When fall camp begins and the season becomes brutally serious, Jon Sumrall will have plenty of time to try to pull Florida off the canvas and back into the SEC.
However, at a difficult moment during his interview with reporters on Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Tampa, the first-year head coach of the Gators wanted everyone to know that he wasn’t being brutally serious when he reacted to a cell phone going off.
Rather, Sumrall was acting like Kiffin and bringing some comedic relief to the situation when the reporter’s or photographer’s cell phone rang during a question about Lane Kiffin. At that tumultuous moment, Sumrall said:
“You would be kicked out of our team meeting. I swear”. “You’re lucky. I’m not gonna throw this freaking podium right now. That drives me crazy.”
Since it’s SEC Media Days in 2026 and this was Sumrall’s first experience with the entire process as he begins Year 1 in Gainesville, everyone naturally went crazy in response to Sumrall’s response. However, it wasn’t authentic. In a social media post on Wednesday night, Sumrall said that he was merely attempting to be humorous.
Sumrall tried to diffuse the situation because there was blowback.
“You’re correct, Tom. I wasn’t being serious. In his message, Jon Sumrall stated, “I was joking.”
Sumrall was referring to Tom Crean, a former college basketball coach who currently works as an ESPN college basketball analyst. Sumrall wanted to inform everyone—Crean chief among them—that his reaction wasn’t genuine after Crean attacked it in a social media post.
You are right Tom. I wasn’t serious. I was joking. https://t.co/AKtgFS4rzz
— Jon Sumrall (@CoachJonSumrall) July 22, 2026
In the wake of the entire incident, FOX reporter Greg Auman also had some explaining to do on social media on Wednesday. He said that the unattended phone in front of him was the source of the entire situation.
