Followed Chip Lindsey. Jon Sumrall moved Troy from Regional Program II to National Program III in 2 seasons.
I’m going to be very transparent with you, in the spring, I think Philo was way ahead because of understanding the offense and Tramell was significantly behind. I think they’ve both taken some steps up. Tramell has probably had more upward mobility, room to grow because he’s learning the offense
How you walk into a place says a lot about you, and how you leave says even more
Well, I’d say no two decisions are alike. You know, like Lane and I are friends, and Lane and I talked several times through the process of October, November about what it was looking like for both of our schedules of how things were going to unfold
Lane and I talked as we were going through it
You would be kicked out of our team meeting. I swear
You are right Tom. I wasn’t serious. I was joking
There is a clear delineation
Well, I’d say no two decisions are alike
It was challenging to do it
It’s mixing and matching, and we’re not done. We’ll go through training camp and continue to work different groupings. I do feel like we’re way ahead of where we were starting spring
Just because you start Game 1 doesn’t mean you start Game 12
If we don’t improve, we’re going to get our ass beat
I would have stayed at Tulane and not taken any other job
That’s not a shot at anybody.
You probably have to start with Florida State
I think I nailed it
Those guys have to have a freaking great summer, or we got no chance. Like, no chance
We gotta wake the beast up. It’s time we wake this thing up. This is a sleeping giant
Do we know who the starter is today? No. No clue
I think probably one of the biggest things you have to do is, we have this transfer portal culture of transient players, where we have a lot of players on this team who don’t understand what Florida- Florida State and Florida-Georgia is all about
I got too much sh*t to do
I kind of feel like I’m talking to myself 20 years ago
I was like, ‘Can you say that again?'
The ultimate competitor, ridiculously detailed, super intense
Very, very blown away with how much he’s been open and willing to give me some feedback since I’ve been at Florida.
We’ve got a lot of work to do to figure out what that looks like, and who’s the starter and all that stuff
Gotta earn it. Gotta earn the logo
(Jon) Sumrall walks into The Swamp with a brand new staff a brand new offense and no one to run it. It’s down to Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones. Sumrall’s scouting report on the depth chart was 3 words — ‘it’s very fluid,'
My relationship with Coach Craddock and Coach Sumrall was big. Coach Faulkner, too
I’m not even sure Coach Sumrall knows this, but I did some homework and had a friend of mine gather about 10 interviews that he did and I had them pick them, because I didn’t have time to run through all of them
Jon Sumrall, I think more so, not necessarily just the type of players he brings in, but just his ability to galvanize, put a team together and get them all to believe in each other. And then they improve. Every single John Sumrall team you watch, they’re just absolutely improving week to week to week to week
Sumrall is a good coach
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Power Program in his 5th career season — faster than 30% of the 395 FBS coaches who have ever reached Power Program (rank #251 of 395 by seasons-to-arrival).
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1–0 against his rivals.
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Fan claims · every quote verified verbatim
Why Florida Will Return To Greatness With Jon Sumrall… It is inevitable that there will be hype every time a program hires a new head coach. However, Florida hiring Jon Sumrall just feels different, it feels like the hype is justified.
Based on 5 comments from 1 poster across 2 threads · Jul 16, 2026–Jul 23, 2026 · via FloridaGators
15th-best Florida tenure of 22 by the numbers.
Followed Billy Napier (2022–2025).
A portal-built roster.
Brings in smaller-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
7 NFL Draft picks: Caleb Banks (2026), Jake Slaughter (2026), Austin Barber (2026), Devin Moore (2026), George Gumbs Jr. (2026), Trey Smack (2026), Tommy Doman (2026)
6th-best Tulane tenure of 23 by the numbers.
Outperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Willie Fritz (2016–2023).
| Season | 2024 | 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||
| Record | 9–5 | 11–3 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | CFP loss | |
| Recruiting rank | #63 | #74 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||
| Pass rate | 37.0 | 45.3 | |
| Coordinators | |||
| OC | Joe Craddock / Evan McKissack | Joe Craddock / Evan McKissack | |
| DC | Greg Gasparato / Tayler Polk | Greg Gasparato / Tayler Polk | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||
| Offense | 85 | 78 | |
| Defense | 92 | 60 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||
| 1st-down pass% | 35.3 | 45.0 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 29.2 | 36.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 44.1 | 34.9 | |
A portal-built roster.
Brings in smaller-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits younger transfers than most — more of a development bet.
4 NFL Draft picks: Jha'Quan Jackson (2024), Michael Pratt (2024), Caleb Ransaw (2025), Micah Robinson (2025)
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Rayshawn Pleasant (2024)
1st-best Troy tenure of 7 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Chip Lindsey (2019–2021) · succeeded by Gerad Parker (2024–2026).
| Season | 2022 | 2023 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||
| Record | 12–2 | 11–2 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | L bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | #125 | #93 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||
| Pass rate | 44.7 | 48.5 | |
| Coordinators | |||
| OC | Joe Craddock | Joe Craddock | |
| DC | Shiel Wood | Greg Gasparato | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||
| Offense | 35 | 64 | |
| Defense | 94 | 97 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||
| 1st-down pass% | 39.0 | 43.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 41.0 | 44.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 47.7 | 38.8 | |
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
3 NFL Draft picks: Jake Andrews (2023), Javon Solomon (2024), Kimani Vidal (2024)
Coach of the Year: Sun Belt Coach of the Year (2022)
Defensive coordinator across 2 programs, 2 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.