Sumrall Stays Locked In on Tulane Despite Taking Florida Job
John Sumrall’s week has been unlike that of any other coach in college football.
Hired Sunday as Florida’s next head coach, Sumrall is still embedded at Tulane as the No. 20 Green Wave prepare for the American Athletic Conference Championship game Friday. And according to him, that’s exactly how he wanted it.
Joining SportsCenter on Dec. 2, Sumrall described the whirlwind of simultaneously leading one program while laying the groundwork for another.
“Doing two jobs at one time, not a lot of sleep,” he said. “A lot of work on the phones, a lot of watching film.”
Sumrall emphasized that finishing the season with Tulane was non-negotiable, a sentiment that could be read as a pointed contrast to Lane Kiffin’s abrupt departure from Ole Miss to LSU.
“As the Florida opportunity became more of a reality for me, I voiced to them how important it was for me to finish this job the right way,” he said. “How you enter a place matters, but how you leave a place maybe matters just as much if not more.”
He credited both schools for allowing him to coach Tulane through its title push.
“Tulane has given me a tremendous opportunity … I wanted to coach this out. I wanted to be a part of this conference championship game and hopefully something after that if we can handle our business. Florida was great about understanding that.”
With both Tulane and its championship game opponent No 24. North Texas ranked in the top 25 penultimate college football rankings, the American Conference is essentially guaranteed a spot in the 12-team playoff. The Tulane-North Texas winner will be either the fourth or fifth highest-ranked conference champion, likely slotted as the No. 12 seed, with a chance to rise to No. 11 if No. 17 Louisville falls to Duke in the ACC title game.
Sumrall made it clear that no matter how deep Tulane’s postseason run goes, he’s staying.
“If we’re playing for a championship opportunity, I’m coaching this game. Conference championship, I’m coaching. We win this week, I’m coaching … We talked about that as the plan, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Sumrall has led Tulane to a 19-7 record and back-to-back American title game appearances in his two seasons in New Orleans. It’s an unusual dynamic, a coach hired by one school while still trusted to lead another into its biggest moment of the year, but Tulane has embraced it.
Tulane athletic director David Harris said the decision was simple.
“I believe and trust him to be a man of his word,” Harris said. “I couldn’t think of a better way to go about doing this than giving [our players] an opportunity to play in their biggest game of the year with their coach.”
For Sumrall, the balancing act continues. He flew to Gainesville for his introductory news conference Monday, then returned to New Orleans in time to lead Tulane’s Tuesday morning practice. It’s a demanding stretch, but one Sumrall appears ready to navigate all the way to the end.
Category: College Football, Gators Football, SEC
