Latest / A Peek Inside Gators Football: A Show About the Florida Gators / Gators Coach Jon Sumrall ADMITS Something EVERYONE Needs to Hear!

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Gators Coach Jon Sumrall ADMITS Something EVERYONE Needs to Hear! · A Peek Inside Gators Football: A Show About the Florida Gators

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  Speaker 1: For only € 20 a month for 12 months. Go to sky.ie
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  Speaker 1: slash sports. New Sky Sports customers only. Standard pricing applies
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  Speaker 1: after 12 months.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Further terms apply. There's a winner and a loser to
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  Speaker 2: everything you do. There's nowhere to run. There's nowhere to hide. Like, whoa,
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  Speaker 2: this is different. You can't back down from anything. You've
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  Speaker 2: got to bring it every freaking day. You are either
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  Speaker 2: trained or untrained. The standard doesn't change for anybody. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I party my ass off. I am a believer that
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  Speaker 2: rivalries matter. I'm not one of these guys that's like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: it's just another game. No, they're not just another game.
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  Speaker 2: They're just not. Blanton's, probably Weller, 12 are kind of
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  Speaker 2: like my two go-to's.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, Gator fans, great treat for you today. We've got
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  Speaker 3: Coach Summerall hanging out with us. Coach, thanks for joining me.
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  Speaker 3: I am really excited. Appreciate it. I'm going to jump
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  Speaker 3: right in because I know you don't have a ton
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  Speaker 3: of time. Okay, so you take the job at Florida
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  Speaker 3: and then you see all of the fans' reactions. How
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  Speaker 3: crazy did you think that all of us Gator fans were?
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  Speaker 3: And did that fuel you or were you a little
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  Speaker 3: bit maybe having some buyer's remorse there?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Allie, appreciate you having me on. It's good to
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  Speaker 2: join you. No, look, I knew, I knew this fan base. Well, I've, I've, uh,
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  Speaker 2: played against Florida as a player coached against some plenty. Um,
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  Speaker 2: and it's part of what drew me here, the passion, uh,
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  Speaker 2: the fireness. It's actually what I felt like, um, fit
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  Speaker 2: my personality best and, um, the authentic, maybe raw emotion,
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  Speaker 2: if you will. Uh, I think most people that have
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  Speaker 2: been around me would say that's pretty fitting for who
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  Speaker 2: I am. And, um, Yeah, look, I wasn't worried about
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  Speaker 2: what people's reaction was going to be in regards to–
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  Speaker 2: I know how to do the job. I know what
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  Speaker 2: we're capable of. I know what this place is capable of.
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  Speaker 2: And I also felt pretty confident that as the Florida
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  Speaker 2: football fan base got to know who I am, what
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  Speaker 2: I'm about, that we'd be a pretty good marriage together.
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  Speaker 2: So really didn't get too worried about.
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  Speaker 3: It at all. Okay, so you get into the building and,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you get to see your players in real life.
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  Speaker 3: What was something about this roster that maybe surprised you
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  Speaker 3: in a good way, but maybe also in a challenging way?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we have some top-end players that are
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  Speaker 2: proven known SEC commodities. You have to start with Jaden
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  Speaker 2: Ball probably, right? And Jaden Woods would be right up
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  Speaker 2: there with him. VB3, Myles Graham. Dallas Wilson. I've talked
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  Speaker 2: a lot about those five, but then there's other guys
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  Speaker 2: in that mix as well that I felt like let's
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  Speaker 2: make sure we try to retain as many of the
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  Speaker 2: good players that are here that we can. Anytime you
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  Speaker 2: walk in, there's going to be attrition. You're not going
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  Speaker 2: to go 100% on retention, but we prioritized some guys.
