David Pollack sees Jon Sumrall as a future SEC coach

The coaching carousel is one of those consistent things in college football. Teams are going to underperform and look for the next coach who can take them to the promised land. So, there’s always a good reason to keep an eye on those young and upcoming coaches, like Jon Sumrall of the Tulane Green Wave.

One person who is incredibly high on Jon Sumrall is David Pollack. On his show See Ball Get Ball, the college football analyst went so far as to claim he’ll be a coach in the SEC one day.

“He’s definitely next in that wave,” David Pollack said. “And I think he’s been very picky because he can be. Because he knows he’s going to be really good at Tulane. They were [9-5] last year. He gets unbelievable talent from the portal. Again, you’ve got to be able to recruit. Like, you’ve got to be able to do that. Also, when you see guys going into the portal that are from Tulane, going to major universities. He’s doing something right.”

At Tulane, Jon Sumrall went 9-5 in his first season with the program after going 9-3 in the regular season. That included a loss in the AAC Championship Game and a loss in the Gasparilla Bowl. Now, going into 2025, Tulane is expected to be one of the conference’s best teams yet again. That’s in no small part because of the talent he’s brought to New Orleans.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jon Sumrall has already received some interest from Power Four jobs. Following the 2024 season, his name was frequently rumored along with openings. That included North Carolina and UCF. However, he may have his eyes set on college football’s premier conference.

“Does that make sense? Like, he’s taking his talent,” Pollack said. “And he is absolutely taking them, developing them, to the point where they’re getting stolen because he can’t afford them. He’s one of the highest-paid guys in that division for a reason.”

Now 42 years old, Jon Sumrall has deep ties to the Southeast. An Alabama native, he played for the Kentucky Wildcats before starting his coaching career there as a GA. He’s had multiple stops around the country, including a stint at Ole Miss and another stint at Kentucky. Since 2022, he’s been a head coach, first at Troy and now with Tulane, putting together an overall record of 32-9 and two Sun Belt Championships between the two stops.

“He’ll be an SEC coach,” Pollack said. “You can write that down. I think he’ll be a guy that’s in the SEC. I think it’ll make a lot of sense. Where he lives right now in New Orleans, understanding the Southeast, there’s a real deal to that. I think it’s gonna happen.”