Tulane AD lauds Sumrall's choice to stay through the postseason before taking over at Florida

Harris cited his relationship with Sumrall as a reason why he was eager to grant Sumrall’s request to keep coaching the No. 21 Green Wave (10-2) into college football's postseason.

“I believe and trust him to be a man of his word,” Harris said.

The Green Wave hosts No. 20 North Texas in the American Conference title game on Friday night. The winner could potentially receive a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Should that happen for Tulane, Sumrall would remain until that run is over, Harris said.

Harris played defensive line at Ole Miss, which refused a similar request by Lane Kiffin after he chose to fill an opening at SEC rival LSU.

Harris said he didn't see the point in fretting over the possibility that Sumrall might lure Tulane's top talent to Florida after this season. The type of relationship that would motivate a player to follow a coach to another school “has already been established,” Harris said.

Another factor, Harris added, is that Florida and Tulane are not in the same conference, which gave the Kiffin situation “a different dynamic."

“It isn’t quite the same,” Harris said.

“My mind was squarely on what’s in the best interests of those kids," Harris said. "I couldn’t think of a better way to go about doing this than giving them an opportunity to play in their biggest game of the year with their coach, to keep that continuity that has served us well.”

Sumrall will remain on campus in uptown New Orleans even as Harris hits the ground running on a search process that he anticipated, and for which he was preparing, given Sumrall's success in coaching the Wave to American Conference title games in both of his two seasons at Tulane, where he's gone 19-7.

Tulane offered Sumrall a retention package that the athletic director described as “competitive,” saying that was “the right thing to do and an important thing to do for us, even though it ultimately didn’t work out for us being able to retain him.”

Tulane has retained CSA Search and Consulting, which assisted with the hiring of both Sumrall and Harris two years ago, to now help Harris identify top candidates to take over for Sumrall. That search will start this week, Harris said, adding, “We have been able to do some work behind the scenes to prepare.”

Head coaching experience would be a plus but not required, Harris said, adding that some coaches on Tulane's current staff could be considered.

“We’re interested in running a search that considers a wide diversity of candidates and I would imagine that some of those could be on the staff currently," Harris said. "They have an experience and a perspective, having been here, that we think is important.”

Tulane's offensive coordinator is Joe Craddock and its co-defensive coordinators are Greg Gasparato and Tayler Polk.

Sumrall was one of four American Conference coaches to be hired away by power conference programs in recent days, including Memphis' Ryan Silverfield (Arkansas), South Florida's Alex Golesh (Auburn) and North Texas' Eric Morris (Oklahoma State).

Those hirings reflect well on the American Conference as a whole, Harris said, adding, “The results speak for themselves.”

But Harris would like to see changes to the college football calendar that would prevent such upheaval at the onset of postseason play.

“From our standpoint, for this process, it doesn't work very well," Harris said. "It puts student athletes and coaches in an awkward position. ... It creates problems on a number of different levels.”

The early signing period for recruits begins Wednesday. The transfer portal opens in early January. The 2025-26 college football postseason doesn't end until Jan. 19.

As long as Sumrall is still coaching Tulane, he'll continue assisting Tulane's recruiting staff.

Sumrall "assured me he'll be working on behalf of Tulane football to help bring in the very best class that he can," Harris said.

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football