Jon Sumrall gives impassioned answer on future at Tulane. 'Do you want me to leave?' (2025)

Tulane football coach Jon Sumrall became emotional when asked about his job status on Sunday after Tulane’s bowl pairing was announced.

The Green Wave (9-4) will play Florida (7-5) in the Gasparilla Bowl on Dec. 20 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida (2:30 p.m. ESPN), but Sumrall has been linked all week to North Carolina’s open position and is listed as the betting favorite to get it. Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick interviewed for it, but it is unclear who else is in the picture.

The middle of Sumrall’s 19-minute question-and-answer session about the bowl matchup turned into an extended conversation about whether he would remain at Tulane.

"Am I here?," Sumrall said in a room right next to Yulman Stadium. "My goodness. Do you want me to leave? I get asked about it every day right now. I know we lost two games (to Memphis and then Army in the AAC Championship Game) and everybody wants to run me out of town, but I’m here. I showed up to work today."

Sumrall deflected a follow-up on whether or not he had interviewed with North Carolina. With the transfer portal opening Monday, schools have a looming deadline to have a coach in place.

"I’m not going to comment about hypotheticals," he said. "I’m trying to figure out how we can win a game. Look, people call. They call my agent. I don’t talk to them very often. Very little gets to me. Very little. Like almost nothing gets to me. When it gets to me, it’s usually because I’m like this is something that can be really something I need to consider. Nothing’s getting to me right now. Could that change? I don’t know. If some newspaper tripled your salary, you might go (to a new job).

"I’m very happy. Other than we’ve lost the last two games — I’m (hacked) off about that, and everybody probably wants me to leave because we’ve lost twice. I want to win a game for these guys."

Sumrall went on to address his relationship with his bosses at Tulane.

"The administration here and I have had great dialogue about things we can do to try to continue to improve where we’re going," he said. "I love this city. I love this place. I love everything about being here. Are there things I want to do to continue to see how we can get better as a program? Hell, yeah. Because I feel like I’m getting chased and I feel like some people we’re trying to chase and catch up to, and I don’t like being behind. I want to be ahead. There are some things that we have to improve. We’ll work on it. I believe that. Is it all there? Is it all done? I believe we’re working on it, but no, there hasn’t been a whole lot getting to me. I’ve kept everything pretty arms’ length."

Asked if he was flattered by the attention from other schools, Sumrall said no.

"I don’t get flattered by it," he said. "Any attention that the head coach usually gets is because he has a great staff and great players. When things are going good, everybody speculates about where you should go next, and when things are not going good, they try to figure out how can they get you out. I’d much rather them be figuring out, man it’s going really good, what should happen next?

"The last two weeks haven’t gone very well. I’m (hacked) off about it. I don’t get flattered by any of it. It’s not my focus. My attention is how can I serve and develop our players. I wake up every day and think about how can I serve our players? That’s it. I don’t like all the (other) stuff."

Finally, without prompting, he brought up whether or not the Wave’s uncharacteristic performance in its 35-14 loss to Army in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game had anything to do with speculation about his future.

"If it’s been a distraction for our team, I hate it," he said. "I hate it because it hasn’t been for me. It has distracted me zero because my name gets thrown on Twitter or X or whatever it’s called now, and I don’t look at any of that. I don’t read any of that. I’m sure our players do. I didn’t address any of the stuff. I did address it one year at Troy and I’m like, we finished the season better (at Troy) than we did here, and I’m like, maybe I should have addressed it (with Tulane’s players). I didn’t want to make it a deal. It hadn’t been on my mind."