Jon Sumrall might not have hard feelings toward Auburn, but this game is personal

Whether Auburn people want to admit it or not, Jon Sumrall was the top choice on the Tigers' coaching hot board. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be happy with Alex Golesh. Not everyone gets their top choice, and sometimes that actually works out for the best. 

For years, Sumrall had been tied to Auburn because he lived most of his young life in Huntsville, Alabama, and his wife is an Auburn grad. Moreover, the Tigers had a chance to grab him before the 2023 season, after he won 12 games at Troy and led the Trojans to a top-20 finish.

Instead, they chose to partake in the Hugh Freeze experience, and it went about as well as you could have predicted. Maybe they thought Sumrall wasn't ready yet, but he probably disagreed with that and the decision that followed. Sumrall acknowledges the true family ties to Auburn, but he hasn't forgotten this snub, and that's why this game might be the most important one in his early tenure at Florida.

Sumrall's cold response when asked about his extended family possibly pulling for Auburn might sound like a fun soundbite, but there are some real feelings in there.

"They're not family to me. Any family that is pulling against us, ain't my family. I'm a Florida Gator and everyone affiliated with me closely is a Florida Gator, or they're not affiliated with me closely," he said.

Jon Sumrall is putting it all out there heading into Florida's game vs. Auburn

The Gators coach isn't holding anything back emotionally. He rarely does. But the idea that there might be people in his circle of friends and family not pulling for Florida in the SEC opener has him legitimately angry. For Sumrall, football is life, and it's his livelihood. It puts food on the table. It assures his kids will grow up with the best educational opportunities. And the people that have been crucial in providing the resources for him to achieve that at Florida are his family.

He's not in too much of a different situation than Urban Meyer was in as the Gators prepared to face Ohio State for the 2006 BCS Championship. Meyer was (and probably still is) a devoted Buckeyes fan.  He is from Ashtabula, Ohio, and modeled his coaching process after Woody Hayes and Earle Bruce. But he made it clear to the people around him that there would be no split loyalties. Either you were with him or not.

That mentality worked out for Meyer in that game, and Sumrall is trying to summon similar energy heading into the Plains. It's personal for him. Maybe he's not trying to show the Auburn brass that they made a mistake passing him up a few years ago, but he's definitely trying to show them that he is the guy who can get Florida back to the top of college football.

After all, his real family is counting on it. 

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