Tulane Green Wave Head Coach Jon Sumrall Declares He Is Not Going Anywhere
The Tulane Green Wave are coming to the close of what was a special first season under head coach Jon Sumrall with one more game remaining in the Gasparilla Bowl against the Florida Gators.
Once seen as a fringe playoff contender coming off an impressive 8-game win streak and headed into the final stretch, it feels like a bit of a distant memory after a tough conclusion to the season that saw a Thanksgiving loss to Memphis and a dominating defeat in the AAC Championship game to Army. Despite the way the season concluded, it was an immensely successful first season in New Orleans for Sumrall who has done nothing but win football games in his head coaching career both at Troy and now at Tulane.
The reality of that is that every time a head coach opening comes up, Sumrall is going to be named as a potential candidate. He's a rising superstar in the coaching world whose name is going to surface in rumors pretty much every upcoming coaching cycle. After moving on from Mack Brown, the North Carolina Tar Heels were seen as a candidate to hire Sumrall away. Asked about it on Sunday, Sumrall definitively stated he is not entertaining the UNC job.
"Do you want me to leave?" he asked. "I get asked about it every day right now and I’m like, I know we lost two games, everybody wants to run me out of town. But I’m here. I showed up to work today...Look, people call. They call my agent. I don’t talk to them very often...When it gets to me it’s usually because I’m like, ‘This is something that could be really something I need to consider.’ Nothing’s getting to me right now. I can say that. Nothing’s getting to me."
Sumrall would go on to tell the reporter that it's not impossible for that to change and compared it to if a newspaper offered to triple the reporter's salary but reaffirmed his desire to be here.
After he seemingly left the door at least ajar with the salary comment, Green Wave fans were left nervous that he could at least entertain the possibility of leaving after just one season. But Sumrall put that all to rest with a post on his personal X account reacting to a Pete Thamel tweet reporting that he has informed school officials he is not going anywhere with the iconic 'I'm not leaving' GIF:
https://t.co/tbwa42cYOW pic.twitter.com/izRIH8rxUg
— Jon Sumrall (@CoachJonSumrall) December 9, 2024
Late on Sunday night, Matt Zenitz confirmed the good news even further when he reported that Sumrall and the school are working towards a contract extension that includes a bigger salary pool for his staff.
It's been a long past couple of week for Green Wave fans. But you can officially now rest easy at night knowing that Sumrall is sticking around for a year two. It's entirely possible that we are having this same discussion a year from now, but that's a bridge to be crossed at a later date.
