Jon Sumrall Urged Not to 'Screw It Up' at Florida

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While Florida didn't win the Lane Kiffin sweepstakes, the Gators made a solid hire with head coach Jon Sumrall. 

Sumrall went 23-4 in two seasons at Troy before going 20-8 in two seasons with Tulane, leading the Green Wave to an appearance in the College Football Playoff.

UF will better offer Sumrall the resources to compete for a CFP national title than what he would have had at Tulane, even the path to make the tournament might be harder in the SEC than the American Conference.

During his show on Sunday, Josh Pate questioned how much of a timeline the Gators will give Sumrall. 

Florida has a quarterback battle this spring, but Georgia Tech transfer Aaron Philo seems to be the likely guy to earn the starting job in the fall. 

Pate thinks the Gators have enough weapons to help Philo succeed.

“How quickly does that work out?" Pate said. "Does it work out? Aaron Philo went to Florida, followed Buster Faulkner down there from Georgia Tech, the coordinator went from Georgia Tech to Florida.

"And Florida is really good at tailback. Florida is probably going to be really good at wide receiver. So this is not a situation where it's come save us Aaron Philo."

Pate suggested Florida probably had a serious conversation with Sumrall about expectations during negotiations. The Gators’ pitch to Sumrall would have been obvious.

UF has plenty of talent. Sumrall just needs to avoid screwing up the situation.

"It's, 'Hey, come in here and thank us for giving you the opportunity and enjoy all the weapons you have to work with and don't screw it up.' I'm told verbatim that was probably John Sumrall’s recruiting pitch. 

"Not really, but I mean, that's how I'd be if I were him.”

It would be hard to think Florida would do much worse under Sumrall than what former head coach Billy Napier did. In four seasons, Napier had just one winning campaign.

But, like Sumrall, Napier did have success in the Group of 5 before taking the SEC job. He went 40-12 in four seasons at Louisiana.

Then screwed it up.