The Tulane Green Wave will have a new general manager as the staff shapes up under coach Will Hall.
In today’s age of college football, a team’s general manager can arguably be as important as the head coach as the sport continues to shift closer to a pro model. The Tulane Green Wave have a lot of staff positions to replace as they enter a new era under head coach Will Hall with Jon Sumrall departing and taking several staff members with him, including former general manager Cole Heard. There’s been a theme of continuity and promotions from within that will continue with that now-filled vacant role.
As reported by the team’s NIL collective, Fear the Wave, co-founder and director of roster management Kelly Comarda is being promoted to the general manager role. Comarda is a New Orleans native who played for Tulane baseball from 2002 to 2003 and was one of the founders of the Fear the Wave Collective with Jimmy Ordeneaux in 2022. They added Michael Arata to the team, and it turned into one of the most prolific NIL programs in the Group of Five.
However, Comarda spent a year with Willie Fritz in Houston when the school wasn’t able to offer a full commitment and paid role. That changed last December under Sumrall, and Comarda was brought back when the Green Wave started their internal NIL department under revenue sharing. He was tasked with managing essentially the salary cap while playing a large role in administering compensation for player’s name, image, and likeness.
When Hall was initiated as the next head coach in his introductory press conference, he spoke about wanting to keep one of the mantras from Fritz: recruit, retain, and develop. This promotion directly follows that line of thinking. In an age where it’s almost as impossible to retain staff as it is players, this is a big move for Tulane.
Comarda briefly spent time with Sumrall when he replaced Fritz in December of 2023 and has spent a year ingratiated in the golden era of Green Wave football that now starts and ends with NIL. Hall could be a Hall of Fame coach in waiting and it simply won’t matter if he isn’t able to accumulate talent. As players continue to enter the portal, recouping is essential to sustaining success. Comarda was part of a team that brought in over 60 new players on the roster this last season with only 5 returning starters.
That culminated in the team’s fourth consecutive American Conference Championship appearance, their second title, and a historic first-ever berth to the College Football Playoff.