Lane Kiffin Predicts Jon Sumrall will Coach in the SEC Next Year

Where will Jon Sumrall coach next? The former Kentucky linebacker can’t get through three weeks of a season without his next job taking up all of the oxygen. Typically, the origin of that conversation comes from Kentucky football fans who are desperate for a homecoming. That’s not the case this time.

Ole Miss will host Tulane (+10.5) Saturday afternoon at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Sumrall is familiar with the setting. He coached linebackers at Ole Miss in 2018, and it was where he coached his first game at Troy in 2022. After the game, Monte Kiffin, Lane’s father and an NFL legend, wanted to speak with Sumrall.

“Coach Monte comes over and goes, ‘Hey, our team was better than y’all. But man, y’all are playing hard. Y’all are tough. Keep doing what you’re doing,'” Sumrall recalled this week. “I needed to hear that as my first game as head coach. We just got our butts kicked. I’ll never forget that.”

Even though Monte Kiffin has since passed, his son shares a similar respect for the program Sumrall has built at Tulane.

“I just think his teams are really disciplined, they play really hard, they tackle really well. He’s got a really fundamental defensive system, and he wins,” the Ole Miss head coach said during Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference.

During that conversation, one reporter noted that the former Kentucky Wildcat has been linked to multiple head coaching vacancies. It’s something Kiffin has experienced quite a bit throughout his career.

“It’s funny you bring that up,” Kiffin said. “I told my staff yesterday, I said, ‘I feel like I’m going to be in head coach’s meetings in the conference’ — I think our first one is in January — ‘with Coach Sumrall.’ So, it’s funny you bring that up.”

This comment was not by accident. Two notable names in the sport, UCLA and Virginia Tech, fired their coaches earlier this week. Billy Napier’s seat at Florida warmed back up after losses to USF and LSU. Kiffin is adding a distraction before his team faces one of the best from the Group of Five.

One team I did not previously mention is Kentucky. There is a significant portion of the fanbase that wants to see a homecoming. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg recently noted that even though Sumrall will be a popular name on the coaching carousel moving forward, assuming he will return to Kentucky is foolish.

“Tulane’s Jon Sumrall is still the top candidate from a non-Power 4 school. I’d be a bit surprised if he’s not leading an SEC program in 2026 or shortly after,” wrote Rittenberg.

“Sumrall is an Alabama native who played linebacker at Kentucky and coached both at his alma mater and at Ole Miss in 2018. He will be the top name mentioned whenever the Mark Stoops era ends at Kentucky, but his return is far from a guarantee. Sumrall could look to other SEC jobs where making the CFP seems a bit more realistic.”

Sumrall coached in a conference championship game in each of his first three seasons as a head coach, capturing the Sun Belt title twice. Now in year four, his overall record is 35-9. It’s clear he can coach some ball. We’ll see on Saturday if he has a major upset up his sleeve against an SEC foe.