Jon Sumrall had a rough Saturday in Gainesville. The postgame text waiting on his phone certainly didn't help matters.
South Carolina came into The Swamp and beat Florida 38-19, the Gators' second straight lopsided loss after a 4-0 start. On his Monday "Gator Talk" show, Sumrall shared how his family took it, starting with his 13-year-old son, Sam, who didn't make it to the final whistle.
According to Sumrall, his wife told him after the game Sam "could not stay and watch y'all get your butt kicked."
After Sumrall addressed his team in the locker room, he checked his phone and found a message from Sam.
"Dad, I don't know if this is forgivable," the text read.
Sumrall had a response ready.
"Well, son, you've done a few things that I don't know if I can forgive you for either."
His 13-year-old daughter Sadie stayed for the duration of the game and, unlike her twin counterpart, was able to face her dad after the game to deliver a bit of a different message. She was in tears as the Florida band played the team off the field, and she told him, "Dad, I just hate losing for you."
"Yeah, well, I do too," Sumrall said.
Sumrall didn't hide where he was emotionally after the game.
"I'm so pissed off. I don't want to take a shower. I don't want to do anything other than maybe punch something," he said.
Every coach with kids old enough to have opinions knows this conversation. Your family lives the season with you, and a 13-year-old has no filter. I'd bet Sam's text will get brought up at the dinner table for a few years, by both sides.
The football side of it is less funny for Florida. Two weeks ago, the Gators beat #4 Ole Miss 52-28 and climbed to #8 in the AP Poll. Since then, they lost 45-17 at Missouri and then dropped this one at home to a South Carolina team that had gone three games without a win. Florida is now 4-2 and 2-2 in the SEC, and fell to #16.
"Disappointing football today. No excuse for it," Sumrall said after the game, via Saturday Down South. "It starts with me. I've got to do a better job of getting the team ready to play."
Sumrall is in his first season at Florida. He went 43-12 over four seasons as a head coach at Troy and Tulane before taking the Gators job last November, and before that he was an assistant on Mark Stoops' staff at Kentucky.
The schedule doesn't get any easier. Florida travels to #7 Texas this weekend, then gets a bye before facing #2 Georgia in Atlanta on Halloween.
Sam may want to save his texts until after that stretch.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.