New Florida coach Jon Sumrall has received ringing endorsements from Urban Meyer and now Steve Spurrier, who won a Heisman with the Gators as a player before becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach in the 1990s.
Spurrier said Monday that Sumrall was hired to win now at Florida with the program coming off four consecutive underwhelming seasons under the previous regime with Billy Napier.
“It doesn’t take long (to fix) if you’ve got good players and put your attitude to it,” Spurrier said. “I got here in 1990, we had good players and we won the SEC the first year. Nowadays, you don’t need all that rebuilding, you just go. The team he’s got at Tulane this year is a whole new team just about, bunch of his good players the first year left. You coach what you got, as long as you got 11.”
Sumrall has won 42 of the 53 games he’s coached as Tulane enters Friday night’s American Conference Championship against North Texas. The Green Wave will make their first College Football Playoff appearance with a victory and Sumrall plans to guide his former program through the remainder of its postseason run.
Sumrall is one of three coaches from the American hired this cycle within the SEC, joining Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield (Arkansas) and South Florida’s Alex Golesh (Auburn). Florida’s power brass believes it landed the best of that budding group, according to Spurrier.
“His attitude, his emotion … teams take on characteristics of their coaches. This guy hates losing,” Spurrier said. “You can tell that, right? Jon’s got that energy and enthusiasm. The guys will play their hearts out. It’ll be a different sort of atmosphere, I think.”
Was that a subtle jab at Napier’s tenure from Spurrier? The Head Ball Coach questioned Florida’s previous coaching regime earlier this fall and shared immediate thoughts on the Gators’ vacancy soon after Napier’s firing in October.
Spurrier said Florida’s primary targets were going to be “proven coaches” with a “winning record in the SEC or another major conference” and many pointed to Lane Kiffin and Eli Drinkwitz. The Gators pursued the former Ole Miss coach, but went in a different direction once it became clear Kiffin was remaining with the Rebels or going to LSU.
Two days prior to Florida’s official welcoming, CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello reported the Gators had pulled ahead of Auburn in the Sumrall sweepstakes.
“(Florida athletic director) Scott Stricklin had to act quickly to get this guy, lot of teams wanted this guy,” Spurrier said Monday.
One of Sumrall’s first orders of business was hiring a general manager to lead the personnel department. Ex-Jacksonville Jaguars GM Dave Caldwell is the pick as he helps usher in a new era of Florida football.
Sumrall said Monday roster retention, addressing transfer portal needs and securing the Gators’ 2026 recruiting class are primary missions during his first month of the job. Somehow, he’ll try to balance all of that while still preparing Tulane for a conference title game appearance and potential playoff run.
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