Moments after the press conference announcing Jon Sumrall as the 31st head coach in Florida football history, athletic director Scott Stricklin answered questions from the media, many of which were related to UF’s pursuit of now-LSU head coach Lane Kiffin.
While Stricklin kept things professional, he did answer questions regarding Kiffin’s choice to become the next Tigers’ head coach and made his statement clear: he was happy with the end result.
“He's a fascinating guy, and I respect his decision,” Stricklin said. “I don't know why he made the decision he did, but, I would say we had productive conversations."
Florida reportedly dropped out of the race for Kiffin on Friday, after his conversations with the Gators’ were allegedly becoming irregular.
“Once we kind of got a sense that he might not be coming our way, we understood that there was going to be a line out the door for Jon Sumrall,” Stricklin said.
The Gators then pivoted to Sumrall, who was reportedly heavily desired by SEC programs including Auburn, as well as whoever LSU and Ole Miss would be without Kiffin going forward.
Then, Kiffin announced Sunday he would be departing Oxford for Baton Rouge, signing a seven-year contract to become the next LSU head coach.
Stricklin was asked multiple times if he felt Florida “dodged a bullet” after the Kiffin saga reached its end, but he would not comment on the matter.
"I'm really happy with where we are,” Stricklin said. “I wish him the best. I wish all the schools involved the best, except for when we play them."
Stricklin was then asked if there was any truth to the narrative that he did not want to hire Kiffin whatsoever, which he debunked.
“I would say there's a lot of just false information,” Stricklin said. “There's a lot of twisted information, and a lot of people trying to create narratives that benefit themselves. And so look, I said earlier, I'm not gonna talk about any other candidates, but Lane was a pretty visible candidate.”
Even while Florida was in pursuit of Kiffin, they remained in constant contact with Sumrall. Stricklin said they talked “three or four times during the process.”
Former Gators head coach Urban Meyer and former Heisman trophy winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel were also both heavily involved in the vetting process for the next UF coach.
According to Stricklin, Meyer told him that Sumrall was “a winner” and that the athletic director should “go get him signed up.”
Meanwhile, Wuerffel agreed with Stricklin that some of the news surrounding Kiffin was "grossly unfair."
"It's crazy to me to see how many narratives came out," Wuerffel said. "But I think Scott ran a great process ... I think this was a massive win for Scott Stricklin."
Stricklin also fielded questions about hiring another Group of Five head coach from the state of Louisiana, a concern Florida fans have expressed throughout the days since Sumrall’s hiring.
“You can't just arbitrarily start eliminating candidates out of a pool,” Stricklin said. “You're trying to find the best person. You couldn't just say, ‘Hey, we're gonna, we only want to hire a left handed coach’. You would be eliminating people for no good reason.”
Stricklin’s confidence in Sumrall was evident in his words introducing the head coach and after Sumrall’s near hour-long press conference.
“He's a unique individual in and of himself,” Stricklin said. “I think he's a guy that's gonna win at a high level. He's a competitive guy. One thing winners do is they talk about winning a lot. This kind of stood out to me.”
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Max is in his sixth semester at The Alligator and now serves as The Alligator's Football Reporter and is a junior sports journalism student. He previously served as The Alligator's Sports Editor, and served as reporter for women's tennis, volleyball and lacrosse. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. He wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and niche former Florida Panthers players (shoutout Tomas Kopecky).
