New Tulane Coach Thrilled Green Wave Football is on Campus
Jon Sumrall knows both sides of the Tulane football experience.
When he arrived before the 2012 season to work for then-head coach Curtis Johnson, the Green Wave were playing their home games in the spacious Superdome, the home of the New Orleans Saints.
Before that, the Green Wave played in Tulane Stadium, which opened in 1926 and eventually hosted the Sugar Bowl, three Super Bowls and was the first home stadium of the Saints. When the Superdome opened, the Saints and the Green Wave migrated there and Tulane Stadium was eventually torn down.
In Sumrall’s first two seasons the Green Wave played there and were successful enough in Johnson’s second year to earn an invite to the New Orleans Bowl in 2013, the program’s first bowl game since the 2002 Hawaii Bowl. It was essentially another home game and Tulane lost to Louisiana.
But, in 2014, the Green Wave moved on campus and into Yulman Stadium, the 30,000-seat venue that celebrates its 10th anniversary this season.
Sumrall isn’t just happy about returning to the Green Wave. He’s a firm believer that on-campus football is so much better than off-campus football, as he told the Wake Up Mintzy podcast.
“College football is meant to be played on campus,” Sumrall said. “Like that's a part of the pageantry, the camaraderie, the excitement, the tailgating, the boozing, the grilling out, all that stuff. That's what makes it fun and to be able to bring it back on campus here at Tulane … you go back years ago old Tulane stadium you know that we hosted the Sugar Bowl here on this campus for a long time and hosted a Super Bowl. So it means something different when you have college football on campus. It's a really cool experience. It's a great family experience. You can obviously party anytime you're in New Orleans, but the stadium size here also lends itself to making sure it's a family environment and a good atmosphere.”
Sumrall’s Tulane roots helped him get the job, as did his success at Troy, where in two seasons the Trojans went 23-4 and won two straight Sun Belt titles. He took the Tulane job after the Sun Belt Championship game.
He replaces Willie Fritz, who left after last year’s conference title game to take over at Houston. Fritz was 54-47 in eight season at Tulane, including a 2022 in which the Green Wave went 12-2, won the AAC title and beat USC in the Cotton Bowl Classic.
