In the past four years, two different Tulane head football coaches have guided the Green Wave to 42 wins ... and counting.
First, Willie Fritz led Tulane to 23 wins in 2022-23 before departing to take over at newly arrived Big 12 program Houston.
In the past 26 games, Jon Sumrall has engineered 19 wins for the Green Wave.
Sumrall now is Florida's coach but finishing the ride at Tulane, which will host North Texas Saturday night in New Orleans with both the American Athletic Conference Championship on the line -- as well as a likely College Football Playoff berth for the Green Wave if, as three-point underdogs, they can secure the win.
Either way, Sumrall's days are numbered in NoLa. He's already been introduced as Florida's next head coach, replacing the fired Billy Napier and giving the Gators two consecutive coaches from plucky, Group of Five (now Six) programs in the state of Louisiana.
But courtesy an administration invested in football and winning, as well as a city reenergized by Tulane's success this decade, the "Help Wanted" sign on the head coach's office at Tulane has no shortage of suitors.
The Green Wave also are well-funded for a G-6 program, with "at least around $5 million" to fill out a roster and additional supplemental pay within reach via the vibrant local support for Tulane football.
Thus, top-flight candidates already are emerging for the Tulane job, especially with the NCAA's Early Signing Period opening Wednesday and extending through Friday for Class of 2026 recruits; additionally, Tulane players now have the opportunity to enter into the NCAA Transfer Portal, which has its official window open Jan. 2-16, 2026.
Mulitple sources tell FootballScoop that at the center of the Tulane search are the following coaches: LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker, Oregon co-defensive coordinator Chris Hampton, current Green Wave offensive coordinator Will Hall, San Diego State head coach Sean Lewis and Southern Mississippi head man Charles Huff.
Hampton is a former Tulane defensive coordinator, an ex-South Carolina Gamecocks standout-player and a Memphis, Tennessee, native; he knows the city and the region, plus carries with him Tulane's renowned Cotton Bowl win against USC following the 2022 regular season in the Cotton Bowl.
Baker is Tulane linebacker, a stalwart on the Green Wave defense at the turn of the century who appeared in more than 40 career games. Baker's work as LSU's defensive coordinator the past two seasons has been somewhat overshadowed by the Tigers's struggles that led to the firing of Brian Kelly and eventual hiring of Lane Kiffin.
LSU's 2025 defense closed in the top-20 nationally in scoring defense at No. 15 after it allowed just 18.33 points per game.
Neither Hampton nor Baker has head coaching experience but both have ties to the area.
Hall, meanwhile, has had vastly more success as a head coach than he has not; before his final two years earlier this decade at Southern Miss dissolved into disaster, Hall had accrued a 66-35 mark as a head coach at NCAA Division II programs West Alabama and West Georgia, as well as a seven-win, bowl-championship 2022 season atop the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
With Hall heavily involved in game planning, Tulane's offense this season finished ranked inside the top 40 in total offense (416.3 yards per game) and scored 29 points per game.
Should Tulane hire Hall, it could potentially retain more of the roster and seek to build some continuity in the program. Hall's entire two decade-plus coaching career has been spent in the Southeast region's footprint.
There are perhaps a couple of recent success stories of programs promoting from within that could bolster Hall's candidacy. In 2024, East Carolina got hot under interim coach Blake Harrell after it fired Mike Houston and elected to bestow permanent head coach status on Harrell. He's now generated a 13-5 mark as the Pirates' leader.
It's a similar track to that of Spencer Danielson, the Boise State head coach. Taking over for the fired Andy Avalos in the final month of the 2023 season, Danielson since has produced a 23-7 mark and the program's first-ever College Football Playoff berth.
San Diego State coach Sean Lewis generated one of the biggest breakthroughs in FBS football this season; the Aztecs tied for the best record in the Mountain West Conference and missed out a conference championship-game berth due to bizarre tiebreaker rules that relied on computer metrics.
Nonetheless, Lewis -- who also previously served as Kent State head coach -- guided San Diego State to a nine-win regular season this fall; it's just the eighth time since 2000 that the Aztecs won at least nine games and the seventh time to notch six or more conference wins.
Huff guided Marshall to that program's first-ever Sun Belt Conference Championship a year ago and then just missed leading Southern Miss to the league title game in his debut season in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The Huff-led Golden Eagles tallied seven wins this season and just missed a spot in the Sun Belt title game last weekend when they lost to Troy; Huff would have been the first coach to ever lead two different programs to the conference championship game in the same league in consecutive years had Southern Miss defeated the Trojans.
Huff has proved a strong leader; he first announced his arrival as a head coach with Marshall's 2022 win at Notre Dame. In five seasons as an FBS head coach, Huff has guided each of his teams -- four at Marshall, this year at Southern Miss -- to bowl eligibility.
Other coaches recommended for consideration by the search firm include FIU head coach Willie Simmons, former Florida and Louisiana Lafayette head coach Billy Napier and former Troy and West Virginia head coach Neal Brown.