Why 'Impatient' Gators HC Jon Sumrall is 'On Edge' Through Early Part of Spring Camp

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It is not easy to find Jon Sumrall when watching the Florida Gators practice during spring camp. Not because he is absent. Not because he is hiding in his office or in the tree line that separates the practice fields from SW Second Avenue.

Once you find him with one position group, all it takes is a blink, a quick glance elsewhere or moving one step for him to move to another. Then he's lost.

A positionless head coach with plenty of energy, Sumrall finds himself floating between every position group and every drill throughout his first spring camp. Not one position group is ignored. Not one rep goes unnoticed.

"I coach every day," he said last week. "I got a degree in finance. If I wanted to sit behind a desk and just whisper to people, I’d go work at a bank. I like coaching. I love coaching."

That intensity and attention to detail while having his hands in every position group is simply who Sumrall is as a head coach. It is also what most non-play-calling head coaches around the country do (former UF head coach Billy Napier spent a bulk of his practices working with just the quarterbacks).

For Sumrall specifically, it is also necessary for his immediate goals as he takes over a struggling Gators program.

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Through four practices, two of which have been in full pads, Sumrall sees "flashes" of physicality on the team and some emerging leaders. However, he also sees many areas that need improvement, so much so that he told the media after Thursday's practice that he doesn't have enough time to talk about everything he wants to see improve.

"I'm not patient at all. Like, I'm just not," he said. "... I'm a little uncomfortable because we're so far away from where I want us to be, that I just -- you know, I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little on edge."

While he does not have the time to list each and every area that is putting him on the edge, he did specifically point out consistency as the area he wants to see improve the most. It is also an area that is a direct effect of his flipping the roster.

Entering his first season, Florida added 50 new players to its roster between the high school ranks, the NCAA Transfer Portal and walk-ons. He did retain a good section of the Gators' roster from last season — including the core five of running back Jadan Baugh, receiver Dallas Wilson, receiver Vernell Brown III, linebacker Myles Graham and edge rusher Jayden Woods — but plenty of key positions will have new faces.

Florida rebuilt its special teams unit with six transfers, reloaded at multiple offensive positions through the portal, has an open quarterback battle with only three combined starts among the competitors and many unproven youngsters or veterans returning from injury on the defensive side of the ball.

The result through four practices? Inconsistency, Sumrall said.

He also pointed back to the physicality side, saying that Saturday's practice was "solid," but Tuesday was inconsistent, and the team didn't truly turn up the intensity until the end of practice.

"We're a long way away from being a team that doesn't beat ourselves. I've watched practice four times now, and we're just, we're green," he said. "You know, it's 50-something new players and not a ton of returning starters... So it's just a very young, unproven team in so many areas."

Florida running back Evan Pryor (21) works out with head coach Jon Sumrall during spring football practice. | Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The other side-effect of having 50 new players is Florida not having established player leadership currently on the team. Sumrall previously emphasized the need to have a player-led team, and while returning players such as Brown III and Woods are standing out so far, he wants the players to start leading themselves first.

From there, there has to be accountability on all sides.

"Sometimes as a teammate, you have to do some things that your friends or teammates don't like if you want to hold them to the fire of being great. We have to get to where guys are comfortable calling each other out," he said. "We also have to have the guys that need to be called out, they have to listen. Like they have to follow. They have to take the instruction."

So, while Florida builds its player leadership while establishing consistency on the field, Sumrall has no plans on slowing down his intensity and attention to detail with each rep at each position group. Even if that player leadership is built and that consistency on the field is established, he has no plans on slowing down the intensity.

It's what made it stand out as a coordinator at Troy, Tulane and Kentucky. It's what made him stand out as a head coach at Troy and Tulane. It's what is making him stand out through his first four practices as a head coach at Florida.

"I'm still on cloud nine a little bit the fact that I'm here," Sumrall said. "Every day that I come into the building and I put my thumbprint on the deal and it lets me open the door, I'm pretty fired up."