His ties to Gainesville made him a trusted voice in the Gators’ latest coaching search, and coaching searches have been frequent occurrences<\/a> since he exited stage left in December 2010.<\/p>\n FLORIDA GATORS COACH JON SUMRALL SAYS HE WOULDN’T HAVE LEFT TULANE IF HE WASN’T ALLOWED TO COACH PLAYOFF TEAM<\/a><\/p>\n Former Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer and Florida Gators former head coach Steve Spurrier talk before the press conference at the Heavener Football Training Center at the University of Florida on Dec. 1, 2025. (Matt Pendleton\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n With Meyer’s help, Florida selected Jon Sumrall<\/a>, whose first year is off to a roaring start thanks to two top-10 wins (Ole Miss and Texas) before he’s even had a chance to coach a full season.<\/p>\n Seven games into his tenure, Meyer has been blown away by Sumrall, and joined Dan Dakich on his show, “Don’t @ Me,” to discuss how he had a small part in helping usher the new Gator to The Swamp this past fall.<\/p>\n FLORIDA COACH BRINGS LAUGHS, NO FILTER AND LANE KIFFIN COMPARISON REBUTTAL TO FIRST SEC MEDIA DAYS<\/a><\/p>\n “I don’t like him, I love the guy,” Meyer said with the same smile a proud older sibling would wear when talking about his younger brother’s accomplishments.<\/p>\n “I never met him until this year, I was involved in the coaching search. They asked me to kind of vet, and one phone call, I hung up the phone and I called a guy on the board of trustees and I said, ‘you found your guy, man.'”<\/p>\n FORMER OHIO STATE, FLORIDA COACH URBAN MEYER REVEALS THE ONE PLACE HE REFUSED TO RECRUIT PLAYERS FROM<\/a><\/p>\n Jon Sumrall speaks during a press conference introducing him as the new head football coach at the James W. “Bill” Heavener Football Training Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., on Dec. 1, 2025. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n As I mentioned before, Meyer knows what a good coach looks like.<\/p>\n Outside of his accomplishments, Meyer’s “coaching tree” looks as impressive as anyone’s not named “Saban.”<\/p>\n Just a few of Urban’s notable assistant coaches over the years include Ryan Day, Dan Mullen, Brian Hartline, Charlie Strong, Steve Addazio, Luke Fickell, and Mike Vrabel, among others.<\/p>\n So, when Urban Meyer hops on the phone and says “you found your guy,” chances are he’s onto something.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE<\/a><\/p>\n “This guy doesn’t b\u2014h… you ever hear him bitch about the NIL<\/a>? You ever hear him b\u2014h about the transfer portal,” Meyer asked rhetorically. “No, he loves the game. He loves his players.”<\/p>\n Meyer also lauds Sumrall for how tough he is on his players while still showing them love.<\/p>\n FLORIDA COACH JON SUMRALL REVEALS EARLY CAREER STRUGGLES, LIVING IN SLUMS OF SAN DIEGO AND ‘CARRYING A GLOCK’<\/a><\/p>\n THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW\u2013UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n “I love when he says, ‘yeah, we suck, we just suck less today and we beat Texas.’ I mean how cool is that?”<\/p>\n Head coach Jon Sumrall of the Florida Gators celebrates after defeating the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Oct. 17, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n A big part of why Meyer has been so drawn to the 43-year-old Gators coach is the fact that he sees a lot of his younger self in Sumrall, too.<\/p>\n He brings up their Bloody Tuesday practices<\/a> and mentions that the second in command is Rusty Whitt, Florida’s head strength coach.<\/p>\n![\"Urban](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/florida-urban-meyer-121025-1.jpg\")
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