Jon Sumrall lays out a major challenge facing Florida heading into the summer

Toughness and discipline was a dominant theme for the Florida Gators this spring. Jon Sumrall wanted to make a statement in his first spring as head coach, and it was quickly established that he believed the Gators needed to take strength training more seriously.

So far the results have been positive. Sumrall reports that the large majority of the roster has done the necessary work in transforming their bodies over the past few months. 

"Out of 111 players, 108 have had muscle gain and fat loss. There are a couple of guys that didn't, and they're going to hear about it," Sumrall said in a press conference after the spring game."

Jon Sumrall wants to see more gains in the weight room this summer

The way Sumrall sees it, the Gators aren't good enough to win on talent alone, and they have to find edges that will get them over the top in the many toss-up games they will have in the upcoming season. It's relatively true that the difference between a team having 5–6 wins and a team that has nine or more wins is pretty slim. Sumrall believes the edge that will lead to more wins is in the weight room.

And over the next several weeks, Sumrall is going to see who wants it the most and identify the guys he knows that he can trust in the fall.

"Now, we enter into a little bit of a discretionary period where lifting is more on their own for a couple of weeks," Sumrall said. "I told our team earlier this week, I said, 'Guys, I'm going to learn a lot about this football team in the next couple of weeks they have that are discretionary. By how you work and how you come back and what kind of shape you're in when we return to organized team activity'."

And you can guarantee that the players who don't get the job done over the next few weeks will hear about it from their fiery coach.