Tulane hires Will Hall as new head football coach

Tulane hiring Will Hall as the team’s new head coach, according to On3 Pete Nakos. Hall spent the 2025 season as the passing game coordinator for the Green Wave.

Hall will replace the outgoing Jon Sumrallwho will take over Florida Alligators at the end of the season. Tulane is the No. 11 seed in the rankings College Football Playoffs and will play at number 6 Ole Mademoiselle.

Hall became the target after suing LSU CC Blake Baker. However, Baker chose to stay at LSU under the new coach. Lane Kiffin.

Hall has head coaching experience, having coached West Alabama (2011-13), West Georgia (2014-16) and Southern Miss (2021-24). He’s 70-50 as a head coach, but is coming off a less-than-stellar tenure with Southern Miss.

With the Golden Eagles, Hall had a 7-6 record in year two, leading them to a victory in the Lending Tree Bowl. However, he went 4-15 over his final two seasons and was fired after a 1-6 start in 2024.

But with Sumrall leaving for the SEC, Tulane made the decision to promote Hall internally to head coach. Under Hall, Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff had a solid season: 2,862 yards, 14 touchdowns, six interceptions, a 62.4% completion percentage, 610 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns.

Will Hall to replace Jon Sumrall as Tulane head coach

After leading Tulane to a 34-21 victory against North Texas At the Conference USA Championship Friday night, Sumrall made sure everyone understood why staying on the sidelines, even after accepting the Florida job, was the only option in his mind.

“I’ve said it a lot. I think it’s just as important, if not more important, than how you start in a place, how you finish,” Sumrall said after the match. “I am forever indebted to Tulane. I was an assistant coach here over a decade ago. It has been a complete privilege and honor for me to serve as the head football coach here.

“And you know, I think in my introductory press conference two years ago, I said, ‘We’re going to win the conference championship. We’re going to go to the College Football Playoff.’ And I also said, “We’re going to win,” so we have work to do. The work is not finished.”