The Tulane Green Wave is rebuilding its defense with eight starters from last season out the door.
Jon Sumrall and his staff worked the transfer portal hard, bringing in defensive talent from both power conference and Group of 5 schools. In the short time he’s lead the program, Tulane has had success with transfers from both categories.
But one defensive star from a Group of 5 school received particular attention in Lindy’s Sports college football preview magazine recently.
The publication, along with projecting Tulane as the American Athletic Conference’s second place team, listed this Appalachian State defensive lineman as the program’s top newcomer.
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Hopper is 6-foot-2 and 265 pounds. He’s projected by Lindy’s as a starting defensive tackle on a line that only has Kameron Hamilton as a returning starter. The magazine thinks highly of Hamilton, listing him as preseason All-AAC first team.
But Lindy’s Sports had praise for Hopper, who impressed coaches and players alike during spring workouts.
“The transfer drew profuse praise from teammates during the spring,” per Lindy’s scouting report. “LB Dickson Agu said Hopper’s ‘shock and shed’ was better than any lineman he had played with at Tulane. Fellow LB Sam Howard shook his head and simply told everyone to remember Hopper’s name.”
The redshirt junior joined the Green Wave after three seasons with Appalachian State. Sumrall was surely familiar with him from his days at Troy, as they overlapped by Hopper’s first two seasons.
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In 2024, he leveled up after earning second-team freshman all-America honors from College Football News.
He finished his last season with App State with 36 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 5.0 sacks and 2.0 forced fumbles to go along with 20 quarterback pressures. Per Pro Football Focus, he was the highest-graded Sun Belt defensive lineman, was No. 1 in quarterback pressures in the conference and his PFF pass rush grade of 79.1 was second in the league. He won a national defensive player of the week award, and he was named all-Sun Belt first team.
In his first full season in 2023 he had 34 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and one fumble recovery and was named all-Sun Belt honorable mention. He also had 19 quarterback pressures. He was redshirted in 2022 after playing two games.
Coming out of high school in Shelby, N.C., he was a three-star prospect per 247 Sports and a Top 20 overall prospect in the state.
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Aug. 30 vs. Northwestern, 11 a.m., ESPNU
Sept. 6 at South Alabama, 6 p.m., ESPN+
Sept. 13 vs. Duke, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Sept. 20 at Ole Miss, time, TV TBA
Sept. 27 at Tulsa*, time, TV TBA
Oct. 9 vs. East Carolina*, 7 p.m., ESPN
Oct. 18 vs. Army West Point*, time, TV TBA
Oct. 30 at UTSA*, 6:30 p.m., ESPN
Nov. 7 at Memphis*, 7 p.m., ESPN
Nov. 15 vs. FAU*, time, TV TBA
Nov. 22 at Temple*, time, TV TBA
Nov. 29 vs. Charlotte*, time, TV TBA
(all times central; *-notes conference game; home games in bold; games on radio at WRBH – 88.3 FM)
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