Tulane will start Kadin Semonza in this weekend’s home opener against South Alabama, marking a second starting quarterback in as many weeks to open the season.
The redshirt junior, who transferred last year from Ball State, relieved redshirt senior Zeon Chriss-Gremillion (Madison Prep), who transferred this year from Houston, in the Green Wave’s 17-3 loss at Duke this Saturday.
“We’re gonna start Semonza, and if he plays well, he’ll stay in the game,” coach Will Hall said Tuesday morning during his regular media availability. “We were not playing good at quarterback, and we were trying to win the game… I think anybody that was at the game, you could feel his energy once he got in. You could feel the way we functioning and moving.
“If you take the holding calls away, like from what he was doing, he was operating, moving. He was running the ball. He was running distributing the ball. We were making plays all over the field. He was scrambling and making plays. He was throwing it on time. He can’t control another guy fumbling. He can’t control if another guy holds. But what he could control, like, we were just boom, boom, boom, boom, distributing the ball to our playmakers and our playmakers were making plays. It was just all getting called back.”
Semonza finished 11-for-21 for a game-high 140 yards in the loss the to Blue Devils, his first appearance for the Green Wave.
Prior to his arrival in New Orleans, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound passer from Huntington Beach, Calif., earned MAC Freshman of the Year honors in 2024 with 2,904 yards, 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 275-for-427 passing.
“It means the world,” Semonza said. “Football’s been my whole life, like, forever. It’s how I met all my closest friends. It’s how I met my fiancee over at Ball State. This game’s giving me so much. And it’s just a blessing to be able to finally go out the guy for a team that guys believe in. So it means a lot to me.”
As Hall mentioned, the Green Wave will have areas to address beyond which quarterback is taking the snaps.
Fifteen penalties for 104 yards and a lost fumble made Saturday’s trip to Duke an uphill battle for the offense, and the defense’s struggles tackling and slowing down former Mandeville star Nate Sheppard, who finished with 227 yards and two touchdowns, had Tulane playing from behind throughout the contest.
The Green Wave finished 3-for-14 on third downs and 0-for-2 on fourths for just 10 total first downs with, as the coach pointed out, many of downs coming with unfavorable distances and big plays being negated by flags.
“Really upset at our performance, really disappointed at our performance, and the whole building is upset with it,” Hall said. “We thought we played extremely tough and hard. We thought we played stupid. We played really dumb football. Credit to Duke. They played hard and much smarter than we did. They had some silly, stupid mistakes, too. It was a really sloppy football game, and they played better than we did. We had our opportunities, but all those penalties — most of ’em self-inflicted — that’s not us.
“Y’all know it’s been documented we tackle and scrimmage more than anybody in the country. We’ve been a great tackling team. We’ve had referees here. We’ve not gotten those holding calls. But we did in this game, and it’s gotta be addressed. I thought when we got tired late, we started playing without our technique, getting our feet out of position and started using our hands. On conversion plays on defense, we panicked. We were in position to make plays on the ball, didn’t make a play on the ball and just pulled people down, which kept ’em on the field.”