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  Speaker 2: We lost some. I would have loved to have kept,
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  Speaker 2: but I thought, man, let's keep the guys that fit
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  Speaker 2: not just are they good enough players, but are they
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  Speaker 2: going to fit the culture, which like the Jaden Balls
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  Speaker 2: and the Jaden Woods and the VB3s, those guys are
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  Speaker 2: all great players. They're also like elite work ethic, blue collar, tough,
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  Speaker 2: gritty type of workers. And that's what I want our
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  Speaker 2: program to be built around. I believe everybody talks about
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  Speaker 2: culture all the time. And that's kind of a buzzword
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  Speaker 2: in our society. To me, all culture is, is what
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  Speaker 2: you promote. or encourage, add it up with what you
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  Speaker 2: tolerate or allow. And so those guys promote and encourage
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  Speaker 2: pretty much everything I want our place to be about
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  Speaker 2: and our program to be about. And so it was
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  Speaker 2: important to keep as many of those guys like that
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  Speaker 2: as we could. And then, you know, I think we've
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  Speaker 2: been in a lot of close games here, and it's
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  Speaker 2: maybe trying to figure out how do we flip that script.
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  Speaker 2: I've been fortunate to be successful in close games. I
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  Speaker 2: haven't been in environments where I've just rolled out the
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  Speaker 2: most talented roster every week. In our league, last couple
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  Speaker 2: of years in the American, there was plenty of teams
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  Speaker 2: that had more resources than us and would have maybe
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  Speaker 2: a roster that might be quote unquote sexier, if you will.
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  Speaker 2: But for me, it's about how do you navigate those
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  Speaker 2: margins and find ways to win the games that are close,
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  Speaker 2: which in this league, they're all close, it feels like. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I've heard you mention in your press conference, your opening
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  Speaker 3: press conference and subsequent ones about accountabilities. What does accountability
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  Speaker 3: look like in your building on a random Tuesday, not
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  Speaker 3: a game week, not after a win or a loss,
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  Speaker 3: but every day?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, accountability, the definition of that in our program is
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  Speaker 2: really just owning your actions. You know, if you want
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  Speaker 2: to be a man in this game, you have to
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  Speaker 2: be accountable and you have to own what you do
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  Speaker 2: and how you do it. And so if we say,
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  Speaker 2: you know, start behind the line. It'd be detailed to
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  Speaker 2: start behind the line. If we say, you know, finish
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  Speaker 2: through the line, you have to finish through the line.
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  Speaker 2: We're doing a lot of the things right now in
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  Speaker 2: our off-season program to try to create that accountability process
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  Speaker 2: of where our team is built because you have to
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  Speaker 2: own your actions and you have to be able to
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  Speaker 2: look yourself in the mirror and not be emotional or sensitive,
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  Speaker 2: but take the medicine when you need to take the medicine.
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  Speaker 2: And so for us, it's really just being accountable for
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  Speaker 2: your own actions.
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  Speaker 3: How intense and competitive is your offseason program going to be?
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if you've seen Swamp Kings, but my
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  Speaker 3: husband played on those teams with Sook and then with Meyer.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that fans were blown away by the
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  Speaker 3: intensity they saw in that documentary. But in reality, any
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  Speaker 3: of us that were around there know that that was
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  Speaker 3: just the tip of the iceberg. But I can also
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  Speaker 3: tell you that's why they won in 2019. 2006 and 2008.
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  Speaker 3: So what is it going to be like for you guys?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's ultra competitive. Every day is. So we do our,
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  Speaker 2: our gauntlet. We call it the Gator gauntlet. Now that
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  Speaker 2: we're at the Florida Gators, but everything is scored. There's
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  Speaker 2: a winner and a loser to everything you do. Like
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  Speaker 2: we don't do anything without there being a score involved.
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  Speaker 2: And so you're paired up in our mat drills with
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  Speaker 2: the same guy all morning and Every rep, there's a
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  Speaker 2: winner and his name is called out. There's a loser
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  Speaker 2: and his name gets called out. And so to me,
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  Speaker 2: you have to compete every day. You get what you
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  Speaker 2: earn in this game and in life. And so for us,
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  Speaker 2: there's nowhere to run. There's nowhere to hide. I love
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  Speaker 2: the off-season program stuff. It's what I'm extremely passionate about it.
