The No. 20 Tulane Green Wave have arguably their most important game in program history, or at least at Yulman Stadium, this Friday in the 2025 American Conference Championship against the North Texas Mean Green. The winner of that game will be all but assuredly in the College Football Playoff. But neither team will have the same head coach next season.

For the Green Wave, they’re looking to replace head coach Jon Sumrall as he leaves for the Florida Gators after this year. The reported favorite is Tulane alum and current LSU Tigers defensive coordinator Blake Baker. Baker interviewed for the job on Monday and is the presumed favorite to land the job, at least when it comes to his options. Baker also interviewed with conference foes the Memphis Tigers. But according to Pete Nakos of On3 Sports (subscription required), Baker is down to his alma mater and his current program.

Sources tell On3 that Baker is the favorite for the Green Wave job, and that Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin is making a late push to retain his defensive coordinator. Baker has reportedly narrowed his options to sticking at LSU or taking his first head coaching role with Tulane.

In Sunday’s press conference where he addressed Sumrall’s departure and their coaching search, Green Wave athletic director David Harris focused on the qualities they’re looking for in the next coach: leadership, proven track record of success, ability to recruit, intelligence, high character, integrity, passion, good communicator, ability to put together great staff and ultimately a winner.

He also added that they would favor candidates with head coach experience, but that they wouldn’t make it a requirement if the best man for the role was a coordinator. Here is what Harris said about how he would measure the quality of a proven track record in a coordinator who hadn’t had head coaching experience.

“If it’s a coordinator, you can look at the success of their offense or their defense and how they rank and the kind of success they’ve had.” Harris said. “It’s not the same metrics that you use for a head coach, but when you get into a position of leadership, there are things you can look at as to whether they are helping their team win games and whether they’ve done it at multiple schools so they have a track record of arriving and figuring things out.”

He also emphasized the ability to recruit. That’s even more valuable when its experience recruiting in the state of Louisiana. Baker has that nailed down. Every head coach has to get their first job somewhere. That could be Baker and Tulane if both sides can come to an agreement and Kiffin is unsuccessful in his retaining efforts.