Tulane Football Coach Sees Strong Benefit in Fiery Energy of Team Scuffles

Tulane Green Wave football brought the heat in their first scrimmage, and despite some fighting, impressed head coach Jon Sumrall.

Credit: Tulane Athletics / Football

NEW ORLEANS, La. — When the first Tulane Green Wave football scrimmage broke out in a few fights, it didn't bother head coach Jon Sumrall.

He would rather see passion than lackluster efforts.

Tulane football gets more spirited when pads come on, and that’s the type of energy Sumrall needs from his team in the 2025 college football season.

After the initial altercation, the Green Wave proceeded with business as usual.

Following the second scuffle between offensive and defensive players, the head coach had to rein in the emotions.

The players ran a set of sprints; Sumrall addressed the spirited activity that came to a halt, and the team resumed the final series of play.

If asking Sumrall about his thoughts on what took place, as reporters did on Friday following the 45-minute scrimmage at Yulman Stadium, he only addressed issues to ensure they didn't escalate.

“I’m not mad about any of it,” Sumrall admitted. “I’d rather have that happen than have us be passive and soft. Last spring, our first goal-line period, I was worried. I just want us to do it the right way within the rules.”

An action packed Scrimmage 1 🌊#UptownFootball pic.twitter.com/A7L2zqztDm

— Tulane Football (@GreenWaveFB) March 29, 2025

Sumrall immediately invoked a memory of this time last spring in April, where a lackluster outing left the head coach underwhelmed and unhappy.

There were multiple false starts, and the effort was inadequate enough for Sumrall to share his candid disappointment.

“I thought it was really soft,” Sumrall said last April. “It was embarrassing. We're at that point in practice. Today was practice No. 13, and that wasn't it. I told the guys post-practice, if you think that's what it takes to beat great, we're going to be extremely disappointed with the results and the outcomes we get. Today was the first practice all spring where I felt like we mentally did not come out with the right mindset of how to practice and prepare to have a good day. That's on me.”

He pointed out a practice a few weeks prior that he stopped midway through to address poor physicality and work ethic. Sumrall elected to let things play out the second time he noticed bad effort, and it stung that no one stepped up for his goal of a player-led team.

“I thought there were good parts of it, but the goal line period was a pillow fight. I don't know if we would have cracked an egg if we had put one out there."

Those comments were memorable enough to both reporters and Sumrall.

In an unconventional way, it demonstrated how far the team has come in just a few weeks' time.

There has yet to be a practice where Sumrall has expressed comparable disappointment to that goal-line period last year.

The first scrimmage was truncated due to weather pushing it up a day, and the team is still so new that it’s difficult to make definitive on-field assessments.

However, the fiery energy that brought some shoving also led to a competitive 45-minute period of all Green Wave players locked in and ready to push each other to channel that into team chemistry.