One major contrast between Jon Sumrall and Lane Kiffin says everything

“If any university said I couldn’t coach in the playoff, I don’t think I would have taken the job.” This is what Jon Sumrall told the media he said to Lane Kiffin when both coaches were discussing their transitions of switching schools ahead of the 2026 college football playoff.

“Lane (Kiffin) and I talked through the process of October & November. Lane said we’re going through the same. 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 have taken the job,” Sumrall said he told Kiffin.

Sumrall went on to mention how for him, it was about leaving Tulane the same way he walked in, with grace, pride, and always doing things the right way.

“I was going to do it the way I wanted to do it at the end at Tulane. That place, those kids have given me so much, I was not going to walk out on that situation the wrong way,” he said. “How you walk into a place says a lot about you; how you walk out of a place says a lot about you too,” said Sumrall.

The difference between Jon Sumrall and Lane Kiffin’s departures is impossible to ignore

He went on to say that he was going to be “locked in” in the last week ahead of the conference championship. While Florida did not mandate it, Sumrall said  if somebody (a school) , Florida included had wanted him to fly back & forth every day during game prep for conference championship, it wasn’t going to happen. His plan was to  be locked in to help Tulane win as many games as they could.

Sumrall also never tried to recruit a single player from his former Green Wave roster and that was something he said he wasn’t going to do from the start of recruiting for Florida, out of the same respect of not leaving a school right before a playoff, it was about doing things the right way.

Sumrall was later asked about playing Lane Kiffin and defending the LSU offense before and now with Kiffin at the helm.

“They’re explosive, they’re fast, the tempo they play at. Always seem to have great skill players. A lot of respect for what they do and how they do it. But yeah, it’s a challenge. They present major challenges schematically and they always have great players, it seems like,” Sumrall said about LSU’s offense.

Ultimately, what's done is done and Sumrall is going to need to win more games than Kiffin to keep the goodwill going at Florida. And while Sumrall isn't Kiffin, Florida fans aren't going to need to keep looking over their shoulder at Sumrall bolting if indeed he does work out in Gainesville.

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This article was originally published on hailfloridahail.com as One major contrast between Jon Sumrall and Lane Kiffin says everything.