Paul Finebaum says newly hired SEC head coach ‘made a bad decision’

SEC Nation with Gator legend Roman Harper and sports analyst Paul Finebaum | Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

Week 14 and the conclusion of the 2025 college football regular season brought a tidal wave of resolutions to the very busy SEC coaching carousel. More madness is to come, but for now, it seems that Arkansas, LSU, Florida and Auburn may all have found their new head football coaches, some predictable and others very much a surprise. One of those surprises caught Paul Finebaum's eye in a bad way.

To recap: Lane Kiffin is supposedly headed to LSU, and that's been a rumor floated for weeks. But in a somewhat shocker switcheroo, it was Florida, not the purported Auburn, who nabbed rising Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall after he had long been linked to the Tigers. Then, Arkansas grabbed Memphis' Ryan Silverfield to make it three American Conference coaches alongside Kiffin in this new SEC wave.

On Sunday morning's episode of the Matt Barrie Show, Finebaum joined to break down the new hires and explained that Sumrall may be making a grave mistake joining Florida over the Auburn job he was reportedly previously in line for.

"Yeah, I think Sumrall, based on everything we know, made a bad decision to leave Auburn," Finebaum commented to Barrie, revealing a bit of why Sumrall may have decided to become a Gator instead.

"I think he was hurt by some of the things that were going on with Auburn," Finebaum continued. "They were trying to control aspects of things that they probably should not have. But then again, he’s a Group of Five coach, Matt, and they felt like they had the power. So he said, 'You know what? Screw it. I’ll go to Florida.'"

Tulane Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Finebaum believes Auburn is better fit for Sumrall

What might hurt both Sumrall and Auburn is that he views the Tigers as a better fit vs. Florida. "But Auburn was the best fit," Finebaum said. "I don’t know how Jon Sumrall fits there. He fit Auburn very well. I’m not sure anybody fits Florida."

What happened to spark a Sumrall decision away from Auburn remains unknown. However, you can understand why he views the Florida job as so covetable. The Gators won national titles this century under Urban Meyer, they have a massive fanbase and canyon-like stadium that rips a Tom Petty classic at the end of every third quarter. There's an aura to Florida same as Auburn, and Sumrall was going to be lucky to get either job.

From afar, Paul Finebaum is simply planting his flag in the camp that Sumrall, and perhaps Auburn and Florida, too, would be better off had he gone the War Eagle route.