Tulane Green Wave Lose Valuable Defensive Coach to Texas Tech Red Raiders
The Tulane Green Wave have had an impressive retention among their staff, but the football team lost their first coach of the offseason.
As announced by head coach Joey McGuire, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are hiring Rob Greene as their new safeties coach.
Texas Tech recently hired former Tulane defensive coordinator Shiel Wood, who spent one season with the Green Wave in 2023 before following former coach Willie Fritz to the Houston Cougars. Wood, who was previously under head coach Jon Sumrall as coordinator of the Troy Trojans, ran the same defensive scheme Tulane employed the last two seasons.
It will be Greene's third stop alongside Wood, as both were on the staff at Greene's alma mater, Wofford University, in 2017. Greene eventually took over playcalling duties as their defensive coordinator before ending up with the Green Wave. The relationship goes further than that, as Wood was actually Greene's position coach while he was a player.
Both Wood and Greene played wide receiver for Wofford, despite both ending up on the defensive side of the ball as coaches. Wood was Greene's wide receiver coach during his freshman season in 2010.
Greene marks the first departure on Tulane's coaching staff since the season ended. As the team's safeties coach, he was largely responsible for the development of an impressively young group of players.
True freshman Jack Tchienchou is a natural playmaker who began seeing considerable time in Week 2 of the 2024 season against the Kansas State Wildcats. His knack for diagnosing and fluid movement in coverage stuck out.
Notably, in the team's first Power 4 matchup of the year under Sumrall, Tchienchou was in the secondary alongside redshirt freshman Kevin Adams. That experience became critical just one week later when the team faced the Oklahoma Sooners, and leading tackler Bailey Despanie was ejected for targeting in the first quarter.
It's a position group for the Green Wave that hasn't seen much attrition, as Tchienchou, Adams, and Despanie are set to return, with Despanie offering crucial veteran presence in big moments.
Greg Gasparato, the defensive coordinator, remains the most important coach the team retains on that side of the ball. Both recruiting and development are strengths of longtime cornerbacks coach J.J. McCleskey.
Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com