During halftime of Florida’s basketball game against Auburn, Gators’ head coach Jon Sumrall met with the media to discuss several offseason topics.
JON SUMRALL
Sumrall described the past two months as a little bit of a whirlwind, not a whole lot of slow motion with sleepless nights – good ones and a couple of bad ones – but mainly good ones.
He said that the couple of weeks he was holding down jobs at both Florida and Tulane were chaotic.
Sumrall said that the most important thing to him was to try to retain as many of Florida’s best players as they could. You are never going to keep all of them when there’s a coaching change, but keeping the Jadan Baughs and Jayden Woods was going to be a critical piece of having success in 2026.
After the Portal, they’ve been focused on the offseason program and recruiting.
He’s fired up about the direction they are headed, but there are still some major areas of concern with the roster. UF will have to develop every player to be their best.
In retaining the top five guys on the roster, Sumrall said that it was different with each of them. Linebacker Myles Graham was the quickest, and it helped that he was a legacy. Sumrall said Vernell Brown III was similarish. He called Dallas Wilson trickier, implying there was a lot of interest in him. He said it was unique visiting Jadan Baugh on Christmas Eve with his whole family. He had never done an in-home visit with a current player who wasn’t in the Portal.
He credited Baugh’s parents and called Jadan a no-nonsense, low-maintenance type of guy. He called him a great kid.
Sumrall described how Woods went into the Portal, took a visit [Texas], and then Sumrall did an in-home visit with him too. Called his family ‘great people’ and his dad an awesome person, and his grandparents, complete rockstars.
He’s grateful that a lot of guys stayed, and that gives UF a chance to have success.
Sumrall said that new GM Dave Caldwell has been a blessing to him. Sumrall said that he still has a say in every player they take. He called him a low ego, high output guy.
Sumrall said UF had some areas of need that they may have fulfilled, and they had some areas of need where they have to figure out where they’re at. You never really know.
There’s no luxury of a second transfer window now after spring, so that’s a little unnerving for him. He joked that he wouldn’t mind a surprise May window after spring practice.
On taking quarterback Aaron Philo, Sumrall said that offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner had extreme confidence in him, and as Sumrall did his homework, at Georgia Tech, a lot of people didn’t want Philo to leave; a lot of people thought Philo was ready to be the starter there, and he trusts Faulkner to make the call.
He said that if you got the right guy, sometimes experience can be oversold; there are a lot of guys who are experienced, who aren’t very good.
Sumrall also said that he is excited about Tramell Jones Jr. Though there’s no known proven starter, he likes UF’s quarterback room and feels like there are guys in there who can help UF win games.
There’s a long way to go before they name a starting quarterback. The players at the position will decide that based on how they perform.
He wants to instill toughness, confidence, discipline, accountability, and grit. The mindset they want is that they are going to work hard, they’re never going to back down. Here in the offseason, they are going to put them through some things that they have not experienced. And, they’ve already seen some of that.
The players aren’t currently wearing the Gators’ logo during workouts because they have to earn it. Sumrall said they haven’t earned a damn thing. All they have is their name. To wear the logo, to wear the script, you have to earn that.
Offer them workout bonuses like the NFL does if you want them to work out harder.