GAINESVILLE — The University of Florida on Sunday hired Tulane’s Jon Sumrall as the Gators football coach to conclude a six-week search and beat out other SEC suitors for a man the school hopes can return championship success to a program coming off four losing seasons in five years.
Sumrall replaces Billy Napier to become the Gators fifth head coach since 2014, the past four seasons under Napier featuring just 23 wins in 50 games, including Saturday’s 40-21 rout of rival Florida State to end a four-game losing streak.
The hiring came after top target Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU, leading UF athletic director Scott Stricklin to turn to Sumrall, who is expected to ink a six-year deal worth $7.5 million annually.
Because of scheduling, Sumrall was coincidentally the first of around a dozen candidates the Gators spoke with after Napier’s Oct. 19 ouster. One of the sport’s rising stars, Sumrall is 42-11 during two-year stints at Troy and Tulane, culminating with a 27-0 win Saturday against Charlotte to move the No. 24 Green Wave to 10-2 entering Friday’s American Athletic Conference title game against North Texas in New Orleans.
A win could earn Tulane the Group of Five bid into the 12-team CFP and prevent him from joining the Gators until elimination and after Wednesday’s Early National Signing Day.
Raised in Huntsville, Ala., Sumrall, 43, was also linked to openings at Auburn, Ole Miss (to replace Kiffin) and potentially Arkansas. Sumrall coached linebackers at Ole Miss in 2018 before spending three seasons at Kentucky, where he played linebacker from 2002-04.
Sumrall’s SEC ties and winning ways at two schools are selling points. Yet, Kiffin checked more boxes given his success in the nation’s top football conference.
Ole Miss (11-1) solidified a berth to the CFP with Friday’s 38-19 win at Mississippi State behind an offense averaging 37.3 points, or 11th nationally, and ranked among the top three offenses in the SEC during each of Kiffin’s six seasons in Oxford.
Sumrall’s Green Wave rank 61st nationally in scoring (28.7 points per game) and 51st in average points allowed (22.8 ppg). But the defensive-minded Sumrall’s two teams at Troy allowed an average of 17.1 points each season, ranking eight in 2022 and 10th in 2023. Tulane yielded 20.6 points in 2024, or 23rd nationally.
Meanwhile, Tulane averaged 35.1 points in 2023 (16th).
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin celebrates with fans courtesy of a Gator Champ following a 29-26 upset of Utah Sept. 3, 2022, in Gainesville. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
After pivoting from Kiffin, Stricklin’s imminent hire of Sumrall drew the ire of Gator fans leading up to the FSU game.
A Web site firescottstricklin.com has emerged, claiming UF’s AD “is unserious about winning.” Fans also organized a rally outside the Swamp to protest Stricklin’s leadership.
Stricklin, 55 and in his ninth year at UF, has the support of those who matter within the university, including the school’s Board of Trustees. In June, he signed to a three-year extension through 2030 and a $250,000 raise.
Stricklin is banking on Sumrall to turn around a football program without an SEC title since 2008, the same year the Gators captured their third national title.
Sumrall’s teams have played for the conference title in each of his four seasons, including the past two at Tulane, where he is 19-7.
During two seasons at Troy, he was 23-4 and won back-to-back Sun Belt Conference Championships in 2022 and 2023. But Napier’s Louisiana teams won the previous two titles while he was 40-12 at the school, making Sumrall’s hire a hard sell with a fan base with its heart set on Kiffin or another Power Four coach.
Napier’s Gators beat Sumrall’s shorthanded squad 33-8 during the 2024 Gasparilla Bowl when the Green Wave were forced to use quarterback Ty Thompson after star Darian Mensah transferred to Duke following the regular season.
Stricklin fired Napier on Oct. 19, leaving him 22-23 at UF.
UF’s longtime AD, on the spot while making his third football hire, turned his attention to Kiffin amid his best season with an Ole Miss program he had elevated into the upper echelon of the nation’s top football conference. Ole Miss (11-1) defeated Mississippi State Friday to secure a spot in the CFP and set the stage for Kiffin to announce his future plans.
Florida had been in a battle for Kiffin with Ole Miss and longtime SEC rival LSU after the Tigers fired Brian Kelly Oct. 26.
Early on, Kiffin deflected speculation at every turn. He then supercharged the suspense when he announced Nov. 22 he would reveal his future plans after the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State.
New Florida coach Jon Sumrall spent two seasons at Troy, where he led his team to an 18-12 win against UTSA during the 2022 Cure Bowl Dec. 16, 2022 at Exploria Stadium in Orlando. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Kiffin announced he’d head to LSU on Sunday.
Sumrall’s hiring ends six weeks of handwringing in Gator Nation, endless media conjecture, erroneous reports about contract offers and signed memorandums of understanding with Kiffin, along with angst back in Oxford, where he had elevated the Rebels from an SEC also-ran.
Big-money Gator boosters and UF legend Steve Spurrier, an ambassador for the athletic program, became involved in the push to land the 50-year-old offensive mastermind.
Members of Kiffin’s family visited Gainesville and Baton Rogue two weeks ago as the pursuit of his services intensified.
Layla Kiffin, the coach’s ex-wife and daughter of former UF star quarterback John Reaves, and her brother Chris were allegedly underwhelmed by the Gainesville area athletic programs. The lure of Florida’s superior tradition, facilities and recruiting footprint did not sway Lane Kiffin.
Knox Kiffin, the son of Lane and Layla, is a star sophomore quarterback in Oxford, Miss. His high school choice is among the key factors in Lane Kiffin’s decision. Chris Kiffin has four children, with two of them high school athletes.
Kiffin is expected to become one of the sport’s highest-paid coaches, at $13 million annually. Meanwhile, Sumrall earns around $3 million annually, allowing UF to sign a coach at a lower price after paying Napier a buyout of nearly $21 million to bring the total of money paid to previously fired coaches to nearly $60 million since 2014.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com