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  Speaker 2: We're very detailed with how we do it, but we're
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  Speaker 2: constantly competing. We're constantly– holding a high standard and putting
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  Speaker 2: guys through adversity situations because there's going to be adversity
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  Speaker 2: hit during the season. There always is. And when it hits,
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  Speaker 2: do you flinch or do you stand on two feet,
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  Speaker 2: look in the eye and man up? And so for us,
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  Speaker 2: it's about creating as much adversity in the offseason program
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  Speaker 2: so that I don't want to find out a guy's
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  Speaker 2: going to quit or not bring it in September or October.
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  Speaker 2: I want to find out in February.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think that that's caught some of these guys
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  Speaker 3: off guard? I feel like sometimes in transitions you don't
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  Speaker 3: know what you don't know and you thought you were
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  Speaker 3: working as hard as you possibly could or you thought
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  Speaker 3: you were being challenged and then something changes and you
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  Speaker 3: realize you weren't at all.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the guys would tell you the alignment
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  Speaker 2: from the strength staff to the coaches all throughout the building,
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  Speaker 2: there is extreme accountability and the standards are ridiculously high
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  Speaker 2: and we're putting things in front of them to do
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  Speaker 2: that are ridiculously challenging because if you want to be
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  Speaker 2: successful in this league, you better be challenged. And so
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  Speaker 2: I think there's probably some new components to what we're
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  Speaker 2: asking this roster to do for the guys that have
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  Speaker 2: been here where they're like, whoa, this is different. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, look, everything here when we walked in the
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  Speaker 2: door wasn't broken. There's been some things that have been
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  Speaker 2: done well, but from a competitive edge standpoint, and being
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  Speaker 2: a little bit fiery and having a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: a chip on your shoulder. I think we're, we're asking
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  Speaker 2: them to do some things that you can't back down
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  Speaker 2: from anything. You got to bring it every freaking day.
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  Speaker 1: Football is back. Time to wake up the group chat
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  Speaker 1: and catch up with old friends.
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  Speaker 2: Even the grumpy ones. What a baby.
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  Speaker 4: Because when football's back, so are we.
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  Speaker 3: You talked ownership of mistakes, you know, in workouts and
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  Speaker 3: accountability in that way. But let's say it's a post-game
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  Speaker 3: interview and it's clear that things didn't go as planned.
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  Speaker 3: How do you place responsibility without deflecting because you know
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  Speaker 3: that's going to upset the fan base, but you also
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  Speaker 3: don't want to throw your players and coaches under the bus?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, right, wrong, or different. I say this all
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  Speaker 2: the time to our staff. Players win games. Coaches lose them.
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  Speaker 2: I got broad shoulders. I can handle any of the
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  Speaker 2: blame that comes my way. I like to deflect success
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  Speaker 2: to other people. I like to take on the blame
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  Speaker 2: when things aren't going good. I think that really sets
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  Speaker 2: the example for everybody in our building to be able
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  Speaker 2: to own outcomes that you're a part of. Now, we
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  Speaker 2: get behind the film room. I call it what it
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  Speaker 2: is and show them hey, you have to own this
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  Speaker 2: for us to take the right next steps to improve.
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  Speaker 2: But I've never been big on maybe calling out a
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  Speaker 2: player from a media perspective. I'll own situations that we
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  Speaker 2: maybe didn't execute, and I have no problem talking through
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  Speaker 2: those when I'm in media availabilities typically, but I'm not
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  Speaker 2: into ever placing blame on a player. It's our job
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  Speaker 2: to equip the player so that they're prepared For the situation,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we talk about this a lot in our program.
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  Speaker 2: Nobody rises to the occasion. You follow the level of
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  Speaker 2: your training. OK, and that's that's a special ops deal.
