Tulane QB Kai Horton waits his turn after showing glimpses of his promise

Tulane was down to its third-string quarterback much earlier than expected in one of its toughest contests on the 2022 schedule. In the end, the Green Wave was more than happy that signal-caller was Kai Horton.

The odds were greatly stacked against Tulane when backup quarterback Justin Ibieta, starting for an injured Michael Pratt, went down on the first possession on the road versus Houston. Yet, The Wave pulled off a thrilling 27-24 overtime victory led by Horton.

The native of Carthage, Texas rose to the occasion with a poised performance depsite his lack of college experience.

In the final three minutes of the game, Horton and the offense drove 75 yards for a touchdown with 39 seconds to go. Horton sent a 10-yard toss into the hands of running back Tyjae Spears inside the front corner of the end zone to seal the deal after Houston’s first overtime drive culminated in a field goal.

Horton’s teammates believed in him, and the then-redshirt freshman delivered.

“All the guys came up to me and were like, ‘we believe in you, Kai’,” Horton said. “That means a lot. Being a backup, they might not trust me, but all of the guys told me you got this. I told them right back, ‘I promise you we’re not losing this game.'”

Horton gained national attention in that nationally televised Friday night game for his arm talent, his mobility and clutch response in high pressure situations, finishing with three passing touchdowns.

“The Houston game was obviously an exciting time for me to show that I can go out there and compete at the next level,” Horton said. “It was a good feeling to go and play that game and get the win back home in the state that I’m from,l an hour and a half away from where I went to high school.”

Heading into the upcoming season, Horton is looking forward continuing his growth. He feels like he has all of the right people around him including the veteran starter Pratt.

“I love (Michael) Pratt,” Horton said. “That’s my guy and between his leading skills and what he’s accomplished on the field, he’s taught me a lot. He’s taught me how to become a leader and has taught me how to compete against extremely strong competition. Just being able to take from him what he does well has helped me out a lot.”

Having Slade Nagle as his offensive coordinator also provides Horton with comfort and a strong support system.

“I love the way that Coach Nagle pushes me. He gets the most out of me and knows how to coach me well,” Horton said.

“One thing I’m definitely looking to improve upon is my footwork. Coach Nagle is big on the details of footwork and how well you do that has a lot to do with accuracy and how the ball comes out. In the past, I’ve sometimes gotten in trouble with (overusing) my arm just because I do have a lot of arm strength and there have been times when I’ve left my feet planted somewhere else when I’m throwing an out route or something like that and getting my shoulders in the right place and not sidearming things. Correcting that is going to make me a more accurate quarterback.”

Even though Horton has area where he knows he must work to improve, he’s confident in his abilities. From the moment he arrived at the New Orleans campus, he has felt well-prepared coming from a system at Carthage High School that he points out doesn’t have a ton of contrast with the one Tulane currently runs.

“I give a huge shoutout to my high school coaches because of what kind of offense we ran in high school,” Horton detailed. “It was a pro-style offense and I kind of had a similar job of telling the line what to do, calling out the protections, changing plays when they’ve needed to be changed. Kind of just getting that experience in high school. I feel like it gave me a head start when I came here.”

Continuity will continute to aid Nagle and the Green Wave quarterback room. Nagle was promoted to offensive coordinator during the offseason after largely serving as the play-caller last season.

“(The offense is) pretty much the same, just a little bit different with some of the names here and there,” Horton said. Coach Nagle brings a great mentality to practice every day just to be perfect and pushes us very hard to get the most out of us. He’s focused on the small details and those are all things that add up to make you a great quarterback and take you from one level to the next.”

Though it’s still far off for Horton who has started just one game for the Wave as one of Pratt’s understudies, he’s looking forward to the future which he believes includes the NFL. Horton have faith that Tulane’s offense fully prepares a quarterback for the next level.

“We do a lot of different things, run multiple formations,” Horton explained. “Sometimes we’ll use two tight ends, we’ve shown that we can spread it out, we can go spread, we can go five wide, under center, in the gun. They do a good job of organizing things for our playmakers to get the ball and make plays. And doing it to where we have a lot of control of the offense.”

Continuing to gain experience and develop as a prospect, Horton sees similarities between his game and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen — the type of player he hopes to grow into down the line.

“I would say that I look at a lot of Josh Allen film,” Horton said. “I model my game after him a lot. back in high school, I had a lot of comparisons to him. I’m not the best at running it, but I can when I need to and I feel like I play a lot like him. He has a rocket of an arm and he’s an accurate passer who can run when he needs to.”

Pratt enters his fourth season as Tulane’s No. 1 QB on the depth chart so Horton will have to wait his turn to shine further. If there is one thing that is certain, despite the allure of more playing time if he had chosen to transfer, Horton is loyal to Tulane. He wants to cap off his college career as a member of the Green Wave.

“I guess you could say that it had been in the back of my head but I felt that I would get the most out of staying here. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else and try to re-start. I have really good friendships here and the coaching staff is amazing. Graduating from a program like Tulane is something that’s highly regarded and I know that this is the place for me,” stressed Horton.

“It feels right and I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else.”

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Kai Horton but Tulane’s present is certainly brighter to have his talent as part of the mix at football’s most important position.