
Russo nets double as Arsenal secure second place in WSL
Alessia Russo nets two as Arsenal secures second place in WSL!

Florida Gators fans initially viewed Jon Sumrall's hiring as a fallback after losing Lane Kiffin to LSU. However, confidence in Sumrall is growing as he prepares for the upcoming season.
Mentioned in this story
Florida Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin may not have realized it in December, but losing Lane Kiffin to LSU could eventually look less like a rejection and more like a fortunate escape.
Or maybe not.
None of what I am about to write is going to matter once the season kicks off. New Gators coach Jon Sumrall is going to have to win just like Kiffin is going to have to win at LSU. There are no offseason championships in the SEC, no trophies handed out for charisma, sound bites or recruiting rankings in May. But sitting here today, I trust Jon Sumrall more than I trust Lane Kiffin, and that sentence would have sounded completely insane to most of Gator Nation five months ago.
When Kiffin chose LSU over Florida in December, the mood in Gainesville felt somewhere between heartbreak and existential crisis. Florida fans didnāt just want Kiffin; they needed him. They wanted the swagger, the offensive genius, the trolling personality, the celebrity coach who could instantly make Florida feel nationally relevant again. Instead, the Gators ended up with what many fans initially viewed as a fallback option: Tulane coach Jon Sumrall.
The reaction was predictable. Another Group of Five coach from Louisiana? Didnāt Florida already try that with Billy Napier? There was a sense of depression hanging over the program. Many fans treated the hire like Florida had gone shopping for a Ferrari and driven home on a pawn shop bicycle.
But something funny has happened since then. Sumrall has completely changed the energy around the program while Kiffin has spent the offseason setting his own reputation on fire yet again.
Sumrall has injected urgency, accountability and toughness into a program that desperately needed all three. Heās recruiting like his hair is on fire. Florida currently sits with the No. 7 recruiting class in the nation. Heās energized donors. Heās re-engaged a fan base that had become emotionally numb. And maybe most importantly, he doesnāt sound like a coach trying to manage perceptions. He sounds like a football coach trying to fix a football team.
That matters, especially after the sterile corporate monotony of the Napier era.
Sumrall hasnāt hidden the fact that he inherited a soft program.
āI canāt speak to what went on last year,ā Sumrall told me a couple of months ago. āI just feel that what I first experienced around this team (when he arrived) was way too casual for me, too nonchalant. I didnāt feel the urgency and intent initially.ā
Thatās not coach-speak. Thatās confrontation, and itās exactly what Florida fans have been starving for. Shortly after arriving, Sumrall stripped the iconic Gator-head logo from team-issued apparel.
Lane Kiffin chose LSU likely due to the program's strong reputation and potential for success, which attracted him over Florida.
Initially, many Florida Gators fans viewed Jon Sumrall's hiring as a disappointment, but there is a growing trust in his abilities as the season approaches.
Jon Sumrall must prove himself by winning games and restoring the Gators' national relevance, especially after the high expectations set by Lane Kiffin's candidacy.
Expectations for Jon Sumrall include winning games and revitalizing the program, as fans hope he can bring success similar to what they anticipated from Lane Kiffin.

Alessia Russo nets two as Arsenal secures second place in WSL!

Sam Kerr scored the winning goal in her farewell match for Chelsea, defeating Manchester United 1-0. Despite the victory, Chelsea finished third in the Women's Super League due to Arsenal's win over Liverpool.

Celtic clinches the title as Hearts' historic challenge ends in defeat

Celtic secures the Scottish Premiership title once more, overcoming challenges this season.
2026 Preakness Stakes: How much will the winner earn?

