How family, mentors shaped new Florida football coach Jon Sumrall

On a perfect West Coast night, overlooking the waves of the Pacific Ocean, Jon Sumrall popped a question before the question.

Sumrall was in the early stages of his coaching career at the University of San Diego, a 1-AA non-scholarship program. His long-time girlfriend, Ginny Nixon, had moved with him, as the two former high school classmates from Huntsville, Ala., forged a special and lasting bond.

"We were sitting there, I think we were on Pacific Beach one night, and I was getting close to maybe thinking about asking her to marry me, and I said, 'Could you live in Pocatello, Idaho?' and she said, 'Why would we do that?'" Sumrall said.

Sumrall explained that Pocatello, Idaho, is where Idaho State is, and that he may have to coach there someday.

"She said, 'Jon, if you're there, I can go,'" Sumrall said.

Sumrall recalled the story during his introductory press conference as Florida football coach while introducing his wife, Ginny. He proposed to her not long after the conversation on the beach that night. The couple now have four children.

Sumrall's family is eager to dive into the Gainesville community and support the Florida Gators.

"I can assure you our family is going to be all into this university and all into this community," Sumrall said. "We will be connected. We will be engaged. We are excited to do life in Gainesville. We are excited to partner with everyone here. The only way we know how to do it is all-in."

Florida football coach Jon Sumrall's children are sports fanatics

The Sumralls have lived in San Diego, Calif., New Orleans, L.a., Troy, Ala., Oxford, Miss., and Lexington, Ky., during his 20-year coaching career.

The couple's four children, twins Sam and Sadie (12), daughter Stella (9) and daughter Selah (7) all expressed enthusiasm about the move to Gainesville.

"When I shared with the kids and Ginny and I shared with the kids what we were about to do next, their responses were very fitting to their personalities," Sumrall said. "Sam's immediate reaction was, 'Do you think I'll get a chance to meet Tim Tebow?' He's read his book. He also was fired up because we're Jordan brand. He's got his J's on right now.

"Sadie, his twin sister, her first response was, 'Dad, the place that gets to play their games in The Swamp?' I said, 'Yeah, Sadie, The Swamp.' She goes, 'Tell mom I'm not sitting in the suite area, I'm sitting in the stands, because it seems like a lot of fun there.' She knows more football than most of you men in the room, too. She can draw up power. I'm not sure if she's got counter down yet."

Stella, affectionally known by the family as the "rattlesnake" was more curious about how close Gainesville was to Disney World, because she wants to go to the theme park every summer.

"I said, 'Mom might be able to make that work,'" Sumrall said,

Saleh then posed the most pertinent question.

"Her immediate response was, 'Dad, can we win a championship there?'" Sumrall said. "I said, 'You're damned right we can.' She's the life of the party.,"

How a crushing medical diagnosis started Jon Sumrall's coaching career

Sumrall was coming off a junior season at Kentucky in which he led the Wildcats in tackles in 2004 as a staring linebacker.

"I had worked really hard to become a starter," Sumrall said. "Really, really hard. I could outwork people that were more talented than me."

Then, during Kentucky spring practices in 2025, Sumrall's arms started to go numb. After Sumrall underwent a medical evaluation, his former coach at UK, Rich Brooks, broke the news to him that his playing career was over. The diagnosis Sumrall received was spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal cord.

"I had been dealing with it for a couple years and not said a whole lot about it because I was fearful they may tell me I had something more wrong with me than I wanted to hear," Sumrall said. "So, the diagnosis was what I probably thought it was.

"I was distraught, man. Like I've given this game everything I'd had to become the player I was, which was a pretty average player, but I'd made myself an average player. I was heartbroken because I'd invested so much into my own development."

Brooks asked Sumrall to stay on a student coach. But after earning an undergraduate degree at UK in the spring of 2024, Sumrall drove to Destin, Florida.

"I probably tried to drink enough cold beer that I could not think about my injury for a couple days because I was just crushed," Sumrall said. "Then Coach Brooks' football ops guy at the time, a guy named Steve Hellier − I'm sitting on the beach. I have like a flip phone that none of us would recognize now, and Steve Hellier says, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm sitting on the beach drinking a beer,' and he goes, 'Coach Brooks wants to know if you want to come back and be a GA.'"

Sumrall packed up at the condo he was staying at that night and left for Lexington, Kentucky, the following morning.

"Started coaching youth camp and haven't looked back," Sumrall said. "It's been the greatest blessing of my life to be a college football coach."

How Jon Sumrall transitioned from player to coach

Brooks, now 84, has remained a coaching mentor, passing along knowledge from his successful career coaching at Oregon, Kentucky and in the NFL with the St. Louis Rams. After working under Brooks for two years as a GA, Sumrall got his first job at San Diego in 2007.

"He moved on and is just what I thought he would be − a great football coach," Brooks said. "He’s fundamentally sound. He has great ideas on how to scheme and how attack people on both sides of the ball. He’s just done an outstanding job wherever he’s been. I’m just fortunate enough to inherit him as a player when I moved to Kentucky.”

Brooks said part of what has made Sumrall successful is his broader knowledge of football.

"A lot of coaches get hired, the sexy hire is the quarterback coach, who has a really good offense and doesn’t really pay much attention to special teams and defense," Brooks said. "Jon Sumrall is a football coach. He pays attention to all of it, and he’s fundamentally sound. He can take a good player and make him better by teaching him proper fundamental football, and I’m not sure a lot of the flashy hires do that anymore.”

That attention to detail in all three phases will be needed to turn around a Florida football program that's endured four losing seasons in five years. Sumrall understands the challenge of the SEC not just from playing in the league but having coached in it as a linebackers coach at Ole Miss in 2018 and at Kentucky from 2019-21 under former UK coach Mark Stoops, another mentor. Sumrall also has reportedly already hired a defensive coordinator − former UK defensive coordinator Brad White − with SEC experience.

"It’s the mini-NFL, and it’s a very, very tough football conference," Brooks said. "I’m sure Jon has seen it from several different opportunities in the league, and I know he will understand what it’s going to take.

"It’s not going to be easy; he knows that, but he knows also that Florida has had a great past history of success, and I’m sure he will get Florida headed in that direction as quickly as he possible can.”

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football coach Jon Sumrall and his family are "all in" to new challenge