Jon Sumrall doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He’ll tell you like it is.
And, as Florida fans will tell you, it’s deeply refreshing. If he thinks something is useless — like, say, turf in the middle of the weight room — he’ll say it. Then, he’ll get the turf removed and replaced with rubber flooring.
“I don’t need turf in a weight room,” Sumrall said this summer. “We need weights in a weight room.”
Logical. Simple. Direct. Yet so many college football coaches wouldn’t make the point and wouldn’t bother to make the change. That’s precisely the reason Sumrall is special — and uniquely positioned to return the Florida football program to prominence.
“I’m very direct,” Sumrall told NBC Sports. “You don’t ever have to guess where I stand on something with our guys, whether it be practice or the locker room, whatever. I don’t shy away from conflict. That’s probably new for some of the players, it feels like, off of what was going on here. Not taking shot at anybody. It’s just what it feels like.”
Sumrall’s practices aren’t overly long, but they aren’t the shortest of any team in the country, either. They’re efficient. He commits to staying on schedule, and he respects his players’ time. He doesn’t want anything to feel like a chore, or that he’s required his guys to do something just because.
“I’m huge on, like, we’re playing football — not working football,” Sumrall said. “Now, it is a job, and it is a livelihood for everybody in our building, including the players now. But it’s still something that we should be passionate about and enjoy doing. When you approach it that way, you do it better.
“We’re creating an environment that our players want to be in the building daily, and they like walking in and understand that it’s going to be fun to be in the building.”
Sumrall hopes it’s going to be more fun on the field this fall, too. The Gators haven’t hit double-digit wins in a season since 2019 under Dan Mullen. Sumrall’s predecessor, Billy Napier, finished his Florida tenure with a sub-.500 record when he was fired mid-season last year. The Gators haven’t come close to sniffing the College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014, and the glory days of Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer are now more than a decade and a half in the rearview mirror.
Sumrall has won big at smaller schools, first at Troy and then at Tulane, where he took the Green Wave to the College Football Playoff. He’s won over Florida fans and donors with his candor and authenticity. He feels like he fits the program and has a plan for its elevation.
“The University of Florida is still one of those places,” he said. “It’s got strong brand affiliation. The logo still means something, and we can get anybody to pick up our phone call. That’s one thing that I that I knew going in that attracted me here. I’m like, it’s the University of Florida. It’s still the Gators.”
And there’s still talent on the roster Sumrall inherited. There’s talent that he brought in from the transfer portal. There’s a commitment from those who need to be committed to being more aggressive on the NIL/revenue-sharing front.
“I do feel like we’re in a place where we’re hungry for success, and when you’re hungry for success, you’re forced to look at every possible way to adapt, evolve, and grow, because you know you have to catch up,” Sumrall said. “I think we’re well on our way to catching up and being where we need to be.”
His first season at Florida will be just his fifth season as a college head football coach. Another way to put that: Sumrall’s entire head-coaching career has taken place during the NIL and transfer portal era. He’s used to living in a world where the ground under his feet is constantly moving.
But he doesn’t mind that, because he thinks he embraces uncertainty better than most people. He welcomes it when most are resistant to change.
“I’ve always handled chaos well, it’s something I’m very comfortable with,” Sumrall said. “I’m adaptable and I’m flexible, and I think you have to be in this climate. There are some challenges to it, but the one thing I have in place here is the support staff is here for me. The depth of our support staff is so much greater than what I’ve had at either of my previous stops that it’s allowed me to be freed up to do the things I’m really good at and get help at maybe things I have no interest in doing.
“I’m not interested in putting together the spreadsheet on Excel that shows what our roster payroll looks like. That’s not what I love doing. I love coaching. I love developing players. … I’m involved in everything, but I’ve got great support staff help to make sure we’re operating at a really high level — and let people do a great job in their roles.”
There are so many little pieces that have to fit together just right to turn around a college football program these days. Sumrall knows that. He’s been putting together puzzles for years, and he’s ready to take on the most challenging one yet.
He’ll do it his way, secure in who he is and how he wants to build a program — which is exactly what Florida needs.
