Jon Sumrall has made a decision about his future.
The 43-year-old coach will be heading to Florida, Sports Illustrated’s Bryan Fischer confirmed. Sumrall will join the Gators on a six-year deal set to make him an average of around $7.5 million per season, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported on Sunday. He will remain with Tulane for the remainder of the season.
Sumrall has been a rising star in the profession since taking over as Troy’s head coach in December 2021. He has had immediate success with the Trojans and, after two seasons, was hired by Tulane, where he has continued to thrive. The Green Wave are 9-2 this season, and 6-1 in the American Conference with one game remaining.
Florida has conducted an extensive search for its next head coach since firing Billy Napier in October. In four seasons as the Gators’ head coach, Napier went 22–23 and 12–16 in the SEC. A 3–4 start to the 2025 season doomed his tenure. Florida’s pursuit of Lane Kiffin came up short, so it moved on to its next target.
The school will be expecting much more from its next coach. Florida hasn’t had a double-digit-win season since Dan Mullen led his squad to an 11–2 record in 2019. The Gators haven’t won an SEC title since Urban Meyer’s national championship squad back in 2008. Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Mullen and Napier have all failed to take the program to those heights.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin released the following statement after the Sumrall hire became official:
Jon Sumrall is a proven winner and an exceptional leader who has built successful programs at every stop. He brings tremendous energy, strong recruiting relationships across our footprint, and a philosophy rooted in toughness, discipline and player development. He will cultivate a daily culture of competitiveness, accountability and winning that drives success on the field and throughout our program. Jon fully understands the expectations at the University of Florida, including our expectations to produce championship teams that feature a dynamic offense, and we're excited to welcome him and his family to Gator Nation.
Not many coaches win big at two different non-Power programs, and even fewer do it as quickly as Jon has done it. He joins rare company—coaches like Urban Meyer, Brian Kelly and Willie Fritz—who've delivered immediate success at multiple stops. Jon's track record of rapid turnarounds speaks directly to his leadership and the culture he establishes.
Those are some big names to live up to. We’ll see if Florida’s new head coach can do it.
Jon Sumrall bio, coaching record
Sumrall is in his second season at Tulane, and has the Green Wave 9–2 and 6–1 in the American Conference. His team’s only losses have come at Ole Miss, and at UTSA. September wins over Northwestern and Duke showed the Green Wave can compete with Power 4 opponents, and have helped them reach No. 24 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
The former Kentucky linebacker is 18–7 during his two years since he replaced former coach Willie Fritz, who departed Tulane for Houston. The Green Wave went 9–5, and 7–1 in conference in 2024 before losing to Army in the conference title game. They lost to Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl.
Before landing at Tulane, Sumrall went 23–4 in two seasons at Troy, winning the Sun Belt title in each season.
Sumrall has power conference experience as an assistant, as he began his coaching career as a GA at Kentucky, coaching linebackers at Ole Miss in 2018, then returned to Kentucky as the inside linebackers coach from 2019 to ‘20, then added the co-defensive coordinator title in 2021. Troy hired him in December 2021.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jon Sumrall Will Leave Tulane to Become Head Coach at Florida.
