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Florida Gators (official thread)
- College Football
- 1583 Replies
$5.2M combined? Feels like a steal this year.
Coach Jon Sumrall takes away Gators logos to push new team
One of Jon Sumrall's first moves as Florida coach had echoes of Hall of Fame coach Urban Meyer's approach in 2005, which paid off with two national titles in his first four seasons.www.espn.com
Coach Jon Sumrall takes away Gators logos to push new team
Jon Sumrall had no idea one of his first major moves as Florida's football coach had been done before in Gainesville more than two decades ago.
Sumrall gave his players shorts, shirts and other gear without any Gators logos. It was reminiscent of Hall of Fame coach Urban Meyer's approach in 2005, which paid off with two national titles in his first four seasons at Florida.
"Gotta earn it. Gotta earn the logo," Sumrall said. "We ain't earned it yet. We haven't earned a damn thing. All we've got is our name. ... To wear the Florida Gator logo, to wear the Gators across your helmet, to wear the Gator head, you got to earn that."
Sumrall said he is unsure how or when the players can earn logos.
"I haven't thought about that yet," he said....
Florida hired Sumrall in late November, days after it became clear to athletic director Scott Stricklin that top choice Lane Kiffin was headed to LSU. Sumrall signed a six-year, $44.7 million deal to replace Billy Napier and potentially get the once-proud program back to national prominence.
Sumrall's coaching résumé includes four consecutive league title game appearances. He won back-to-back Sun Belt championships in two seasons (2022-23) at Troy and then led Tulane to the American title game in both his seasons (2024-25) there. The Green Wave won the league last season and earned a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Sumrall's first steps included keeping five top-tier players in Gainesville: linebacker Myles Graham, running back Jadan Baugh, defensive end Jayden Woods, and wide receivers Vernell Brown III and Dallas Wilson. Some of them considered hitting the transfer portal, but all ended up back at Florida -- at a combined cost of $5.2 million -- for Sumrall's debut season.
"Clearly, the most important thing to me was trying to retain our best players," Sumrall said. "Not going to keep them all, ever. There's a coaching change. There's going to be some change and some transition, but that part was critical for us to have any opportunity to have success next year."
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