Put Down the Poll, Gators. Missouri Is Waiting. And There's A New Definition For 'One Game At A Time'
Updated: 19 hours ago
"You have to humble yourself," he told them, "or you will be humbled."
By Buddy Martin
GatorBaitMedia.com
Four games into the season, Gator Nation already has one hand on a scrapbook and is searching for flights to Atlanta.
Watch: Jadan Baugh: "No defense in the country could stop us" | Florida Gators
Jon Sumrall would like everyone to stop!
"The rankings mean absolutely nothing," Florida's coach said Monday, his voice shredded from the weekend. "Anybody that's feeling really good about us being ranked wherever we're ranked — it means nothing to me today."
That's for you, message boarders. And you, talk radio. And you, the guy in the orange-and-blue golf shirt already pricing out Atlanta hotels.
This program has spent the better part of a decade teaching its fans to expect a punch in the mouth. Four wins in, some of them have forgotten. Sumrall hasn't. So instead of letting his players soak in a hot tub of their own press clippings Monday morning, he sat them down in the dark and made them watch every ugly rep from Saturday. The busts. The whiffs. The blown coverage.
He calls it the "not our standard" tape. Call it an intervention.
"You have to humble yourself," he told them, "or you will be humbled."
Missouri would be delighted to handle it for you.
Bloody Tuesday
Sumrall hands out a theme every week the way some coaches hand out lip service. Last week's was "So What, Now What?," which is coach-speak for "Auburn is dead, stop talking about it." If you disobey, you get this:
"If anybody brings it up in our building about what happened last week, I'm gonna be, like, livid."
Believe him. This is a man who wears out his vocal cords in September.
You've heard of taking them one game at a time? Sumrall takes them one minute of one hour of one game at a time. He's put a new spin on the oldest cliché in football. I doubt he even thinks about the second half until the first half is almost over.
I've never seen a football coach work so hard to keep himself and his team in the present: right now, this minute, this hour, this day.
He laid out the kind of team that wins in this league as if he were reading an indictment: "humble, hungry, gritty, blue-collar."
Then he named the kind that loses: "Complacent, soft, entitled, lazy, selfish."
Read that second list again, Gator fans. You've watched that team. You've bought tickets to watch that team. Sumrall is trying to make sure you never have to again.
His test comes Tuesday, outside, all practice long. He calls it "Bloody Tuesday," which Urban Meyer did also.
"It's like you gotta pay the toll," he said. "Get some dirt underneath your fingernails."
If his players think they can "just roll out the helmets" and win in Columbia, he said, "I'll be a little bit concerned."
That's the diplomatic translation. The real one probably can't be printed in a family publication.
Columbia, the Graveyard
Here's the part the hype crowd keeps skipping: Missouri has been Florida's personal house of horrors.
"The last four trips we've gone to Missouri, we've lost three of them," Sumrall said. "So if we think it's gonna be a freaking cake walk, I don't care if it's homecoming or whatever, we're in for a rude awakening."
Three out of four. To Missouri. That's not a rivalry, it's a recurring humiliation.
And yes, it's their homecoming. The Gators are the invited guest who's supposed to lie down politely and lose. Sumrall's response: "I don't care who their homecoming king, or queen, or any of that is."
He cares about Missouri's offensive line, which he called the best Florida has faced. He cares that Eli Drinkwitz's program runs outside zone as well as "anybody in college football." He cares that the Tigers play "with a demeanor that I respect."
Sumrall doesn't respect many people's demeanor. That line should scare you more than the point spread.
The Cowboy Doesn't Need A Parade
Ten months ago, Sumrall had to take his offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner's word on Aaron Philo.
Now he doesn't need anybody's word.
"Consistent, tough, dependable, reliable, great teammate," Sumrall said. Notice what's missing: no gushing about arm strength or 40 times. The arm is "good enough." The legs are "good enough." What makes Philo matter is everything that doesn't fit on a recruiting ranking: how he carries himself, how he competes, how he celebrates everybody else.
In other words, the exact opposite of the entitled five-star quarterback who's burned this fan base before.
He won at Auburn. Good. Now do it again on the road, in a place where Florida keeps handing over its lunch money.
Mama Didn't Raise No Piano Player
The best answer Sumrall gave all day wasn't about football.
Asked where the intensity comes from — the chest bumps, the sideline fury, the voice left in pieces on the Auburn turf — he didn't credit a coaching mentor. He credited his mother, who he said is "tough as nails."
"No matter what you do, go as hard as you can go." No halfway.
Then came the confession.
As a 9- or 10-year-old tired of piano lessons, little Jon would fake a knock on the teacher's door, wait for Mom's car to leave the driveway, and walk half a mile to the ballpark. An hour later he'd stroll home and swear the lesson was great.
It worked for about a month. Then the teacher called home.
The moral is the one his team is about to learn in Columbia: you can skip the work and fake the knock, but eventually somebody picks up the phone.
The Verdict
Sumrall reminded everyone Monday that his roster has only 14 players using their final year of eligibility. This is a kid team being told it's a contender. That's the most dangerous thing you can tell a kid.
"When things are going good, everybody's going to tell you you're great," he said, "and the same people are going to tell you if they don't go good that you stink."
That's the same fan base, the same message boards, maybe even the same guy in the golf shirt.
The Gators can believe the hype, or they can believe the coach with the raspy voice. On Saturday in Columbia, we'll find out which one.
Watch: Jon Sumrall: "We're going to wake the beast up real fast" | Florida Gators
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