With Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer, and Danny Wuerffel in attendance, the Gators' new football coach sought to answer the doubters: "I am a winner. We're gonna win."
Jon Sumrall looks and sounds like a football coach. A linebacker's broad shoulders. The flat-top haircut. The gravel-road voice.
When he stepped off the jet Monday in Gainesville and immediately launched into the Chomp, Sumrall looked like the new Florida Gators football boss.
And with UF national championship and Heisman Trophy legends in attendance at his introductory press conference in Gainesville, Sumrall did not back down from the high bar of expectations.
"I wanna win tomorrow," he said. "I wanna coach here forever."
As first impressions go, Sumrall was aware of his audience. He sought to reassure Gator Nation that, despite his lack of experience at the highest level, he was the right man for the job. He showed his reverence for Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, both of whom were in the room, and the challenge of succeeding them. He talked about the nuts and bolts of building a winner again at Florida.
Here are the highlights of Sumrall's first remarks as Florida football coach.
To Gator Nation
"I love, love, love your passion and your enthusiasm. That's part of what attracted me here 'cause I'm wired the same way. The standard here is championships. That's why I came. I'm built for this job. I'm made for this job. Winners win. I'm a winner. We're gonna win."
What is wrong with Florida football?
"You know, um, I think there's a lot right. I got to diagnose all of it. It'll take some time. I'll say this, you know, when I went to Troy, they had been five and seven, five and six, and five and seven for three straight years. And I'm not saying this is Troy. I know it's different.
"That job was actually an easy rebuild because in the locker room there's a bunch of good players. We had Kimani Vidal, who starts at running back for the Chargers; Jake Andrews, who's the starting center for the Houston Texans; Dell Pettus, who's on the Patriots. ... Javon Solomon, who's with the Buffalo Bills. Like, I walked into a football team that had some good players. They just hadn't been winning and there needed to be maybe some cultural things we had to give some attention to.
"I think we got some good football players (at Florida). I watched that game Saturday before I went and played Saturday and I'm like, 'Hey, can I give the ball the number 13 10 more times?' All right? 'Cause, like, if the offensive coordinator doesn't know what to do, that's a pretty good choice.
"We got some good young receivers here. ... I watch the defense, man. We got some dudes on defense. Like, we got some killers. And so, I'm fired up to coach those guys.
"We're gonna do everything we can to win fast. I have a plan for how we can win long term, but like I want to win tomorrow.
"I'm not very patient. I respect the Florida fan base is not patient. They want to win right now, too. You got the right coach. I'm wired that way. I'm not comfortable having a plan to win in eight years. I want to win tomorrow."
On Group of 5 background
"No two people are the same, okay? Coach Meyer, you coached G5 football, I think, right? (No. 2 Indiana's) Curt Cignetti coached G5 football, I think. I actually coached against Coach Cignetti some. No two people are the same. ... Judge me for who I am. ... Give me a shot. Believe in me."
On succeeding Spurrier, Meyer
"It's a challenge I embrace. It's an exhilarating challenge. ... I don't know if I can measure myself against Coach Spurrier or Coach Meyer anytime soon. I've got a long way to go. I look forward to leaning on them, asking for their opinions and advice. I feel very privileged to have two great resources like them. They're a phone call away. As a coach, I admire coaches and really good ones. I've got two great ones here. So for me, I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have a phoner friend in those two.
"I get to stand in the same spot, in the same job as two absolute legends. And the fact that they're here today means the world to me. I'm pinching myself. I've come a long way to hold the job that they once held."
"Coach the team"
"We're gonna run a player-driven program. My job as the head football coach is to serve and to develop the players. It's not to be served, it's to serve. If there were no players, there'd be no coaches.
"My No. 1 job, and I have a sign in my office at Tulane ... that says 'Coach the team.' My No. 1 job is to coach the team. And so while maybe future Gators matter to me, current Gators matter more."
On roster building
"It starts with our current team. I just got the chance to meet with those guys. Retention in today's college football world is the most important thing to build a team. We need those guys to stay, and that's the first recruiting effort I have."
On recruiting
"I'm going to have an opportunity to recruit the best players in the country. Like, there's no reason why we shouldn't attract the very top end of the talent coming out of high school. And that excites me. I've had great players. I shared with the guys in the team meeting, some of the names they've never heard of were no-star and two-star recruits, and I've helped them get to the NFL at Troy and Tulane. Man, what do I get to do with some nine-stars? Watch out. It's gonna be a lot of fun."
"We also have Signing Day on Wednesday, which is vital. I believe that the lifeblood of your program is recruiting good high school players and, in Florida, elite high school football players. It starts here at home. We're privileged to be in the state of Florida, which has got just such a great hotbed for not just high school football players but great coaches. And we don't have to go very far to find what we need to win championships. We're also very privileged though, to have a national brand where we can go all across the country and get the best of the best, the cream of the crop."
On transfer portal
"We will use the transfer portal. If you studied my rosters the last couple of years ... I haven't had the resources to keep very many of my good players. They all end up getting poached. So I've had to embrace the transfer portal probably more than most, maybe even more than I'd like to at times, by necessity. But we'll use the portal to enhance our team and to supplement where there may be holes or deficiencies."
On creating explosive offense
"When I think of Florida football, I think of aggressive, I think of explosive, I think about mixing tempos, using it to your advantage, and dictating the game to the opponent. I think about stretching the field and threatening every blade of grass. It all starts with the quarterback and the pieces around him. We'll get elite skill players here. We got some already, we got to keep them. Our O line has to play with the demeanor. It's nasty and it is a force to be reckoned with, and that'll happen. I want the scoreboard to light up."
On building a feared defense
"Defensively, we will swarm, and we will attack. We will play with great pursuit of the football and relentless effort. We'll always be on the hunt 'cause that's what Gators do. We're gonna make our opponents uncomfortable. I want to be the most feared defense in the country."
College football calendar needs fixing
"I shared this with my (Tulane) team yesterday when I gave them the news I was coming here. The NFL, their rules kind of make sense. Like, they do this thing called football season. Okay?
"And then after football season, a coach can leave and take a job. And they have free agency in the draft. That's player movement. And they have OTAs and minicamp, and training camp, and then you know what they're doing then? They play football season.
"And then there's Coach moving again and players moving again, and they have contracts that are kind of binding. We have contracts that are like, I don't know what they are. You know, like, it's just a piece of paper. You could probably put in a bonfire.
"And so, when I'm getting at is our model's not perfect clearly. I'm trying to do the best I can. The way I explain it to my team yesterday is the decision I'm making is about which team I'm coaching in 2026, not in 2025. And so I'm right now wearing two hats, but I will not coach Florida's football team at all in 2025. I'll start to develop relationships and get to know these guys' stories and what makes them who they are. But our calendar is definitely imperfect and could use some attention."
Stricklin and Sumrall on GM Dave Caldwell
Stricklin: "He brings deep experience with roster construction, talent evaluation, analytics, and long-term planning. This structure matters. It creates alignment, it creates clarity, but most importantly, it allows Jon and the staff he's gonna build to focus fully on leading our players, developing our roster, and winning football games."
Sumrall: "Having someone like Dave, who's got his experience, his expertise, his knowledge, his skill set, man, it fires me up because it allows me to be the best I can be at my main job, which is coach the team."