This offseason was a rollercoaster ride for the Tulane Green Wave when it comes to the quarterback position. After a breakout season leading Tulane, elite quarterback Darian Mensah entered the transfer portal, landing at Duke with a massive NIL deal. As Jon Sumrall looked to replace his star quarterback, he truly left no stone unturned.
Tulane brought in former Iowa Quarterback Brendan Sullivan, former Illinois QB Donovan Leary, Kadin Semonza from Ball State, and journeyman quarterback TJ Finley. An off-field issue knocked TJ Finley off of the roster, which made the quarterback battle even more interesting. While Sumrall had a ton of options to choose from, the Green Wave was seemingly missing its guy.
Then in one of the rarest cases possible, one of the Nation's top quarterbacks came available as Jake Retzlaff was set to leave BYU after Civil Lawsuit revealed he broke the school's honor code. While many expected Retzlaff could land at a Power 4, he made massive headlines earlier this week by enrolling at Tulane.
Sources: Former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff has verbally committed to transfer to Tulane. The school has spent more than a week doing a vetting process, including the university’s Title IX office examining the case that resulted in Retzlaff withdrawing from BYU. pic.twitter.com/zikloU06Wi
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 21, 2025
The move is fascinating for several reasons, as given the potential baggage surrounding Jake Retzlaff, any interested program needed to do a ton of due diligence before getting him on campus. Now Retzlaff, Kadin Semonza, and Brendan Sullivan will all compete this Summer in an exciting battle for the starting job.
At the American Conference Media Day on Friday, Jon Sumrall broke down how Tulane went about adding Jake Retzlaff.
"The situation with Jake presented, after doing our due diligence on the university’s side of things with everything around Jake, we got the green light to move forward. Then you check to make sure that, academically, things are, you know, a fit and that worked. And then, the football component, you have to make a decision on."Jon Sumrall
When the Tulane Green Wave landed Jake Retzlaff, it brought an interesting storyline to Tulane's roster as Jon Sumrall heavily recruited the BYU star while he was at Troy.
"The unique thing with Jake? I recruited Jake when I was the head coach at Troy in 2022. Jake had one offer out of Riverside Community College for a really long time and it was Troy. And then, late in the process, BYU came in, we won our conference championship game at Troy that year, played a game against Coastal Carolina, and, two days later, I went on a flight to go see Jake and he was the guy we wanted to come add to our program as a transfer quarterback out of the junior college ranks. And then, BYU came in. Proximity to home, several other factors came to play, ended up going to BYU."Jon Sumrall
While this is going to be an "open competition", Jake Retzlaff will be the clear frontrunner in the battle for Tulane's starting quarterback job. Last season, Jake Retzlaff passed for 2,947 yards with 20 touchdowns while throwing 12 interceptions and rushing for 417 yards and 6 touchdowns. The experience Retzlaff brings to this room is pivotal and if he wins the job, Tulane will have a great chance at winning the conference.