In the Gators’ last road game against Missouri, the home crowd trolled Florida with their most famous tradition, “I Won’t Back Down.”
On Saturday, the Gators quieted the crowd early and late in a 27-24 win over No. 7 Texas. Coach Jon Sumrall left the stadium wearing a cowboy hat, marking the end of a huge day for his team.
When Sumrall arrived at the stadium for the first time as a head coach, he was welcomed by the Texas Cowboys, a student organization at the school, and presented a custom-made hat and spurs two hours before kickoff. He also posed for a photo with his new gifts with the Cowboys.
For Texas, it’s a sign of hospitality, one that originated over 100 years ago. Since 1922, the Texas Cowboys have been the school’s longest-standing service and honorary organization. The organization is responsible for maintaining Smokey the Cannon and serving the school through its philanthropy.
The organization partnered with Texas Hatters, a business in Lockhart, Texas that specializes in making and designing cowboy hats, and the Silver Spurs, another student organization that takes care of the Longhorns mascot, Bevo, that designs and makes the leathered spurs.
Together, the three welcome every opposing conference coach a custom hat and spurs who coaches their first game at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium. Coaches such as Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Kentucky’s former Mark Stoops have received the gifts from the organizations.
The tradition caught more eyes on social media when the school transitioned from the Big 12 Conference to the Southeastern Conference in 2024 and announced it had brought back the tradition after it was halted in 2019 after the Cowboys were suspended for six years due to severe hazing violations.
Texas Cowboys executive director Eddie Lopez said the tradition is to “welcome them to Austin, to welcome them to our stadium and to show the sportsmanship between both teams.”
For Sumrall, he kept the sign of hospitality handy after the Gators win, and made sure he would be the one who showed off a win on the road, leaving with a cocktail in his right hand and his travel bag in his left in a much-needed win.
The Gators opened as 10.5-point underdogs after falling the last two weeks 45-17 at No. 25 Missouri and 38-19 at home against South Carolina, but entered the game as 13.5-point underdogs when quarterback Tramell Jones was named the starter due to a shoulder injury to starting quarterback Aaron Philo.
But, after falling behind 17-3 in the second quarter Saturday, the Gators rebounded to complete the comeback, scoring 24 unanswered points, and showed the resiliency Sumrall challenged his team to find.
“We played as awful as we could in the first quarter, and we kept fighting,” he told ABC after the game. “Our team grew today without the win.”
Despite improving to 5-2 (3-2 SEC), Sumrall focused on improving and building heading into the bye week before facing Georgia on Oct. 31.
“We have to figure out how to suck less each week,” Sumrall said. “We’re not a complete team yet.”
