Jon Sumrall has awkward exchange with reporter during introductory press conference

Jon Sumrall’s introductory press conference on Monday highlighted several topics including poking fun at Lane Kiffin, his vision for Florida football, his staff and much more. Toward the end, he had a very awkward encounter with one local reporter.

They asked Sumrall to flash back to 2009 when he played in the Swamp and the takeaways he had from experiencing Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The only issue? Sumrall played college football at Kentucky from 2002-2004. By then, he was on staff at San Diego.

“’09 I played in the Swamp? Are you sure? I was at the University of San Diego,” Sumrall said. “We didn’t play here in 2009. I played here twice in college. I coached here a couple of times. ’09 at the University of San Diego, We might have played at Jacksonville University — the Dolphins. (They) do not have football right now, but Kerwin Bell was their coach.”

The reporter, to their credit, continued with another version of the same question. Sumrall interjected.

“You’re wrong. There’s no maybe,” Sumrall said. “You can drop the maybe.”

Aside from the uncomfortable moment for that report, it is true that Sumrall has been in the Swamp before he’ll take the field as head coach in 2026. He played there as a linebacker at Kentucky in 2002 and 2004. Sumrall recalled the student section chanting ‘Gator bait’ toward him and him teammates during the 2004 matchup.

He coached there as an assistant with the Wildcats in 2020 as well, so there was a 16-year stretch where Sumrall never saw the Swamp. That’ll change very soon, but Sumrall hasn’t coached in Gainesville since, and left Kentucky after 2021 to take the head coaching job at Troy ahead of the 2022 season. He stayed with the Trojans for two seasons, winning the Sun Belt Conference championship in consecutive seasons before moving on to Tulane in 2024.

He now has the Green Wave in the American Conference championship game vs. North Texas. The winner will in all likelihood be fifth highest-ranked conference champion and qualify for the College Football Playoff.

Sumrall is set to continue to coach Tulane through the end of their season. This includes the American Conference title game and whatever bowl or playoff game they get as a result of that matchup. Currently, the Green Wave has a 10-2 record including a 7-1 mark vs. conference foes.

Once that’s finished, Sumrall can turn his focus toward building his initial roster and staff ahead of the 2026 college football season.