‘About to have a rude awakening’ — Gators HC Jon Sumrall didn’t mince words when discussing Florida’s 49-point win
You would think that Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall would be happy with a 49-point win, but he’s thinking bigger.
Saturday night brought the Florida Gators up to 2-0 after they defeated the Campbell Fighting Camels 52-3. Even with that kind of win, it wasn’t enough for head coach Jon Sumrall. He made that abundantly clear after the game.
Sumrall didn’t just call out the team for their second half, he challenged them like he did after the 66-21 Week 1 win over the Florida Atlantic Owls.
“If we play like we did in the second half, we’re about to have a real rude awakening, and we have got a lot of improvement to do,” said Sumrall after the game.
Jon Sumrall calls out his team after poor second half
The Gators went into the second half up 45-3, but couldn’t sustain drives on the offensive side of the ball. Their only points were a Jadan Baugh 75-yard touchdown where he juked a defender out of his shoes.
Only putting up seven points is a little rough from the offense, but they did tone it down after getting out ot a 42-point lead. Even so, they started out 1-for-7 on third down and continued to get penalties, finishing with eight for 95 yards.
“I think in the second half we probably had more penalties in the second half than we’d have all year prior to the second half. So that was really frustrating,” said Sumrall.
“While I’m really happy to be 1-0 this week, I’m not real pleased with where we are from a maturity standpoint and executing at a really high level all the time because what we’re about to walk into in conference play, we will get absolutely embarrassed if we don’t improve a ton. So a lot, a lot to be excited about, but a lot to work on.”
Sumrall get it. There are levels of success in college football. Any Power-4 team can beat an FCS opponent and do so by big margins. As we’ve seen time and time again, those games are tough to project forward. The Gators play in the SEC, and you’ll have to do a better job than what the Gators showed against Campbell.
The good new for the Gators is they’ve already responded well to Sumrall calling them out. He is no nonsense and honest, and it’s all genuine. There isn’t anything fake about Sumrall, nor is he corny. When you have a coach like that, it’s easy to take it seriously.
Saturday night will bring an answer to how good this team can be, and if they win, it’ll do wonders for the immediate future.