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  Speaker 2: That's not a my deal or a football thing. That's
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  Speaker 2: a Navy SEAL thing. And so you're you're either trained
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  Speaker 2: or untrained. And that's how you get things right is
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  Speaker 2: you do it so many times, not that you get
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  Speaker 2: it right, but that you can't get it wrong. that
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  Speaker 2: you don't screw it up. And so, and you have
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  Speaker 2: to be meticulous and detailed with the expectation of what
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  Speaker 2: that looks like when you're carrying something out. And the
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  Speaker 2: standard doesn't change for anybody, but I'm into taking the
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  Speaker 2: blame and distributing the credit.
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  Speaker 3: So when you turn on film on Sunday morning in
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  Speaker 3: the fall, what is the first thing that you watch?
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  Speaker 3: Is it execution is effort, communication, body language. What are
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  Speaker 3: you looking for first?
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  Speaker 2: It's all of it. I think it's all encompassing. You know, I,
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  Speaker 2: Sunday morning, my routine, um, I go to church every Sunday.
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  Speaker 2: My wife makes me, uh, but, um, but I need
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  Speaker 2: to go to after most Saturdays after how I've acted probably. Um,
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  Speaker 2: so I watch all three phases, not in order. I
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  Speaker 2: watch it split ODK. Um, watch the coaches cut up,
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  Speaker 2: not the TV copy, obviously. And I'm watching all of it.
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  Speaker 2: I want to watch, you know, an effort component. I
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  Speaker 2: want to watch execution. I want to watch situational awareness, decision-making, physicality,
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  Speaker 2: all the things that go into winning a game. And
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  Speaker 2: so I watch all three phases on my own, go
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  Speaker 2: to church. Then I come in and I'll watch it
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  Speaker 2: with each side of the ball just to make sure
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  Speaker 2: we're all on the same page. and that the corrections
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  Speaker 2: or maybe the things that we've liked from the game
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  Speaker 2: are reinforced, we're all on the same page and there's
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  Speaker 2: no gray area. But I like watching it first on
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  Speaker 2: my own so I can maybe be a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more thoughtful in our staff meeting as opposed to maybe
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  Speaker 2: being fiery or pissed off about something that didn't go
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  Speaker 2: the way I wanted to.
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  Speaker 3: If I watched your team for five snaps, No scoreboard.
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  Speaker 3: What would tell me that it is a John Summerall
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  Speaker 3: coach team?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think people that I've coached against regularly or
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  Speaker 2: been in the league with in the past that have
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  Speaker 2: been around me would tell you that we're usually tough.
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  Speaker 2: We're physical. We play the game with enthusiasm and an edge.
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  Speaker 2: And that we adapt to our players. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: haven't been in environments where I just maybe get to
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  Speaker 2: pick my roster or how I want it to look
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  Speaker 2: like a la carte. Like I've had to kind of
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  Speaker 2: piece it together. You know, you go to Troy and
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  Speaker 2: you sort of have a different roster construction where, and
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  Speaker 2: Tulane too, for that matter, we had more resources at Tulane,
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  Speaker 2: but I felt like I was a double A or
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  Speaker 2: triple A baseball team where I'd develop a guy and
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  Speaker 2: I'd turn around and six weeks later, he's gone. And so,
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  Speaker 2: I think being adaptable, and that's in every phase, offense, defense,
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  Speaker 2: and kicking game is like catering to your players' strengths,
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  Speaker 2: trying to offset their weaknesses. There's nobody that's perfect. We
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  Speaker 2: all have maybe some deficiencies in anything we do. And
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  Speaker 2: so trying to make sure we put our players in
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  Speaker 2: a position to be able to have success. I can't
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  Speaker 2: go make plays for them, but it's equipping them and
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  Speaker 2: putting them in potential situations that are a positive for
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  Speaker 2: them to be successful.
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  Speaker 3: So first three games of the season next year, are
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  Speaker 3: you going to be able to tell if your team
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  Speaker 3: is going to be able to reach its potential by
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  Speaker 3: that point? And if so, why, what did you see?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say it's always a work in progress. You know,
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  Speaker 2: my first year as a head coach at Troy, my
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  Speaker 2: first year as a head coach period, we started the
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  Speaker 2: year one and two and that kind of sucked. Right.
