Gators' Jon Sumrall vows to 'wake this beast up' in debut season - ESPN

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It's been seven years since Florida notched double-digit wins and 17 years since the Gators were legitimate national championship contenders.

New coach Jon Sumrall knows it as well as any diehard who watched the team's annual spring game unfold at the Swamp on Saturday.

«Championships are the standard and expectation,» Sumrall said following the Orange and Blue game. «We've got to get it back there. We've got to wake this beast up.

»Like, it's time we wake this thing up. This is a sleeping giant. I'm telling you right now: it ain't a matter of if we're going to win here. It's how fast we're going to win. It's coming. This winning thing, it's coming."

Florida is 29-37 over its last 66 games, including losing seasons in four of the past five years. It would be unacceptable at just about any Power 4 program, but it's downright embarrassing for one that has three national titles and eight SEC championships since 1990.

Sumrall was hired to fix it, essentially tasked with cleaning up the mess created and left behind by fired coach Billy Napier. Sumrall, who led the Troy Trojans and Tulane Green Wave to a combined four conference title games in four seasons, could start his rebuild just about anywhere.

Florida ranked last in the SEC in scoring last season, averaging 21.6 points a game. The Gators allowed 34.3 points a game in its past three losses.

Sumrall, though, is focusing on the weight room. And anyone needing proof of Florida's most glaring weakness should look at the team's pro day last month, where long-snapper Rocco Underwood put up better bench numbers (14 reps at 225 pounds) than three-year starting guard Damieon George Jr. (12 reps).

«That shouldn't happen,» Sumrall said. «Hell, our coaches need