Tulane coach Jon Sumrall knew plenty about Jake Retzlaff before he joined the Green Wave.

Before taking his job in New Orleans, the Huntsville native made a huge push for the former BYU quarterback to join his program while he was the head coach at Troy.

Sumrall again confirmed the addition of Retzlaff to his Tulane squad on Friday at American Conference media day in Charlotte following the quarterback’s departure from BYU.

ESPN reported the move from Retzlaff, who announced his withdrawal from BYU on July 11 after the program reportedly dealt him a seven-game suspension.

He was accused of sexual assault in a later-dismissed civil case, but was penalized by the school for including actions that violated the school’s honor code in his response.

“The situation with Jake presented after doing our due diligence on the university side of things with everything around Jake,” Sumrall told reporters. “We got the green light to move forward, then you check to make sure that academically things are fit and that worked. Then the football component, you have to make a decision on.”

As the primary starter at BYU last season, he completed 57.9% of his passes for 2,947 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in the air across 13 games.

He also ran for 417 yards and six touchdowns with the Cougars, who finished 11-2 last season and won the Valero Alamo Bowl with a 36-14 rout of Deion Sanders’ Colorado team.

Sumrall recalls he and his Troy staff being the earliest offer in Retzlaff’s recruitment out of Riverside City College, where he was ranked No. 1 in ESPN’s Junior College 50 for 2023 after throwing for 4,596 yards and 44 touchdowns in 2022.

“We won our conference championship game at Troy that year, played a game against Coastal Carolina, and two days later, I went on a flight to go see Jake,” said Sumrall, who compiled a 23–4 record and back-to-back Sun Belt Conference titles across two seasons with the Trojans. “He was the guy we wanted to come add to our program as a transfer quarterback out of the junior college ranks, and then BYU came in; proximity to home and several other factors came into play, he ended up going to BYU.

“In 2023, he was the backup there. In 2024, he was the starter and had a really good year. We felt like when it was presented, we vetted every angle of it, like I said, the entire scope of adding a new player. As we went through that process, it checked all the boxes to, ‘let’s to this.’”

Previously serving as an assistant at Kentucky, including the 2019 season as co-defensive coordinator, he pointed to his final season with the program as one that has made him more inclined to add more quarterbacks on his roster.

“We had all of our quarterbacks get injured one year, and Lynn Bowden played quarterback for us, who was a receiver, and we had to get really creative with how we play the game,” Sumrall said. “I like to play quarterbacks at quarterback if at all possible. So, having more good players is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Sumrall added that he told his quarterback room of the move, encouraging them that the best man will still win the starting job for the Green Wave.

Tulane will open the season at home against Northwestern on Saturday, Aug. 30, before facing South Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 6, in Mobile.

“I’ve said this a few times, like the old adage, a lot of people like to say less is more. I don’t prescribe that theory: I think more is more,” Sumrall said. “I want more good players on our team all the time, and if we have an opportunity to add a capable player that can help us win, we’re going to do it.”