The coaching carousel has turned and left us here. With the Florida Gators moving on from an ineffective Billy Napier mid-season, they in turn hired a star head coach from the Group of Five out of Louisiana to replace a fading former one from the same state. Jon Sumrall has been a sensational head coach the last four years split between Tulane and Troy, but he is about to take over at Florida.
Sumrall had seemingly his pick of the litter among SEC jobs. He chose Florida because he believes he can be the one to return the Gators to national prominence. Of course, he still has a season to finish over in New Orleans. The Green Wave will host the North Texas Mean Green in the AAC Championship Game on Friday night. The winner will make the College Football Playoff as either No. 12 or 11 seed.
Sumrall applauded Florida and Tulane's coaches and support staffs for keeping the classes together.
Awesome job today by @GatorsFB & @GreenWaveFB coaches and support staffs holding classes together…great to see the signees make decisions to stick together. Still a lot of work to do be done for 2026. @GatorsFB @GreenWaveFB #GMFG #RMFW
— Jon Sumrall (@CoachJonSumrall) December 3, 2025
What Sumrall is trying to do is a testament of moving on with class, whereas Lane Kiffin continues to burn every bridge on his pathway to coaching glory, including the one he is standing on. Of course, Kiffin chose to leave Ole Miss for a major rival in LSU after the Rebels' greatest season since the 1960s. There are levels to this, but Sumrall being able to juggle both jobs has been rather impressive.
Sumrall has already hired Buster Faulkner and Brad White as his two big coordinators of note at UF.
What can we learn from Jon Sumrall's transition from Tulane to Florida?
What people have to remember is notable coaches switching teams ahead of a playoff are all different. Sumrall is leaving Tulane for Florida. The coach he is going up against on Friday night in Eric Morris at North Texas is slated to take over at Oklahoma State. While those hirings have gone official, there are still some moving pieces about what James Madison's Bob Chesney will do. We think UCLA.
There are also coordinators of playoff teams on the move as well. Will Stein will leave Oregon for Kentucky, while his colleague Tosh Lupoi is expected to take over at his alma mater of California. Collin Klein will be leaving Texas A&M at the end of the season to take over at his alma mater of Kansas State. Florida had to allow Sumrall to coach out the season at Tulane in order to get him.
This is what ruined Kiffin. Switching SEC allegiances like this was never going to fly for Ole Miss. He may have thought he could have coached Ole Miss in the playoff, but for rivalry reasons, it was never happening. Add in the kerosene nature of Kiffin himself, and no wonder this got so combustible... Sumrall has been able to keep things steady in an extremely busy time for him. We have to respect it.
Florida fans may want North Texas to win so Sumrall can focus on one thing, but he has other ideas...