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Apart from Lane Kiffin, few names were talked about more during last season’s wild coaching carousel than Jon Sumrall.
The former Tulane and Troy head coach now applies his trade at Florida, but was a candidate for multiple open jobs during the end of last season. All of that was ongoing while his Tulane team was en route to winning the American Conference and appearing in the College Football Playoff.
One of the teams in the mix for Sumrall was Auburn. An Alabama native who used to coach just over an hour away from the Plains at Troy, Sumrall seemed to check many of the boxes that Tigers athletic director John Cohen was looking for in a coach.
One difference that came up might have been the timing.
Sumrall remained Tulane’s coach throughout the College Football Playoff, something he said was a “non-negotiable” when talking to other schools.
“I don’t care what the offer was on the other side, if somebody had said, ‘Hey, we need you to take this job and do it on our terms with how you finish the job at Tulane, the answer was not no, it was hell no,” Sumrall said during SEC Media Days. “I was not gonna walk out on that situation the wrong way.”
While it’s unclear how much of an impact that had on Sumrall, decision to choose Florida over other potential suitors, Cohen was direct about his timeline for making a hire throughout the search.
That included having a new coach within 24 hours of the Iron Bowl, Cohen told AL.com during the search. Alex Golesh, who Auburn hired, was on the Plains by the Sunday afternoon immediately after Auburn’s Iron Bowl loss to Alabama.
Sumrall was eventually hired by Florida, who allowed him to coach Tulane in the American Conference Championship and the College Football Playoff, where Tulane fell to Ole Miss.
The Rebels were without their head coach in that game, after Lane Kiffin did the opposite of Sumrall, leaving Ole Miss for LSU before the CFP.
“Lane and I talked several times through the process of October and November,” Sumrall said. “Lane said we’re going through the same thing. I said, ‘No we’re not. You’re leaving an SEC school. I’m leaving Tulane.’ If any university said I couldn’t coach in the playoff, I don’t think I would have taken the job.”
Auburn and Florida will face each other in Week 3 at Jordan-Hare Stadium, which is the SEC opener for both teams.
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