The Tulane Green Wave are still searching for their successor at quarterback and hope that they're right this weekend.
It’s been a long time since the Tulane Green Wave were without a QB1, but they’re hoping that they landed on this year’s starting quarterback in Kadin Semonza.
For Green Wave fans of late, it’s a bit of an alien concept.
Tulane enjoyed Michael Pratt for four seasons and had quick yearlong affairs with Darian Mensah and Jake Retzlaff who continued holding that torch of greatness at signal caller.
But, according to former coach Jon Sumrall and current coach Will Hall, Semonza could have been the quarterback last season and still led them to a conference title and the College Football Playoff.
Whether or not that’s a bit of lip service for the new starting guy remains to be seen, but there does seem to be a new infusion of confidence in the building that they may have found their guy.
They certainly have one who has dealt with hardship after walking away from Ball State where he was a full-time starter and won MAC Freshman of the Year in his first collegiate campaign.
Anyone who you want at quarterback has to have a burning desire to be the best, and spending two years on the bench after that almost feels unbearable.
Semonza has talked quite a bit about his failure to handle the situation in a great way last season and really improving on that this year after being humbled by all that.
And to his credit, he shook off any jitters almost immediately and showed an ability to run the Hall-led offense and distribute the ball out the playmakers.
The offensive side of the ball was lacking leadership last weekend. It’s almost always looked to at quarterback.
The Green Wave will need to see more of that element this weekend, and they think that Semonza is best poised to deliver on that.
But while he performed well cold off the bench, it’s still been two years since he was a starter, and hopefully the game plan reflects that and gives him time to get comfortable and settled back there.
The South Alabama Jaguars will be a tall test, but they won’t have anything close to the size in the trenches that Tulane had to deal with against the Duke Blue Devils.
If that protection shores up, Semonza has shown that he can be a distributor.
He might not be the greatest quarterback of all time, but he seems to fit into a Brock Purdy type archetype of a point guard in the offense.
The Green Wave won’t want to have a turnstile at quarterback, so the opportunity is there for Semonza to fully seize it and close the door with a strong debut.