El emiratĆ AlĆ Hussain Alnowais se impone en el Trofeo MARCA y el argentino Juan Ignacio Ćlvarez Fermosel gana el Trofeo Caixabank.
See every story in Sports ā including breaking news and analysis.
āGotta earn it. Gotta earn the logo,ā Sumrall said. āWe aināt earned it yet. We havenāt earned a damn thing.ā
And unlike so many modern coaches who tiptoe around entitled players who earn seven-figure salaries, Sumrall sounds refreshingly unapologetic about demanding more from his mercenary millionaires.
āIf a guy wants to act a certain way about doing something tough, Iām like, āYou make money, shut up bro,āā Sumrall told Sirius XM. āāYouāre getting paid, dawg, put the work in.āā
That line alone probably made half of Gator Nation want to run through a wall, because Florida fans donāt want to hear another coach talking endlessly about āprocess.ā They want to hear somebody demanding something, and Sumrall clearly does.
They also DONāT want to hear somebody preaching patience, and Sumrall isnāt.
āIāve got expectations to win every game we play,ā Sumrall said a few days ago on the Action Sports Jax podcast. āIām not comfortable with anybody going, āHey, how many games are you comfortable winning this year?ā If anybody tells me bowl eligible, weād better be, or Iāll be at the top of the stadium getting ready to do something stupid. ⦠To me, you have to have urgency every day. As soon as you put a ceiling or a cap on what you can do and start to think with limits in mind, youāre automatically handicapping yourself. For me, our expectations are for our guys to expect to win every freaking time that we take the field.ā
Now letās compare that energy to the chaos surrounding Kiffin right now. His exit from Ole Miss already turned him into one of the biggest villains in college football. The Rebels were enjoying the greatest season of the modern era and preparing for the College Football Playoff when Kiffin bolted for LSU in spectacularly messy fashion.
He reportedly fought with administrators over whether he could continue coaching Ole Miss during the playoff while simultaneously taking over a direct SEC rival. Staff members were caught in the middle. Players were blindsided. The entire thing looked less like a professional transition and more like a reality television meltdown.
And then this week came perhaps the most tone-deaf moment yet. In a Vanity Fair interview, Kiffin tried explaining why LSU is easier to recruit to than Ole Miss, essentially saying some Black recruits and their families didnāt want to play in Oxford because of the schoolās racial history.
Factually, heās not entirely wrong. Politically, socially and publicly, though, it was an absolute disaster because Kiffin coached at Ole Miss for six years and never once seemed interested in publicly discussing Mississippiās complicated racial history while cashing paychecks and winning games there. Now suddenly he talks as if LSU is the Stanford of the South in terms of diversity and progressiveness.
As I wrote earlier this week, Kiffin is like the employee who leaves Applebeeās for Chiliās and suddenly brags about the international cuisine.
The comments reopened every uncomfortable conversation tied to Ole Miss and Mississippiās past ā the Confederate imagery, the old āDixieā traditions, Colonel Reb and even the origins of the āOle Missā nickname itself. Whether Kiffin intended it or not, he walked directly into a cultural minefield while simultaneously making himself look opportunistic and self-serving.
Thatās the problem with Kiffin. Heās brilliant offensively. Heās magnetic. Heās entertaining. But eventually the storm always follows him. Drama follows him. Chaos follows him. Self-inflicted wounds follow him.
Florida fans wanted the Lane Train because they were desperate for excitement, but excitement and stability are not the same thing.
Meanwhile, Sumrall seems to be trying to build something that at least appears rooted in discipline, toughness and accountability. While Kiffin takes hot yoga classes, Sumrall is lifting weights at 6 a.m. with his players.
What Sumrall seems to understand is that the Gators lost their edge and their identity years ago. They stopped looking hungry and, too often, looked comfortable being mediocre.
Sumrall clearly finds that unacceptable.
Will any of this guarantee victories? Of course not. The SEC doesnāt care about offseason culture victories. Florida still has to beat Georgia, survive nine SEC games and prove it can matter nationally again.
And maybe Kiffin wins huge at LSU while Sumrall flames out in three years. Thatās entirely possible.
But sitting here today ā five months after Florida fans thought the sky was falling because Lane Kiffin said no ā it suddenly feels possible that the Gators may have ended up with the better fit after all.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show āGame Onā every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen