Jon Sumrall addresses being linked to LSU, other coaching openings: 'There's no distractions'

Jon Sumrall is one of the bigger candidates for this offseason’s coaching carousel, as he has already been linked to several openings in the Power Four. However, Sumrall is completely and totally focused on his own team and their season rather than anything else regarding him elsewhere in college football.

Ahead of Tulane vs. UTSA on Thursday night in San Antonio, ‘SportsCenter’ was on site, and ESPN’s Matt Barrie was able to ask Sumrall about these rumors in a conversation on Wednesday. He said he couldn’t be any less distracted by his name coming up like it is, with his mind still currently all-in on the season for the Green Wave.

“There’s no distractions with me. I addressed it in the summer with our team. I said, ‘Hey, we have success, we’re going to talk about where maybe some coaches should go or, when a player has success, they’re going to talk about where that player should transfer,’ A la Darian Mensah, our quarterback last year. Had success, and people wanted to pay him more money than we could pay him,” Sumrall said. “There’s no distractions. Like, I’m all-in to Tulane. I’m so focused on this team. The only team I’m coaching is Tulane, and I could not be more blessed to do it. I do it with great people, at a great place and a place I love to live, and I’m excited about what I’m doing.”

This comes after, earlier yesterday, Sumrall addressed his candidacy for other jobs more fully while with the local media, namely after this past week with another job opening just up the road in the Southeastern Conference with LSU firing Brian Kelly. He understood the job that they all had to do in asking those questions about his future, but he just provided similar answers in his own focus on only Tulane.

“What’s the elephant in the room?” Sumrall jokingly said ahead of the first question on the matter. “I’m kidding. Yeah.

“Yeah, I’ll say this – and, Jeff, I love you. I love all y’all for being here. Y’all cover our program and I’m grateful for it. You got a job to do. You got to ask that question. I got a job to do. It’s to coach the Tulane football team. I’ve dealt with it every year as a head coach. I understand it comes with the territory. I get those questions because we’re having success. That’s about our players. The coaching carousel, to me, is not even a thought because we’re in the midseason phase. So, whatever else somebody wants to do, another program wants to do, what people want to speculate? They’re free to do that…And so, whatever is going on out there in that world? That’s great for people to speculate. Man, just like you got a job to do to ask me that question? I got a job to do, and that’s coach this football team.”

Again, this isn’t anything new either for Sumrall. He has had to address storylines like these ever since becoming a collegiate head coach in December of 2021, having a current overall record of 38-10 (.792) with two seasons apiece so far at Troy and Tulane. He led the Trojans to a record of 23-4 (.582) and a pair of championships in the Sun Belt before now having the Green Wave at 15-6 (.714), with an appearance last year in the American Championship and having them right back in contention this year, both in the American and potentially even for the CFP.

So, because he had handled it before, Sumrall decided to change his method in addressing this sort of thing before this season ever kicked off. He told his team that everyone in their program, including himself, should be completely bought into what they’re doing until whatever the last game of the season is for them, and that’s where his mind is still locked in – even as of this very moment in prepping for the Roadrunners.

“In the summer, we did a speaker series…At the end of July, the guest speaker was me. I talked to our team, and I said, ‘Hey guys, here’s the deal.’ I didn’t address distractions that come up in the season last year very well. I think we had maybe some players that were distracted. I’m never distracted. Like, I mean, I’m so freakin’ micro-focused on how do we just get a little bit better every day. But I pulled back the curtain for our team and I said, ‘Guys, there’s coach movement, there’s player movement.’ Our players have got agents now, you know, right? Like, we’re the NFL. So, we got more player movement now than the NFL does.

Sumrall probably couldn’t have put it much plainer as far as being a candidate to be the head coach of several other programs. He’s looking only at the rest of their season, continuing tonight for Tulane against Texas-San Antonio, and that’s that for someone who’s still the coach of the Green Wave.

“UTSA has my 100% focus,” Sumrall said. “Our team playing the best it can has my 100% focus. We haven’t played our best yet. I’m a little bit, like, urgent and nauseous in fear-complacency because we haven’t played very good yet.

“I don’t want to address this stuff with our team in the season very much, so my way of addressing it is looking them in the eye and going, hey, no distractions, everybody good? Good. Let’s freakin’ get ready for practice. I’m not distracted by any of it. I’m trying to go 1-0 on Thursday night. That’s it…That’s got my focus – fully.”