Tulane welcomes Jon Sumrall, an ex-Green Wave assistant, ‘back home’ as head coach

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Newly hired Tulane coach Jon Sumrall held a green and white parasol as he walked to the beat of a brass band toward a podium for his formal introduction to a crowd of boosters and university officials in Yulman Stadium’s Glazer Club.

For the 41-year-old Sumrall, who was an assistant coach at Tulane a decade ago and can still rattle off the names of his favorite Mardi Gras parades, the experience on Monday was hardly unfamiliar. But it was “surreal,” he said.

Sumrall took a liking to the “vibrant culture” he found in New Orleans, a place he describes as “full of life.”

“If you’re juiceless, you’re useless — and this city’s got a lot of juice,” Sumrall said, inducing laughter from those on hand.

But culture and fond memories of the city where his first two children were born were not going to be enough on their own to bring Sumrall back from Troy, where he’d won 23 games and two Sun Belt Conference titles in the past two seasons.

He also needed to feel inspired by Tulane’s vision for a football program that had struggled for years before its recent resurrection under Willie Fritz, who left on Dec. 3 to become Houston’s head coach.

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“To hear what they wanted this place to be really stirred up an emotion and passion in me that made me more aware that this was the right opportunity at the right time,” Sumrall said, referring to his meetings with newly hired Tulane Athletic Director David Harris and university President Michael A. Fitts.

“The commitment to football has been made very clear,” Sumrall continued. “I believe what lies ahead is big.”

Tulane, currently ranked 23rd in the AP Top 25 Poll, also has won 23 games in the past two seasons, including the 2022 American Athletic Conference title and last season’s Cotton Bowl.

“They’ve had great momentum from the last two years and that matters,” Sumrall said. “It’s hard to get momentum started.”

Fitts, meanwhile, has pledged a “major expansion and improvement” of athletic facilities. Harris said that includes the construction in 2024 of an indoor “bubble” where practice can be held in stormy or oppressively hot weather — both regular occurrences in south Louisiana.

Sumrall was not yet 30 years old when he first moved to New Orleans in 2012 to join the Green Wave as a top defensive assistant under then-coach Curtis Johnson. His final season with Tulane in 2014 was the Green Wave’s first hosting games back on campus in the now decade-old, 30,000-seat Yulman Stadium.

The Wave went 3-9 in 2014, after which Sumrall went to Troy, in his native Alabama, to become a top defensive assistant under then-coach Neal Brown for three seasons. Sumrall coached linebackers at Mississippi in 2018, and then became co-defensive coordinator at Kentucky — where he’d played linebacker — before his hiring for the top job at Troy in December 2021.

With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, the best mid-major programs will have a chance to be included.

“I’m speaking it into existence,” Sumrall said. “We’re going to make the College Football Playoff.”

If Sumrall does as well as he predicts at Tulane, he could be sought after by power conference schools before long. If that’s the case, so be it, Harris said.

“To me, if he is not staying long, it’s because he had success,” Harris said. “You make the decision to hire the very best person for the position and you try to surround them with resources and people and things that they need so they want to stay.”

Harris said Sumrall’s combination of recent success at Troy, his affinity for New Orleans, his past experience at Tulane and his understanding of recruiting in talent-rich Louisiana as well as throughout the Southeast made him an ideal fit.

“He checked every box for us,” Harris said.

In addition to mentioning Muses as one of his favorite parades, Sumrall remarked that his introduction on Monday often felt like a reunion because so many in attendance already knew him from his past stint at Tulane. They included Fitts, whose first year as Tulane president was 2014.

“We’re thrilled to welcome coach Sumrall back home to finish what he started,” Fitts said. “I cannot wait to see what happens next.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll