Jon Sumrall Counting on Florida Crowd to Bring Energy in Debut

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After a long offseason, the Florida Gators are now ready to begin the Jon Sumrall era of the program.

Sumrall was hired over the offseason to lead this program forward, and there has been a lot of confidence in him since. The former Tulane coach has been a winner wherever he has gone, and he has a knack for turning programs around.

Now Sumrall is hoping that he can do the same with Florida, giving this program a restoration to its former glory. The Gators have had a losing record in four of the last five seasons, bringing all sorts of frustrations up.

But ahead of his debut against Florida Atlantic, Sumral is excited to see how the fans come out. The new Gators coach wants the Florida faithful to bring the energy, helping his team in the process.

“Saturday night, it needs to feel like we want to be a top-20, top-10 team, a playoff team,” Sumrall said. “That's our goal and our vision. It needs to feel like that every time we play in that stadium. So I look forward to hopefully seeing that crowd Saturday night embrace our football team, and our guys are ready to put in a lot of work.”

While the Gators are playing Florida Atlantic, they can't take the Owls for granted. This team was one of the best in college football on offense a year ago, and the Gators have to be aware of this.

On any given Saturday, a team can win, and Sumrall has been trying to get his players into this mindset. Sumrall has a lot of respect for the Owls, especially after playing them with Tulane last season.

Sumrall and the Green Wave beat the Owls 35-24 in the game, but the way that the team played has stuck with the new Gators head coach.

“Zach Kittley's a really good football coach, and he's got a great staff … These guys, they were the fastest offense in college football last year,” Sumrall said. “Last year, we played them at Tulane at our place, and you blinked, and they're inside the red zone. You're like, ‘What? What happened?’”

The Gators will be starting transfer Aaron Philo in the game, and he will have a lot on his shoulders. Philo has appeared in eight games total over two years with Georgia Tech, throwing for 938 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

If Philo can put together a strong season, Florida could be a sleeper this season. But this team should be taking things one game at a time, starting with this opener against Florida Atlantic.

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