Jon Sumrall Promises an EXPLOSIVE Florida Offense-but Issues a Reality Check

Happy to be joined by Coach Sumrall. We are ready for questions. We'll start over on the third row in the end. After Billy Napier left midseason, who were some of the veteran players that you saw step up when you stepped into his position? Yeah I'd say three of the guys that are here with me today, Myles Graham, Jaden Ball, Verno Brown III, three really consistent guys on our roster that through the uncertainty of a coaching change probably stepped up even more so in leadership roles to create some consistency within our football team. Hey Coach, third row on the right. Hi Coach, Jacob Worland, Cary UI Iowa City. I wanted to ask you, you said explosive offense is mandatory at Florida. What does that look like beyond statistics? Yeah, I think there's a style of play that matches the Florida Gators. You know, I grew up thinking there were three leagues of football as a kid, the AFC, the NFC, and the SEC. And as a kid, I sat in the south end zone of Legion Field in 1993 and watched Florida play Alabama in the SEC championship game. And you just expect fun, explosive football from Florida offense. Now, what's most important is a formula to help you win the game. But I think inherently, we're in the state of Florida. We have access to great skill players. This state is loaded with receivers and running backs that can hit home run plays. And then we've got a lot of guys on our roster that are like that. So I just, I feel like speed, space, sometimes tempo within your play style fits Florida. Now, we don't have to be tempo just for the sake of tempo. We got to do it, use it the right times to help us be successful, but there's a style of offense I think fits here. Front row to the left. Hey Coach Sumrall, Nick Villamo with the Tampa Bay Times. You've had relatively quick success as a head coach at Troy, at Tulane. Obviously, it's never a one-man show, but what do you bring to a program that makes that possible? I think a mindset of trying to help everybody in our program be the best they can be. My job as the head coach is to serve and develop everybody around me. It's not to be served. And so, I wake up daily driven to help everyone in our building become their best. If everybody maximizes who they can become, then usually you have a chance to improve. That doesn't guarantee success. It just gives you the best opportunity. But, you know, when people want to bring up maybe my track record as a head coach, I'm okay with people recognizing what we've done, but it's had a little bit to do with me and a lot to do with so many other people around me, starting with the players. It's a player-driven game. Nobody comes to our games to watch me coach. They come to watch our players play. And so, it's all about our players. It's about the coaches putting our players in the situation to be successful. I think those are the things that I try to stick to that help us find success. Front row and then pass it over. Trevor Denton with Wave 31 in Huntsville. So, I got to ask you about Grissom High School. When you were there, you know, three losing seasons and then you guys go on a big run your senior season. So, what did you learn at Grissom about what it takes to turn around a football program? Yeah, Huntsville, Alabama, let's go. So, you know, I went to Grissom and as a freshman, I played on the varsity some. Not because I was any good. We were one and nine. Okay. There were a few. There was one particular other high school in my hometown that some of the guys were trying to get me to transfer to their school. I'm not going to name their name. But my dad wouldn't let me do it. My dad's like, no, if you're any good, you'll make that place better. My sophomore year, we went three and seven. My junior year, you didn't feel it tangibly with the record, but you could feel it's getting better. We went three and seven. The losses were less ugly, maybe. And then my senior year, we went 12 and two and went to the state semifinals. Lost at Hoover. Rush Probst's first state championship at Hoover. That was, I think, for me really a foundational experience for walking into maybe a non-traditional football power in the state of Alabama high school-wise and helping get it right. And being a leader on that team and helping maybe change the direction of the program. That was a fun experience for me and something I'll never forget. So thanks for asking, man. Chesabuche with NBC 33 in Baton Rouge. You and Lane Kiffin are very different. You're kind of in-your-face aggressive. Lane's a little bit more laid-back. You being a defensive-minded coach. What challenges do you face going up against a Lane Kiffin offense? They're explosive. They're fast. The tempo they play at always seem to have great skilled players. A lot of respect for what they do and how they do it. But yeah, it's a challenge. They present major challenges schematically and they've always got great players, it seems like. Obviously, you spent some time in New Orleans at Tulane. What makes the state of Louisiana different? Is it the culture? Is it the atmosphere? Yeah, the culture in Louisiana is great. You know, Louisiana is really two states. It's North Louisiana and South Louisiana, right? I-10 or I-20. I probably fit a little bit better around I-10 but I like I-22. I grew up closer to I-20, but Louisiana is a great state. A lot of great people there. A lot of friendships still there. Hey John, Nathan King, 24-7 Sports. When you go back to your decision to go to Florida from Tulane, how big of a deal was it for you personally that Florida's administration said, hey, you know, if you want to coach Tulane through the postseason, we will allow you to do that. How big of a deal was that for you as compared to maybe some other opportunities? Non-negotiable. If somebody had, I don't care what the offer was on the other side, if somebody had said, hey, we need you to take this job and do it on our terms with how you finished the job at Tulane, the answer was not no, it was hell no. All right, so I was going to do it the way I was doing it at the end of Tulane. That place, those kids had given me so much like I was not going to walk out on that situation the wrong way. I think how you walk into a place says a lot about you. I think how you walk out of a place says a lot about you too. And so, if somebody wanted me to like fly back and forth every day during game prep for a conference championship week, wouldn't happen. I was going to be locked in to help Tulane win as many games for as long as we could. Second row and then pass it to your left. Hey coach, Lindsey Bonner, WAKA out of Montgomery. Going back to your time at Troy, what did coaching there kind of teach you and what does that university mean to you? Everything. Troy University, Dr. Jack Hawkins, you know, special place, special people. And this show is of course brought to you by Price Picks. Right now, when you download the app and use the code HMA and you play five dollars brand new, you get $150 when you win that lineup. And right now, they got a great new