With both the offense and defense trading blows in a spring game featuring a unique scoring system, the matchup ended in a 45\u201345 tie. Afterward, head coach Jon Sumrall met with the media to recap the Orange and Blue game.\n<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s everything he had to say:\n<\/p>\n
Opening statement:\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the pace was good. The defense started fast, offense finished the half strong, certain guys flashed. DJ Coleman\u2019s interception was a really nice play. Couple interception tips, not really completely on the quarterback \u2013 one a little bit behind the receivers, so probably could have been a better location. But I think the guys are fairly healthy. It looked like, I think McCloud might have missed some time. He started the game and had a little boo boo, but don\u2019t think it was anything major. I think everybody else is pretty clean. Good work. The model we did, it\u2019s not going to end three to nothing, because there\u2019s going to be points on every drive, whether defense gets points or the offense gets points. I want it to be competitive. And we did it that way too, though, so we could see maybe different O-line combinations. I want to see Bryce Lovett play some tackle and some guard. I want to see Eagan Boyer play left and right tackle and move certain guys around. Then secondary, the same thing. I wanted to see maybe Cormani with the ones and with the twos, and see how he responds. Same thing with Ben Hanks and all these guys. So just moving a lot of pieces around secondary and the O-line is the reason for the format. But I think we got a lot better this spring. We have a long way to go, but pleased with the work we got today and great turnout, grateful for our fans and awesome energy in the stadium. I don\u2019t know who went to church last night and prayed for the weather, but thank you for that. That was a Chamber of Commerce day, weather-wise, so beautiful day for football.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
How did QB competition go. Tramell responded, throw to Micah Mays was pretty elite?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMicah made some big-time plays. Quarterback, going back, I\u2019ve said this before, when you get the whole whatever the picture of the offense is around them settled, it makes it easier to play quarterback. So right now, with the O-line being in such flux of moving a lot of guys around, there\u2019s not as much continuity. But both guys have done some good things. I think that room\u2019s done good things as a whole. I\u2019ll sit down with all those guys on Monday and have a really transparent conversation about, hey, after 15 practices, this is where we are. I\u2019ll talk to them about, hey, if we had to play a game next week, this is probably what it would look like. I won\u2019t make an announcement because we don\u2019t play here next week. But I wanted them to know kind of after we wrap up, I think our players, they deserve, they\u2019ve earned honest conversations. So I\u2019ll meet all 111 this week, and I\u2019ll talk through kind of where you were, where you are, where you go next to continue to grow and develop. So nothing\u2019s decided yet. I do think sometimes we can almost make too much about the quarterback deal, when it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, we got to figure out who our O-line is and which tight ends can do what, and which backs are certain types of runners.\u2019 So the quarterback\u2019s done some good things.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
You understand the interest in it, obviously.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cNow look, I completely understand the interest in it, I\u2019m interested in it. But I\u2019m interested in like 1000 other things. And so I think too often, the storyline is always the quarterback, the quarterback, the quarterback. I\u2019m like, well, I\u2019m pretty damn worried about who the right tackle is and who the left tackle is who. So those decisions are as important, to be quite honest with you, because they\u2019re protecting the quarterback.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Joe Craddock said the other day that he likes Aaron\u2019s gun slinging mentality, but also said that\u2019s one thing he liked to work on with him in the offseason to see him improve. He did have a couple picks. What did you kind of see on those?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I thought one of them, the ball\u2019s a little bit behind, got tipped. The other one was a great play. We want him to be a little bit, not dangerous with the football, we have to protect the football, but we want him to take some shots. You can\u2019t turn over the football and expect to win. But at the same time, you can\u2019t play passively. He\u2019s protected the football pretty well this spring. Today, not maybe what the norm has been. He\u2019s operated at a really high level \u2013 all the guys have. He\u2019ll be fine.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Usual message coming out of spring leading into the fall you give the guys?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe break the year into four phases. Phase two is spring ball. We entered into a little bit of a discretionary period where lifting is more on their own for a couple. I told my guys, guys, so I\u2019m\u00a0 gonna learn a lot about this football team. I\u2019m gonna learn a lot about who we are then. Really, as you go through the spring, you\u2019re trying to figure out what things certain guys do well, install the systems and the communication, things you do offensively, defensively and kicking game. The thing I voice is where this is different for me in my third head coaching job post spring, I don\u2019t get to go, all right I\u2019ve had 15 practices, what areas am I still not comfortable to go fix it? 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 \u2013 and it\u2019s not really available to you. My first year, Troy I added three NFL players on defense post spring, where two of them were FCS move-up guys that are playing in the NFL right now. I don\u2019t have that luxury to go around, so we have to just continue to develop it as we got. Nobody is going to be anointed the starter tomorrow. Long way to go.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Micah Mays has gained praise, but did he show you something on the big stage? Four for 122, two touchdowns?\n<\/p>\n
