Tulane Green Wave Coach Primed for Turnover Challenge in NIL, Transfer Portal Era

Tulane Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall enters his second season in familiar territory with an unfamiliar football team.

Roster turnover is unavoidable with NIL and the transfer portal dominating the makeup of college football teams.

Sumrall has been here before.

Tulane football lost starting quarterback Michael Pratt when they replaced longtime head coach Willie Fritz. He had over 50 new players join the team between the winter and spring portal windows.

While he wasn't necessarily expecting the need to replace redshirt freshman Darian Mensah after one season, he acknowledges having to adapt to the way things stand.

In an exclusive interview with Garland Gillen on Fox 8 Sports, Sumrall laid out the challenges associated with roster turnover in the NIL and transfer portal era of college football.

"We've got 27 guys that just transferred in and six high school kids that just showed up as well," Sumrall said. "We have 33 new players out of basically a hundred that are here right now. It's a third of the roster that's already brand new from last year. Tons of turnover—that's the nature of the beast now."

This year, the team now has a director of roster management, Kelly Comarda, whose return and hire was critical to the program's trajectory. They also have leaders who have tangible experience under Sumrall as head coach that can bridge the gap with incoming new teammates.

The staff is prepared to replace the turnover, and they have already made significant efforts to do so. The 27 incoming portal players all fill major holes, and several bring considerable experience.

Accordingly, Sumrall's vision and goals don't change when discussing their chances of returning to the conference championship game.

"We still have very high expectations," Sumrall said. The standards do not change. Expectations, maybe, are things that people place on you. Standards are things you place on yourself. Our work standards are not going to change here. We expect guys to have a great attitude, to be extremely tough, to be disciplined, to love each other, and to be accountable to their teammates. That will never change. The standards don't change. If your standards remain high, your expectations can also remain high."

As a head coach, Sumrall excels in motivating players and communicating meaningful messages.

His distinction between expectations and standards is something that will resonate with players new and old as they turn to the 2025 season.