Florida news: Did Jon Sumrall take shot at Lane Kiffin when recalling Tulane exit?

It’s a new era in Gainesville, as Florida football is moving into 2026 with a new head coach leading the way. Jon Sumrall is entering his first season with the Gators after leading Tulane to the College Football Playoff last season.

He is hoping for a similar fate with Florida in the coming years. But on Tuesday, it was time to reflect on his exit from Tulane after their College Football Playoff loss to Ole Miss.

Sumrall reflected on his decision to leave Tulane, while potentially taking a subtle shot at new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin in the process, via Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports.

“I would have stayed at Tulane and not taken another job. I was not going to leave a team playing for a championship to go coach another team. That’s not in my DNA. I ain’t built like that, couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t,” Sumrall said. “I’m not — that’s not a shot at anybody. If Florida or any other school that wanted to offer me their head coaching job was going to tell me the terms they needed to be on, the answer for me was, ‘I can’t take the job. Sorry, I just can’t do it.’ Because those kids had given me just too much, and it just was wouldn’t have been fair.”

Of course, Kiffin had a much more messy exit to get to Baton Rouge when he left Ole Miss prior to its College Football Playoff run. Pete Golding coached the Rebels over Sumrall’s Green Wave squad in that first round game and led them all the way to the semifinals. Kiffin attempted to coach Ole Miss in the CFP even after taking the LSU job, but he was not permitted to by the school.

To make things even a bit more awkward, Florida made a run at hiring Kiffin before he eventually settled on LSU and the Gators moved on to Sumrall.

While Sumrall’s exit was cleaner, he will have a tougher rebuild on his hands than Kiffin does now that the two are in the same league in 2026.