Jon Sumrall has learned to put his ego aside when it comes to winning games

Most successful coaches have egos. That's regardless of sport or level. Part of being a great coach is the ability to exude confidence in yourself, your process and your beliefs.

Some of the best coaches that have come through Florida Gators athletics exude confidence to the point of where it can be insufferable for opposing fans. Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer, Todd Golden, Billy Donovan, Kevin O'Sullivan — all great coaches, and each one would be described as having confidence that borders on being cocky. That's fine because they could back it up with wins. 

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Jon Sumrall has an ego, and he'll be the first to admit it. The self-belief in what he does is high. But he, much like the coaches listed above, had their most success when they realized they couldn't do it alone. They needed a good support system of coaches, and they needed to trust those coaches to do their jobs. 

Jon Sumrall is thankful for the staff he has at Florida

As he has ascended up the coaching ladder from being an assistant at Ole Miss and Kentucky, to becoming the head coach at Troy, Tulane and now Florida, Sumrall has learned the importance of surrounding himself with good people and letting them work. 

"I think as you grow, you understand you have to hire great people and let them do their jobs," Sumrall said. "It's my job to hold everybody to the highest standard and be extremely accountable for how we do things. The beautiful thing about being a head coach of Florida is you can hire a great staff. "

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Jon Sumrall doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor 

Sumrall's approach to hiring good assistants and giving them the freedom to coach without interference is a big change from what Billy Napier did during his three-plus years at Florida. Napier, by his own admission, struggled to delegate authority despite having one of the biggest support staffs in college football. His desire to do everything led to a struggle to accomplish anything.

That shouldn't be the case with Sumrall. You can see the trust he has in his coordinators, Buster Faulkner and Brad White, respectively, to handle their business on their respective sides of the ball. His fingers are on every part of the program, from the assistant coaches he hired to the strength program he's placed in the hands of Rusty Whitt.

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Is Sumrall heavily involved in the day-to-day activities? Absolutely. But he understands how important the big picture is and how difficult it is to see it when your head is always in the weeds. 

"There's times I may need to walk into the offensive room or the defensive room or the special team staff and make sure they understand the vision that we need to be casting," Sumrall added. 

"But all the way to the front office and the support staff, I think just trusting people to do their job well, and then when it's maybe not meeting the standard we need, then calling it out. But not holding their hand all the time."

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