Jon Sumrall's focus on mental toughness will be the driving force to Florida's success

There is the old adage that when a new coach comes into a program, they have to tear everything down to the studs and rebuild it to their complete vision. Jon Sumrall, however, wants the Florida Gators to embrace his culture rather than chase everyone off.

During his media session after Monday's practice, Sumrall talked about the challenge of getting players to embrace everything being hard and the success he's had with that method at stops in Troy and Tulane. 

It's not rocket science, but it's honest and it's sustainable. Florida was 8-10 in one-score games under Billy Napier. There were many more games when the Gators were good for a half before fading or failed to recover from a big play. The ability to respond to those situations is the type of toughness that can develop under Sumrall's coaching style. 

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Jon Sumrall wants Florida to get used to hard situations

Florida is going to be put to the test early and often this season. The Gators are a slight underdog at Auburn in Week 3 and games against Missouri, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt are all likely to have spreads within a touchdown either way. Sumrall knows it's going to be hard, and he wants the Gators to be ready to welcome the challenge.

"I am into making things hard. Like, this is a challenging game, and tough teams win. And so I think you have to embrace a level of toughness and grit it takes to be successful," Sumrall said. "You know, I don't have a desire to really break anything down, but I do want our guys to be challenged to the point that they're mentally tough, and they can overcome adversity, because there's going to be adversity."

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Close games are likely going to be the difference between Florida winning 5–6 games and the Gators being a dark horse for one of the playoff spots. 

How the Gators get that points of mental toughness that Sumrall wants will come from the challenges they face in camp each day and how they can overcome them. Sumrall is trying to build up the collective confidence of the roster, but he doesn't want to wear them out while doing it. 

"I've never really prescribed [the method of] 'let's break them down'. I do prescribe to the theory of, like, let's push them to the edge," Sumrall said. "Let's put our toe right on that line of how hard we can make this. But I don't want guys to break down because I want them to all be available."

This group of Gators should be excited to embrace the challenges. The ones that have stuck around after the past few years know what it feels like to repeatedly come up short. Sumrall has won every place he's been and if this is the process he's found success with, it's worth it for the players to be fully invested. 

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