Tulane's smaller portal class leans into continuity under Will Hall, but they're still rebuilding key pieces on both sides of the ball.
The term continuity has become a bit of a buzz word in college football, but the Tulane Green Wave football team is hoping that there’s real substance behind that idea. It stuck out all of spring camp how little the transfer class was, and how much it seemed to promote quality and filling of key holes over quantity and perhaps necessity. The Green Wave lost a lot more players in the portal the previous season despite retaining former head coach Jon Sumrall, leading to a portal class of 50-plus players. Well, that group of strangers all found a way to pull it together and make it to the College Football Playoff.
So there’s certainly arguments to be had on either side of the continuity discussion. It certainly seems to feel like it matters more when it offsets a new coaching hire and is able to fend off some turnover. Tulane seemed to do better than most in that position, especially keeping key stars like running back Jamauri McClure, right tackle Reese Baker, and safety Jack Tchienchou to name a few.
That was relatively reflected in their No. 86 ranking in CBS Sports’ major breakdown of all college football programs and the returning snaps they have on each side of the ball, in addition to within each position. That’s not exactly a stellar number, and it’s not close to the highest G5, or even top five. Army and Navy lead the way in both the G5 and American Conference when it comes to returning talent at Nos. 17 and 20 respectively. Now, it certainly matters that they don’t exactly do the transfer portal at service academies, and that’ll certainly retain a lot more production than others. But balance also matters.
Looking at Army, they rank No. 1 in college football in returning offensive production, while ranking No. 93 in defensive returners. With those teams as somewhat outliers though, it’s good to see where Tulane stacks up with respect to comparative talented programs in the G5, such as James Madison Dukes, Memphis Tigers, USF Bulls, and North Texas, all of whom began several spots behind the Wave with JMU the highest at No. 132.
The break down for Tulane is 35% of returning production, with 24 percent returning offense snaps (117 rank) and 47 percent returning defensive snaps (49 rank).
They also break it down by position as well, where on offense, Tulane of course has 0 percent returning snaps at quarterback. They only have one percent at tight end as well. Where they make up the bulk of those snaps is 27 percent at running back, 36 percent at wide receiver, and 28 percent on the offensive line.
On defense, the bulk there comes at linebacker, which checks out. They return 26 percent of snaps on the defensive line, 56 percent of snaps at linebacker, and 54 percent of snaps at defensive back.
All of that is nice to look at, but it’ll only matter once it’s all put together on the football field next season. But it gives a good anchor point of where they stand comparative to the G5 and the American Conference contenders as well as where to look at the anchor points of leadership on the team and on the field.