\n\t\t\t\t\t\t It\u2019s been seven years since Florida notched double-digit wins and 17 years since the Gators were legitimate national championship contenders.>> Video above: Coach Jon Sumrall stops by WESH 2Calling Florida overdue would be an understatement in Gainesville, and new coach Jon Sumrall knows it as well as any diehard who watched the team\u2019s annual spring game unfold at the Swamp on Saturday.\u201cChampionships are the standard and expectation,\u201d Sumrall said following the Orange and Blue game. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get it back there. We\u2019ve got to wake this beast up.\u201cLike, 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 going to win here. It\u2019s how fast we\u2019re going to win. It\u2019s coming. This winning thing, it\u2019s coming.\u201dFlorida is a paltry 29-37 over its last 66 games, including losing seasons in four of the last five years. It would be unacceptable at just about any Power Four program. It\u2019s downright embarrassing for one that has three national titles and eight Southeastern Conference championships since 1990.But the Gators have spent much of the last two decades chasing Alabama, Georgia, LSU and others.Sumrall was hired to fix it, essentially tasked with cleaning up the mess created and left behind by fired coach Billy Napier. Sumrall, who led Troy and Tulane to a combined four conference title games in four seasons, could start his rebuild just about anywhere.Florida ranked last in the Southeastern Conference in scoring last season, averaging 21.6 points a game, and allowed 34.3 points a game in its last three losses.Sumrall, though, is focusing on the weight room. And anyone needing proof of Florida\u2019s most glaring weakness should look at the team\u2019s pro day last month, where long-snapper Rocco Underwood put up better bench numbers (14 reps at 225 pounds) than three-year starting guard Damieon George (12 reps).\u201cThat shouldn\u2019t happen,\u201d Sumrall said. \u201cHell, our coaches need to be hitting 12. \u2026 That\u2019s not something that changes overnight.\u201dFlorida\u2019s strength program left a lot to be desired during Napier\u2019s tenure.He brought buddy Mark Hocke with him from Louisiana-Lafayette in December 2021 and then demoted Hocke two years later, essentially putting him in charge of messaging and motivation while continuing to pay him $750,000 annually.Napier then hired Craig Fitzgerald in hopes of overhauling the strength and nutrition programs in 2024, but Fitzgerald was on campus less than two months before leaving to join longtime friend Bill O\u2019Brien at Boston College. Napier ended up promoting Tyler Miles who came under fire last year as soft-tissue and season-ending injuries mounted.Sumrall has made it clear his guys need to get stronger and learn to play through bumps and bruises. And it starts with Florida\u2019s offensive line, which seems to be the most unsettled unit on the team.The Gators signed three O-line transfers who might start this fall and landed a 2027 commitment last week from five-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller from Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Sumrall challenged the line \u201cto live in the weight room\u201d and embrace a \u201cblue-collar mindset.\u201dHe believes creating \u201cmore movement\u201d at the line of scrimmage is the easiest path to the top in arguably college football’s most physical league.\u201cNow, I\u2019m not patient. I want it to happen every day,\u201d Sumrall said. \u201cBut we are going to land some pieces in recruiting. We\u2019re about to do some things and build a roster here that is going to bring it back to where we all want it to be.\u201d___Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been seven years since Florida notched double-digit wins and 17 years since the Gators<\/a> were legitimate national championship contenders.<\/p>\n >> Video above: Coach Jon Sumrall stops by WESH 2<\/p>\n Calling Florida overdue would be an understatement in Gainesville, and new coach Jon Sumrall<\/a> knows it as well as any diehard who watched the team\u2019s annual spring game<\/a> unfold at the Swamp on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cChampionships are the standard and expectation,\u201d Sumrall said following the Orange and Blue game. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get it back there. We\u2019ve got to wake this beast up.<\/p>\n \u201cLike, 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 going to win here. It\u2019s how fast we\u2019re going to win. It\u2019s coming. This winning thing, it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida is a paltry 29-37 over its last 66 games, including losing seasons in four of the last five years. It would be unacceptable at just about any Power Four program. It\u2019s downright embarrassing for one that has three national titles and eight Southeastern Conference championships since 1990.<\/p>\n But the Gators have spent much of the last two decades chasing Alabama, Georgia, LSU and others.<\/p>\n Sumrall was hired to fix it, essentially tasked with cleaning up the mess created and left behind by fired coach Billy Napier. Sumrall, who led Troy and Tulane to a combined four conference title games in four seasons, could start his rebuild just about anywhere.<\/p>\n Florida ranked last in the Southeastern Conference in scoring last season, averaging 21.6 points a game, and allowed 34.3 points a game in its last three losses.<\/p>\n Sumrall, though, is focusing on the weight room. And anyone needing proof of Florida\u2019s most glaring weakness should look at the team\u2019s pro day last month, where long-snapper Rocco Underwood put up better bench numbers (14 reps at 225 pounds) than three-year starting guard Damieon George (12 reps).<\/p>\n \u201cThat shouldn\u2019t happen,\u201d Sumrall said. \u201cHell, our coaches need to be hitting 12. \u2026 That\u2019s not something that changes overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s strength program left a lot to be desired during Napier\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n He brought buddy Mark Hocke with him from Louisiana-Lafayette in December 2021 and then demoted Hocke two years later, essentially putting him in charge of messaging and motivation while continuing to pay him $750,000 annually.<\/p>\n Napier then hired Craig Fitzgerald in hopes of overhauling the strength and nutrition programs in 2024, but Fitzgerald was on campus less than two months before leaving to join longtime friend Bill O\u2019Brien at Boston College. Napier ended up promoting Tyler Miles who came under fire last year as soft-tissue and season-ending injuries mounted.<\/p>\n Sumrall has made it clear his guys need to get stronger and learn to play through bumps and bruises. And it starts with Florida\u2019s offensive line, which seems to be the most unsettled unit on the team.<\/p>\n The Gators signed three O-line transfers who might start this fall and landed a 2027 commitment last week from five-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller from Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Sumrall challenged the line \u201cto live in the weight room\u201d and embrace a \u201cblue-collar mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes creating \u201cmore movement\u201d at the line of scrimmage is the easiest path to the top in arguably college football’s most physical league.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I\u2019m not patient. I want it to happen every day,\u201d Sumrall said. \u201cBut we are going to land some pieces in recruiting. We\u2019re about to do some things and build a roster here that is going to bring it back to where we all want it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a>. AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been seven years since Florida notched double-digit wins and 17 years since the Gators were legitimate national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[114961,114964,28,114963,30,29,3111,114962,60462,14202,1100,114965,38740,11273,2489,114966,164],"class_list":["post-267318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-blue-game","tag-craig-fitzgerald","tag-florida","tag-florida-coach-jon-sumrall","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gators","tag-napier","tag-offensive-line","tag-point","tag-season","tag-strength-program","tag-sumrall","tag-team","tag-thing","tag-weight-room","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267318","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=267318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}