Former Tulane Football Player Selected in UFL Draft

The Tulane Green Wave had one former player selected during the UFL’s college draft on Wednesday.

Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports / Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

While the NFL is gearing up for training camp, the United Football League is already planning for 2025.

On Wednesday the spring football league held its college draft and one former Tulane Green Wave star was selected, as the San Antonio Brahmas picked offensive lineman Sincere Haynesworth.

The UFL, a merger of the XFL and the USFL, played its first season under the UFL banner this spring. The Brahmas finished 7-3, tied for the lead in the XFL Conference. They advanced to the title game, where they lost to the Birmingham Stallions.

Haynesworth’s status in the NFL is not impacted. He is listed as a center on the New Orleans Saints roster, where he signed as an undrafted free agent after the 2024 NFL Draft in April. But the Brahmas hold his rights until he joins the team.

Haynesworth, born in Buffalo, N.Y., played prep football outside of Houston in Pearland, Texas. He joined the Green Wave in the 2019 season. Never missing a start, he was with Tulane for five seasons and earned First-Team All-American Athletic Conference honors twice — in 2022 and 2023.

His time with Tulane accompanied a rise in the program’s success on the field. Haynesworth was one of the four captains who led the greatest single-season turnaround in college football history.

In 2022, the Green Wave won the AAC title with a victory over UCF in the title game and were selected as the Group of 5 representative for one of the New Year’s Six Bowls. The Green Wave drew a trip to Arlington, Texas, to play in the Cotton Bowl against USC, and beat the Trojans 46-45.

Tulane finished the season 12-2 and with a No. 9 national ranking in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Top 25.

Last season the Green Wave went undefeated in AAC action, and their only regular-season loss was to Ole Miss. But in the AAC title game, Tulane lost to SMU. Their season ended up with a trip to the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland, where the Wave lost to Virginia Tech.

Tulane went 11-3 and lost their head coach, Willie Fritz, after he took the same job at Houston to replace Dana Holgorsen.

The Green Wave hired Jon Sumrall, one of their former coordinators, to replace him. He was with Tulane for three seasons as co-defensive coordinator under Curtis Johnson from 2012-14, including a trip to the New Orleans Bowl in 2013. He got his first head-coaching job in 2022 with Troy and he led the Trojans to a 23-4 record and two straight Sun Belt Conference titles.