2 weeks Ago
Tulane Green Wave football head coach Jon Sumrall is doing due diligence on transfer portal quarterbacks as the team looks to fill out the room ahead of the 2025 college football season. It’s not clear if the quarterback of the future is on the roster for Tulane football, and the room will need a third member no matter what for depth. Pete Nakos of On3Sports reports that former Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback Brendan Sullivan is visiting Tulane on Wednesday.
Sullivan is in the portal as a graduate transfer with one year of eligibility remaining after beginning his career with the Northwestern Wildcats from 2021 to 2023. Like most quarterbacks the Green Wave have been linked to, Sullivan has garnered interest from Power Four schools, including the Michigan Wolverines and Virginia Tech Hokies . Sullivan ranks as the No.
8 available quarterback in the nation on the On3 transfer portal rankings. After competing with Auburn Tigers transfer Hank Brown through Iowa’s spring camp, Sullivan eventually departed with the arrival of the 2023 FCS player of the year, Mark Gronowski. Sullivan spent the 2024 season as a backup to Cade McNamara and ended the year as the Hawkeyes’ starter.
He completed 71.7% of his pass attempts with 38 completions for 475 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions. On the ground, Sullivan had 47 rush attempts for 150 yards and four touchdowns, with a career seven rushing touchdowns over three seasons.
While McNamara was under center, Sullivan still saw valuable time, quite similar to Tulane’s Ty Thompson in that role last year. Sullivan was prepared for both goal-to-go and short-yardage packages throughout the season. Tulane has their eye on several portal quarterbacks, being linked to Dylan Rizk, Joey Aguilar , and Jaden Rashada.
Sullivan would be a solid addition to the room that hasn’t fleshed out a starter. It’s hard to surmise a portal player coming in and surpassing Kadin Semonza and Donovan Leary after missing spring workouts. The transfer portal has seen a massive number of entries this offseason, but far fewer starters than previous years, as teams have funneled their resources and strategy into retaining talent on their roster.
However, neither Semonza nor Leary did enough to separate in spring and convince Sumrall to firmly look for depth in the portal. It’ll be curious to see the envisioned role for Sullivan, who presumably wants to start and left a program with an active quarterback competition. It’s impossible to know from the outside how comparable those two situations are.
The Green Wave have a rare proven opportunity that was laid out last season in the decision to start Darian Mensah. That’s the reasoning that drew Leary and Semonza to the competition under Sumrall, and Sullivan would be a solid addition with a presumed chip on his shoulder looking for a shot. Recommended Articles.
