"Not going to do me any good if I get mad at him": AAC coach gets real on losing Darian Mensah to transfer portal

Tulane coach Jon Sumrall faced one of his worst nightmares regarding his roster retention this offseason. After a noteworthy season in 2024, finishing with a 9-5 record and appearing in the conference championship game, the Green Wave lost several of their key players to the transfer portal.

Players like quarterback Darian Mensah, Makhi Hughes, Alex Bauman and a host of others decided to continue their college football careers elsewhere in the landscape. However, Jon Sumrall handled the situation brilliantly, refusing to make it more frustrating than it already was.

In his appearance on “Josh Pate College Football Show” on Monday, Sumrall discussed the exodus of his top starters via the portal. When he wants to keep them all, he's decided to live with it and move on.

“I can sit here and whine and complain and make excuses about losing Darian, losing our tight end bound for Miami, losing a running back Makhi to Oregon, or losing a backup defensive lineman last year, Parker Peterson, to Wisconsin. We lost guys everywhere. It's not going to do me any good or do them any good.”

“Darian and I – the day he called me to tell me he was going, I said 'Hey man, good luck to you, hope it goes well.' And that's it, it's not going to do me any good if I get mad at him. It doesn't help me, it doesn't help him. Do I like it? No. But it doesn't matter if I like it.”

Mensah, who threw for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman last season, announced in December that he was transferring to Duke. He received a reported $8 million NIL deal over two years; his $4 million annual average would make him unofficially the highest-paid college football player, per CBS Sports.

Jon Sumrall learning to adapt to the changes in college football

The world of college football has witnessed significant changes in the last couple of years. With the advent of NIL and the transfer portal, roster retention has become pretty difficult for coaches. Jon Sumrall is learning to adapt to these huge changes with an open mind.

“Three, four or five years ago, if something like that would have happened to me, I probably would have punched a hole in the wall. I've learned there's gonna be things happening outside of your control.”

“Though I don't want to lose our starters to other schools, I want to keep them all. I would like to keep all my starters here if possible. That will be preferred. That makes having a good team next year a lot easier.”

Jon Sumrall’s first season at Tulane was a noteworthy one as he proved to be a good replacement for the departed Willie Fritz. Despite the significant loss regarding the team's roster, he will hope to ensure the Green Wave have a good team that can compete next season.