Jon Sumrall’s ‘good’ mind ignites Florida amid recruiting spree, QB battle

GAINESVILLE, Florida — New Florida coach Jon Sumrall has described the program as a beast that needs to be resurrected. The Gators haven’t won more than eight regular season games since 2019.

A poor 4-8 season ended Billy Napier’s tenure after four years, and athletic director Scott Stricklin turned to another Louisiana Group of six coaches to try to get Florida back into championship contention.

It will be a challenge, but Sumrall has a stock answer when difficulties arise.

In four books, Jon’s response to almost anything life throws at him is filled by his 12-year-old son, Sam, who toils away leaving a sign in a corner office overlooking Florida’s practice fields.

‘good’

Among the sketches of the various play designs and the scattered notes, there is one word that comes up many times: good. It is written in large letters in the middle of the board and in small letters on the sides, downwards and in many places. It’s also full on Sumrall’s X account whenever Florida gets a verbal commitment:

Things have been pretty good in Florida on the recruiting trail. The Gators have 11 commits since early April, including five-star running back Maxwell Hiller, the crown jewel of the class. But whether he receives a commitment from Hiller or the news that the player will speak elsewhere: “our answer, no matter what happens, is ‘good’,” he told CBS Sports.

A good idea comes from a video of former Navy SEAL John “Jocko” Willink, who explains the answer to adversity.

Sumrall goes to the back room of his office and pulls out an orange and green hat from the golf brand Good Good, a variation of the name when two golfers agree that their putts are close enough to match.

He doesn’t wear it often as the Florida collection is in the production process for them to sell.

Sumrall shows Jocko’s video to his teams twice a year, and tries to live by it, with amazing results.

“My third game as head coach, we throw an interception, the first play of the game against App State. I’m walking around with my headphones on, and I’m like, ‘Good. I don’t want to watch our offense right now.’ Everyone said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Then we lose the game on a Hail Mary: well, we weren’t ready to win a game like that. We need to be punched in the mouth and have the gut punch of losing a Hail Mary. That team then went on an 11-game winning streak after that, finishing 19th in the nation in all of college football, going 12-2. You have to be still, and you can’t let the best get in your way, and you can’t let the worst, the worst, lead you astray.”

It all falls under attitude, which is one of the four key principles of Sumrall’s system (strength, discipline, and love being the other three). Sumrall refers to a line from a poem by Charles Swindoll with a similar sentiment: “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it.”

“Good” as an answer to struggles is similar to Nick Saban’s approach, which reframes the ups and downs of life with a positive outlook and focus that is not driven by results. It is common for leaders in business and sports. But they keep score on Saturday in the fall, and it doesn’t mean you’re immune to disappointment as a contender; it’s about how he chooses to use emotions as fuel.

“I really want to lose to make me nauseous. I want to make me sick. I want to taste it to the fullest. And in that way, it makes my desire to pursue what it takes to win even more,” Sumrall said.

It’s all in the service of fighting discontent, which it doesn’t see as the greatest disease in the world.

Post-spring practice feels different now

As for word formation, in early May there is very little chaos for Sumrall. In the past few years there has been a flurry of player movement after spring training, driven by the second portal transfer window. This year, so far, the law regarding the so-called transmission of ghosts outside the portal windows seems to be standing still. The penalties are severe, including a half-season suspension for the head coach and a fine equal to 20% of the school’s football budget. That means things are a little quiet for a long time.

“Even though we don’t have the ability to maybe strengthen or improve some holes that we have, you don’t have to worry about renegotiation,” said Sumrall. “So there’s not this constant threat of the last hour in the April/May window, you stick to your roster, and hopefully guys don’t leave, and you go through spring ball, and you have to figure out how to replace a guy who’s put in a lot of reps, that you’ve been counting on.”

For Sumrall, the calm new post-spring season has its pluses and minuses. No spring portal has any particular effect on a coach like him, who arrived in December, days before the signing period. In the past, he has been using the portal to make a positive impact ahead of his first season. In his first year at Tulane, the Green Wave struggled with offensive linemen in January, then through the spring realized there were holes to fill in the secondary. They added Indiana State’s Jonathan Edwards and Furman’s Micah Robinson. Both are now in the NFL and have been major contributors to the Green Wave.

Florida gets a commitment from five-star OL Maxwell Hiller as Jon Sumrall flexes his recruiting muscles early.

Brad Crawford

“As a first-year head coach, I would like to have a second portal,” Sumrall said. “Now I’ve seen this team practice, and I may have thought I knew some guys, but you know more when you’ve seen them on the field live. As an established program, there’s no second portal that’s very good. As the program tries to get started and build a roster in the first year. That second portal window is very helpful. In the long run of college football, one we need now to get another college football stadium, and the others we have now. to rebuild this thing, I’ll be more than happy to have one, but in the first year, I’d happily accept one to strengthen a little.”

Sumrall says he doesn’t think there should be any caution for coaches like him and he admitted it works in building a healthy roster. There are very few things to worry about because, while spring recruiting has been going on for years, so has high school recruiting.

It’s not the 33rd party

It has become commonplace in college football to point to the NFL model. North Carolina even went so far, calling itself the 33rd team. But the truth is that college football, while becoming more professional than its pseudo-roots, has struggled to define the boundaries of true professionalism. The second portal window created flexibility where there was a fixed negotiation period, whereas in the NFL, the season happens, then free agency, then the draft. Sumrall points out that constant recruiting is the biggest difference between college and football.

“We’re not old college football, but we’re not quite the NFL, we’re in the middle,” Sumrall said. “I think you have to have a mindset there. You can’t just say we’re going to work like an NFL team, because we’re not an NFL team, but you also can’t stick to the rigid ways of college football, because you have to adapt and change with the new situation we’re in.”

Florida relies on a new front office structure with Dave Caldwell (former GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars) as general manager, joining Nick Polk (who worked for Napier last year, and previously worked with the Atlanta Falcons) as assistant GM and Cole Heard as chief of staff (who came with Sumrall from Tulane). It allows Sumrall to avoid getting involved in negotiations. Even though he knows who is being paid, he says it pollutes the water if the coaches are in a negotiation crisis. Some of the money talks at Tulane were handled by Kelly Comarda, a lawyer by profession who founded Tulane’s collection. In Florida, Caldwell drives home the point when it’s time to talk about money.

“I’ve never been a conversationalist,” Sumrall said. “As a coach, you’re involved in every part of the program. The difference here is the depth of the staff in our front office in Troy was a one- or two-man front office. Then you go to Tulane, your front office is an eight-man office. You come here to find an office that looks like an army at times, so everyone has a specific role and responsibility. Negotiators. There are only a few people who negotiate deals here and if you want to be a negotiator, we can reassign.”

An uncertain summer awaits

The Gators came out of spring camp without an answer to the first quarterback question as Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. continuing to fight for work. Along with Alabama and Tennessee, it’s one of the few true quarterback battles in the SEC. Questions about the offensive line will also need to be answered. Both factional battles affect the other, and Sumrall said the defining case isn’t just who’s next in the middle but what happened before.

There will be ups and downs from here until the start of the season and more once Sumrall’s first season officially begins. The only sure thing as Florida tries to get back to the beast it once was is the head coach’s response.