{"id":313114,"date":"2025-11-25T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313114\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:02:08","slug":"steve-spurrier-points-to-two-coaches-if-florida-cant-land-lane-kiffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313114\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Spurrier points to two coaches if Florida can’t land Lane Kiffin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> has made Lane Kiffin<\/a> its top target for head coach, but Steve Spurrier<\/a> says the Gators have other strong options if Kiffin chooses another path. On the\u00a0Another Dooley Noted Podcast, the former Florida coach highlighted two Group of 5 candidates who could step in.<\/p>\n

The coaches are Jon Sumrall<\/a> at Tulane and Bob Chesney<\/a> at James Madison. Both have impressive winning records, although only Sumrall has SEC coaching experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of good coaches out there who aren\u2019t in the Power 4 right now,\u201d Spurrier said. \u201cThe guy at James Madison, the guy at Tulane, they win consistently. Sometimes one of those coaches ends up being better than a big-name hire. You just never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sumrall has led Tulane for two seasons after two years at Troy, compiling a 41-11 record. He also worked as an assistant at Ole Miss and Kentucky, giving him SEC experience. Chesney is in his second season at James Madison and has led the Dukes to a 19-5 record, including 10-1 this year as they sit atop the Sun Belt. Chesney would be a true outsider stepping into the Power 5, but his results show he can win consistently.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s next coach will inherit a program in need of a turnaround. The Gators are 3-8 this season, and not only that, a loss to Florida State would mark their fewest wins since 1953. Florida has not reached nine wins in a season over the past six years. The next coach must get the Gators back to SEC prominence and keep them in playoff contention annually.<\/p>\n

Lane Kiffin is the dream hire for the Florida Gators<\/p>\n

Even with other options, Lane Kiffin is still the dream hire for Florida. ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum recently said Florida would be a better fit for Kiffin than LSU if he leaves Ole Miss.<\/p>\n

Kiffin has already shown he can build a playoff contender and Florida believes he can return the program to national relevance. If Florida lands him, it would be the perfect start to a rebuild. If not, Spurrier says coaches like Sumrall or Chesney could still be solid options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conventional wisdom as of Sunday morning is LSU (is the better job for Kiffin). I will disagree. I think Florida right now is riper,\u201d Finebaum said this past Sunday on the The Matt Barrie Show<\/a>. \u201cThe fact that Florida looked so bad last night makes that job a little bit easier than LSU. Kelly was good, maybe not great, but LSU had everything on its shelf this year to win a title. They just couldn\u2019t get it done. So, I would gravitate toward Florida a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talk about it with our premium members in the Swamp Talk message board, here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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SIGN UP<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0GatorsOnline Newsletter\u00a0\u2014 Receive Breaking News, In-Depth Analysis via Email!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida has made Lane Kiffin its top target for head coach, but Steve Spurrier says the Gators have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,4504,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-313114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-regwall","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}