Dec 20, 2024; Tampa, FL, USA; Tulane Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall looks on against the Florida Gators during the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Tulane’s Jon Sumrall: ‘If You Can’t Love New Orleans … You Have a Problem’

Originally posted on Tulane Green Wave on SI
By Matt Postins | Last updated Jul 26, 2025 4:47 PM ET

At least one school reportedly tried to pry Tulane football coach Jon Sumrall away from Uptown in the offseason.

But the North Carolina Tar Heels failed. Now, Sumrall enters his second season with the belief that he has a team that can not only win the American Conference title for the second time in four years but also contend for a berth in the College Football Playoff.

He spent his Friday in Charlotte for American Conference media days, along with a couple of his players. He did interviews in breakout sessions, interviews with ESPN and a large-scale press conference interview that was televised.

It was during that session that Sumrall boosted his city and his school.

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“If you can’t love New Orleans… you’ve got a problem,” he said.

“If you can’t love New Orleans… you’ve got a problem!”

- @CoachJonSumrall #UptownFootball pic.twitter.com/mYy70eIZmb
— Tulane Football (@GreenWaveFB) July 25, 2025

The Green Wave are coming off a 9-5 2024 season during which they reached the American Conference title game and made a trip to the Gasparilla Bowl. That was Sumrall’s first season leading the program. He took over for Willie Fritz, who rebuilt the Green Wave, took them to the 2022 Cotton Bowl victory over USC and left after the 2023 season to take over at Houston.

Sumrall was a head coach for two seasons at Troy, where he was 23-4 and led the Trojans to two straight Sun Belt Conference championships.

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Now 32-9 for his three seasons as a head coach, he’s intent on getting the Green Wave back to the top of the American after two straight conference championship game losses, the most recent of which was to Army West Point.

While the American didn’t do an official media poll, one outlet in Memphis did an unofficial poll and Tulane was picked to win the league.

Tulane claimed seven of the 13 first-place votes and finished with 177 points to take the top of the poll. But the Green Wave wasn’t that far ahead.

Memphis was right behind Tulane with 172 points. The Tigers picked up three first-place votes from the media.

Navy, UTSA and USF each received a first-place vote and finished in third, fourth and fifth respectively. The rest of the preseason poll included Army West Point, North Texas, East Carolina, UAB, FAU, Rice, Charlotte, Tulsa and Temple.

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