On Tuesday, Florida’s first day of spring practice, Gators head coach Jon Sumrall and S&C coordinator Rusty Whitt met with the media.
JON SUMRALL
Being in helmets and t-shirts, Sumrall said it was hard to assess the physicality, but he thought the effort was good, and guys were flying around.
Everyone gets excited about day one of practice; great football teams get excited about every day.
The Gauntlet was built to create adversity. It’s an extreme accountability contest. They wouldn’t have started practice today had the team not passed the Gauntlet. It’s not just what you do, it’s how you do it. He said he was proud of them for passing it.
With an all-new staff and so many new players, on Friday, they went through a mock practice so that the players would know where to go and what to do.
Good teams are coach-led; a great team has to be player-led. Sumrall said he doesn’t know how good a team UF can be yet; they are still figuring it out. There are a lot of question marks. He said that he has been pleased with the player’s eagerness.
Injury update:
Dallas Wilson is being held out as a precaution because of the foot injury he suffered last year. If there was a game this week, he could go.
Myles Graham is limited because of his shoulder. He won’t go do 11-on-11 tackling drills.
Titus Bullard has a hamstring issue and will be back soon.
Dijon Johnson, recovering from his knee injury, will do more as spring goes on.
Javion Toombs is in an orange non-contact jersey with a shoulder issue.
Kamran James has a shoulder injury, practiced, but was non-contact.
Fletcher Westphal is limited with a wrist injury.
Those who are out all spring are Kendall Guervil (Knee), Jalen Wiggins (hip), CJ Bronaugh (shoulder), Chancellor Campbell (knee), and Daniel Pierre Louis (hip). All of these were existing injuries.
Sumrall said there’s no time limit on naming a starting quarterback. The players will determine who is the starter based on how they practice.
He said Will Griffin has a cannon and big, strong hands.
Called Joseph Mbatchou a big, strong man.
Unlike with Billy Napier, with Sumrall, the #1 jersey, or more specifically, who is allowed to wear it will mean something with this staff. Vernell Brown III and Bryce Thornton were allowed to wear the #1 based on their work and leadership. You won’t get the #1 jersey without being an explosive playmaker on offense and a leader on defense.
He will watch (almost) every player over the course of a practice. He will see each position group during indy period. He said he is the coach of the whole team.
RUSTY WHITT
Whitt said that it took eight weeks to get emotional investment out of every player to pass the Gauntlet. That is the thing that he is most happy about, that they got together to do that.
The conditioning aspect, you’ll see a lot of guys trying to survive. We had a lot of guys trying to survive today.
Bryce Lovett improved his mechanics… Caden Jones, JaReylan McCoy, and Jeramiah McCloud have all gotten better functionality in the weight room.
Whitt said that Lagonza Hayward is impressive in the weight room and loves to compete. He is probably the pound-for-pound strongest defensive back in the SEC. He has a 345-pound power clean and can deadlift 545 pounds.
