Florida football rumors: How Gators’ Lane Kiffin pursuit immediately flopped

Though the Florida football program hired Jon Sumrall as its next head coach after heavily pursuing Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin, the much-talked-about figure would end up taking the job at LSU. While there ended up being an expectation that the Florida football program wouldn’t hire Kiffin, more reports are coming out that the start of the pursuit didn’t go swimmingly.

According to CBS Sports, Jon Talty’s latest report detailing Kiffin’s hiring process, there had been interest from the 50-year-old to coach the Gators, not to mention the bevy of connections between family, the school, and the Gainesville area. However, Talty pointed out the reason why the first talk between Kiffin and athletic director Scott Stricklin “did not go well.”

“There was only one problem: the first conversation between Kiffin and Florida AD Scott Stricklin did not go well, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation,” Talty wrote. “At the time, Florida was the biggest job available and had the perceived leverage to dictate some of its terms. That included wanting a general manager with an NFL background who wouldn’t report directly to Kiffin. This was a non-starter for Kiffin, who strongly believes in the abilities of Ole Miss general manager Billy Glasscock, and it got the pursuit off to an awkward start.”

Talty also pointed out that Kiffin is the archetype of a coach that isn’t Stricklin’s “cup of tea,” which the coach knew, having reservations about input with the team, which Ole Miss had given, and eventually, LSU will continue to offer. Kiffin would have a “weird vibe about the situation” in regards to the Gators program, leading to the decision to go to Baton Rouge.

At any rate, the Gators found their coach in Sumrall, looking to improve after the Billy Napier era.

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