For a while there, the Florida Gators were believed to be in the running for coveted head coach Lane Kiffin.
But right around Thanksgiving, reports surfaced indicating that Kiffin had actually eliminated the Gators from consideration and was deciding between staying at Ole Miss or taking the head-coaching job at LSU.
Up until now, fans had no answers as to why UF fell out of the running. But Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin shined some light on the situation in an exclusive interview with On3’s Andy Staples.
Stricklin confirmed Kiffin had ghosted him by the week of Thanksgiving, which he took to mean it was time for him to seriously shift his attention toward other head-coaching candidates.
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During that time, Stricklin zeroed in on two potential Billy Napier replacements — one of which was a rising SEC star who was also linked to other top job openings including Auburn and Penn State.
“Stricklin had vetted and talked to about a dozen candidates,” Staples wrote. “Of the viable ones, he’d identified (Tulane’s Jon) Sumrall and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea as potential hires.”
Staples added a small caveat: “Stricklin never named Lea in this interview. The identity of the other viable candidate was gleaned from speaking to various sources involved in coaching searches at multiple schools.”
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However, Stricklin, associate athletic director Duke Werner and former Gators legend and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel traveled to meet both Sumrall and Lea to conduct in-person interviews.
Word likely got back to Vanderbilt, which signed Lea, who led the Commodores to the first 10-win season in school history this year, to a six-year contract extension on Black Friday, all but making Stricklin’s decision for him.
Florida ultimately signed Sumrall, who’s 43-11 in four seasons as a head coach with stints at Troy and Tulane, to a six-year, $44.7 million deal.
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