The Florida Gators under Jon Sumrall are removing all remnants from Billy Napier’s tenure. The new head coach hired a new offensive and defensive coordinator and changed much of his coaching staff. Then, he introduced a unique test, known as ‘The Gauntlet’, which is a rigorous strength and conditioning program designed to forge the players with fire. And as the players passed the test in the spring, Sumrall didn’t shy away from rewarding them with another change.

The Gators recently installed a new, revamped weight room costing about $750k to ensure player safety and prevent injuries. The new changes include full-cage weight racks from Sorine, with Sumrall also replacing the astroturf with a rubber surface. The newly installed racks are now 3×3 inches as opposed to the previous 4×3-inch measurements, and that makes the weight room safer for the players.

“When I got here, it was something I noticed we probably quickly needed to address. The flooring was kind of coming off. It wasn’t real safe,” Jon Sumrall said on Gators Online yesterday. “There were a lot of parts of it that were peeling up. And then the racks. Coach Whitt and I occasionally lift together, and we were going there and benching one morning, and to spot each other, I could barely squeeze behind the rack to spot.

Top Stories

Golf

‘It’s Hard Enough’: Justin Thomas Doesn’t Back Down as He Justifies Clash With PGA Rules Official

22 hrs ago

NFL

Former Raiders Player’s Cause of Death Revealed Following Sudden Passing at 35

17 hrs ago

NASCAR

Ford Team Bites the Dust as Owner Shuts Down NASCAR Operations After 10 Years

22 hrs ago

NBA

“Wait Till the End”: Anthony Edwards Called Out by Announcers After Throwing In the Towel Early vs Spurs

13 hrs ago

NFL

NFL Refuses to Back Down After Donald Trump Takes Aim at League’s Streaming Model

1 day ago

tennis

Jannik Sinner Throws Up, Suffers Panic Attack Scare, Argues With Umpire & More: Key Moments From Suspended Rome Match

9 hrs ago

“And so I’m like, ‘If I can barely get back here, how do our big guys get back here?’ And so, probably the biggest reason for the change was the safety component in the room. We’ve got sort of the double-sided full racks now, where they can do the squat stuff a little bit safer and cleaner with the straps we have. So it’s about making the space more efficient, safer…”

Apart from installing new racks and changing the surface, the team has also removed the turf that was in between the weight room and entirely remodeled the 14,000 square foot space where strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt will have his ‘Gauntlet’ training with the players. Whitt is a former Army Special Forces sergeant and had devised the gauntlet, taking it from several sources. He first saw it at Tom Osborne-led Nebraska teams in the 1990s, and that’s where the idea germinated.

“I’ve seen it passed four times, twice at Tulane, twice at Troy, under Coach (Jon) Sumrall,” Whit said after the Gators players passed the strength and conditioning test. “There’s a certain culture in today’s young man where they think that if we just keep doing it, they’ll give it to us, and it’s not going to happen. They have to beat The Gauntlet the right way.”

Whit and Sumrall first served together at Troy when the now-UF strengths coach joined in 2020. Together, the duo transformed the team physically, leading it to back-to-back Sun Belt titles and functioning with the motto “strength, power, speed, and agility.” That was also where Whitt implemented his ‘Gauntlet,’ and the players successfully completed it several times. His whole philosophy rests on “Weak things break,” and he is functioning with the same principles at Florida, too, something that wasn’t the case with Billy Napier.

Billy Napier’s strength and conditioning program never met SEC standards

Before Jon Sumrall arrived at Florida, Billy Napier’s strength and conditioning program faced significant criticism. Napier’s players were criticized for lacking the physicality, size, and durability needed to win consistently in the SEC. Moreover, Napier couldn’t quite stick with a single strength coach, unlike Jon Sumrall, who took Whitt to Tulane with him after Troy. All of it combined contributed to issues in Napier’s strength and conditioning program.

“I was getting so small in the off-season because we weren’t lifting enough heavy weights. No joking, if you looked at our offseason workouts, you would think we were a track team,” former Gators’ defensive end Princely Umanmielen said. ” I’m not trying to put anyone down, I don’t know, it felt like we were training to be in the Pac12 instead of the SEC. The last two years, it felt like we focused more on conditioning and running than lifting weights.”

Napier demoted his strength coach, Mark Hocke, in 2023 and hired Craig Fitzgerald from the New York Giants. He lasted only for two months, leaving for Boston College, and the former head coach then promoted Tyler Miles internally. In all, there was no stability in the weight room, no time for players to build relationships, and the dilapidated old gym at Florida probably signaled just that. But now?

Rusty Whitt and Jon Sumrall aim to build a physical team. A team that can take on any SEC heavyweight and end the game without even a scrape. “Your best ability is availability,’ and that comes by being exceptionally strong,” Whitt said. For now, UF is on a semester break, and the team will soon be back to acquaint themselves with the changes Sumrall and Whitt have made.