John Sumrall is very familiar with Ole Miss.
The first-year Florida coach faced the Rebels twice last season while leading Tulane, once in the regular season and again in the College Football Playoff. Some things about Ole Miss has changed (you may have heard about a change in head coaches), but there’s still plenty of familiarity for Sumrall with the Rebels.
And he’ll get his third chance to see them up close and personal this Saturday when No. 4 Ole Miss travels to The Swamp in Gainesville, where the Gators are currently 3.5-point favorites to win.
Monday morning, Sumrall held his weekly press conference where he talked about the familiarity with Ole Miss and the challenges these Rebels present. Here’s what he said about Ole Miss.
John Sumrall, Florida head coach
On the challenge Ole Miss presents…
We won last week. We want to win this week, and we have to get a lot better. Last week’s performance will not cut it against the outfit we’re getting ready to play. I have a lot of respect for Ole Miss. They’re a really good football team. They went 13-2 last year, went to the College Football Playoff semifinals and have a lot of the same returning cast in many spots. They’re well-coached and talented. It’s a huge challenge. We need a great home-field advantage Saturday. I think we’ll have an awesome crowd. I can’t wait to see our fan base. But our guys have to get ready to play a lot better football or we’re going to be really disappointed with the outcome this week because last week’s performance will not win this week.
On how Ole Miss has changed since he faced the Rebels last season…
I really see a lot more of the same than different. Offensively, the guy calling the offense was there as an assistant, then left to go be the coordinator at East Carolina. I coached against him last year. He does a great job. When you have a defensive-background head coach and there’s an offensive change, you might think it’s going to be drastically different, but there’s more of the same than different. There are some new wrinkles and unique things, but a lot more of the same than anything different. There are a few new faces. Probably the most new faces are on their defense. They have some new offensive skill guys, but the quarterback and running back are the same. There’s a lot of carryover. Same special teams coordinator, too, and that matters.
On what makes Will Echoles difficult to handle…
He’s a violent, twitchy, physical guy, and he’s a handful. He can beat you with his pass rush in a lot of different ways, too. Some of the big guys who play in the interior are just knockback players. He can get loose and edgy. He has multiple ways he can beat you.
On facing Ole Miss again after last year’s College Football Playoff matchup…
It’s no different than last week’s ball game. Last week wasn’t Florida versus South Florida or any of that. This isn’t one thing versus another. Pete and I go way back. I coached against Pete when I was an assistant at Tulane and he was an assistant at Southeastern Louisiana. There’s no, “They got us last year, so we have to get them this year.” I guess they got Florida last year, too. This is a totally different deal. Every week is new teams. Half our roster wasn’t here, and half their roster wasn’t there. There’s so much non-carryover. The one thing I do have is that I’ve watched their quarterback play out of his mind enough to have a lot of respect for him. He’s as good a college football player as I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes.
On whether Ole Miss’ aggressiveness affects his own decision-making…
You always have to adjust based on who you are and who you’re playing. You have to consider how they do things, too. But just because they go for two doesn’t mean we’re suddenly going to go for two. We’re going to play the game the way we play the game. You do have to be educated on how they operate. Certain people love to go for it more. Some are much more conservative. Some like to try those types of things. Some like to fake punts more and some don’t. You have to understand the wiring of who you’re going against. Watching Ole Miss operate with Pete as the head coach, I think they’re a little more aggressive in the kicking game. They’ll try to block a punt a little more often, so we have to be better in protection than when there was a previous head coach. I don’t feel like their special teams were as aggressive before. They were trying to get the ball back and let the offense play. There are some things they do a little differently now that we have to be aware of.
