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Why Jon Sumrall said his Florida move wasn't like Lane Kiffin's to LSU Jon Sumrall and Lane Kiffin were among the most coveted coaches in last offseason's carousel.
Sumrall made the jump from Tulane to Florida, while Kiffin stayed in the SEC by leaving Ole Miss for LSU.
Their situations, though, played out differently: Sumrall stayed with Tulane in the College Football Playoff, while Kiffin, as was well documented, left the Rebels and began his rebuild in Baton Rouge as the transfer portal opened in December.
"No two situations are [similar]," Sumrall said on Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Tampa.
"Lane and I talked as we were going through, and he's like, 'You and I are going through the same thing in November.' And I'm like, 'No, Lane, we're not.' If you leave, you're leaving an SEC school to go to an SEC school.
It's a little different.
I'm leaving Tulane." Both coaches were in line to coach in their first College Football Playoff games.
Neither is slated to coach against the other during the 2026 SEC season.
With Kiffin's decision to leave Ole Miss and go to LSU, Rebels athletic director Keith Carter did not allow Kiffin to finish out the season with the Rebels, who were on a historic run, in the playoff.
As noted by USA TODAY's Blake Toppmeyer, LSU told Kiffin it was good with him coaching the Rebels in the CFP if Ole Miss was okay with it.
Sumrall was allowed to coach the Green Wave through the end of their season, which also included winning the American Conference.
He said on Monday his decision to be in two spots at one time was "challenging" but one that he wouldn't have done "any other way." "I may have, on the front end of taking this job, maybe not been at my best every second for Florida, because I wanted to make sure I left Tulane the right way," Sumrall said.
"If any university had told me I couldn't coach in the playoff game, I don't think I'd have taken the job just because I couldn't leave the team I had coached all year." Sumrall pointed to the college football calendar as a key factor, noting how the transfer portal opening before the season ends often forces coaches to leave for new jobs before the postseason begins, to how Kiffin and his situations played out.
"It doesn't match up with the movement of players and coaches very well.
It's cumbersome, to say the least," Sumrall said.
"I did not envy Lane's situation at all.
Every time he and I would talk, I felt awful for what he was going through, and for everybody involved, because it wasn't fair to anyone." The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news fast.
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