\u2018Yeah, he\u2019s flashed, in particular, making plays down the field or getting the ball when he\u2019s on the move. As a route runner, he\u2019s been explosive. He tracks it well. He catches it clean. I\u2019ve challenged him to play with a little bit more edge and physicality. That\u2019s the biggest challenge I\u2019ve put on him is like, hey, it\u2019s not okay to just be like a guy that just catches the football. You gotta do the dirty work, too. And so he\u2019s grown in that area. I expect him to continue to grow, but am really excited about having him on this roster. I said this for him, and Bailey to both come when there\u2019s a lot of known players in that room. I got all respect for their confidence in themselves to come in and compete and not back down from the competition.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0On multiple transfers standing out and if that offers validation:\n<\/p>\n
Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing when you have 50 new players \u2014 30 transfers, I believe, 20 high school. 30 transfers, you\u2019re not gonna go sign 30 starters. Like, you know, I\u2019d love to, that\u2019s just not even realistic. And so certain guys have certain roles, and what you want to see is as we shift to the season, summer, end of the season, everybody has to know their role, embrace their role, and be a star in their role.\u2029And if you do that, your role grows. And so, it is nice to see certain transfer guys make plays and elevate, and validate kind of what we thought, you know? Certain guys, flash, certain guys got to do more.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
On how the defense performed:\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I thought in particular early, you felt the line of scrimmage, you felt the physicality. We got good length and size up there.\u2029I think the D-line is a spot where I was maybe uncertain coming into spring. I feel more confident in it leaving the spring. I\u2019m excited about that group. It was nice having Kam James back, he\u2019s a good player. I mean, the depth right now, when you look at field end, you got Kam James, you got Emmanuel [Oyebadejo], you got L.J. McCray. We got a good chance over there. You look at interior, you talk about [Brendan] Bett, [Joseph] Mbatchou and some of those guys, [DK] Kalu has played good.\u2029He\u2019s flashed at times. There\u2019s a lot of guys in that room that I think can play winning football. Jeramiah McCloud\u2019s had a really flashy spring at times. Last week\u2019s scrimmage, he was sort of the D-line that flashed. Some folks I\u2019m sure caught wind of that. But that group, I think, is what\u2019s really giving me hope. I do think that the secondary outside of the 2-minute window today played good. I thought we really sat on some routes well, anticipated, playing the sticks on some situations. Late, Buster [Faulkner] gave them some double moves and kind of burned them. But I thought, all in all, there was growth on that side of the football, and we\u2019re probably maybe a little bit ahead of where I thought we\u2019d be holistically on defense. And the inside linebacker room, I like.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
On how he feels about the OL and what the group needs to do to be ready for fall:\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you know, certain guys have individual things they have to work on. \u2029Like, I could go through the whole list, but maybe one guy needs to add weight and strength. Maybe one guy needs to continue to work on his body comp and maybe lose weight, right? And there\u2019s some guys that may be lower body mobility, like ankle stiffness we got to kind of work through. \u2029Some guys maybe understanding, \u2018Hey, I need to be a guard and a tackle.\u2019 And get confident in that. So it\u2019s, how do you get each guy built up to be the best they can be?\u2029So then we figure out, okay, here\u2019s the best five, and how do we put them together? And so, that\u2019s where I\u2019m grateful for Rusty [Whitt]. Rusty I think does a lot of things well. I think what he does best is build lineman, and we need that.\u00a0 We need a lineman builder, which that\u2019s what Whitt\u2019s all about. So those guys have to have a freaking great summer or we got no chance. \u2029Like, no chance. I think we have a chance. We got guys in that room that can do it, but there\u2019s gotta be a lot of growth that continues to happen. \u2029And they will. It\u2019s gonna happen. But we\u2019re nowhere near settled in that room.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
On if there were any surprise performances today:\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say guys, like, that didn\u2019t \u2014 you know, everybody\u2019s flashed at some point in the spring. You look at Micah\u2019s box score, it\u2019s like, \u2018Alright, well, he had a good day.\u2019 \u2029So I think it was neat to see him step up in that moment and play really well. I think all the backs have made some strides, like I think you felt the whole running back room. \u2029I think Kanye Clark, you continue to feel. Myles Johnson made strides through the spring. I thought he showed up a decent amount today. You know, a lot of guys, man. It\u2019s a team full of guys, I think, and certain guys have had their moments in the stadium so far. But we need everybody to be clicking on all cylinders when we come here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
