One of the biggest debacles going on in the college football space is the calendar. Imagine having your biggest games, the transfer portal opening up for players, and signing day all happening simultaneously. It’s wild to think about it. Mind you, nobody in America has done a better job surfing through it than the Ole Miss Rebels. Florida Gators’ new head honcho Jon Sumrall made sure to give Pete Golding and Ole Miss their flowers for it.

On January 6, Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall hopped onto OutKick’s podcast alongside hosts Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow and didn’t shy away from giving flowers where they were due.

First, for beating them twice in the 2025 campaign: “They beat us 45-10 in Game 1, and 41-10 in Game 2. They look a lot the same to me. They kicked our a– both times.”

Despite being an 11-win team, Jon Sumrall’s Tulane never stood a chance to fight back against the Ole Miss Rebels in either matchup. The Rebels won both games by more than 30 points against Tulane. Sumrall openly admitted the Rebels were simply a much better team on those nights.

Sumrall’s respect for Ole Miss goes beyond what happens on the field. He praised the Rebels for managing the transfer portal chaos after Lane Kiffin’s move to Baton Rouge and praised Pete Golding for retaining top players like Trinidad Chambliss and Kevon Lacey.

At the same time, most programs struggle to maintain their rosters following the departure of their coaches. Much of that credit goes to director Keith Carter and Walker Jones of the Groove Collective.

Sumrall believes their system is incredibly efficient for surviving today’s modern college football landscape. He also wants to implement Ole Miss’s how-to-navigate-through-uncertainty blueprint at Florida:

“I think Ole Miss has had great success. Not to take anything away from Lane, but Keith Carter, Walker Jones, and not taking anything away from Pete (Golding) either. But Ole Miss is doing this NIL, revenue-sharing stuff as well as anybody in America.

They’re paying dudes, and they are writing bigger checks. Kudos to them. They have a great plan that we can all learn from and emulate. So, they’re a really good football team. I didn’t see many weaknesses when we played them in Game 1 or 2.”

To him, Ole Miss is an example of how to do it the right way and a model that other SEC teams should study for long-term success. The former Tulane coach didn’t stop there; he also discussed the most significant issue every program faces during the December-January phase.

Jon Sumrall gives his opinion on the brutal college football calendar

The core problem is that coaches can change jobs and players can enter the portal while the season is still ongoing. This completely stresses out coaches. They have to split their time between preparing for a huge playoff game and making sure their future team’s roster is set.

“In the NFL, they’ve got this thing figured out where they do this thing called football season,” Sumrall preached. “At the end of football season, you can have coach movement and player movement. But nobody can leave until the season’s over, unless someone is traded. Then, after the season is over, coaches and players can move.”

This crazy schedule also messes with players’ heads and loyalties. Coaches like Lane Kiffin are the biggest victims of this debacle. Players and coaches face a choice: either play in the playoffs or bowl games, or take advantage of the limited transfer portal period.

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Jon Sumrall wants all the hiring, transferring, and signing to happen after the national championship game is over.

“How can we change that in our world? Move the season up, start the playoffs earlier, said Sumrall.

End the playoffs earlier, closer to January 1, like we used to do. I think there is a way we can get the national championship game back closer to January 1. Everybody right now would be focused on just player movement.”

Sumrall just wants to bring some sanity to this “Wild West” system and believes changing the calendar comes down to common sense, not rocket science: “I don’t think it’s that complicated. I do think it takes common sense, and I don’t know how many people got that.”

The former Tulane head coach sees the “NFL model” as the gold standard; a professional way of doing things that’s sorely needed in college football right now.