‘Earn the Logo’: Jon Sumrall Lays Down Culture Standard for Florida Football
Jon Sumrall started his media availability at halftime of Saturday’s Gators men’s basketball game against Auburn with a light-hearted joke.
“It’s been a boring couple of months,” he said. “What do y’all got?”
The past seven weeks for Sumrall have been anything but boring. The offseason has been filled with roster and coaching staff changes, as well as workouts that started about two weeks ago.
“It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind,” Sumrall said. “Not a whole lot of slow motion, sleepless nights. Good ones and bad ones, but mainly good ones.”
Loading ...He then pointed out how retaining the Gators’ best guys, given how the transfer portal is in college football nowadays, was the most important priority. He acknowledged how he wouldn’t be able to keep all of Florida’s roster from last season, as a coaching change brings other changes and transitions.
“Keeping the Jadan Baughs and the Jayden Woods makes coaching a lot easier,” Sumrall said. “Those guys aren’t just really good football players, but they’re the kind of guys that you want to build the culture around because of how they carry themselves.”
The Gators went five-for-five in retaining their key contributors to last season’s squad: Dallas Wilson, Vernell Brown III and Myles Graham, alongside Baugh and Woods. Sumrall visited with the families of each of them and knew that they would be sought after in the portal.
He brought the whole Sumrall family to visit the Baughs on Christmas Eve.
“That was unique. I don’t think I’ve ever done an in-home visit with a current player that’s not in the portal. I’ve never done an in-home visit on Christmas Eve,” Sumrall said with a chuckle.
Sumrall followed up with how he feels about his current portal class, which is ranked 12th nationally, according to On3. Among SEC schools, Florida is ranked fifth behind LSU (2nd), Texas A&M (4th), Texas (8th), and Arkansas (9th). The Gators brought in 26 players while losing 29.
“You never really fully know until you go through spring practice,” he said. “I think we had some areas of need that we may have fulfilled and I think we have some areas that we need to figure out where we’re at.”
One of those areas Florida believes it fulfilled was the quarterback position. The Gators brought in Georgia Tech transfer Aaron Philo to potentially command the offense under his former offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner.
“I believe in what he’s [Philo] about because Buster feels comfortable with him and has confidence in what he’s gonna be,” Sumrall added. “And I think Tramell [Jones Jr.] I’m excited about. I like our quarterback room.
“Is there maybe a known proven starter in that room? No. Is there guys that I think can help us win football games? Yeah.”
The biggest takeaway from his halftime presser was how Florida has been practicing and working out without any Florida logos.
“Got to earn the logo man, we haven’t earned it yet. We haven’t earned a damn thing,” Sumrall said. “All we’ve got is our name. To wear the Florida Gator logo, to wear the Gators across your helmet in script, or wear the gator head. You’ve got to earn that.”
The last Florida football coach to make his players work for the logo was Urban Meyer, who won back-to-back national titles in Gainesville.
Before speaking to the media, Sumrall addressed the Gators crowd late in the first half of Florida men’s basketball’s 76-67 loss to Auburn, rallying the sold-out arena.
“This is a dream come true for me. We’re going to work extremely hard and tirelessly to bring championship football back to the University of Florida,” Sumrall said as the crowd erupted. “Just like Coach [Todd] Golden and the basketball team have done here, we’re going to give everything we’ve got every day.
“Nobody is going to be tougher and more blue-collar than us, just like our student section.”
That line got the Rowdy Reptiles at the O’Connell Center fired up.
The Gators began winter workouts under new strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt, a former Green Beret in the military. Sumrall said Whitt and the rest of Florida’s coaching staff plan to instill toughness, confidence, accountability, discipline and grit into his players.
“We’re never going to back down to anything we do,” Sumrall said. “We’re going to put them [the players] through some things that they have not experienced and they already have seen some of that.
“You want to have some fun? Come sit in the back lot behind our fence at around 5:45 in the morning this Wednesday.”
Sumrall wrapped up the presser the same way he began in response to college football’s sustainability in the current age.
“Is what sustainable? My health or what? My hair not being totally gray yet?” he said
Category: Feature Sports News, Gators Football
