Forget six-seven—this year we’re rolling with the “tired” and “wired” analogy to break down the chaos of the 2025 SEC coaching carousel. Shout out to Marty Smith for his excruciatingly long day in Oxford. Hopefully, there were a couple of Pickle Martini and Cantaloupe Carpaccios waiting for him at City Grocery, waiting on Lane’s “should I stay or should I go” dance with LSU. Lane was the tipping point; he was what everybody (thinks) they wanted in a coach in 2025. With Lane off the board, the SEC Coaching Carousel went into overdrive. Arkansas, Auburn, and Florida all dipped into the American Conference to find their next leader. What could possibly go wrong? Here is a recap of the three hires.
Tired American, Wired SEC: SEC Coaching Carousel Recap
When looking at the three hires, you see guys who have done a good job, but all seem to lack the true initiative to initially put their current American teams over the top. The moves were quick, and time will tell whether these were home runs or if these teams will be back on the carousel in two or three years.
Arkansas Razorback: Ryan Silverfield
Arkansas got the SEC Coaching Carousel spinning when it fired Sam Pittman. A 2-3 start to the 2025 season, culminating in a 56-13 blowout home loss to Notre Dame. Bobby Petrino took over with hopes of a second chance on the Hog (sometimes the puns write themselves). Luckily, for all of us, that will not be happening. Petrino went 0-8.
Our Wes Pruett confirmed this week that the Hogs were looking to bring in Alex Goelsh from USF. Something happened between that report and this morning. Arkansas announced this morning that it was hiring Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield. On the surface, Silverfield is a nice hire. He was 50-24 overall and 27-20 in conference play over six seasons and led the Tigers to four bowl game victories. Silverfield is a nice hire, but the Woo Pig wants more.
Despite having Walmart and Tyson Chicken behind the Athletics program, Arkansas is behind on NIL and the Portal. Sure, it was easy to blame Pittman, but he is gone. Silverfield has yet to show he could master NIL and the Portal to vault Memphis atop the American. Keep in mind, Memphis is one of the better-funded G6 teams. How is he going to do it at a bottom-tier SEC team looking to claw its way past Mizzou, Ole Miss, and Auburn?
The Razorbacks’ faithful were so excited about the hire that they are planning a protest outside the football facility to celebrate it. Not a great start. You may not look to win a press conference, but you sure don’t want to incite a mob.
Auburn Tigers: Alex Golesh
Arkansas’ loss was apparently Auburn’s gain. Auburn jumped into the SEC Coaching Carousel when the fired Hugh Freeze in early November. Freeze just never found the mojo or magic that he had at Ole Miss. The Auburn offense found another gear and seemed to be unlocked by Freeze’s alleged micromanagement. This search had been largely quiet under AD John Cohen. Tulane’s Jon Sumrall was an early favorite to land this job. He is a native-son of Alabama and had success at Troy. Those talks started to break down amid the circus around Oxford and Gainesville’s push for the Green Wave coach. As of last night, it looked like Cohen was going to promote Defensive Coordinator DJ Durkin to the head job.
Durkin is a challenging candidate. He has plenty of SEC experience, and his defenses are always near the top of the rankings. His 2018 firing at Maryland, though due to the heat-stroke death of a player and reports of abusive practices, made that hire less than palatable. Heading into last night, it seemed like Auburn’s search was still a work in progress.
That is, until this morning when they announced the hiring of Golesh. Golesh is a disciple of the veer-and-shoot and brings an explosive offense to The Plains. Golesh was 23-15 over three seasons in Tampa, resulting in three straight bowl appearances but no American Conference championships. It is expected that part of the deal is that Golesh will retain Durkin as his DC. Keeping Cam Coleman and Eric Singleton Jr. will be key to getting Auburn off on the right foot…they just have to figure out if they have a quarterback or not…
Florida Gators: Jon Sumrall
The belle of the Ball of the SEC Coaching Carousel outside of Baton Rouge is Sumrall. He played for Kentucky and has coached at both his alma mater and at Ole Miss. Sumrall’s resume is the most impressive of the three coaches on this list. Sumrall has a 42-11 career record as a head coach over four seasons, leading both Troy and Tulane to conference championship game appearances each year. His name has been linked to openings at Auburn and Ole Miss, and this week, Florida moved to Sumrall after Lane’s eyes wandered elsewhere.
Gators fans should be celebrating, right? Not quite. Let’s remember who they hired. “Scared money, don’t make money,” Billy Napier. Napier was the American Conference darling when he was hired at Gainesville. He had coached with both Dabo and Saban; he was going to turn this program around. Instead, he gave Florida back-to-back losing seasons, a fool’s gold 8-4 record in 2024, before the bottom fell out this season, leading to his firing.
Napier did well in recruiting, but again failed to master NIL and the Transfer Portal. Gator fans are weary and have PTSD, so it’s very possible Sumrall could be Napier 2.0. Lane was who they wanted. Layla is Gainesville royalty; surely, he wouldn’t go anywhere else. Yep, he did. If Sumrall doesn’t work out, this could be the end for AD Scott Stricklin. Stirkclin has swung and missed at too many football coaches.
New coaches bring new opportunities. Shedding the past and looking ahead to the future. None of these hires feels like a slam dunk. But the lack of alignment from the university and fans is surely not helping.
Main Photo: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
