Tulane Green Wave Coach Instills Important Plans for Players to Develop
While spring practice is a critical evaluation period for the Tulane Green Wave football team, it comes down to the chemistry and growth of the individual players.
With three non-conference opponents from the Power Four, they'll need to start the 2025 college football season strong.
Tulane football head coach Jon Sumrall has to learn the strengths and weaknesses of 26 new players in the transfer portal and use the upcoming practice sessions in March to solve a lot of answers on the field.
However, Sumrall also has a plan for each member of his team that embodies his mentality as a true players’ coach.
In a recent interview with Crescent City Sports, Sumrall revealed his thoughtful plan for the development of his players on and off the field.
“Every player on our team has an IDP, or an individual developmental plan,” Sumrall said. “Three of those goals are football-driven or weight room-driven with action plans that are very specific to help them reach their goals. One of them is academic in nature, and we've got action plans attached to those goals. The fifth one they all have through the spring is a character, social leadership, or spiritual goal that we ask them to set.”
It's a very holistic approach to coaching and caring for players, one that cultivates important football qualities but builds their character and leadership skills with tangible action items to reach the goals.
“You’re trying to help each individual player develop so that they can be their best,” Sumrall said. “If everybody does that, that helps the team become its best.”
The changing landscape of college football often leads to the loss of these kinds of things in the shuffle.
Spring practice used to be the first look at a team that would take the field that fall and hopefully run it back if they were lucky. Now, coaches are cancelling spring games out of fear of losing key contributors before they can take the field.
It certainly didn’t used to be a period for Tulane that featured 26 new transfers, a substantial group of incoming high school recruits, and a quarterback competition two offseasons in a row.
Teams now have 15 practices to figure out what holes they need to plug and which to fill in the second portal window, as well as make sure they have the NIL funds to do so well in advance.
For a lot of coaches, that leaves little, if any, time at all to work on players’ goals outside of winning football games.
Sumrall stands out as a coach who cares just as much, if not more, about the success of his players after the whistle. That’s a leader who develops future ones underneath him while garnering a large buy-in from the Green Wave football team.
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Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com