Florida's Defense Delivered After Week of Criticism Amid 52-3 Win

There absolutely has to be a standard set at the University of Florida when it comes to this football program, and if there’s one guy I have a lot of hope in accomplishing that with, it’s new head coach Jon Sumrall. 

While Sumrall has a lot of questions to answer himself because he’s coming over from a place that simply isn’t the same as Florida, despite how good Tulane has been in the past, he seems to be the perfect option for a lot of this stuff.

At the end of the day, Sumrall has to continue to prove that he can be that guy, but a lot of what he and his coaching staff have said in the past shows that he’s going to be just that.

I also think it’s really important to recognize that actions mean a lot more than words. At the end of the day, this is going to be a situation in which Florida has to prove it on the field before we really care too much about what it has to say off of it. 

However, I love that Florida came away with a 40-plus-point win, and instead of getting happy, the program saw the issues it had. The defense wasn't good enough, and instead of making excuses, coaches said they were even sick of watching it.

"I think we all see it the same way,'' defensive coordinator Brad White said, per the school.

"There's going to be good, and there's bad. Immediately after the game, the whole deal, you've got that pit in your stomach because you know we could have played better. That was not the standard and the bar that we want to set for how to play defense around here."

"I want to be careful here,'' Sumrall said. "Here's what I'd say: I just think you have to show up with a chip on your shoulder every day. You can never assume anything. I don't care who you're playing; as soon as you get complacent or overconfident, this game will humble you really, really fast."

As White and Sumrall touched on here, there’s a standard that has to be upheld, and Florida didn’t play up to that standard. I’m really curious to see how things look over the next couple of weeks, especially with some extremely tough games coming up.

However, if this mindset continues, even if it takes a year or two, Sumrall is going to be the guy we all hope he is, and that’s the bigger priority right now.