feature on the app. You can take your chances on game lines and pick your favorite team to win. I went and rocked rock and roll with the Braves on this pick. But again, be sure to use that code HMA. Download the app. Use the link in the description. You play five dollars. It's brand new. You get $150 if you win. Price Picks. It's good to be right. I really, I'm learning how to be a good assistant, but like maybe a great assistant coach. And then I wouldn't be in the chair I'm in right now if it wasn't for Troy. You know, it gave me my first opportunity to be a head coach. Many of the Troy players, Kamani Vidal, Tez Johnson, a lot of those guys came back to Gainesville and trained this offseason. Kamani spent a month and a half with us. I'm like, why are you still here? But the people of Troy, Alabama, that place, it's a football place now. They love it there. They're ate up with it. That's a really cool town. Love, love Troy. Love the people there. You know, we had Morgan Wallen in Gainesville. And I had a suite for the concert. And one night I split the suite with Todd Golden, our basketball coach. Then the second night, everybody in that suite was from Troy, Alabama. They're all my friends that don't really care about me being the head coach anywhere. But yeah, Troy's a special place. Left side, then pass it forward. Hey coach, John Sokoloff, WGNO-TV in New Orleans. Good to see you again. Good to see you, brother. You obviously led Tulane to new heights and now you're taking over a behemoth of a program in the Gators. How do you think you grew as a coach at Tulane the last couple of years? Where do you think you grew? And did that time prepare you for what you're walking into in Gainesville? That's a great question, John. You know, I think had I made the jump from Troy to Florida that would have been really hard to take on. A lot to digest. Maybe more to manage than I had been exposed to or prepared for properly. When I left Troy to go to Tulane, a little bit more money involved with your roster. Maybe a little bit different type of school. Urban environment versus rural. Academic setting is a little bit more unique and different at Tulane. So there were some things that Tulane, that experience provided me with, that I think prepared me holistically to be in the seat I'm in now. I feel like if I'd have gone straight from Troy to one of these jobs, I would have skipped the step I needed selfishly to know how to do this job well. And so Tulane, the resourcing there was a little bit more than Troy. You know, I think the media obligations, Troy, the closest media outlets are in Montgomery or you know, like you got to go through nowhere to get there almost, you know what I mean? And so there wasn't a real big media availability face-to-face every week. I mean you were around when I was at Tulane, we were rolling their CFP pursuit that I'd look out and there's as many cameras at a Tulane media availability sometimes as there are at some SEC schools. So you're like, whoa, this is a big deal right now. And so there was just some preparation things that I couldn't have planned for myself that happened naturally because of my experience at Tulane. Front row. Allie Peek, a peek inside Florida Gator football. Hey coach, we talked a little bit about the three players that you brought today. Two of them are legacies and one of them could have gone anywhere in the country and could have followed the coach that has developed in the last couple of years, but they cared enough about the University of Florida to stay. What does that say about Florida and how do you continue to foster that with your younger guys? Yeah, you know it says a ton about Florida. The local community in Gainesville is unbelievable. Like it's the type of place you get there and you fall in love with it. The guys that chose to stay, I will forever be indebted to because a lot of these guys including the three that we brought but so many other ones had options. People pursuing them even when they didn't go into the portal. On the other side of it too, I would say, you know, there were 18 guys that were committed when I took the job the Sunday after the regular season ended officially. Signing day was three days later. We signed 16 of those 18. There's only two decommitments. Okay, I didn't recruit those guys very long. I basically did a zoom with all of them and I say I love you. You've been committed to Florida. I'd love for you to stick with Florida. Man, I gotta go get ready to coach a conference championship game. I'll see y'all when I'm done. Boom, boom, boom. I did some phone calls with them. They all stayed pretty much. Like it says a lot about the place. It's a, you know, it's a top 10 public institution in the country. You get to play elite football and the SEC and you get to live in the state of Florida. Pretty good deal. So it says a lot about the guys that chose to stay but it also says a lot about Florida. And we have a very special place that I think is unique and the kind of place that when you get there you fall in love with. We only have time for two questions. Sorry guys. We'll go here and then here. Hey coach, Sheldon with High Top Sports. Good to see you again, coach. Good to see you. The Auburn-Florida rivalry is something special. It hasn't been happening in a couple of years and in a recent interview Golish had some words from Doering said, hey, make sure your boy's ready for week three. So I want to get your thoughts on that quote and kind of that rivalry that's going to be reborn this year. Every game in SEC is a big game. They all matter. It is a traditional rival that hasn't been played maybe as regularly annually like our game against maybe say Georgia. I'm just trying to be ready today. I'm trying to be ready for media day and then tomorrow I'll try to be ready for our workouts we have on our team and Friday the OTA we got. When things come, when they get there, I approach what comes when it comes. Alex and I are good friends. Last question. Hey John, Alex Walker with Channel 9 in Orlando. Great to see you. Good to see you, brother. Between now and September 5th, how much realistic progress needs to be made for your group to each Saturday feel like, hey, we got a chance today? We've got to get better every day. We can't waste a day. We're nowhere near arrived. Like we can't waste a practice rep. You know, everything we do right now matters. It's all counting towards our development. And so for me, I just think the urgency we have to do things with it's got to feel a little different than maybe what people are comfortable with at times. That's everybody are building. And so every day matters. Every rep matters. Every meeting matters. You know, there's nothing that doesn't matter. We don't do anything just because. It all matters. And so we've got to continue to stack good days. We have a long way to go. I'm not trying to temper expectations. My expectation is to win every time we play. We have a freaking long way to go. Coach, thank you very much. Wish we had more time for you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank y'all.