Jon Sumrall’s early Florida staff move proves he’s not repeating Napier’s playbook

After getting eliminated from the playoffs, Jon Sumrall got to work on Sunday and essentially rounded out the rest of his initial coaching staff at Florida. Outside of a running back coach, every other position has been reported to be filled to head into the 2026 season.

We’ve spent a lot of time looking back at the Billy Napier Era, and what went wrong, and while there are some similarities with Sumrall’s initial staff compared to Napier’s, the difference in a couple of key areas should give Florida some much-needed stability for next season.

Jon Sumrall rounds out his coaching staff for Florida

Most of the hires announced on Sunday were guys that Sumrall was bringing over from Tulane. After stating he wouldn’t “hire his friends” and then bringing over a bunch of his friends, one could be jaded into thinking this was going to be a Napier repeat.

In fact, as it stands now with a running back coach still be hired, the average amount of previous Power Four experience on Sumrall’s staff for 2026 is going to be four years, and the median amount of experience is going to be three. Napier’s initial 2022 staff had an average of 3.9 years of previous Power Four experience and a median of three.

But it is where the experience is located and how the staff is set up that is going to be leaps and bounds ahead of Napier.

For starters, Florida’s DC for 2026, Brad White, has 12 years of previous Power Four and NFL experience. Patrick Toney, the DC in 2022, had zero.

Buster Faulkner is going to be the OC, which is already an upgrade compared to Napier, and he has six years of Power Four experience. Phil Trautwein, as offensive line coach, comes to town with eight years of previous Power Four experience, well above the three years Rob Sale had.

It is also significant that while Sumrall brought over his OC from Tulane, Joe Craddock, he didn’t keep him in the same role and instead made him the QB coach. It helps, though, that Craddock at least has previous P4 experience while Ryan O’Hara had none.

The defensive side is going to have a couple of unknowns. Brandon Harris, as the cornerback coach, only has one previous year in Power Four, and OLB coach Bam Hardmon will be in his first year as a Power Four coach.

But even Harris and Hardmon come to town with at least some notable credentials attached to their names, and we aren’t squinting at this staff going “Who?”