The Tulane Waves came up short of an American Athletic Conference Championship in a blowout loss to Army on Friday night. But just a few days later, Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall had to make it incredibly clear that he has no intention of moving on to other opportunities.
Currently, the North Carolina Tar Heels vacancy is widely regarded as perhaps the most enticing opening around college football after the Tar Heels parted ways with Mack Brown.
Sumrall, who has a 32-8 overall record in his coaching career, has been linked to the North Carolina job in a search that has received a ton of attention after legendary NFL coach turned NFL analyst Bill Belichick interviewed for the position.
During his media availability on Sunday, Sumrall was asked by Tulane beat reporter Guerry Smith whether he has interviewed for the UNC vacancy. This invoked a rather passionate response, questioning Smith as to whether he would “like him to leave”.
“Are you asking this question because I don’t have a Tulane logo on? I went to church today. I don’t wear team-issued gear to church. I don’t like going to church in Tulane gear,” said Sumrall. “Am I here? I mean, my goodness. Do you want me to leave? I get asked about it every day right now. I know we lost two games and everybody wants to run me out of town. But I’m here, I showed up to work today.
“I’m not gonna comment about hypotheticals. I’m trying to figure out how we can win a game. People call, they call my agent. I don’t talk to him very often. Very little gets to me. Very little, almost nothing gets to me. I’m like, I’m not talking, I’m not talking, I’m not talking.
“When it gets to me, it’s because this is usually something I need to consider. Nothing is getting to me right now. Could that change? I don’t know, if some newspaper tripled your salary, you might go. I don’t know, I’m very happy. Other than losing the last two games, I’m pissed about that. Everybody probably wants me to leave because we lost twice. I don’t know, my kids are mad at me.”
It’s a fair question from Guerry Smith that both Tulane and North Carolina fans are interested in knowing. And luckily, it seems like he has a good enough relationship with Sumrall that this interaction didn’t leave any hard feelings on either side.
In a number of posts on X, Smith detailed that these kinds of interactions “come with the territory” as a reporter and that Sumrall is his favorite coach to interact with on a day-to-day basis.
Not on my end. Comes with the territory.
— Guerry Smith (@Guersmith) December 8, 2024
I will add this. I’ve covered seven college head coaches and he has been the best to cover on a day-to-day basis. Easily.
— Guerry Smith (@Guersmith) December 8, 2024
Sumrall went on to say that he loves everything about the city of New Orleans and everything else about being at Tulane. So it sure seems like unless North Carolina, or any other program, is willing to offer Sumrall a salary he can’t refuse, he has no intentions of going anywhere.
