How Athlon ranks Jon Sumrall among SEC football coaches

For many in the media, the offseason in college football is about producing lists and rankings, most of which mean little to nothing but they nonetheless are entertaining to read and great for starting debates. One that does both is Athlon Sports’ rankings of the SEC head coaches, which senior editor Steven Lassan has revealed.

On this list, Florida Gators first-year coach Jon Sumrall comes in at No. 10.

Here’s what Lassan wrote about him: “Sumrall grew up in the SEC footprint, played his college ball at Kentucky, and later coached as an assistant in Lexington and at Ole Miss. Essentially, he’s the perfect coach to take over at a SEC job. The 43-year-old coach arrives in Gainesville after successful stints at Troy (23-4 from 2022-23) and Tulane (20-8 from 2024-25). Sumrall guided the Trojans to back-to-back Sun Belt titles and led the Green Wave to an American Conference title and College Football Playoff last year. Sumrall has only worked as a FBS head coach for four seasons, but he’s 43-12 overall and has thrived at getting the most out of a roster and developing talent.”

Now, let’s take a look at Lassan’s entire list:

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
2. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
3. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
4. Lane Kiffin, LSU
5. Mike Elko, Texas A&M
6. Josh Heupel, Tennessee
7. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
8. Brent Venables, Oklahoma
9. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
10. Jon Sumrall, Florida
11. Shane Beamer, South Carolina
12. Alex Golesh, Auburn
13. Pete Golding, Ole Miss
14. Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
15. Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas
16. Will Stein, Kentucky
    

Smart was an easy choice at No. 1. He’s won multiple national titles and SEC championships. As Lassan noted, Smart “enters 2026 as the unquestioned No. 1 coach in the SEC. Georgia is 117-21 since he arrived in ‘16 and has posted eight consecutive seasons of double-digit victories in a full year of games.”

Meanwhile, Sarkisian’s Longhorns have played in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff twice and will be among the preseason favorites to win the national title in 2026. So one certainly could make a strong argument for him being at No. 2.

DeBoer beat Sarkisian and reached the championship game in 2023, but has had mixed results by Alabama standards since arriving in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Still, his team was in the playoff last season and his success at Washington, his previous stop, was impressive.

Kiffin did nothing in a short stint at Tennessee and was fired unceremoniously by Southern California and the NFL’s Raiders early in his career. But while his maturity off the field remains a question, he has proven to be an outstanding coach in this chapter of his career. Before leaving Ole Miss for LSU this offseason, he built the Rebels into a power — and playoff team.

Elko reached the playoff last season in Year 2 with his program and thanks to Texas A&M’s deep pockets has the Aggies recruiting at an extremely high level. He’s 35–16 after two seasons at Duke and Texas A&M. The Aggies continue to trend up.

After that group, it gets difficult putting the league’s head coaches in order. Quite frankly, the results for many of these men is mixed.

For Jon Sumrall, it’s probably a fair ranking given this is his first head coaching job at a Power 4 program. While he seems to have the program headed in the right direction with his coordinator/staff hires, retention and recruiting, he of course hasn’t yet coached at game for the Gators.

Because of that, Sumrall’s ranking on this list is both a reflection of his strong track record at G5 programs, along with his inexperience as a major college coach.

What do you think of Athlon’s rankings?