As college football enters Week 11, we have officially entered the coordinator firing part of the season. Ohio State has fired special teams coordinator Robby Discher, Michigan parted ways with defensive coordinator Jason Beck and Georgia Tech fired defensive coordinator Jason Semore and three other assistants.
Many fans are wondering if Florida head coach Jon Sumrall will make any staff chances, as Florida dropped its fourth game of the season against Oklahoma last week.
Even the Sooner coaches made a coordinator change moving on from Ben Arbuckle and elevating tight ends coach Jason Witten to call the offense. The Gators have been inept on offense, as even Coach Sumrall admitted it's hard to find the unit's identity.
But it sounds like Sumrall won't be overhauling the staff ahead of a crucial road trip to take on the No. 7 Kentucky Wildcats.
Jon Sumrall doesn't sound likely to make any staff changes mid-season
During his weekly presser, Sumrall was asked about his staff's overall approach this season, as well as how things have gone in general.
"We have to do a better job as a coaching staff always of putting our players in a better position. Like, even when things go good, I'm like, what could we have done better for the players to help them? And so there's a lot where we have to improve as a staff. I'm not taking anything away from – every area of our program has to grow.
So coaches, players, all of us are in this together. And there's a lot that we can do better moving forward. And I think you're constantly learning, like, where are we falling short? How do we avoid that moving forward? You know, and there's times where I'm really frustrated with what we're doing. I'm not discouraged because I still believe in the direction we're headed, But I get frustrated because I want us to be successful every time we play, in every play."
There's no question that both offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and defensive coordinator Brad White are under fire. Against Oklahoma, Florida scored a season-low seven points, and the longest play from scrimmage was a 33-yard pass from Trammel Jones to Duke Clark. Defensively, Florida has struggled all season.
The Gators are tied for 97th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 27.6 points per game. With the exception of the 52-3 win against Campbell in Week 3, the Gators have given up 24 points or more a game. Florida's run game has fallen off a cliff since the first four games of the season, and the quarterback play from Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. has been uninspiring.
A 24-team College Football Playoff gives Jon Sumrall more room to get in and less for excuses
Coach Sumrall was also asked about his approach when it comes to giving input during offensive and defensive staff meetings.
"Every Monday with a team for the last month or so, ever since the South Carolina game, I've gone in with a defense to start every Monday and start their meeting with maybe some good and some bad," Sumrall said. "And just kind of I want them to hear my voice and understand that I believe in them, but I'm also going to challenge them. And then I bounce into the offensive meeting. I was in their meeting last Monday. I wasn't in there today as much early in the meeting. I popped in the end in the back. I go to both staff meetings. I run our staff meetings. Everybody hears my voice. They probably get tired of hearing my voice. My job as a head coach is try to support everybody in our program."
Sumrall went later during the presser that he understands the importance of having tough conversations when he needs to, but added that he doesn't love tearing everything down in the middle of a season:
"I don't shy away from difficult conversations that can maybe make some people uncomfortable. I don't really get uncomfortable in hard conversations. I actually thrive in those environments. But at the same time, it's my job to help build confidence in what we're doing, even while I may be having to try to help us fix something or critique something or correct something.
"So you're always trying to build up, not tear down. I don't live in the mindset of, like, let's tear this down. Well, let's build it up. Sometimes you build it up by making correction. and fixing things or addressing something that's not going right. So I meet with all our coordinators. I meet with both sides of the ball and the entire staff daily and discuss all of it, what's going good and what's going bad."
This isn't all that surprising, given that as a head coach, Coach Sumrall hasn't had to make coordinator changes mid-season. Yes, partially that's due to how successful he was at Troy and Tulane compared to his first season at Florida.
But at the very least, Sumrall is admitting that things haven't gone well, and he is meeting with the staff about it. Whether or not that leads to real, concrete changes that we can see on the field, remains to be seen.
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