Jon Sumrall’s handling of the coaching carousel proves the Florida Gators dodged a bullet by not hiring Lane Kiffin

The Florida Gators are in a great spot thanks to getting the hire right with by choosing Jon Sumrall over Lane Kiffin.

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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UF Athletic Director Scott Stricklin and new UF head football coach Jon Sumrall pose with a jersey at a press conference James W. “Bill” Heavener Football Training Center in Gainesville, FL on Monday, December 1, 2025.
Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun

When the Florida Gators hired Jon Sumrall to be their head coach, it wasn’t the most popular decision among the fanbase. They wanted LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin, and they weren’t able to make it happen. In fact, some were calling him Billy Napier 2.0, but it wasn’t exactly a fair or apt comparison.

When you look at both coaches, there are some severe differences. Sumrall led two programs in the Tulane Green Wave and Troy Trojans to the conference championship game all four years, including winning the Sun Belt in both years at Troy. His record of 42-11 and, considering his circumstances, it’s a very impressive record.

Before he took the Gators’ job, Napier was 40-12 at Louisiana with four seasons with at least a tie for first-place. We’ve already seen the biggest difference between the two coaches, and it’s how Sumrall has handled his coaching staff by hiring Brad White as defensive coordinator and Buster Faulkner as offensive coordinator.

Jon Sumrall is handling the coaching transition very well

The one thing we’ve seen Sumrall do that separates him from what Napier is that he’s still coaching Tulane and finishing up a very successful recruiting class for the Gators. He talked about handling both jobs over the last week.

“Trying to juggle a lot of different things. I officially accepted the job on Sunday and told my team Sunday afternoon. Had a walk-through Sunday night with our team to get ready. We’re playing our short week, because we played last Saturday, and so we play Friday,” said Sumrall. “And so had a walk through Sunday practice, Monday morning, got on a plane, went to Gainesville, did the team meeting to see those guys media availability, got right back on the plane, came back to New Orleans to get ready for our game. Have not slept much.”

It’s a really cool thing for Sumrall to be handling both jobs at a high level, but it’s arguably more important that he’s going to get potential College Football Playoff experience, which is the goal for the Gators every single season.

The other aspect that he’s shown is how well he handled both recruiting classes. Sumrall didn’t try and poach any players from Tulane, and both schools signed a lot of players. Navigating that can be difficult, but Sumrall did so with class, another element you can’t say about Kiffin.

“We’ve also had to do two signing days yesterday, because, while I’m worried about Florida and we’re going to finish, I want to finish that signing class the right way. To me, it was very important to leave this place [Tulane] the right way, too,” said Sumrall. “I think we signed 13 or 14 guys yesterday. I’m trying to keep track of who, how many we signed where. But for us to sign that many guys here without actually having a head coach for 2026 in place here. I’m as proud of that as I am of anything, because we got a lot of guys to stick to their word, and they’re coming here.”

It hasn’t even been a week, and Sumrall continues to show why he’s the right guy for the Gators both short and long-term. Plus, he wore a neck roll, something that Napier, nor Kiffin, can say.

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