Florida head coach Jon Sumrall watches the action against South Carolina during the second half of an NCAA football at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, October 10, 2026.
Life in Gainesville couldn’t have possible gotten off to a better start for first-year Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall. The Gators, on the back of a 4-8 season a year ago, started the 2026 season 4-0 and, after a blowout win against Ole Miss, rose to No. 8 in the AP Poll.
Unfortunately, Sumrall and the Gators have been hit with a dose of reality in recent weeks. Florida has now suffered back-to-back double-digit losses at the hands of Missouri and South Carolina, the latter of which caused him to tell Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer that “we’re not really good right now.”
But it turns out things were far worse than Sumrall even knew.
Jon Sumrall’s Son Refused To Watch His Dad’s Team Get Blown Out
During a weekly radio appearance on Monday evening, Sumrall revealed that even his son turned on him in the midst of the loss to the Gamecocks.
He only found out when his family showed up on the field after the game without his 13-year-old son, leaving his wife to break the bad news.
When Sumrall’s wife and kids joined him on the field after the game, his 13-year-old son, Sam, wasn’t with them.
“I asked my wife,” Sumrall told the host. “I said, ‘Where’s Sam?’ And she goes, ‘Oh, he left. He could not stay and watch y’all get your butt kicked.’ And I’m like, ‘What? The dude left?’”
But it gets worse! Sumrall then talked about receiving a text from his son as he’s in the locker room after the game.
“…Sam texts me and says, ‘Dad, I don’t know if this is forgivable.’ Like, I don’t know if I can forgive you for this,'” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, son, you’ve done a few things that I don’t know if I can forgive you for either.’ … Sam is 13 going on 30.”
His Daughter Took The Loss Hard As Well!
On top of that, Sumrall’s daughter Sadie was seen crying on the field as the team sung the alma mater after the loss.
“My 13-year-old daughter, she comes up to me after the game. We go over to the band, and I look over, and she is like in crocodile tears. She is balling,” Sumrall said. “I’m like, sweetheart, it’s OK, we lost, we’re gonna bounce back. And she’s like, ‘Dad, I just hate losing for you.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, well, I do too.’”
Florida fans certainly can’t accuse Sumrall and his family of not being invested.
“Look, we’re passionate. We want to win. We care about doing it the right way. I want our fan base to have great success. I want our players to have great success. We’re gonna get there. We’re going through a rough patch, clearly. I didn’t foresee this coming … but we have so much work to do to become a championship-caliber team. We’re gonna keep fighting.”
Losing is hard. Losing and then also having to win back the affection of your children is absolutely brutal.