History and pageantry of this place, spring as foundation?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start with the history and pageantry. I\u2019ve told the stories about my scars of being in this stadium. I\u2019ve got a couple etched in me. This is a special place. You can tell when you pull over to the Gator Walk today, and there\u2019s a decent number of people here at 9 in the morning for a noon kick that are ready to see these guys play. The turnout and the crowd were great. Very pleased with the support we\u2019ve had here. This fan base is passionate. Championships are the standard and expectation. We\u2019ve got to get it back there. We\u2019ve got to wake this beast up. I had Coach Gruden here a few weeks ago. We talked about \u2013 we\u2019ve got to wake the beast up. Like, it\u2019s time we wake this thing up. This is a sleeping giant. I\u2019m telling you right now, it ain\u2019t a matter of if we\u2019re gonna win here. It\u2019s how fast we\u2019re gonna win. It\u2019s coming. This winning thing, it\u2019s coming. Now, I\u2019m not patient. I want it to happen every day. But we are going to land some pieces in recruiting. We\u2019re about to do some things that I think and build a roster here that is going to bring it back to where we all want it to be.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Dallas Wilson \u2013 what do you envision with the WR depth when he\u2019s back?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fired up about Dallas. Dallas on Thursday hit 21.5 mph on the GPS, all right? If we had games the last couple weeks, Dallas would have played. It\u2019s my duty to have enough discipline to go, hey, we don\u2019t play until September. What\u2019s in his best interest to get him healthy and right so he can play at a peak, optimal health? Would I have liked to have seen him go this spring? Yes. Was it the right move to limit him this spring so he can fully get to where he needs to be and he can have the full year of recovery and get this thing where he can play at his maximum potential? Yes. Because when he does, watch out. He\u2019s a talented dude. I love his energy. Even when he\u2019s not playing, he\u2019s one of the loudest guys in the field. He\u2019s talking the most smack. I think when we get him back, you add him to the equation in our receiver room, you go five, six deep. It\u2019s a really good room. We need 7, 8, 9 to continue to grow, too. But you talk about VB and Singleton and Dallas and Bailey and Micah and TJ Abrams. It\u2019s, like, OK, we might look pretty good out there. I think you saw we probably play in a decent number of open sets. A good amount of 11 personnel. Didn\u2019t live in 10 today, but we run probably more 10 \u2014 which is four wides, if you didn\u2019t pick up my lingo here \u2014 but we\u2019ve run more four-wide this spring than they\u2019ve probably run recently in a lot of situations. Doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re gonna live there. You want to be able to protect your edges, too. If you want to be slow down the pass rush, the worst thing you can do is tell the offensive tackle, hey, nobody\u2019s in the C gap area. Good luck. You\u2019ve got to chuck, chip and nudge and help that guy some. We\u2019ve got to keep people off balance, but that receiver room gives us a chance to be explosive. Dallas\u2019 return\u2019s a big part of that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Recruiting momentum?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can get anybody to come visit the University of Florida if we want in America if we do a good job. This is not a really hard place to recruit to. We\u2019re the fifth-ranked public school in the United States of America academically right now. You come outside today, and it\u2019s beautiful. You come to the stadium, and you know the history and pageantry of what it feels like to play in this place. And you know the stadium renovations that are coming. You know the fan base is hungry for a winner. I think the guys that come here to visit, most of them come back at some point whether they\u2019ve chosen us or not, how they feel the energy\u2019s real. And there\u2019s authentic relationships. I think we coach every day \u2014 we\u2019re not going to change. I tell recruits all the time. If you like us now, you\u2019re gonna love us later. If you don\u2019t like me now, go somewhere else, because I\u2019m not changing. What you see\u2019s what you get. If you want to come improve your craft every day, it\u2019s gonna be a blast. If you\u2019re tough and love football, it\u2019s gonna be a blast. If you\u2019re soft and you like football, don\u2019t come here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Physicality growth?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt growth, yeah. I think we have to continue to live in that weight room so we can get stronger so we can play with a little bit more movement on the line of scrimmage at times. I think the guys embraced the way we want to play the game, which is with an edge, a chip on your shoulder, blue-collar mindset. That travels. In this league, if you don\u2019t have it, it gets exposed really fast. I\u2019ve seen it on the good and bad with my own two eyes. I think the guys have embraced it, I think we still have a long way to go there, but there\u2019s been a lot of growth. And I do think they\u2019ve really accepted the challenge of stepping up and being a more physical football team. We\u2019re going to continue to grow upon that and build upon it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Surprise when you asked for that approach from them?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I think the way I want them to do everything is with urgency. I think for some of them, that\u2019s a little bit new. I want them to walk urgently in the building. I want them \u2013 I don\u2019t like casual behavior, and complacency\u2019s a killer. If you think because you did something one week, it\u2019s gonna happen the next week, you\u2019re going to be exposed. I think the guys have grown. We\u2019re gonna wake up tomorrow, and we\u2019ve got to get our ass back to work because spring practice may be over, but us getting better so we can try to win football games here is far from over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With both the offense and defense trading blows in a spring game featuring a unique scoring system, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-227906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}