The Tulane Green Wave have a lot of work to do to rebuild their wide receiver room.
As quickly as the transfer portal opened, it's just as quickly nearing its end.
The portal window this year lasts from January 2nd to January 16th, meaning the final day for any major action will be this coming Friday. With thousands of student-athletes still very much waiting to find their new homes, it's evident that this final week will be an absolute frenzy.
The Tulane Green Wave has fared well in the transfer portal so far. Despite losing quite a few standout players -- as expected, given the head coaching change -- the team has managed to pull in some impressive talent to fill in some of the gaps.
However, that doesn't mean that the Green Wave is completely set and ready to take on the 2026 season. There are still quite a few spots to be filled, and some are much bigger needs than others.
At this point, it's hard to argue that one of Tulane's biggest needs is another quarterback or two. While the Green Wave benefitted from an overly loaded signal-callers room this season, there's not necessarily a reason to have more than three or four scholarships quarterbacks on the team.
Right now, Tulane is returning Kadin Semonza and Jay Beamon from its 2025 team. Semonza transferred in as a sophomore after a solid two seasons with the Ball State Cardinals, while Beamon was in his first year of college ball as a three-star player out of Cleveland Central High School in Mississippi. Neither received playing time this year.
Additionally, the team recently picked up Zeon Chriss-Gremillion from the portal. Chriss joins the program after spending the past two seasons with the Houston Cougars. Prior to this, he had a successful two seasons with the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. While he's struggled some as of late, Chriss brings valuable experience to Uptown and should expect to compete for a starting spot.
The Green Wave also needs to bulk up its wide receivers room a bit. So far, Shaun Nicholas, Oliver Mitchell Jr. and Zycarl Lewis Jr. have all announced their intentions to remain with Tulane. The team has also brought in Destyn Hill from the LSU Tigers.
Anthony Brown-Stephens, Garrett Mmahat and Antwaun Parham still have time to choose to stay with the program; perhaps they already are, though it just hasn't been announced. If that trio remains in Uptown, then Tulane should have seven wide receivers all but locked down heading into next season. On the other hand, if those three players choose to leave... then the Green Wave will realistically need to pick up at minimum four to five wide receivers in the portal.
Defensively, Tulane needs to focus in on its defensive line. It was arguably the strongest aspect of the defense as a whole this year, but many of its key players are leaving for opportunities elsewhere.
Santana Hopper and Trevon McAlpine are the top defensive linemen who will be leaving the Green Wave -- the former is joining the Colorado Buffaloes, and the latter will play for the Kansas Jayhawks. Eliyt Nairne has also entered the transfer portal. Additionally, edge rushers Harvey Dyson and Jordan Norman have entered the portal. While not traditional defensive lineman, both played a bandit role and made their presence known in the trenches.
Jordan Mcallister is the lone edge rusher portal pickup for Tulane so far, and there haven't been any defensive line commits as of now. It's important that the Green Wave finds a way to make up for the lost production in the unit, or else, it's going to be extremely hard to replicate the season that the group had in 2025.