Tulane Coach Jon Sumrall Gets Candid About Biggest Challenge in College Football

In college football, particularly at the Group of Five level, success usually means the loss of a team’s best players and coaches to the Power Four level.

That mass exodus occurred when the Tulane Green Wave football team lost head coach Willie Fritz to the Houston Cougars, effectively losing the entire coaching staff in turn.

The Green Wave found stability under coach Jon Sumrall, who elected to remain with the team despite being coveted by multiple Power Four programs.

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Part of that reasoning must be Tulane football's inclusion in the College Football Playoff conversation. However, securing that G5 slot is challenging due to the loss of talent in the transfer portal.

What will be the largest hurdle in the Green Wave’s quest for success in Sumrall’s second season?

Jon Sumrall recently spoke with Pete Nakos of On3 (subscription required) about his decision to stay with Tulane.

Sumrall felt there was unfinished business from his first season and went so far as to say that the Green Wave are better positioned than some Power Four programs.

“And as I look at things, this job in a lot of ways could be better than some Power Four jobs,” Sumrall said. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well, we’ve got everything we need here, resource-wise, in a lot of ways, to continue to be what we want to be. We’ve got to continue to grow and push the envelope in certain areas to keep moving forward. We can’t stay stagnant.”

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Well, the team is certainly not stagnant, for better or worse, with the departure of notable starters in the transfer portal that include quarterback Darian Mensah, running back Makhi Hughes, tight end Alex Bauman and defensive back Rayshawn Pleasant.

The need to reload for lost talent is a dominating challenge in the current landscape.

“The biggest challenge throughout all of this has been roster management,” Sumrall said. “Getting to where we can position ourselves to reload, because every team is different every year now. While your program standards and your cultural norms don’t change, your team changes every year, whether you like it or not. That’s been the biggest challenge.”

That’s without mentioning the loss of starting spear Caleb Ransaw and defensive back Micah Robinson to the NFL draft.

Defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins, center Vincent Murphy, tight end Reggie Brown, edge rusher Adin Huntington, defensive back Johnathan Edwards, wide receiver Dontae Fleming and 1,000-yard receiver Mario Williams all signed with NFL teams in free agency.

Those losses were expected, as eligibility simply runs out in college football.

The scale of the transfer portal shakeup was certainly unexpected, though.

One of Sumrall’s mantras involves the importance of a positive attitude, and he leads with one amidst all the talent departures.

“That’s just the nature of the beast,” Sumrall said. “And some things are challenging and maybe at times frustrating, but it doesn’t do any good for me to whine or complain about it. It’s our job to put the best team together we can every year, and then let the chips fall where they may in the games and compete to go win every game you play.”

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Outwardly, Sumrall has been adaptable and agreeable with overall player movement and NIL payments.

Surely, the lived experience has been frustrating, but it’s not unique to Tulane at all, and Sumrall has his finger on that pulse with the right outlook heading into the 2025 season.

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