​Florida football head coach Jon Sumrall spoke with the press on Monday morning about the state of his team and their upcoming Week 11 matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington. Among the topics covered by the Gators’ skipper were his thoughts on returning to the Bluegrass State and what it means to him and his family, as well as the status of recently suspended defensive tackle Jeramiah McCloud, reflections on the challenges of his first year at the head of a Power Four program, retaining talent in the transfer portal era, how much control he exerts over his staff, the current quarterback situation, and more. Below is a look at what Sumrall told the media on Monday during his weekly press conference. Jon Sumrall’s opening statementAlright, wrapping up last Saturday — missed opportunity. Not good enough by us, obviously. Disappointed in maybe our detail, execution in a lot of areas, and we have to be better than what we were. Focused on moving forward, getting ready for a really good Kentucky team on the road, a team that I think has played really good football all year.
I say this a lot to our guys: most games aren’t won; they’re lost. Somebody will lose it. We’ve done that a couple times this year. They’ve done a really good job of turnover margin, little things that have kept them in games to be successful. They’re playing really good football. They’re a talented team. It’s maybe the best offensive line we’ve seen all year, and that’s not just coach-speak; they’re really good upfront offensively. They have a good identity; they do,
they remind me a little bit of what Buster and our staff does offensively with shifts, motions, formations that you have to be prepared for that some of it you can’t really be prepared for because there’s going to be some things that are new that you haven’t seen on tape. Then defensively, Jay Bateman is doing a really good job there. They’re sound; they play hard, you can tell they’re really well coached. There’s a few leftover players from when Brad was there. There’s some new additions, too, but they look like a high-football-IQ team. And so, gotta go on the road — SEC matchup, a game that has been played for a long time, and we have to play better football. So with that, we’ll open it up.Has Sumrall reflected on his journey as he heads back to Kentucky?Yeah, don’t have the time to do a lot of reflecting right now, but Kentucky has given me a lot. I wouldn’t be where I’m at today if it weren’t for the University of Kentucky. You know, they were one of the schools I was able to trick into offering me a scholarship out of high school, and so I was fortunate enough to get a chance to play there, and then so, played there for 4 years. I kid around with people; I led the team in trips in 2004 and I wasn’t good enough to actually attack anybody, but I tripped a lot of people that year. And then I GAed there ’05 and ’06, went back to work for Coach Stoops, ’19, ’20 and ’21. You know, I’m a Florida Gator