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  Speaker 2: And so, I kind of had to help that team
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  Speaker 2: at the time and lost a bunch of close games.
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  Speaker 2: I had to help them sort of reinvent themselves or
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  Speaker 2: refine themselves from a confidence standpoint. The, the, the third
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  Speaker 2: game was a Hail Mary loss to App State. One
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  Speaker 2: of the craziest outcomes of a game you could ever have.
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  Speaker 2: That was the catalyst for our turning point though. We,
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  Speaker 2: The 11th game of the previous year, App State had
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  Speaker 2: beaten Troy 45-7. The third game of the next year,
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  Speaker 2: right when I got there, they needed a Hail Mary
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  Speaker 2: to beat us. And so I think that gave our
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  Speaker 2: players buy-in that, hey, we're improving, even though we didn't
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  Speaker 2: get the outcome we wanted. Well, that team went on
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  Speaker 2: to win 11 straight games, finished 12-2, finished the year
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  Speaker 2: 19th in the country in all of college football, the
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  Speaker 2: first time that Troy had ever finished the season ranked
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  Speaker 2: in FBS history. And so to me, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: that it's fair to say, hey, there's this timeline of
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  Speaker 2: I'll know by a certain number of games. You're always,
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  Speaker 2: to me, it's just you're always trying to get better.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I have this mindset of I've never arrived,
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  Speaker 2: no matter what the outcomes are. You know, I had
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  Speaker 2: a meeting with our team this morning. I've told them
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  Speaker 2: I've been really fortunate the last four years as head coach.
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  Speaker 2: I've been in a conference championship game every year. And
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  Speaker 2: three of those years, we've won them. And I usually celebrate.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I party my ass off after those wins.
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  Speaker 2: And then the next morning I wake up and I'm like,
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  Speaker 2: all right, next year, let's go. Or next game, let's go.
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  Speaker 2: Or next whatever, let's go. And so I have fun
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  Speaker 2: for the night. But then real quickly, I turn my
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  Speaker 2: attention to what is next. And so how do we
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  Speaker 2: continue to improve? I don't ever think, you know, complacency
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  Speaker 2: is a killer. And as soon as you relax, I
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  Speaker 2: think you're getting ready to get exposed or embarrassed. And
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  Speaker 2: so for me, I don't know that there's a timeline
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  Speaker 2: to like, Hey, I'll know who our team is. I
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  Speaker 2: think you're constantly evolving. And certain players developmental timelines are different.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you may have a freshman that the first
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  Speaker 2: three or four weeks of the year, don't know who
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  Speaker 2: he is really in the last six weeks of the year,
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  Speaker 2: he might be a star. And so you just, you
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  Speaker 2: kind of constantly have to, I think, recalibrate and retool
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  Speaker 2: and assess who's growing and maybe who's not.
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  Speaker 3: When a team does start to, let's call it drift,
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  Speaker 3: what's your first lever that you pull? Is it practice structure?
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  Speaker 3: Is it staff messaging? Is it player leadership? What do
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  Speaker 3: you go to first?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a firm believer that the locker room is
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  Speaker 2: going to follow the leadership. Good teams can be coach-led.
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  Speaker 2: Great teams have to be player-led. It's my job to
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  Speaker 2: equip our best players to be great leaders. And so
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  Speaker 2: the locker room has to be the train stoppers. When
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  Speaker 2: the train's going the wrong way down the tracks, somebody
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  Speaker 2: in that locker room has got to be ready to
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  Speaker 2: step up and stop the train and make sure it
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  Speaker 2: turns around and goes back the direction we want it
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  Speaker 2: to go. And so I think that's about maybe with me,
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  Speaker 2: it's about developing and creating the leaders we need in
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  Speaker 2: our locker room to be successful. I've heard people say
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  Speaker 2: all the time, like, we just don't have great leadership.
