Rejecting long-term rebuilding timelines, new Florida head coach Jon Sumrall aims to awaken a "sleeping giant" in Gainesville through aggressive culture shifts and immediate, elite-level roster development.
Jon Sumrall got his first taste of the College Football Playoff last season with Tulane.
The Green Wave were outgunned by Ole Miss 41-10, but the season was still a tremendous success for Sumrall and the AAC program.
Sumrall left Tulane to chase a national championship at Florida. While he's setting up his culture, the new head coach knows he needs his own recruits in place to win a national championship.
When speaking with Damien Harris of CBS Sports, on Wednesday, Sumrall said he's not patient with the rebuild at Florida. He wants to win in the next few years.
"I hope this team is the one that wakes it up completely. I'd like for it to be because I'm not real patient, Sumrall said.
"I'm not interested in figuring how to do it five, six, seven years from now -- I want to do it right now. This program's a sleeping giant, and we've got to wake the beast up."
Sumrall believes it's his job as a head coach to make the right hires and find the right players in order to build Florida into a winner.
"I think the three things you do is build a winning culture, No. 1, select the right people in the building and then everyone you've selected, they're yours, and you have to develop them to be their best," Sumrall said.
"When you drill it down and keep it that simple, then my job really gets pretty easy. It's not that complicated because building a winning culture, get the right people here, develop those people... If you do that, and that's all you're thinking about all the time, then I think you have a chance to create quick success."
Sumrall went out and made a key hire at offensive coordinator this offseason. Buster Faulkner did a great job building the offense at Georgia Tech before joining a program with more resources in 2026.
Sumrall has admitted that he'd like to add new talent to the roster after seeing what he had in spring training. But he'll have an opportunity to really build a contender during the next offseason.
