator from linebackers coach, retaining him from Jon Sumrall’s staff. He will continue coaching linebackers as one of the youngest coordinators in FBS at 31 years old. Landius Wilkerson, Brayden Berezowitz, Bryan Berezowitz, and J.J. McCleskey all are holdovers returning, with McCleskey being the longest-tenured football coach on staff since 2018.
The newcomer here is Nate Fuqua as co-defensive coordinator and bandits coach, which is the rush end in Tulane’s 3-4 scheme. He was a defensive analyst and outside linebackers coach at Kentucky in 2025, where he came to after two seasons at Cincinnati as co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach. He had the same role at his previous stop at Georgia State from 2017 to 2022. Whitehead is another new face as a defensive assistant, coming from Virginia Tech as the nickels coach in 2025, the equivalent to the Green Wave’s spear role. However, he was on Hall’s staff previous to that at Southern Miss, as the lead defensive analyst for three seasons and nickels coach in 2024.