GAINESVILLE, Fla. — New University of Florida football coach Jon Sumrall made one thing clear at his introductory news conference — he is at Florida to win and to win championships.
“The standard here is championships. That’s why I came,” Sumrall said. “I’m built for this job. I was made for this job. Winners win. I’m a winner. We’re going to win.”
What You Need To Know
- The Gators introduced Jon Sumrall of Tulane as their new football coach Monday
- He will come to Gainesville full time after the Green Wave complete the 2025 college football postseason
- Sumrall finalized a six-year, $44.7 million contract that comes with incentives, according to AP
- “The standard here is championships. That’s why I came,” Sumrall said.
Sumrall went on to explain how the team will reach those lofty goals and pointed out that he plans for the Gators to play differently than where he has coached in the past.
“We’re going to play with an edge, a blue-collar mindset and a chip on our shoulder,” Sumrall said.”We will be tough. We will have grit. We will not be outworked. We will play with physicality.”
The team will be built on player strengths.
“When I think of the Gators, I think of aggressive. I think of explosive,” Sumrall said. I think about mixing tempos, using it to your advantage and dictating the game to the opponent.”
In a nod to the offenses of former Gators championship-winning coaches Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, who both attended the news conference, Sumrall said, “I think about stretching the field and threatening every blade of grass.”
The offensive line, he said, must play with a nasty demeanor.
Sumrall, who is coming to Florida from Tulane, won’t completely make the transition until after the college football postseason is complete. He will coach the Green Wave against North Texas in the American Conference Championship Game on Friday, and maybe after that, if Tulane is selected for the College Football Playoff.
But he made it clear he already has begun working to build the 2026 Gators football program.
Roster building starts with the current team, he said, and he needs the players at Florida now to stay. He said he is making it his first recruiting effort with them and held video conferences with many of those players Sunday night.
With early signing day coming up Wednesday, Sumrall said he also has spoken with some players who already have verbally committed to the Gators and admires the high character of that class.
Speaking about both groups, Sumrall asked them to give him an opportunity.
“I will fight to keep all of them,” he said. “…I can’t wait to coach you. I would love to coach you.”
He said he expects to recruit many players from within the state.
“I believe the lifeblood of your program is recruiting good high school players, and in Florida, elite, high school football players,” Sumrall said.
But as a national program, he acknowledged that they will look throughout the country to get the most elite players.
Sumrall said he also will use the transfer portal, but mostly as a way to supplement the roster or fill holes on the team.
He said he and his staff are “going to run a player-driven program. My job here is to serve and develop the players….Those players are going to get everything I got to help them become their best.”
Florida Athletic Director Scott Strickland said he wanted a winner, and that’s Sumrall. He has the fifth-highest win-percentage among active Football Bowl Series coaches, and is 42-11 in four seasons as coach at Troy and Tulane. He reached the conference championship game each of those four years.
Sumrall finalized a six-year, $44.7 million contract that comes with incentives, according to a person familiar with the search. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because financial details were not released. The deal averages $7.45 million annually.
Sumrall thanked the University of Florida community for the opportunity as well as Spurrier, Meyer and some current players who turned out for their support.
“It’s great to be a Florida Gator. I am honored and humbled to be the head coach at the University of Florida,” Sumrall said.
The Gators haven’t had a top-five offense in the Southeastern Conference since 2020-21.
To find the last time they had a top 10 offense in the nation, you have to go back to 2009.
Sumrall will look to change that.
He wasn’t the first choice of many Gators, who had hoped to hire Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin. But Kiffin selected LSU over Florida.
At the opening of the news conference, Sumrall said he and Kiffin had discussed their job searches.
“Lane Kiffin and I have both been going through the same thing. And we talked a lot, and we both were in agreement that I was the right man for this job,” Sumrall said.
He also said his entire family is all in on their support for Florida.
“We had options. My wife and I sat down, and we chose Florida,” Sumrall said. “Florida had to choose us first, but we chose it back.”
Sumrall replaces Billy Napier, who was fired Oct. 19, after a 3-4 start to this season and a 22-23 record overall with the Gators. Napier was hired from Louisiana, where he went 40-12 over four seasons. Billy Gonzales took over as interim coach at Florida to finish out the Gators’ season.
During Napier’s last season in particular, he took a lot of public criticism. Sumrall said that the support of the community and fan base is vital to building a championship program.
“We can only maximize our potential with your full support. It takes all of us working together to win championships,” Sumrall said. “I love, love, love, your passion and your enthusiasm. …That’s part of what attracted me here.”
Strickland also signed General Manager Dave Caldwell, who won a Super Bowl during his five seasons with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. He also spent eight years (2013-20) with the Jacksonville Jaguars and built a roster that made the AFC title game.
Caldwell is expected to help manage Florida’s salary cap and evaluate college talent as demands on coaches have expanded with the burgeoning transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments.
Sumrall said is constantly recruiting, but “My No. 1 job is to coach the team. While future Gators matter to me, current players matter more.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.