Florida among ESPN's most-likely teams to improve under new leadership

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Florida hired Jon Sumrall with the hope that he could turn the football program around, and ESPN believes the Gators have as good a chance as any first-year coach to improve in 2026.

Sumrall ranks fifth in ESPN's recent list of teams likely to improve under new leadership. Sumrall and the Florida Gators check in at No. 5, behind Eric Morris (Oklahoma State), James Franklin (Virginia Tech), Tavita Pritchard (Stanford) and JaMarcus Shephard (Oregon State), in that order.

Through three seasons as a head coach, Sumrall ranks ninth among coaches in the 2020s with a 13.0 coach rating from ESPN. Florida's 2025 SP+ rating dropped 14.1 points below the 20-year program average. Making the jump to the Power Four won't be easy for Sumrall, but he gives the Gators "as good a chance as anybody of turning this barge around," according to SP+ guru Bill Connelly

"Sumrall coming in ninth is interesting, considering he just took the Florida job. Obviously, a jump to the SEC — and to that job in particular — comes with its own set of challenges," Connelly wrote. "Billy Napier certainly would have graded out really high on a list like this before he moved to Gainesville, too. Still, pulling off what he did at Troy and Tulane (43 wins and an average SP+ ranking of 41.5 over four years) was spectacular."

Sumrall benefits from Florida's recent struggles. A once dominant program has fallen to the bottom of the SEC under Napier, but the talent is there to start winning again quickly. That's certainly the plan Sumrall has laid out, but nothing matters until he coaches a real game at Florida.

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida football likely to improve under Jon Sumrall, per ESPN

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