Jon Sumrall’s culture continues to stand out for the Florida Gators, and it’s important for their long-term success
Little details matter with the Florida Gators, and Jon Sumrall continues to see the bigger picture for the program.
Going into the bye week, the Florida Gators sit at 5-2 and will face the Georgia Bulldogs on Halloween night. It’s quite the turn around from what we dealt with over the previous two weeks when the Gators were blown out 83-36 by the Missouri Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks.
Within the scope of the last few weeks, head coach Jon Sumrall has been working on trying to right the ship. He’s talked about the lack of intensity and physicality in the trenches along with the consistent mistakes they have made across the board, especially with penalties.
How one play emphasizes Jon Sumrall’s culture
There were a lot of intriguing performances on Saturday afternoon against the Texas Longhorns, and one of the more interesting ones came from linebacker Ty Jackson. He saw an uptick in snaps with 15, and made plays. He registered two pressures, one sack, three stops, and a forced fumble. One reason why he got more snaps came against South Carolina the week prior when he blocked a punt late in the game.
That play was the only one that Sumrall showed the team after the loss to the Gamecocks.
“The only real play I showed last week in the team meeting was Ty Jackson’s punt block,” said Sumrall after Saturday’s win. “I said, guys, here’s the score. It’s 38 to whatever. Not good last week. And I said, here’s Ty Jackson, who probably doesn’t like maybe the amount of snaps he’s getting on defense. And he’s playing his tail off, and he goes and makes a play because he’s still playing hard. He’s still fighting. And so this week as a defensive staff, we went in there, and I’m like, guys, we need a little juice, we need a little spark.
“I’m so proud of his growth. He’s a tremendously talented player. He reminds me of a couple guys I’ve had that were really high draft picks that maybe early were trying to figure out their, you know, how to see it, how to communicate it, how to execute it. But he’s got the physical to go be a big-time player, and I think he showed strides at the end of last week’s game, but as it fell into this week as well.”
Rewarding hard work on special teams is a great way to establish culture within the building, and it’s big for recruiting as well. You are showing everyone that it gets rewarded, and quickly. Right now, the Gators have a top-five recruiting class per Rivals after the addition of five-star wide receiver Easton Royal, and things like this will help even more top recruits want to come to Gainesville.
