Here are some selected quotes from Jon Sumrall since he took over as Florida’s head football coach.
“I did not shy away from — when we got here, I felt that the offensive line was an area that needed massive improvement.” –SEC teleconference, September 2
“Those guys have to have a freaking great summer or we got no chance.” –On the offensive line, post-spring game press conference, April 11
“I would love to be able to go out and have that little free-agency period, and fix a couple spots a little bit more than we got fixed right now.” -Post-spring game press conference, April 11
“[Offensive] Tackle is the biggest question… Need Caden [Jones] to continue to step up. And he needs to play like a veteran. And we’re challenging him every day.” –Regarding the offensive line, Monday presser after first preseason scrimmage, August 17
“We’re not where we want to be yet as a whole… I think we’ve made improvement. Is it high enough for us to play the game at a level that we desire to? We’re gonna find out real soon.” –SEC teleconference, September 2
“A lot to clean up. By no means a perfect performance. Long list of things we have to get a lot better at if we have high goals here.” –Postgame presser after FAU win, September 5
“A lot I was not pleased with, to be quite honest with you… If we play like we did in the second half, we’re about to have a real rude awakening… I’m not real pleased with just maybe where we are from a maturity standpoint, executing at a really high level all the time. What we’re about to walk into in conference play, we will get absolutely embarrassed if we don’t improve a ton.” –Postgame presser after Campbell win, September 12
“We still have a lot to improve upon… I got to get it cleaned up, as a staff got to get it cleaned up, got to play more disciplined… If we don’t get [penalties] fixed and get back to how we were in Week 1, we are about to get absolutely embarrassed when we play high-end SEC teams.” –Postgame presser after Auburn win, September 19
“We have not arrived. We have so much room to grow and get better. And we still have to do that or we’re not going to be pleased with outcomes that we have coming up.” –Postgame presser after Ole Miss win, September 26
“I guess part of why we got our ass kicked in Missouri and last week at home is because we, everybody around Gainesville was patting our guys in the back telling them how good they were, and I’m like, guys, we suck. Like I’ve watched this practice, we’re not very good. We still suck. We just suck less, all right. And so we have to figure out to suck less each week. But we’re not like a complete team yet.” –Postgame presser after Texas win, October 17
Okay, have I laid it on thick enough?
Some of these quotes are variants of coachspeak. Even coaches of the best teams will say things like this. To take Urban Meyer’s comments in preseason camp at face value would’ve been to doubt whether the Gators could make a bowl. Nick Saban loved to talk down his teams to try to get the players to maintain their edges.
These are also very one-sided for the purpose of making a point. None are taken out of context or misleading, but for example the quote from August about offensive tackle being the “biggest question” was in contrast to Sumrall feeling good about the interior offensive line. While the tackles have struggled, it’s not like the middle of the line has been consistently good either.
I’m not asking anyone to “trust the coaches” or some such pabulum. They make extraordinary amounts of money to make decisions and then deal with the ramifications of those decisions. It’s their job to earn trust on Saturdays, and it’s not mine to vouch for them.
That said, I do think Sumrall has known all along that this year’s team was not going to be a great one, particularly on the offensive line. His comments from the start attest to it. A lot of folks around the program, myself very much included, got carried away with the success of September. It would’ve been very difficult not to, given the offense’s near-unstoppability and especially the margin of victory over a then-top ten Ole Miss team that had just defeated Lane Kiffin and LSU.
It was still possible to be concerned about the defense back then, as I and others were, but it has actually gotten better since then. Not in a straight line up, as no trend is without its setbacks. However that explosive offense from just seven weeks ago has twice in a row been reduced to merely trying to extend the scoring streak while the defense kept games from getting out of hand.
The staff has a lot of work to do still this year. Both sides of the ball have a predictability problem. The offense is struggling in large part because opposing defenses have figured out weaknesses they can reliably exploit and appear to have a very good read on where plays are going before they start.
The defense having tells was quite apparent when Oklahoma’s offense, statistically one of the worst in the P4 and even in the country in some categories all year, was able to grind out a 20-play drive. The Gator defenders may have been wearing down from getting no help from the offense by that point — even UF’s one touchdown drive was a mere four plays — but a brand new interim OC who’d only called plays on the high school level appeared to know exactly where to go to get positive yardage at all times.
Sumrall also hasn’t really gotten the penalties under control either. After some progress with one against Texas and four against Georgia, UF was back up to nine flags against the Sooners. Florida is tied for 12th in the SEC in overall penalties, but they’re dead last by 45 yards in total penalty yardage. They have racked up 640 penalty yards, with Mississippi State’s 595 the second-worst. When comparing penalties and yardage for a team versus what their opponents have gotten, only Vandy is worse in both.
And that offensive line consistency Sumrall’s been wanting for months? It’s not there. Also not there are sufficient adjustments for the loss of Vernell Brown III, who hasn’t played in two months. Sumrall admitted as much this week. Plenty of problems that have been evident for a while are still problems.
All I can say for sure right now is that Sumrall has never seemed to be under any illusions about the quality level of his first Florida team. Whether he and his assistants are going to make the right moves to fix them all remains to be seen.
I’ll close with one more quote, this one from May: “We better be [bowl eligible], or I’m going to be up on the roof of the stadium getting ready to do something stupid.”
I don’t think Florida will lose out and miss a bowl, but a barely bowl eligible 6-6 is definitely on the table. That would be the most losses in a season in his head coaching career after finishing 9-5 in his first season at Tulane.
His second Green Wave team went 10-2 in the regular season, won the conference, and made the College Football Playoff. Florida fans would take that right now for 2027 if they could, I’m sure. I don’t know if getting there in one offseason is possible, but making progress on some of this year’s issues before this season ends would build some confidence.
