Razorbacks' coaching target trolls reports of interview with SEC team

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Tulane coach Jon Sumrall took to his X account Wednesday evening to dispute reports that he had an upcoming meeting with Florida about its vacant head coaching position.

Reports leaked out of Gainesville, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon that the Green Wave's second-year coach had an interview lined up with the Gators for Thursday. It would later be reported that the interview was cancelled, which sparked a wildfire of trolling on social media.

Most important meeting I have all week…Wednesday Night with QB’s! ⁦@On3sports⁩ pic.twitter.com/QIxn51XRt0
— Jon Sumrall (@CoachJonSumrall) November 19, 2025

Even Tulane football's social media team got in on the fun Thursday morning with an X post of a team meeting captioned "only meeting on the books today" as it prepares for its road trip to Temple this weekend.

What this post can't portray is if Sumrall, who is 40-11 overall in four seasons as a coach at the FBS level, has an actual scheduled in-person interview in a secret location, if it could be conducted over Zoom, or if the meeting is actually with Sumrall's agent.

Only meeting on the books today. #RMFW pic.twitter.com/CwQbozN9l9
— Tulane Football (@GreenWaveFB) November 20, 2025

Sumrall is a key player in several openings across the country as his name has been linked with interest across each of the four jobs in the SEC such as Arkansas, Auburn, Florida and LSU.

The Razorbacks were the first job to come open after the Hogs fell victim to a Notre Dame team it had no business losing in such dramatic fashion to, 56-14, at home.

Nearly two months into the hunt, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek and his search committee have lifted every rock imaginable since firing Sam Pittman Sept. 28.

There have been reports of Sumrall, former NFL coach Jon Gruden, UNLV's Dan Mullen, SMU's Rhett Lashlee, USF's Alex Golesh, Natural State native Gus Malzahn, North Texas' Eric Morris and Memphis' Ryan Silverfield and many others who have been interviewed or shown interest in the Razorbacks job.

Morris, Golesh and Silverfield were three names that had been "vetted" within the last month, which often happens for Group of Five conference coaches looking to make the jump to Power Four jobs.

One name absent through it all in Arkansas' search is Sumrall.

That could be for a variety of reasons given he is an Alabama native and Kentucky Wildcats alum, which could mean he's looking to land a job closer to home further east.

With such turmoil going on down the road at Ole Miss with Lane Kiffin, there could be a possibility he would be a major player in that opening if the dominoes fall correctly.

If LSU and Florida swing and miss for Kiffin, that could give Sumrall his long awaited opportunity to land an SEC job. Unless he decides to take the Auburn job that's just a three-hour trek from his hometown of Huntsville, Ala.

Arkansas can still be in the Sumrall sweepstakes, but there are several speedbumps to drive over.

Florida recently ousted coach Billy Napier, who won big in the Sun Belt Conference at Louisiana. The Gators may avoid going the G5 route all around this time and consider hiring coaches such as Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri), Clark Lea (Vanderbilt), Jedd Fisch (Washington), or Brent Key (Georgia Tech).

When studying the LSU opening, it's been a very long time since the Tigers hired a first time P4 coach going all the way back to 1991 when it hired Curley Hallman away from Southern Miss.

Auburn has a history of hiring interesting candidates over the past two decades, especially someone with a losing record like Gene Chizik (5-19 at Iowa State). The school previously hired G5 coaches such as Gus Malzahn (Arkansas State), Bryan Harsin (Boise State) and the recently fired Hugh Freeze, who served as Liberty's coach after resurfacing from his ouster at Ole Miss.

That alone shows Sumrall has a strong chance for the job on The Plains as Auburn has shown it's unafraid to take a chance on first-time coaches at the P4 level.

There's no question Sumrall has it in his DNA to win as he constantly talks about avoiding complacency and distraction during the season.

"I was a maniac at practice two days ago because I fear complacency," Sumrall told reporters Oct. 27. "I fear distraction. I'm the head football coach at Tulane. I'll talk about Tulane. I'll talk about us playing UTSA.

"I'll probably get asked [about my coaching future] tomorrow, I'm sure, too. UTSA is 22-0 at home in conference games since 2020. I've got enough problems with this football game to not be distracted by anything other than them."

The Green Wave went onto lose at UTSA, 48-26, but it likely wasn't because of him looking at other jobs either. He's a ball coach looking to win, but is looking for the right job that he can perform at a high level with the necessary resources at his disposal.

Yurachek actively said during an interview at the Little Rock Touchdown Club that his football program did not have the available funds to compete at a championship level.

Then, a couple of months later he backtracked in the Monday press conference following Pittman's dismissal by pledging the Hogs' next coach would have the resources to win at Arkansas.

"I received a charge from our [Board of Trustees] to come back to Chancellor [Charles] Robinson with a plan of how we can increase the head coaches’ pool, the assistant coaches’ pool, the support staff pool, the operational pool moving forward, and how we would support the increases in that," Yurachek said Sept. 29. "I have an opportunity to do that in the next couple of weeks, and I truly believe that we will be able to have everything that we have needed in place to attract the best head coach for our program and give that coach the resources they need to be competitive in the SEC."

If Arkansas wants to land a coach with the skills to elevate its program, then the Hogs will need to be able to cash the checks they are promising to lure the next head coach.

Hogs Feed: