At American Conference media days, Hall got candid about why some programs need a CEO head coach, and why Tulane lets him just coach instead.
The discourse over what went wrong in Tulane Green Wave head coach Will Hall’s former tenure with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles has been beaten with a stick over and over.
But in his comments at American Conference media days, he touched on something really important through a lens of self-awareness: what type of coach it takes to be successful in today’s college football.
For a lot of programs, that requires a CEO type of head coach. In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, the amount of attention that needs to be paid to things off the football field can become insurmountable.
Delegation and knowing your limitations are essential for success.
Those two things aren’t always possible in every program though. Southern Miss does not have the same fundraising department as the Green Wave.
As Hall told Steve Helwick of Underdog Dynasty, things fell apart with the Golden Eagles when it came to NIL and the portal all hitting at once, and he made some decisions that weren’t the right ones.
Now, not only does he have the chance to do things differently, but he also has the opportunity to flourish in a system that’s been built for success.
The fundraising is sound with strong donor relationships at Tulane. NIL was proactively managed by an incredible NIL group in Fear the Wave. Now one of the co-founders, Kelly Comarda, is the team’s general manager handling internal NIL matters and operations.
So, here, Hall doesn’t have to be a CEO if he doesn’t want to. And he decidedly does not want to.
“I have to coach,” Hall said. “I’ve always coached. I coach on offense. I coach on special teams. I coach tackling. When it became apparent we were gonna have to raise money, I went to raising money full-time and quit coaching. I became a CEO head coach. I am not a CEO head coach. I have to be a coach, and I will coach every day for the rest of the time the good Lord gives me to do it.”
Through spring camp, Hall was everywhere. He was lined up as an edge rusher in drills. He was sprinting all over the place in a way that hasn’t been seen at Tulane yet.
Jon Sumrall and Willie Fritz were a bit more in the CEO mold of things. Hall is completely right. He is a pure coach.
Knowing that is as important as anything else.
There isn’t a surefire way to be successful as a head coach. What worked one place might be the completely wrong approach elsewhere.
When players get recruited to programs, they talk about culture and fit. That fit also applies to head coaches.
Any former or current player who has been around Hall has talked him up better than any potential candidate.
When Sumrall was hired, it was a slam dunk in the eyes of everyone in the football world, but the players at Tulane didn’t know him at all.
On the sideline of the American Conference Championship, former players were in my ear pleading that the Green Wave had to make the right choice and get Hall.
Then a bunch of players showed up at athletic director David Harris’ office and made the same pitch.
They now have their pure football coach poised to succeed.
