Photo Credit: Parker Waters
Welcome to Part 2 of our nine-part series getting you ready for the start of Tulane’s 2024 football season. This is the type of content we will continue to bring you on a subscription basis, through our new website, starting later this month.
Let’s dive into potentially the deepest receiver room in the history of Tulane football:
The Potential Starters:
Yulkeith Brown, #5
Jha’Quan Jackson, Lawrence Keys, Chris Brazzell, and Yulkeith Brown maintained the highest target and reception shares of all Tulane wide receivers in 2023 and only Brown remains. Despite that, Brown is surrounded by an embarrassment of riches and talent. For Brown’s part, the Texas A&M transfer performed well, last season. He turned 48 targets into 33 receptions, 391 yards (11.8 yards per reception), and 2 touchdowns in his first year with the Wave. Among those four receivers mentioned, he had the highest yards after the catch average with a mark of 6.6, with an average depth of target (ADOT) of 9.3 yards past the line of scrimmage. He was one of the targets that stepped up later in the season when the Green Wave were missing Keys and Jackson, and helped put the FAU game away, in November. He showed good chemistry in the spring with both Ty Thompson and Kai Horton.
Mario Williams, #4
Williams was one of those exciting transfers during the winter portal’s opening, and comes to New Orleans with a wealth of experience and playing time under Lincoln Riley, both at Oklahoma (2021) and the University of Southern California (2022-2023). He did the vast majority of his damage out of the slot, while with the Trojans; he lined up inside 83.7% of the time in 2022 and 87.4% of the time of 2023. Across his career, he has generated 104 grabs among the 149 targets he has received. He’s also posted a total of 1,322 yards with a 12.7 yards per reception average, and 11 touchdowns. Out of high school, Williams was a 4-star recruit by 247 and was the #15 ranked receiver in the country, in the class of 2021. While it seems evident to me that offensive coordinator Joe Craddock wants to stretch defenses vertically, the thought process there may be, in part, to create horizontal openings within 10-15 yards of the line of scrimmage for Williams and Alabama transfer Shazz Preston, in particular.
Shazz Preston, #6
Preston comes to Tulane with three years of eligibility remaining after spending two seasons with the Alabama Crimson Tide. James, a four-star recruit, hails from Saint James High School in Saint James, Louisiana and was the #9 player in the entire state of Louisiana in his class of 2022, by 247. While he played sparingly at Alabama, he was an absolute force-of-nature in spring ball in New Orleans, just months ago. Preston reminds somewhat of Deebo Samuel in that while he’s capable of attacking a defense at all three levels, he is an absolute wrecking ball with the ball in his hands, near or behind the line of scrimmage. Expect some atypical and creative installations from Craddock, who has a history of getting his best playmakers the ball in space.
Potential Depth:
Dontae Fleming, #1
Much like Arnold Barnes, Fleming was one of the 2023 returners who stood out during spring ball and unquestionably raised his stock and his game to a level that casual observers didn’t get to see, last season. Now a fifth-year senior after spending 2020-2022 at an undisclosed Sun Belt school 130 miles west of New Orleans on I-10, a school whose actual name it does not even know or understand, Fleming is ready to break out. He only saw 15 targets in 2023 for the Green Wave, a career low, but expect that number to increase dramatically, even with the influx of talent at the position. Don’t forget the big catch he had in the Military Bowl to end last season.
Khai Prean, #17
Prean, like Shazz Preston, went from Saint James High School to an SEC program as his first stop. This one sits a little closer to Tulane’s campus on that same Interstate 10, and does sit within the State of Louisiana. Out of high school, Prean was a 4-star recruit and was considered by 247 to be the #13 player in the State of Louisiana in the class of 2023. Prean held offers from Florida State, Michigan, Tennessee, Kansas State, Arkansas and Auburn. This was an acquisition in the spring portal that caught many off guard but could end up playing huge dividends for Tulane this fall.
Shaun Nicholas, #19
There may not be a Louisiana player in the class of 2024 that the FBS missed more badly on than Shaun Nicholas. Per 247, Tulane was Nicholas’ only FBS offer. Whether that is accurate or not is beside the point; the point is that the Green Wave got an absolute steal. We had the opportunity to observe Nicholas in spring practice, an early enrollee in January of 2024, and he stood out almost on a daily basis. He checks in at 6’4”, 185 pounds, but he looked beyond physically mature for a “true freshman,” whose classmates were going through their spring semester of their senior year of high school. It’s no doubt not a coincidence that Nicholas was the very first high school player that the Green Wave committed after Jon Sumrall was hired in December.
Bryce Bohanon, #83
Old reliable. Bohanon was called on somewhat infrequently in 2022 and 2023 by the Green Wave, but he delivered when he was given opportunities. Specifically, he helped shoulder the load against Tulsa and FAU, two critical wins for the 2023 Green Wave when the passing game sputtered at times without Jackson and Keys. He caught 6 of 8 targets over those two weeks, totaling 84 yards, several of which came on critical third downs. After logging 79.1% of his snaps in the slot last season, under then offensive coordinator and honorable man (as opposed to a “fox in the henhouse” type coordinator) Slade Nagle, he will likely compete for snaps and reps behind Mario Williams for Tulane in 2024.
Zycarl Lewis, #15
Lewis, a true freshman, signed with the Green Wave in February of this year, 2024. He chose Tulane over offers from Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Iowa, Tennessee, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Kentucky, and an SEC school within our state that used to be have success, back when they had Justin Jefferson. As a February signee, Lewis obviously did not have the opportunity to participate in spring practices uptown, but he will look to carve out a role as a true freshman throughout this month.
Phat Watts, #3
Watts returns to the Green Wave program for a final season of eligibility in 2024. You may recall that Phat and his brother Duece Watts transferred to the Tulane program in 2020 from Jones Community College. Duece of course was a big part of the 2022 Green Wave offense, and secured a critical catch to put Tulane inside the redzone on the game-winning drive in the Cotton Bowl. While Duece left for professional football after that 2022 season, Phat remains. He will look to get his sea legs under him after not seeing the field in 2023 and having his 2022 season cut short by a season-ending injury in week 2. Back in 2021, however, he was not an insignificant part of the offense, registering 3 starts, 220 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Sidney Mbanasor, #11
After spending two seasons at Utah, Mbanasor entered the spring portal and committed to Tulane in May of this year. He was originally thought of as a tight end out of high school, given his size (6’5”, 209 pounds), but the expectation is that he will play receiver for the Green Wave. Prior to committing to Utah as a 3-star recruit in the class of 2022, he held offers from Texas Tech and Vanderbilt, among others.
Next up? TIGHT ENDS
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