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The old adage goes that if there’s a body of freshwater in Florida then there is most likely an alligator in it. That’s how many gators we have here in the Sunshine State.
That rings true in Gainesville, Florida, home of the Florida Gators that play in ‘The Swamp,’ just as it’s true everywhere else. There are live alligators on the University of Florida campus and new head coach Jon Sumrall just got to meet his first one up close.
Florida Gators Head Coach Jon Sumrall Meets His First Real-Life Alligator
To be sure, this cannot have been the first time that Jon Sumrall was in close proximity to an alligator. The new Florida Gatorssu head coach got poached from Tulane in New Orleans where alligators are abundant. But it seems like this is the first time he has gotten up close and personal with a big one.
It was all part of an introductory photo shoot where the Florida Gators social media team could take some b-roll of their new head coach with a large reptile. They staged it on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, aka ‘The Swamp.’
Just a couple gators 🐊 pic.twitter.com/8FUSbgQc6T
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) March 1, 2026
Jon Sumrall later told reporters about the encounter, saying “I’m pretty certain I’d look like Chubbs from Happy Gilmore if the alligator had gotten close to my hand… Yeah, that was cool, man.”
Going into the meeting, he expected a baby gator and not a 7-footer. Sumrall said “in my mind, I had this visual image of we’re going to have like a little baby alligator, like a 1-foot alligator you might see on a riverboat cruise in Louisiana, mouth’s taped. I walk up and there’s this 7-foot alligator.”
As the new head coach of the Florida Gators he had to keep it together in front of the staff and the alligator itself. Showing any fear would not ingratiate himself with the locals.
Upon realizing it was a 7-footer, the Florida Gators head coach said he joked that he wasn’t even allowed to get that close to people during COVID and it didn’t feel right being that close to an alligator… First strike?
He sucked it up and got close, trusting that the animal an the alligator’s handlers knew what they were doing. But when he got too close to the alligator things took a turn.
Sumrall said “as soon as I started to get kind of comfortable… I’m like, ‘All right, this thing isn’t going to do anything crazy, I don’t think.’ I get 4 or 5 feet away and it starts to kind of hiss a little and it snaps… I’m like, ‘what the hell is going on? I’m out of here.'”
Just a couple gators 🐊 pic.twitter.com/8FUSbgQc6T
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) March 1, 2026
When it was all done he described it as a ‘fun experience’ but said he wouldn’t look forward to that being on his calendar ever again.
Jon Sumrall was born in Texarcana, Texas and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, a town with alligators. It is interesting from the outside looking in that the new head coach of the Florida Gators seems to be so timid around gators. As a born and raised Floridian myself (FSU alum), I would pay for an experience like this and certainly not shy away from it.