Tulane Green Wave Adds More Talent To Tight End Room With Southern Miss Transfer

The Tulane Green Wave bolstered their tight end group with an intriguing roster move and a transfer portal signing from Southern Miss.

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The Tulane Green Wave keep adding talent to their roster from the transfer portal to account for departures, and their tight end room was notably strengthened.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles transfer Justyn Reid announced his commitment as a 6-foot-5, 255-pound sophomore who recorded seven catches for 145 yards in the 2024 season.

Reid started in all 12 games as a true freshman the previous year, with one of them coming in their loss to Tulane in 2023.

Tight end is now a room for Tulane that stands as an interesting case in today's college football. The team lost two major contributors, Reggie Brown and Alex Bauman.

Brown declared for the NFL draft, and Bauman recently transferred to the Miami Hurricanes.

While there's depth on the roster, the program also lost some developmental pieces to the portal, including Joshua Goines. Reid's addition appears to offer some pass-catching potential.

The Green Wave picked up another transfer tight end this offseason, recently bringing on Leron Husbands from the Maryland Terrapins. Husbands does not have any career receptions to date.

The player in the room who garners intrigue is now-returning Ty Thompson, who plans to convert to the position from quarterback.

Following his first college football start against the Florida Gators in the team's Gasparilla Bowl loss, Thompson entered the portal to explore his options. He finished his first season at Tulane with three passing and six rushing touchdowns.

There were brief periods in the last few weeks of regular season practice where I spotted Thompson working on some techniques off the line of scrimmage similar to Bauman, but that never materialized into packages for game usage.

It's unclear how the personnel in the room will replace the traits of both Bauman and Brown, as they were heavily used in run blocking while contributing as pass catchers. Bauman, in particular, was the team's biggest red zone threat, leading the offense in receiving touchdowns.

Thompson lined up as a receiver in the red zone in some games but has yet to catch a pass. He did serve as a sufficient decoy in motion to vacate space for now-Oregon Duck Makhi Hughes' receiving touchdown against the Oklahoma Sooners.

However, Thompson is now fully committing to a position other than quarterback, allowing him to focus on developing receiving and blocking traits, while remaining a rush threat.

Reid's production, currently possessing the most experience in the role among the transfers, matches Thompson's promise. While he only has eight career receptions, he offers potential for explosive plays. Reid had a career-long 59-yard reception last season and averaged 20.7 yards per catch.

The move makes sense with the hiring of former Southern Miss head coach Will Hall as Tulane's pass game coordinator. Hall served as offensive coordinator for the Green Wave from 2019-20 and initiated the development of quarterback Michael Pratt in his freshman campaign.

While the team's starting quarterback is undecided with a competition brewing between transfers TJ Finley, Donovan Leary, and Kadin Semonza, Hall will know best how to utilize Reid to fit the leader under center's strengths.