Jon Sumrall “joked” that he wouldn’t tip his hand on Tulane’s starting quarterback until one second before kicking off the season Saturday morning.
While the growing sense is that BYU transfer Jake Retzlaff will take the Green Wave’s first offensive snaps of 2025, Sumrall’s only admission this week seems to be that at least one quarterback will indeed take the field to lead the unit.
And Iowa transfer Brendan Sullivan, who battled Retzlaff early in camp before battling a bone bruise the past few weeks, appears to be progressing well toward potentially being available Saturday when Tulane hosts Northwestern at 11 a.m.
“It could be 10:59, yeah,” Sumrall quipped Tuesday. “I’ll let somebody know right before we kick off — 10:59:59. Now, you know, look, it’s not a secret Jake’s taken a majority of the reps with the 1’s recently. Brendan’s been in that competition. I’d say when you looked before Brendan was down, I’d say it was kinda Brendan and Jake’s battle, but (Ball State transfer Kadin) Semonza‘s done some really good things and still available and then (Illinois transfer) Donovan Leary‘s last two weeks have been the best two weeks he’s had since he’s been here.
“But it’s been a Jake-and-Brendan kind of, you know, their lane, if you will. I don’t think we’ll have an announcement until we go to Snap 1. If somebody leaks something, then I’m gonna call (Tulane director of broadcasting) Corey (Gloor) or get mad at him. But, no, you can put it out that we’re gonna start at least one quarterback on the first play of the offensive series.”
Tulane spent this offseason repopulating its once seemingly loaded quarterback room following Ty Thompson‘s transition to tight end and Darian Mensah’s and Kai Horton’s transfers to Duke and Washington, respectively.
Retzlaff was the last addition, arriving uptown late this summer because of a suspension by BYU for violating the school’s honor code.
But as he adjusted to his new home and offense, he began increasingly impressing his new teammates and coaches with both his improving performance throughout camp and his personality.
“He’s his own man, like he’s a one-of-one type of guy,” said senior linebacker Sam Howard, one of just five returning full-time starters from 2024. “He’s gonna be him regardless of the environment he’s in or whatever. He’s gonna be him. Everyone has meshed well with him. He has just come in and shown his leadership from where he was before. I think as a team, we haven’t missed a step, we haven’t taken a step back. Everything has just been the same, and we just added a guy in to the culture we already had. Jake is an awesome guy, and I can’t wait to see what he does this weekend.”
The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Retzlaff led the Cougars to an 11-2 and a No. 13 final ranking in 2024 with 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns on 213-for-368 passing (57.9%) with 12 interceptions, while also rushing 100 times for 417 yards and six scores.
But, if and when healthy, Sullivan has the potential to provide the Green Wave’s offense another dynamic with his athleticism — whether Saturday or in a subsequent week, and whether he can work back and overtake the starting role or split time with Retzlaff as Sumrall and the staff try to take advantage of both players’ strengths.
Sullivan played in 10 games, including three starts, for Iowa in 2024 and finished with 475 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions on 38-for-53 passing (71.7%) and 150 yards and four scores on 47 rushes.
“I thought he looked pretty good today,” Sumrall said. “We’ll see. After today, we’ll see how he feels. Like I’ve told him the whole time, ‘We’re not gonna rush you back. If you’re ready, you’re ready. If you’re not, you’re not, and we’re gonna live with that.’ But he’s a tough dude. He was out there today, took some reps, I thought moved around good — I wouldn’t say great, but good. You know, the thing about Brendan is him moving around good is still better than a lot of people’s best. He’s got real speed. He’s a tough dude, but we’ll see how it goes through the week.
“I was glad to see him out there today. That gives him hope to be available, and then we’ll kinda see how his body feels later today into tomorrow. And then he’ll probably get a little more tomorrow and kinda see where we’re at. But, yeah, it was good to have him back. He’s been back really since late last week doing a few things, but today was definitely the most he’s done in a week and a half.”