A first-year SEC head coach may lack experience against some of the teams they face in their opening season; however, for Jon Sumrall, that is not the case against Ole Miss.
Last season, Sumrall faced the Rebels twice as Tulane’s head coach and lost both times.
Sumrall’s first loss to Ole Miss came in Week 4, when the Lane Kiffin-led Rebels took down the Green Wave 45-10 in Oxford. The second meeting came in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Kiffin left for Louisiana State, and Sumrall coached his last game with Tulane as Pete Golding’s Rebels cruised to a 41-10 win.
Now at Florida and ranked for the first time since Week 3 of 2025, Sumrall’s No. 21 Florida (3-0, 1-0 SEC) hosts No. 4 Ole Miss (3-0, 1-0 SEC) on Saturday, marking the first-year head coach’s most important game yet at UF. After two gut-wrenching losses last season, Sumrall hopes to learn from the past and flip the script to pull off the win at home.
“There’s some new wrinkles,” Sumrall said in Monday’s press conference. “There’s some unique things but a lot more of the same than anything different.”
A large factor in Ole Miss’ success last season against Sumrall was the play of quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
In the Week 4 matchup, Chambliss completed 17 of 27 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns. He was also a menace on the ground, recording a team-high 112 rushing yards on 14 attempts. In the latter Ole Miss-Tulane contest, he completed 23 of 29 passes for 282 yards and a touchdown. On his six rushing attempts, the 6-foot, 205-pound quarterback ran for 36 yards and two scores.
This season, the fifth-year senior is off to a flying start.
Chambliss leads the conference with 924 passing yards, completing 70% of his throws. He’s also thrown seven touchdowns and just two interceptions. Across three games, Chambliss has rushed for 64 yards on 21 attempts and two touchdowns.
“They got the best quarterback in college football,” Sumrall said. “He’s a dude, and so they’ve got a lot of great weapons.”
This respect for Chambliss was consistent throughout the Florida coaching staff leading up to Saturday’s game.
“He’s a really talented player,” UF defensive coordinator Brad White said. “Unbelievable arm strength, obviously mobility. He can escape anywhere in the pocket.”
Another factor in Ole Miss’ dominance over Sumrall last season was Tulane’s late start to each contest.
In both games, the Green Wave was scoreless in the first quarter and went into the break with three points. Tulane scored its only touchdowns against Ole Miss in the fourth quarter of each meeting.
Ole Miss defensive tackle Will Echoles played an important role in stopping Tulane’s offense last season.
Across the two games against Tulane last season, he had a combined 14 tackles, including a team-high six in the first round of the College Football Playoff. The junior is coming off his best game this season against LSU on Saturday with five tackles, three tackles for a loss and a sack.
“He’s a violent, twitchy, physical guy,” Sumrall said. “He’s a handful. He can beat you with his rush game in a lot of different ways, too.”
However, one bright side from Sumrall’s meetings against the Rebels last season was that Tulane ran for a combined 293 yards. In the CFP meeting, running back Jamauri McClure ran for 84 yards on 15 attempts. In the Week 4 matchup, quarterback Jake Retzlaff scrambled for a team-high 51 yards on eight carries.
This season, Florida has benefited from the run game, which is led by junior [position] Jadan Baugh.
Baugh has run over 100 yards in each game this season for a season total of 458. The Atlanta native is tied with an FBS-most eight rushing touchdowns. Quarterback Aaron Philo has shown his value in the run game, rushing for a touchdown each against FAU and Campbell.
While Tulane did have success running the ball last season against Ole Miss, Rebels running back Kewan Lacy gave Sumrall’s team problems. Across the two contests, the Dallas native ran for 155 yards and three touchdowns on 33 attempts.
This season, he is off to a much slower start on the ground, with 191 rushing yards on 39 attempts and four touchdowns thus far. Injuries have limited his success; he suffered a thigh bruise in Ole Miss’ season opener against Louisville.
Most recently, Lacy left early in the third quarter in the Week 3 contest against LSU with a left shoulder injury. Golding told reporters postgame that Lacy’s X-rays came back negative and announced Monday that Lacy will be a game-time decision for the upcoming contest.
One difference between last year’s matchups and this season’s is Ole Miss’ new offensive coordinator, John David Baker, who worked the past two seasons at East Carolina. From 2021-23, he was on Ole Miss’ staff serving as tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator.
Moreover, unlike the two matchups last year, Sumrall will have home-field advantage, with Florida entering the contest as a 3.5-point favorite on FanDuel Sportsbook.
"There's a lot of good drugs out there, huh?" Sumrall said. “We may get added points in Las Vegas for the home-field advantage, more than normal.”
Like Sumrall, Golding said he understands Saturday's contest will be different from last year’s meetings with Sumrall and Tulane. In his press conference on Monday, the Rebels’ head coach said what makes this matchup stand out from last season is the improved talent Sumrall will have on his sideline going from New Orleans to Gainesville.
“I can't compare this to Tulane,” he said. “This is a different roster with the same mentality, which is scary.”
With those experiences in mind, Sumrall and his staff will look to improve to 4-0 in a sold-out Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
“I fully expect our fan base to be ready to go and create as much havoc as they possibly can to make it a tough place to play,” Sumrall said.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the Fall 2026 men's basketball reporter and a third-year journalism sports & media major with a media, management and production minor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family and rooting for the Miami sports teams.
