Even though the Florida Gators made Lane Kiffin their No. 1 target when it came to finding their next head coach, the hiring of Jon Sumrall was widely praised. It also didn’t take him long to win over many of the public doubters.

What makes Sumrall unique is his willingness to be open and honest about everything within the program, himself included. You know exactly where he stands and how he feels, while also having the proper cander to avoid making himself look like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Jon Sumrall opens up about his tenure in Gainesville thus far

That uniqueness about Sumrall allows us to better understand where he is at and how we can project the program forward. It’s not in a great spot with the team at 5-4, but there are levels to the conversation. Recruiting is going very well, but the level of talent within the program just isn’t all the way there yet.

What’s really cool about Sumrall is he’s not open as a fault of his personality; it’s all genuine. He was asked what he’s learned thus far in Gainesville, and this answer personifies him.

“Man, a lot. You know, I reflect back, there’s plenty I feel like we’ve done right. There’s plenty of things I’ve maybe regretted or second-guessed, which hindsight is 20/20,” said Sumrall. “But there’s a lot of things I look back and go, ‘Man, maybe I could have done that differently would have helped us be better.’ I don’t waste a whole lot of time on could have, should have, but I do think you constantly have to do after action reviews on everything, and you have to own the good and the bad.”

Sumrall understands that not everything is perfect and admits to hit, but it’s not the admission that matters here. What stands out is how much he’s trying to grow. You don’t want to waste your time on what could have been, but there are lessons worth learning in failure, and those can help propel you forward.

“I think maybe there’s a lot of roster building things I’ve learned that I think will help move us moving forward. That I already kind of knew some of it, helping create momentum internally. They help us build it the right way too. Like, there are certain things we have to lean into to do a better job of creating the resourcing we need to be at the highest level in this conference. But I think the processes of how we practice the rhythm, the routines, it’s the same process we did that beat Ole Miss and beat Texas, have lost us games too, and so I think it’s helping our guys find consistency within their preparation, week in week out.”

These are very typical growing pains of a first-time head coach taking over a program that needs some work to take to the next level. Your process will be different in a blue-blood P4 program than that of Tulane and Troy, and there is a level of trial and error that will go into what Sumrall is attempting to do. The good news for Gators fans is this: Sumrall gets it.

“I think you have to always learn and evolve and adapt, or you’re going to continue to make the same mistakes over and over.”

Time will tell whether it works out, but the process is exactly what you want to see.