The hire new Florida football coach Jon Sumrall needs to get right for success in 2026

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The first week of Jon Sumrall's tenure as Florida football coach began with an inspired press conference and continued with two out-of-the-park coordinator hires.

Sumrall may not enter the Florida Gators coaching job with Power 4 experience. But by hiring Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White and closing in on a deal to hire Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, Sumrall showed he's secure enough to add lieutenants as accomplished as he is.

As proven Power 4 schemers, White and Faulkner will bring an attack mentality on both sides of the ball that UF sorely lacked during the Billy Napier era. Georgia coach Kirby Smart poured more salt on UF's wounds by referencing how "talented" Florida was about a half dozen times following UGA's SEC title game win over Alabama.

Perhaps that talent was not being put to the best use by the prior coaching staff.

Still, there's one more hire Sumrall needs to get right in order for Florida to make a move up the SEC standings.

The Gators need a proven strength coach, one that will set the offseason tone to prepare UF for the physical and mental grind of the SEC.

Sumrall is aware of this. One of the first questions he asked former Florida coaching great and Hall of Famer Urban Meyer was about strength and conditioning and the offseason program.

"Toughness needs to be every day, not just, we're going to out and play tough this week," Meyer said. "The strength coach has a big hand in that, a huge hand in the development of the toughness."

Why Florida football needs to hire a quality strength coach

Florida was soft and injury-prone in 2025, which resulted in a 4-8 record and Napier getting fired at midseason. For as much as fans harped on Florida's inconsistent offense under Napier, tackling was just as spotty.

At times, Florida raised its level of physicality at The Swamp, which resulted in wins over Texas and Florida State, But Florida also had three straight games in November in which it surrendered 200 yards or more rushing (Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee). There were 17 missed in the first half against Tennessee alone, as UF played more like matadors than Gators on the field that night.

Injuries were another issue. Florida was rarely healthy throughout the 2025 campaign. There was some bad luck as defensive tackle Caleb Banks and receiver Dallas Wilson suffered foot injuries during training camp and never fully recovered. But overall, Florida routinely had nine to 12 players on its injury reports each week, including several key starters.

Florida lost starting cornerback Dijon Johnson to a torn ACL and starting receiver Eugene Wilson III to an ankle injury as the season progressed. Running back Ja'Kobi Jackson was sidelined for most of the season with an injury and freshman wide receiver Vernell Brown III missed time with a shoulder sprain.

Napier began his tenure at Florida by hiring Mark Hocke, who he brought from Louisiana. After re-assgining Hocke in 2023, Florida hired Craig Fitzgerald, a strength coach with extensive college and NFL experience with Penn State, Tennessee and the New York Giants, But when Fitzgerald's close friend, Bill O'Brien, was hired as head coach at Boston College, Fitzgerald left UF for BC just two months into his tenure.

That left UF scrambling for a replacement and settling on promoting assistant strength coach Tyler Miles, who had just two years of head strength coaching experience on his résumé at Tennessee State (2019-20). Miles has served as UF's strength coach the last two seasons, in which Florida has gone 12-13.

Sumrall needs to find a strength coach with extensive power four experience. A coach with both power four experience and NFL experience, like Fitzgerald, would be an added bonus.

Sumrall is preaching toughness but must hire an accomplished strength coach for that strength and fortitude to translate to the field.

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: How new Florida football coach can establish toughness with this critical hire

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