‘We’re all losers’ — Florida Gators HC Jon Sumrall highlights what will separate them from the rest of the SEC
Jon Sumrall knows that the weight room is going to be the defining factor of the Florida Gators’ season.
The Florida Gators began spring practice on Tuesday morning and it was the official debut of head coach Jon Sumrall. Throughout all of spring practice, there will be many different things to watch, but the most popular might be true freshman tight end Heze Kent. At 6-8 and 313 pounds, Kent is a massive player who will be an outlier at the position.
Kent is going to become a fan favorite at the position because of his massive size. The only other player who compares to him from a size perspective is Darnell Washington of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is also a signal of the one thing that Sumrall wanted to focus on: the weight room.
Jon Sumrall is serious about fixing the strength program
Sumrall knew almost immediately what he needed to do when it came to instituting change within the program. One thing Sumrall instituted was “The Gauntlet” which he needed them to accomplish before he was going to start spring practice.
“I don’t want the first time we’ve gone through something hard to be in the season, because there’s going to be adversity in the season. It never just goes smooth,” Sumrall said. “The gauntlet is built to create adversity. It’s an extreme accountability contest. We would not have started spring if we did not pass it. I think the guys that I was kidding. Like, no, we’ll just push spring back. Or if I got to, we’ll cancel it. Because it’s not just what you do, it’s how you do it, and I’m proud of them. They fought through it. They learned. They got better. They became better at communicating. That was probably the biggest adjustment.”
Taking that next step was a big deal for Sumrall, as he continues to put his stamp on the program. He described what the gauntlet is, and how they do it. The key aspect? It’s scored.
“Yeah, so there’s no notice. It’s actually not. There’s no weightlifting involved. Like to the weightlifting separate deal in the weight room. We lift in the offseason on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Wednesdays are no lifting. We do the gauntlet on Wednesday morning and Friday morning at 6am the gauntlet is six stations. You’re paired up with the same guy all morning, all right. And the first half, you go to each station for two and a half minutes, and every rep is scored. There’s a winner and a loser to every rep. If there’s a mistake, then we take time off the clock.
“You have one hour to beat the gauntlet. If there’s a call back, which means we don’t run full speed from one station to the next, then there’s a call back, and then we restart that station for one extra minute. The stations are essentially agility drills.
“We’re gonna see how many times we can make you puke. There’s no winner, there’s no loser. We’re all losers. Because it sucks. It was hard. I like what we’ve built through the gauntlet. I’m not gonna sit and act like I created it kind of came from Army with Jeff Monken, and Monk and I are friends. [Rusty} Whitt had been doing variations of it over years, I’ve evolved to there being competition involved, there being more accountability, scoring, and those sorts of things. And then the way we’ve evolved, it’s become extremely detailed. And so we’ve done I’ve done it every year since I’ve been a head coach. So as a head coach, we’ve always done it, and I’ll probably never not do it.”
Having a real teambuilding element built in with the gauntlet is arguably what separates how the Gators are operating versus other teams. Camaraderie is so important in today’s day and age, especially with the transfer portal bringing in upward of 30-35 players each year.
How much this will impact the Gators is going to be determined come September and beyond, but Sumrall has things going the right direction.
Florida Gators News
‘Keep the receipts’ — Emerging Florida Gators star has harsh words for the doubters
Dallas Wilson is still dealing with an injury ahead of spring practice.
Florida Gators News
Florida Gators release initial roster ahead of spring practice with some significant changes and one standing out
Jon Sumrall is about to lead his team onto the practice field for the first time.
