Sumrall's big splash
The new coach of the Florida Gators arrived at SEC Media Days with a big splash.
There’s been a lot of sideshow Sumrall recently in the wake of SEC Media Days. The first big splash was when he semi-jokingly mocked a reporter for having their phone go off during his press conference and suggested he was close to throwing the podium at them.
The quote reads worse than the actual video. He’s joking around, but clearly he is at least mildly perturbed and demonstrating what you could call authoritarian tendencies.
That didn’t go over great on the internet, within the room, I imagine it was fine. One of my notes after years of observing this sport is that detail-oriented, fastidious coaches who are comfortable wielding authority and don’t tolerate dissent tend to be pretty effective.
Then we learned from his wife that Sumrall is a big fan of pedicures:
Once again, this set off a storm of discussion, much of it predictably centered around whether it’s manly or not to get a pedicure. You know what it is? It’s indicative of someone who is obsessed with order and tidiness. Once again, this is a good sign for a football coach in charge of managing a large operation.
But I don’t really want to make a mountain out of a molehill. These are little clues or insights into the man, I can think of more concrete reasons to think the Gators may be better this year than people are anticipating.