Tulane Quarterbacks Point To Important Coach That Is Quietly Developing Room
NEW ORLEANS, La. — The Tulane Green Wave football team has experienced high-level quarterback play throughout their sustained success the last few seasons.
As Tulane football searches for the successor for Darian Mensah, current competitors Kadin Semonza and Donovan Leary have leaned on the coaching staff to help them develop and grow through the final weeks of spring practice.
While neither quarterback had the best day during Saturday’s scrimmage, there’s plenty of time left to make a case for the coaching staff to look for depth rather than a starter in the transfer portal.
The room will need another member after the team moved redshirt freshman Kellen Tabsy to wide receiver last week.
As they make those cases to head coach Jon Sumrall and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, Semonz and Leary both pointed to offensive analyst/quarterbacks coach Collin D’Angelo as a valuable voice helping them do so.
“He’s awesome; Coach D’Angelo is my guy,” Semonza said. “I spent plenty of hours, especially when I first got here in January, getting in that film room late at night getting through the playbook with him. I owe a lot of my success to him right now.”
It’s been mentioned that Semonza had the playbook down quickly once arriving to the program. That’s strengthened when learning that he was spending nights at the football operations center with a coach who the two aren’t the first to highlight.
Both Mensah and his predecessor, Michael Pratt, spoke highly of D’Angelo, as did several of the backups through those seasons.
Leary explained why D’Angelo is such a critical member to have on staff with the time he has to be hands-on, get in extra film sessions, and be out on the field.
“Coach Craddock has a lot on his mind because he’s calling all the plays out there,” Leary said. “It’s tremendous for us to have somebody like Coach Collin, just being able to focus specifically on the quarterbacks. We’ll go in the meeting room, and we [the quarterbacks] are watching the read and everything like that. Collin will give us a little tap, like, Hey, your left foot's off here. And that just helps, because now it's like, oh man, I missed two steps out left. Then it all starts clicking together, and then Coach Craddock comes back in. Their dynamic is awesome. It's great for the room.”
As the two competitors settle in for the final two weeks of spring camp, they’ll have more one-on-one time for insights like this from D’Angelo, who previously had to split his attention between three competitors.
While the three-man race proved essential when it was expanded in the fall to include Darian Mensah, Leary and Semonza will benefit from more focus amongst the coaching staff as they conduct the final two scrimmages of spring camp.
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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