Back when Jon Sumrall had his inaugural press conference with Florida, he boldly declared:
"I don’t hire my friends. Honestly, when I took my first head coaching job, I lost some friends. They were like, ‘I thought we were buddies’, I said we are, doesn’t mean you're the right fit here.”
He then turned around and hired his friend Brad White to be the defensive coordinator.
Noted.
We didn’t love the hire when it was made, but we here at Hail Florida Hail tried to maintain positivity this offseason, and since most of the focus was on Florida’s offense and its QB battle, White stayed under the radar most of the offseason.
Well, there is nowhere to hide now, and halfway through the 2026 season, it is clear that Sumrall’s choice to hire his friend has backfired in the most spectacular way.
Florida’s defense has regressed under Brad White
Here is a wild stat to think about:
Between 2024 and 2025, Florida gave up 38 points or more three times total. After Saturday’s implosion, Florida has now given up at least 38 points in three of their past four games.
We said back in December, when White was hired, that:
“But if White brings over the same scheme to Gainesville, there are real reasons to be concerned when Florida takes on upper-level competition.”
As much as White and Sumrall talked about being adaptive all offseason, that simply hasn’t shown up on the field. As we chronicled earlier in the week, there may be some tweaks compared to how he ran things at Kentucky, but the overall metrics align with what White did in Lexington.
At his core, White’s overall thesis is to prevent explosive plays, even if that means he is getting torched underneath. That’s what showed up on opening night against FAU. The problem since opening night is that in his quest to be a bit more agressive in certain spots, he has seemingly broken everything on the back end.
Perhaps more concerning is that even when White dials up a “safe” coverage designed to prevent an explosive play, teams are still hitting explosive plays. White mused this week that Florida’s secondary needs to be more agressive and needs to show more fight to want the ball when it is in the air.
That’s not an unfair critique, but the coverage busts are so jarring right now that Florida’s secondary couldn’t reach the ball even if they had Michael Jordan’s stretch arms from Space Jam.
Again, these are mostly the same players who weren’t lights out the past two years, but they were at least capable of keeping the lid on things.
But in 2026, Jon Sumrall’s friend would struggle to stop Florida’s 2025 offense.
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