“I told them it’s not ok to lose. Anybody that tells you it’s okay to lose, get away from them for the rest of your life.” Those were the words Jon Sumrall said he told the Tulane football team upon being defeated 41-10 in the first round of the college football playoff by an Ole Miss Rebel team that was without their former head coach, Lane Kiffin.
Tulane was by far the underdog in this matchup, but after how things went down at Ole Miss vs how Sumrall was handling the transition from Tulane to Florida, it almost felt like the world was rooting for the new Gator head coach. But Ole Miss put more points on the scoreboard to ultimately defeat Sumrall’s Green Wave squad in his last game as head coach.
Jon Sumrall makes it clear how he feels
“It’s not ok we lost,” said Sumrall. But as he has made very clear, he is a coach that, win or lose, cares about his players, and those were the words he echoed next as he reiterated to a locker room he won’t be coaching next year, he cares about them, and the result of a game doesn’t change that.
“That doesn’t change how I feel about them,” said Sumrall. “I love this group. I love each guy on the team. This team will walk together forever as champions because we won a conference championship,” he said. “While the outcome tonight sucks, and I’m not happy with it and there’s nothing about it that I feel good about, I still feel good about this football team because we hoisted a conference championship trophy,” Sumrall said.
As this was his last game in the green wave uniform, he told the players he’s just a phone call away if they ever need anything.
Since being hired on at the University of Florida, there’s one thing that Sumrall has displayed clearly, and it’s his love for the players, his respect for the players, and the fact that he wants to see each and every one of them grow on and off the football field. He longs to see them become men, not just athletes.