The Florida Gators got their turn at the SEC football media days on Wednesday, with newly-hired head coach Jon Sumrall taking the podium for the first time in his career. He had plenty to say in Tampa at the event, covering topics ranging from his third program as the skipper as well as other areas of interest.
Sumrall opened things up by talking about his excitement about becoming the head coach of the Gators. Particularly as someone born in Texarkana, Texas, and raised in Huntsville, Alabama.
“I am honored to be the head football coach of the University of Florida,” he said. “Still kind of get chills sometimes when I hear that or I hear that said. I grew up in SEC territory… As a kid growing up, there were three conferences in football in my mind: There was the NFC, AFC, and the SEC. That’s all I knew. So to be an SEC head coach right now for me is very surreal.”
After the obligatory thank-yous to the university’s administration, athletic director Scott Stricklin and the Gainesville community, he addressed the fanbase directly as to why he came to Gainesville.
“To Gator Nation, part of why I chose Florida, as a head coach you become in that role because they have to choose you, but you have to choose them back,” he offered. “Part of why I chose Florida was because the passion of our fan base. Football matters at the University of Florida. Our fan base cares deeply. We have 18 straight sell-outs, though maybe not ideal on-the-field results.”
The final notable quote from his opening speech was addressing his goal in reestablishing Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as one of the best home fields in the nation.
“We have a long way to go to catch the record at Florida. From 1989 to 2011, there were 138 consecutive sell-outs. So we have to keep moving forward to keep that going. But The Swamp, man, our fans fill it up and it’s a real home-field advantage. Our fan base is unlike any in the country.”
Below is a look at the notable selections from the questions-and-answer portion of Sumrall’s time at the podium.
Can you talk about how you embrace the Georgia rivalry?
“Yeah, it’s a great rivalry. I think it’s one of the best rivalries in college football. A lot of respect for Kirby and the job he’s done over the years. Been very consistent.”
How much of an emphasis are you placing on injecting a new energy into this program?
“I’m just trying to inject an attitude we’re going attack every day with enthusiasm. I may have some bad moments; I don’t have bad days. I got life pretty good.
“So I want everybody in our building to have an appreciation for the privileges that we’re afforded each and every day. When I interviewed for this job one of the questions the committee had for me was, Coach, what do you view as our negatives at the University of Florida? I said, the biggest one I see is we haven’t been winning enough.
“But like the places I’ve coached, look, I’ve got a full time nutritionist now. I didn’t have that at Troy. Got a staff nutritionists. Like there are so many great resources we have.
“So for me, I think you have to have a great attitude in what you do. I define attitude as demeanor, drive, and desire. Demeanor is your body language. Drive and desire is the mindset if you never arrive, you can always get better.
“I am a firm believer that the only disability in life is a bad attitude. I ain’t going to have a bad attitude. When things go bad I am still going to have a positive attitude.
“That’s not purple skies and butterflies. We are going to have some moments that don’t go our way. There will be adversity hit, but when adversity hits, I don’t change.
“You know, things are going to go bad. When they go bad, how do you respond? You better respond with the right attitude. I want everybody in our building to be filled with urgency and excitement and passion about what they do.”
You had a challenge for the offensive line at the spring game: buck up or get off. Have they answered that response?
“We’ve only got two guys that really started football games at the University of Florida that are returners, so it’s a very new group. This is a line of scrimmage game. This is a line of scrimmage league. But I don’t care what league you’re in. You better be good on the line of scrimmage.
“I’ve been really pleased with the growth of our offensive line this summer, in particular the weight room. That was probably my greatest disappointment when I took the job and started to watch our team work in January and February — just the strength of our O-line was underwhelming for me; not where I felt like it needed to be.
“They embraced the challenge and worked hard. I think we got great leadership in that room. Two transfers that have really set the standard for how we work. Harrison Moore, offensive center from Georgia Tech, and TJ Shanahan, offensive guard from Penn State, have both kind of elevated maybe the rhythm that that room marches to.
“Those guys have worked incredibly hard. They have a lot of pride in their craft and what they’re doing. And I’m very direct. When we do something well, I tell our guys we did it well. When we don’t, I let them know it wasn’t good enough.
“We also, through the spring, rolled a lot of different combinations. I think the offensive line takes continuity, time to gel; the cohesion component of playing offensive line as a unit matters.
