Coach Jon Sumrall takes away Gators logos to push new team

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Jon Sumrall had no idea one of his first major moves as Florida’s football coach had been done before in Gainesville more than two decades ago.

Sumrall gave his players shorts, shirts and other gear without any Gators logos. It was reminiscent of Hall of Fame coach Urban Meyer’s approach in 2005, which paid off with two national titles in his first four seasons at Florida.

“Gotta earn it. Gotta earn the logo,” Sumrall said. “We ain’t earned it yet. We haven’t earned a damn thing. All we’ve got is our name. … To wear the Florida Gator logo, to wear the Gators across your helmet, to wear the Gator head, you got to earn that.”

Sumrall said he is unsure how or when the players can earn logos.

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“I haven’t thought about that yet,” he said.

Florida hired Sumrall in late November, days after it became clear to athletic director Scott Stricklin that top choice Lane Kiffin was headed to LSU. Sumrall signed a six-year, $44.7 million deal to replace Billy Napier and potentially get the once-proud program back to national prominence.

Sumrall’s coaching résumé includes four consecutive league title game appearances. He won back-to-back Sun Belt championships in two seasons (2022-23) at Troy and then led Tulane to the American title game in both his seasons (2024-25) there. The Green Wave won the league last season and earned a spot in the College Football Playoff.

The Gators are hoping for similar results.

Sumrall’s first steps included keeping five top-tier players in Gainesville: linebacker Myles Graham, running back Jadan Baugh, defensive end Jayden Woods, and wide receivers Vernell Brown III and Dallas Wilson. Some of them considered hitting the transfer portal, but all ended up back at Florida — at a combined cost of $5.2 million — for Sumrall’s debut season.

“Clearly, the most important thing to me was trying to retain our best players,” Sumrall said. “Not going to keep them all, ever. There’s a coaching change. There’s going to be some change and some transition, but that part was critical for us to have any opportunity to have success next year.”

Sumrall and general manager Dave Caldwell then signed Georgia Tech quarterback Aaron Philo, reuniting him with new offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner as part of a portal class that includes more than two dozen newcomers.

They formally joined the returning group in mid-January and have since been running and lifting weights in plain, black or blue workout attire.

Meyer’s motivational version included kicking players out of the locker room and not allowing them to even wear school colors. He also removed a large gator head that players touch for luck on their way into the stadium. They eventually regained access and logos. But the gator head didn’t return until the day of the 2005 season opener.

Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan borrowed the idea a few years later. After his two-time reigning national champion Gators lost eight of their final 11 games in 2008 and missed out on the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade, he banned them from their practice facility and told them they couldn’t wear any Florida attire.

Players spent days shuffling between the O’Connell Center practice floor and the antiquated Florida Gym while preparing for the NIT. They responded by winning three consecutive games and making the semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

So there’s precedent for Sumrall’s arrangement to work.

“Toughness, confidence, discipline, accountability, grit, just the mindset we’re going to work hard,” Sumrall said. “We’re never going to back down anything we ever do. We’re going to put them through some things that they have not experienced.

“They already have seen some of that. It’s going to be real. It’s going to be live.”