A new era has dawned in Gainesville with Jon Sumrall taking over the head coaching duties inside the Swamp. The 43-year-old skipper inherits a program that had reached another nadir this fall and is in dire need of a course correction.
Over the past week, three other head coaches from the American Athletic Conference moved from the Group of Five to a Power Four school: the Arkansas Razorbacks took Ryan Silverfield from the Memphis Tigers; the Auburn Tigers grabbed Alex Golesh from the South Florida Bulls; Oklahoma State hired Eric Morris away from the North Texas Mean Green.
Advertisement
After these events, The Athletic’s Matt Baker began wondering how these various hires compared and presented his conclusions in a column looking at who got the best new HC.
Overall record
To start, Baker looked at the overall record for the four coaches — which Sumrall led with a combined 42-11 (.792) mark between his two years with both the Troy Trojans and Tulane Green Wave.
“The only active FBS coaches with a better winning percentage than Sumrall are Ryan Day, Dan Lanning, Kirby Smart and Curt Cignetti,” he notes. “Pretty good company.”
In comparison, Silverfield went 50-24 (.676) at Memphis, Golesh went 23-15 (.605) at USF and Morris went 22-15 (.595) at North Texas.
Advertisement
Conference record
Next, Baker took a look at the conference records for each of the respective new hires, which the Gators’ new skipper once again dominated. Again, between Troy and Tulane, he amassed a sparkling 28-4 (.875) tally over those four years.
“Sumrall has the clear edge here, too, going 7-1 in conference play every season. He won the Sun Belt in his two seasons at Troy, made the American’s title game last year and is in the championship game again this time. It’s hard to quibble with those results.”
Meanwhile, Golesh strung together a 14-10 (.583) record, while Silverfield amassed a 27-21 (.563) mark, followed by Morris’ 13-11 (.541) tally.
Advertisement
Record against Power 4 opponents
However, his next query — success against Power Four programs — found Sumrall in the middle of the pack. He was just 2-6 in the big games, which trails Silverfield’s 5-2 record and Golesh’s 2-4 mark, but is still better than Morris’ 0-2 goose egg.
“Sumrall also had a close call against a good team; he led No. 17 Kansas State in the fourth quarter last September. Two of his defeats came at Troy, and another was in last season’s Gasparilla Bowl against his new team, Florida,” Baker notes.
“Sumrall has the most interesting win on this list, a 34-27 victory this season over potential ACC champion Duke and quarterback Darian Mensah, who started for Sumrall’s Green Wave last year.”
Advertisement
Record against each other
As far as how each coach has fared against the other over the years? Silverfield’s 6-1 record eclipses Sumrall’s 3-1 mark; Golesh is just 1-4 in such games while Morris is winless in four tries. But Sumrall has defeated all three other coaches.
Talent acquisition
Maybe the most important segment here is talent acquisition. “The last recruiting cycle (Class of 2025) provides the best apples-to-apples comparison because all four coaches had been in the conference for at least a year, so there were no outliers from transition classes,” Baker points out.
“Silverfield’s Tigers were the best of the group in both high school recruiting and transfers… Golesh and Sumrall were next (USF had the better high school class, Tulane had the better portal haul).”
Advertisement
The verdict
“Sumrall has punched at or above his weight at two programs. Even if we focus only on his Tulane tenure, he has the best overall and conference record. Notching victories over each of the other three coaches helps, too,” Baker offers.
“Because coaching hires are a crapshoot, there’s no guarantee he’ll end up as the best of the group. Perhaps the Billy Napier 2.0 concerns from Florida fans prove justified. But his results so far give him the highest likelihood of success.”
Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida football’s Jon Sumrall hire compared to other AAC head coaches
#Florida #footballs #hire #Jon #Sumrall #compared #AAC