Florida coach Jon Sumrall bluntly spoke about Lane Kiffin during SEC Media Days. Speaking about the coaching changes on Tuesday, Sumrall said that he and Kiffin remained in touch throughout the process. However, when Kiffin said that they were navigating similar circumstances, the new Florida coach pushed back. He recalled a conversation where Kiffin compared their situations.
“Lane and I talked as we were going through it. He’s like, ‘You and I are going through the same thing in November.’ I’m like, ‘No, Lane, we’re not. If you leave, you’re leaving an SEC school to go to SEC school. It’s a little different. I’m leaving Tulane.’ It was challenging to do it. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I may have been on the front end of taking this job, maybe not been at my best every second for Florida because I wanted to make sure I left Tulane the right way,” Sumrall said.
“If any university had told me I couldn’t coach in the playoff game, I don’t think I’d have taken the job just because I couldn’t leave the team I had coached all year. That’s one of the issues.”
“I may have, on the front end of taking this job, maybe not been at my best every second for Florida because I wanted to make sure I left Tulane the right way,” Sumrall said.
Sumrall also emphasized that the current college football calendar creates unnecessary complications.
“The calendar we’ve got in college football right now… doesn’t match up with the movement of players and coaches very well,” he said. “It’s cumbersome to say the least.”
Despite distancing his own situation from Kiffin’s, Sumrall expressed sympathy for his fellow SEC coach, adding that he “felt awful” for what Kiffin experienced throughout the transition.
Nick Saban Showers Praise On Jon Sumrall
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban praised Sumrall on SEC Media Days.
Saban said Sumrall has consistently succeeded wherever he has coached and credited him for taking a practical approach to rebuilding the team.
“I think that Jon has a great attitude. I think he’s had a great attitude in terms of how he’s taken over every opportunity that he’s gotten as a head coach, and he’s done a phenomenal job,” Saban said. “And I think when he says you look at what they did right and what they did wrong, and how we got to fix it, I think that’s a really realistic way to look at taking a new job, rather than just saying ‘I’m gonna do this no matter what’. So you build on what you have.”
“I do think the fact that he hired a great staff. Both coordinators, offense and defense, are really, really good,” he added. “Buster Faulkner, I have a tremendous amount of respect for coming from Georgia Tech, I mean he did a fabulous job there. Nobody wants to play against his offensive style in terms of how he creates quarterback runs, how he can throw the ball, the bounce.”
With the season fast approaching, Sumrall and Florida are ramping up preparations for making a deep run in the 2026 season.
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