Sumrall Cussing: His Wife Wants Him To Please Stop. Damn!
BUDDY MARTIN | COLUMN
By Buddy Martin · GatorBaitMedia.com
“Yeah, I cuss after the game sometimes… my wife’s tried for years to get me to stop,” Sumrall said.
Photo: Anthony Garro/UAA Communications. FloridaGators.com
Is Jon Sumrall building a reputation as college football’s newest potty mouth?
The question came up because of that postgame locker room video — the one where the F-word turned into a full-throated chant after Florida’s win at Auburn.
Naturally, some corners of the internet decided the clip had to be AI-generated, because nothing says 2026 like blaming a robot for your program’s language problem.
Sumrall, to his credit, didn’t fight very hard to clear his own name. He allowed that it might’ve been AI. Sure. And I’ve got some primo Ocala swampland to sell you, too. Not so fast, my friend!
Here’s the truth few want to print: Virtually every coach I’ve ever covered cusses, some of them in language so blue that it would make a longshoreman blush red.
The rare exception was Steve Spurrier, who never let the F-word slip in public even when it was practically the house dialect of the sport around him.
Sumrall isn’t hiding behind Spurrier’s discipline, and he isn’t pretending otherwise.
“Yeah, I cuss after the game sometimes… my wife’s tried for years to get me to stop,” Sumrall said, which is either an admission or a marriage counseling referral, depending on how you read it.
Asked, half-jokingly, whether it was actually him doing the cussing in that locker room video, Sumrall leaned all the way in:
“My wife’s tried for years to get me to stop — that’s not going real well for either one of us. At SEC Media Days on the main stage I cussed once, I think — Pete Golding cussed a lot more than I did.
“Then I went on the SEC Network stage and Coach Saban was telling me a story off-set and he cussed. I asked him, ‘Coach, will you tell that same story on air, exactly like that?’ And he did — that’s when he told me we needed to get Florida going, since he’s a Florida resident now, and he used a cuss word or two in there.
“The main reason I wanted Coach Saban to do it is because I could tell my mom that if Coach Saban did it, it was okay for me to do it too.”
It sounds like the F-Athon was leaked by a third party.
Sumrall said players aren’t allowed to shoot video in the locker room and suggested somebody must have snuck a camera in. “I think it was AI,” he said.
Give the man credit for commitment to the bit. He’s got Nick Saban as his character witness and his mother as the jury. That’s a defense strategy I can respect.
One Thing He Wasn’t Cussing About
Sumrall found plenty to be genuinely happy about after beating Auburn — starting with a tight end room that’s gone from afterthought to weapon in about seven months flat.
Credit for the turnaround goes to tight ends coach Evan McKissack, and Sumrall wasn’t shy about handing it over. He labeled the group the program’s “Most Improved Room,” which, coming from a coach who just admitted to a chronic cussing problem, is about as close to a papal blessing as you’re going to get.
Sumrall didn’t sugarcoat where the group started, either:
“I’ll be very honest with you. I told our offensive staff in the middle of spring, I’m like, I feel like that room right now is the land of misfit toys — like who’s what? Coach McKissack has done an unbelievable job. That group has grown as much as any group I’ve seen in a stretch from I would say February to right now as any position group I’ve ever been affiliated with in this game — it’s really cool to see. I’m very proud of all of them,” Sumrall said, adding, “I trust those guys as much as I trust anybody.”
From “land of misfit toys” to “I trust those guys as much as I trust anybody” in one offseason. That’s not a metaphor coaches usually get to flip that fast.
Who’s in the Room
Luke Harpring (Jr.) — caught an 11-yard pass against Auburn; Sumrall called him a “Swiss Army knife” who’s good at a little bit of everything.
Amir Jackson (Jr.) — hauled in a 48-yard reception off a double pass from wideout Kahleil Jackson on third-and-8. He ranked No. 2 nationally among tight ends in PFF’s run-blocking grades, as reported September 21.
Lacota Dippre (Sr.) — sprung Jadan Baugh’s 53-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 by taking on two defenders as a lead fullback-blocker; he’d been Florida’s offensive player of the week the prior week despite zero stat-sheet production.
Evan Chieca (Sr.) — made his Florida debut against Auburn and sealed Baugh’s long touchdown run by identifying and blocking linebacker Elijah Melendez.
How They Fit Into the Auburn Win
Florida beat Auburn 44-39 on the road at Jordan-Hare, giving Sumrall his first SEC win as Gators head coach. Jadan Baugh ran for 162 yards and three touchdowns, and Aaron Philo threw for 204 yards and a score, according to Florida’s official box score.
But the box score undersells what the tight ends actually did. Amir Jackson’s trick-play 48-yarder kept a scoring drive breathing when it easily could’ve stalled, and Dippre and Chieca combined to physically clear the lane for Baugh’s 53-yard touchdown burst — the exact kind of unglamorous, high-IQ work that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet but absolutely shows up on a scoreboard.
No wonder Sumrall singled them out afterward. It’s a lot easier to forgive a man his language when his misfit toys are the reason he’s still smiling on the flight home.
A Word on Flags, Not F-Bombs
For all the chatter about what came out of Florida’s mouths in that locker room, the Gators have a more consequential habit to clean up: flags. Florida drew 16 penalties for 138 yards at Auburn. Through games played September 19, cfbstats lists the Gators with 27 penalties in three games — 9.0 per game.
By penalties per game — the fairer, apples-to-apples measure — Syracuse led the nation at 12.0 through September 19, followed by UTSA at 11.3 and UCLA at 10.7. Kansas State was at the other end, averaging 2.7. That’s the language problem that costs actual yardage.
Penalties and all, these Gators were listed as 3.5-point favorites against No. 4 Ole Miss in Monday’s Associated Press report. That line is a dated snapshot, not a promise about where the betting market will settle.
The verdict: Sumrall’s mouth might need a filter, but his tight end room doesn’t need an apology from anybody. One’s a bad habit his wife will keep losing to. The other is a position group that just helped beat Auburn in Jordan-Hare.
I know which one Gator Nation is actually going to remember in December.
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