Steve Spurrier had simple message for new Florida HC Jon Sumrall

Jon Sumrall is the new head coach of the Florida Gators. 

The Gators poached Sumrall from the Tulane Green Wave, where he led the program to a 10-2 record and a berth in the American Athletic Championship Game this season. Unlike Lane Kiffin, who spurned Ole Miss for the LSU Tigers, Sumrall will coach his team in the AAC championship game, and if they earn a berth in the College Football Playoff, he'll coach them in the CFP as well.

Once Tulane is out, though, Sumrall will officially start his stint with the Gators, who hired him to replace Billy Napier after he was fired mid-season for going just 22-23 in four campaigns.

The expectations are high in Gainesville, as they always have been. If that wasn't clear to Sumrall as he interviewed for the job, it must have been abundantly clear when former champion-winning head coaches Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer were in attendance for his introductory news conference.

"It's a challenge I embrace. It's an exhilarating challenge," Sumrall said of his new gig at Florida, according to ESPN. "I don't know that I can measure myself to Coach Spurrier or Coach Meyer anytime soon. I've got a long way to go. I look forward to leaning on them, asking their opinion and advice. I feel very privileged to have two great resources like them that are a phone call away."

Sumrall joked that Spurrier and Meyer are essentially his "phone-a-friend" options in Gainesville and that he actually is able to do a Spurrier impression.

The man known as "the Head Ball Coach" then chimed in with some advice for Sumrall.

"Just win a whole bunch," Spurrier said.

Jon Sumrall believes he can lead Florida Gators back to the top

That's, of course, easy for Spurrier to say from his position as a legend at Florida. A former quarterback for the Gators from 1964 to 1966, he was the 1966 Heisman Trophy winner. He then came back to Florida later on in life as a coach and won a national championship in 1996.

As far as Meyer is concerned, he won two national championships at Florida and another as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

These are winners through and through, and again, championships are the only thing that matters in Gainesville. By all accounts, Napier was a great guy and a good leader. He couldn't win games when it mattered, though, and neither could Dan Mullen, Jim McElwain or Will Muschamp before him.

Even though he's coming from the Group of Five and being thrown into the pressure cooker that is the SEC, which was the same thing that could have been said about Napier's journey to Florida, Sumrall does believe he can lead Florida to a different result.

"No two people are the same," Sumrall said. "Judge me for who I am. I'm a winner. We're going to win. Just give me a shot."