By Michael GallagherShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberUp until Friday morning, the Florida Gators were a viable destination for Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin.
Florida reportedly had its eye on Kiffin ever since firing Billy Napier on Oct. 19 after a 3-4 start to the season.
However, LSU came on strong in recent days, making an aggressive push to land the highly coveted 50-year-old coach, proposing a reported $98 million contract offer with a $25 million NIL investment to try and tempt Kiffin to come to Baton Rouge.
Reports surfaced on Friday that Kiffin had eliminated Florida from consideration, leaving him to pick between Ole Miss and Florida by Saturday — the deadline Kiffin reportedly gave the Rebels of when to expect his final decision.
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With Florida no longer left in limbo, On3 reported the school turned its attention to its No. 2 preferred candidate, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall.
In fact, Florida was so aggressive in its approach that the school even turned to former head coach Urban Meyer to help them potentially woo Sumrall away from Tulane, according to FootballScoop’s John Brice.
“Florida is furthest down the road with Sumrall,” Brice wrote. “Florida's so dialed in on Sumrall that sources told FootballScoop this week that the Gators had tabbed former two-time Florida national championship-winning coach Urban Meyer to speak with Sumrall about the opening, among other Florida dignitaries.”
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Brice also stated that Florida took things a step further, promising Sumrall “full control of the Gators' program and autonomy on staffing decisions” — something that other programs seemingly wouldn’t commit to offering.
If anyone could seal the deal on landing a head-coaching candidate for the Gators, it’s Meyer, who compiled a 65-15 record with two SEC championships and two national championships.
In fact, Meyer recently made it known he thought highly of Sumrall during a recent episode of “The Triple Option” podcast.
“The Sumrall guy — done some research on him at Tulane, I think he’s an up-and-comer,” Meyer said.
According to betting market Kalshi, Sumrall is the new betting favorite to be the Gators' next head coach with a 67% chance of landing the job.
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