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Jon Sumrall is the belle of the coaching carousel ball this year.
The 42-year old Tulane head coach is the early name to watch for the North Carolina opening for obvious reasons after the Tar Heels fired Mack Brown. Sumrall flourished at Troy, winning 23 games in two seasons, and has No. 17 Tulane in the American Athletic Conference championship game in his first season guiding the Green Wave. Sumrall could even have his team in the 12-team College Football Playoff if Tulane wins out and Boise State loses and/or further chaos engulfs the Big 12. There’s even an aura of sentimentality behind the idea that North Carolina could once again strike gold with a coach from Tulane, which it did when it hired Brown from there in 1988.
Sumrall was CBS Sports’ No. 2 ranked Group of Five head coach coming into the year, behind only Liberty’s Jamey Chadwell who has also been mentioned for the UNC opening, and has been a serious factor in previous Power 4 coach openings. Sumrall was the runner-up for the Mississippi State job that went to Jeff Lebby, according to sources, and would have been the pick at Kentucky to replace Mark Stoops if he left for Texas A&M as he intended at one point.
Sumrall is widely seen as the complete package — a sharp defensive tactician, a skilled recruiter, and a charismatic leader known for building and maintaining strong team cultures.
UNC is the only Power Four job open at the moment and it’s unclear if there will be a better job this cycle with Florida backing Billy Napier for another year. The UNC opening is an intriguing one as the job has long had potential and what Rhett Lashlee has done with SMU this season is proof enough that with the right approach the ACC is wide open to new contenders at the top. Football will…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/jon-sumrall-a-top-coaching-candidate-this-cycle-and-presumed-north-carolina-target-is-expected-to-be-choosy/
Author : John Talty
Publish date : 2024-11-27 16:46:00
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