Lane Kiffin and Jon Sumrall were consistently mentioned together during the past month among top candidates for multiple SEC vacancies
And as Florida introduced Sumrall as its next coach Monday, he led immediately with a reference to Kiffin, who would follow suit at LSU about an hour later.
“As I start, I’d like to say going through the process of making decisions on jobs this time of year, maybe not being ideal coaching in the season,” Sumrall said. “There’s very few people that you can trust to maybe have that conversation about what it’s like to go through this because it’s unique. I do want to be very direct on one thing, and you may or may not appreciate this, but Lane Kiffin and I have been going through the same thing. We’ve talked a lot. We were both in agreement that I was the right man for this job. He co-signed on that. Lane is a dear friend, and I have to poke a little fun at him.”
Kiffin was quickly and heavily tied to the opportunities at Florida and LSU before ultimately favoring the Tigers in a process that ultimately dragged into Sunday as he attempted to convince Ole Miss to allow him to finish out the already-historic season with the Rebels.
Leadership in Oxford, Miss., held firm, though, forcing Kiffin to what he called the “excruciating and difficult” decision to leave the team prior to the upcoming postseason.
Florida and Tulane officials both agreed to allow Sumrall to finish this season with the Green Wave, who will host an American Athletic Conference title game Friday with a potential College Football Playoff berth on the line.
“Jon is going to finish the season with Tulane, and we wish him and the Green Wave well this week and beyond,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said. “But beginning today, he is the head coach of the Florida Gators, and we could not be more excited about his willingness to lead this program.”
Sumrall explained both the tight timeline of hitting the ground running with national signing day about 40 hours away and the particularly delicate balance of managing overlapping roles as it relates to recruiting.
“I’ll pull back the curtain: I Zoomed with my commits at Tulane, and I told them to sign at Tulane because I’m not trying to poach their class — I want those guys to go play there,” he said. “I Zoomed with the guys that have been committed (to Florida) … and their families. First I thanked them for — there haven’t been a whole lot of decommitments, which is really powerful. It speaks a lot about what this place is. It also speaks to a lot about a number of people that are still in the building, still here working day-to-day right now. First I thanked them for staying committed and not making a fast decision. I told them to give me an opportunity. I’d love to coach them all. They chose Florida for a reason that was bigger than maybe one person. Anytime there’s uncertainty, I get that you may look around and figure out, ‘Hey, is this really right.'”
Nonetheless, Archbishop Shaw defensive back Jackson Williams announced his decommitment later Monday from the Green Wave, and West Monroe offensive lineman Tylan George a decision to hold off on signing until February.