Tulane Football Coach Talks Value of Stadium To Host Super Bowl Team

Tulane Green Wave head coach sees a connection with the city hosting the Super Bowl and discusses the importance of Yulman Stadium.

Credit: Tulane Athletics / Football

As the city of New Orleans gets closer to hosting Super Bowl LIX, the Tulane Green Wave football team has played an important role in the preparation for Sunday.

Tulane has hosted the Kansas City Chiefs for practice this week at Yulman Stadium while the Philadelphia Eagles have been at the New Orleans Saints practice facility.

Head coach Jon Sumrall spoke with Ben Mintz of Barstool Sports at the Steve Gleason Celebrity Golf Classic on Thursday about the impact of the Super Bowl efforts on their connection with the city as the local college football team.

"It's been like Fort Knox to get in our stadium," Sumrall joked. "But it’s been fun having them on our campus; to have a Super Bowl in New Orleans and one of the teams practicing on our campus is pretty cool."

The Chiefs are the first Super Bowl team to practice inside Yulman Stadium. For Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, the Baltimore Ravens had a makeshift field on Greer Field baseball diamond.

Sumrall is entering his second season as the Green Wave's head coach after two years in the role with the Troy Trojans. However, it's not his first stint at Tulane, as Sumrall was the co-defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2014.

That coincided with the inaugural season of Yulman Stadium in 2014. Sumrall coached for two years at the Superdome for home games and got a taste of the buzz an on-campus stadium and atmosphere can bring in his final year as coordinator.

When he took the job in Dec. of 2023, Sumrall pointed to a nuance that showed the program's investment in college football: moving the team to the home side of Yulman Stadium. They ran to the opposing sideline in the 2014 season.

"It makes such a big difference being on campus," Sumrall said. "The Superdome is great. It’s great for the Saints, it’s great for the Super Bowl, but it’s not necessarily great for Tulane football. Tulane football, being on campus, man, it makes all the difference in the world for our student body. On a Saturday, they're able to roll out of bed and come drink and party and watch our game on campus. It's the biggest deal we could ever have."

The rejuvenation of the football program wouldn't be possible without the foundation of Yulman Stadium.

It was challenging to sell out early games in the 2022 season, where they eventually won the Cotton Bowl, but the sold-out memory of the conference championship win with fans rushing the field is unique to the on-campus stadium.

It's an adrenaline high the team has chased in three straight American Athletic Conference championship appearances. Sumrall hoped to win Tulane's first title on the road against the Army Black Knights but ultimately fell short in a 9-4 finish.

As the team reloads in the portal, Sumrall sees continuous momentum building for the program and feels that there's no better place to make a run at the College Football Playoff than New Orleans.

"I tell people all the time, if you can’t have fun here, you can’t have fun anywhere," Sumrall said. "This is one of the greatest cities in the world. The city has embraced Tulane football. It’s a fun time to be here."