When Jon Sumrall was introduced on Monday, he commented that he wouldn't hire his friends when assembling his coaching staff. He then followed that up by hiring his friend Brad White from Kentucky to be the defensive coordinator, but at least White comes to town with multiple years of experience as an SEC coordinator.
But everyone knew the key for Sumrall was going to be who his offensive coordinator would be, and in just four days on the job, Sumrall has managed to build up more goodwill than Billy Napier did in four years on the job.
Buster Faulkner hired as OC for Florida
The Gators are set to hire Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner for the same position in Gainesville. It's notable because Sumrall and Faulkner have not crossed paths before, and Faulkner isn't just one of the nepotism hires that plagued Napier.
If you are not familiar with Faulkner, he's been at Georgia Tech for the past three years, and before that, he was with Georgia for their back-to-back national titles as their QB coach.
Now, before one panics, Georgia Tech doesn't still run the triple option as it did back in the day. And given the talent profile at Georgia Tech, Faulkner has taken an offense that was 125th in points per game in 2022 and evolved it to:
- 43rd in 2023
- 61st in 2024
- 28th in 2025
Also under Faulkner, QB Haynes King went from being a Texas A&M castaway that even Napier beat in 2022 to one of the more dynamic players in the ACC.
The one question mark that will follow Faulkner to Gainesville is how adaptive his scheme will be once he arrives. Georgia Tech did tend to lean on QB power at times, which is something Florida was also trying to do towards the end of the season, but the Yellow Jackets had just one wide receiver top 500 yards in 2025.
But given Faulkner's previous experience at Georgia, he isn't going to walk into this offseason blind as to what it takes to win in the SEC.
More importantly, Florida is set to have two dedicated coordinators, who aren't the head coach, with Power Four experience.