Former Tulane Green Wave Coach Receives Brutal First-Year Assessment With New Job

The Tulane Green Wave football team is in the midst of their most successful stretch of on-field performance in the history of the program.

The 2024 campaign was the third straight where they won at least nine games and appeared in the AAC championship game. The end of the season was disappointing, as they lost three straight games, but Jon Sumrall deserves a lot of credit for the job that he did in Year 1.

He took over for Willie Fritz, who decided to take the head coaching job with the Houston Cougars, making the jump to a power conference program.

Fritz built quite a foundation for Sumrall and his staff to take over since the Green Wave were coming off back-to-back double-digit win seasons.

In the 2022 campaign, he led the team to an AAC championship and appearance in the Cotton Bowl, where they defeated Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans to finish with a 12-2 record.

The following year, the team went 11-2 under Fritz before he departed for his new job following a loss to the SMU Mustangs in the AAC title game. Tulane was also defeated in the Military Bowl handily by the Virginia Tech Hokies with Slade Nagle as head coach.

It was a slow build with the Green Wave for Fritz, who only had two winning records and one .500 season out of his first six on the job before breaking through in 2022 and 2023.

Will that kind of patience be exhibited in Houston?

He'll have to show some progress since his first season at the helm was quite underwhelming.

The Cougars went 4-8 in the Big 12, which had Adam Rittenberg of ESPN re-thinking the grade he initially gave the hiring.

When it was announced, the college football analyst viewed the move in a positive light, giving it an incredible “A” grade. But, in the re-grade after Fritz's first year on the job, the analyst adjusted the grade to a “D+”.

“After a 1-4 start, Houston showed some promise by winning three of its next four, including a road triumph against TCU and a home upset of then-No. 17 Kansas State. But the team scored only 31 total points in its final three games, all losses. Fritz had to replace both of his coordinators last month, and must show greater balance and consistency to move up in the Big 12 pecking order in 2025,” writes Rittenberg.

It wasn’t all a lost cause, as Fritz looks to have figured something out with the defense right out of the gate.

That side of the ball was the backbone of their success, ranking No. 25 nationally in yards allowed. Six of their Power 4 opponents scored 20 points or fewer, as the defense did their part in keeping the team competitive.

But, that just goes to show how brutal things were for Houston on the offensive side of the ball since they could not consistently move the ball or put points up on the board.

As long as he can keep the defense playing at a high level, there will be better days ahead. But fixing the offense is imperative to his tenure with the Cougars lasting more than two or three years, as he left behind a Tulane program that looks ready to thrive in the Group of 5 for the foreseeable future.