“So we were mixing and matching so many different groupings that I don’t know if it was fair to them in the spring to really assess where we’ll play as a whole unit on the O-line come this fall because we were trying to find out which guys could be swing guys, and by that I mean tackle to guard or left side to right side or which guys can snap.
“So you go out and watch the ones one day and didn’t look like the ones the next day, so we’ll settle on where we will go with who will start, who will be the first five, but that group has embraced the challenge and they’re working incredibly hard and I’m proud of the work they’ve done.”
You’re playing Texas for the third straight year — have you gotten a sense that it’s an emerging rivalry?
“Yeah, it’s a big game because you’re playing Texas and they’re really good. Every SEC game is a big game. Every game is a big game. I don’t change; don’t matter who we play. Doesn’t change the prep. It stays the same.
“But it is new and unique to be playing Texas a third year in a row. It’s not something that’s historically been a part of Florida’s past or Texas’ past. Who would’ve thought ten years ago that Florida was playing Tennessee for the third year in a row and not playing Tennessee? Like we don’t play Tennessee this year. That’s really kind of weird.
“But to address Sark and Arch, man, a lot of respect for Sark. He’s a brilliant offensive mind, a playcaller. I’ve always admired how he does things. Think he runs a great program.
“Arch, man, what a great young man. When I was a coach at Tulane Archie would shoot me a text or a phone call and say, ‘ Hey, is it okay in May, in some downtime, if Arch comes over and throws?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, and ask him if he wants to transfer, because he wasn’t a starter yet.’
“I’d go out there and might watch him throw or Cooper whoever might be out there and I’d be like, I would like it coach that guy. But he’s a good player. I really have a lot of the respect for the Manning family as a whole. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with Arch, how he carries himself.”
How have the experiences of taking over new programs changed your philosophy?
“I do feel fortunate to maybe have only been a head coach since 2022, and so the transfer portal and NIL and all the chaos that has ensued is all I know. It’s not like I’ve been doing it forever and had to shift mid-stream. It’s all I’ve known.
“Every time you walk into a place that’s different, the most important thing you do as a new head coach is you listen to maybe what’s gone right and you listen to what’s gone wrong, and you try to identify where you have to recalibrate. Try to get the right people in your building. Maybe some people, it’s okay if they leave.
“But every situation is different. I walked in at Troy, they had been 5-7, 5-6, 5-7 for three straight years. I went to the first few weeks of workouts and I thought we had a chance to be okay here, like I think we can be decent.
“My athletic director at the time, Brent Jones, who hired me, I said, I think we can go to a bowl game. Like be decent. Well, we won 12 games. The roster was a lot better than I realized or probably anybody realized. There were about six, seven guys off that team that are in NFL training camps right now from five years ago at Troy, and they hadn’t been winning.
“Compare that to Tulane. I walked in and they had been winning for a couple years, and I walked in, and there were still some good players left, but most of the guys that had won a lot of the games that occurred right before I got there, they weren’t there anymore. I’m like, hang on, where did that running back go? Well, he’s with the Titans now. A lot of the guys were gone.
“Sometimes you walk into situations and think, man, it’s going to be really adverse and you’re not set up to have immediate success, and you find it because maybe there is more pieces in place to be successful than you realize. Sometimes you walk into a situation and it’s been going good, like, man, we got more work to do here than I thought.
“It takes what it takes to be great. There are no shortcuts. I don’t care if you’ve been winning or you haven’t been winning.
“But every situation you walk into I think you have to evaluate, okay, what needs to be recalibrated and what’s been going good. There have been some really good things going on at the University of Florida before my arrival. There have. We haven’t won enough games. We need to win more games. Like 4-8 last year is not okay at the University of Florida. We got to fix that.
“But there has been some good things going on. You just try to evaluate, okay, what’s been working and not working and find the right things you have to maybe address.”
What expectations do you have for the Florida-Georgia rivalry matchup with it being in Atlanta?
“I am sure it will be a phenomenal environment. A great venue. We got to get our team to play better in that game and put our best foot forward. It’s going to be an electric environment. Atlanta is a great town. It’s a storied game. Excited to have the opportunity to be a part of it.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Key quotes from Jon Sumrall at Florida’s SEC football media day
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