Jon Sumrall’s latest ranking shows the national media still is not fully sold

Jon Sumrall, for the most part, has done everything asked of him this offseason and then some since being named head coach for Florida. He was far from the first pick for most Gator fans, including we here at Hail Florida Hail, but he has done a masterclass over the past six months to make Florida fans have at least a sense of hope heading into 2026.

That hope, however, still has work to do outside of the bubble in Gainesville, and a new ranking of SEC coaches showcases the work Sumrall still has to do to earn the trust of the national media at large.

Jon Sumrall ranked in the bottom half of SEC coaches

Chris Low of On3 put out his list of SEC Head Coach Rankings, and Sumrall came in 10th among SEC coaches. If you want the glass-half-full approach, he is ranked ahead of every other head coach hired this past offseason who is a new head coach to the SEC (AKA, not Lane Kiffin). There are also a couple of coaches we would dispute on this list. Kalen DeBoer at No. 4 is far too high considering he is at Alabama and has struggled to maintain relevance. It’s also no secret from this past coaching search that Eli Drinkwitz at No. 7 is too high, considering Missouri gets exposed every time they play a ranked opponent.

So, sticking with the glass half full, this also represents opportunities for Sumrall in year one. He is ranked ahead of four of the teams Florida will play in 2026, most notably Pete Golding taking over at Ole Miss. And with Drinkwitz, Clark Lea (Vanderbilt), and Brent Venables (Oklahoma) ranked 7, 8, and 9 right in front of him, this ranking paints a picture that if Sumrall is who we hope he is, going 7-2 in the SEC and 10-2 overall in 2026 isn’t actually that insane of a possibility.

Jon Sumrall’s glass half empty

The glass half-empty of this ranking is that if everything plays out as listed, Florida goes 4-5 in the SEC and, at best, 7-5 overall. The ranking is a reflection of the fact that Sumrall still has to prove once he is on the field if he has evolved from some of the red flags he had while at Tulane that made Gators fans reject him in the first place.

Our primary concern with Sumrall when his name was first floated is that he didn’t have a tendency to try to bury teams once he got a lead. Particularly during his time at Tulane, Sumrall was notorious for sitting on second-half leads and trying to run the clock out. 

In 27 games as the head coach of Tulane, the Green Wave outscored teams by an average of 6.9 points in the first half while only outscoring teams by an average of 2.0 points in the second half. This conservative nature was highlighted in the American Conference title game, where Tulane took a first-half lead, and then on 12 plays in the second half, where they had 1st and 10, they ran the ball ten times. Tulane won the game, but that was in large part because North Texas kept self-imploding once they got near the endzone.

One might say, “But he is a winner.”

He is. We also said the same things about Billy Napier when he came to town.

Fair is fair

With Buster Faulkner as his OC, we do envision Florida being a bit more aggressive than the conservative nature we saw at Tulane. And if this offense clicks, particularly if the offensive line figures things out, don’t be shocked if Florida goes 9-3.

But since we haven’t seen Florida in action beyond the spring game, everything for now is a hypothetical and while we could argue Sumrall should be ahead of a couple of guys, 10th isn’t too unfair of a ranking until Sumrall proves it for real this fall.

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