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, that's a problem. That's a coach problem
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: to me because– A part of my job is to
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: develop leadership. And that's what we do right now. This
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: offseason stuff is about equipping and developing leaders to make
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: the locker room make the right decisions on when things
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: aren't going right. What do we do next? You know,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: I use the Jocko Willink video with our team all
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the time. Like when something bad happens, my response is
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: always good. Like that same App State game in 2022,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: we threw an interception on the first play of the game.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And over the headset, I told my whole staff, I said, good.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: I don't want to watch us play offense. I want
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: to play defense right now. And everybody's like, what is
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: wrong with you? And I'm like, well, I'm not going
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: to respond like, oh, dadgum, game's not going our way already.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, good. I want to go watch our defense play.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: And so I think it's creating a mindset of like,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: no matter how bad something goes, man, if you got
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: a pulse, you got a chance. Okay.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: So something that you are going to learn about me
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: is that I am a, my husband's a former punter.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: And so I place a very large value on special teams.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, show me the effort put into
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: special teams and I'm going to show you whether a
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: coach is really detail oriented or not. And that's been
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: a frustration, not only of mine, but of this fan
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: base over the past several years. So I need to
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: know on game day on the field, who is in charge,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: making sure the right unit is out there, making sure
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: the right number of guys is out there. Like who's
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: the person holding the clipboard accountable for that?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it all comes back to me. So if
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: we don't get the right number of people out there,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: blame me. But Jonathan Galante is our special teams coordinator.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: He's in charge of all our special teams units. He
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: was with me last year at Tulane. He was I
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: had Marshall with Huff before that. He was at Alabama
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: with Coach Saban for a little while. He does a
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: phenomenal job. The only two transfers we brought from Tulane
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: were our punter, Alec Clark and our field goal kicker, Durkin.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: And so, but, and then the way we handle, you know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: we practice all those situations enough that, like I said earlier,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: you don't practice something until you get it right. You
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: practice until you can't get it wrong. That's sort of the,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: thought process. I have a special teams background. I was
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: a special teams coordinator at Troy for a couple of years.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I'm very invested in special teams. I sit in every
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: special teams meeting. We don't have one special teams meeting
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: that I'm in that I don't probably speak up and
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: start talking about something in all of them. And then
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: our strength staff is very dialed in to substitutions along
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: with our training staff. I think the biggest tricky part
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: of substitutions on special teams is maybe when a guy
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: goes down and making sure our line of communication is
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: clear and direct to getting substitutions in place properly. But
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: you practice that throughout the week. Like I said earlier,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: you don't rise to the occasion on game day. You
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: follow the level of your training. You're either trained for
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: those scenarios or you're not. I'll flash back to 2017
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: on the special teams coordinator at Troy. We're getting ready
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: for an end-of-game hand situation. We're up. And it's to
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: win the conference championship. And I got five guys on
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: my hands team that were out for the rest of
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: the game with injury. And you want to talk about
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: having to adjust on the fly because you don't practice
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: like that many different guys on the hands team. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: so that was a unique challenge. And I think having
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: been exposed to maybe that and my background in special teams,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: it's something we spend a lot of time on.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: All right, well, that makes me feel much better. Before
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: I let you get out of here, I do want
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: to talk rivalries. UF has a few. You're familiar with
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: them because of your time in the SEC in Kentucky.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Ten years ago, it would have been unheard of for
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: a Gator to transfer to Georgia or to Florida State.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Both of those things have happened in the last couple
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: of years for UF. How do you instill a hatred
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: of rivals that matches fans' intensity when we're in such
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: a transient period of college football?
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a couple of challenges with our
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: transient nature roster-wise. One is maybe what you're talking about
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: in creating a passion and an understanding of rivalry. I
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: think you have to educate your team on what that
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: looks like. You can't expect them to maybe go out
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and figure it out on their own. You have to
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: take it to them so they can feel it and
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: touch it. And I also think along with that, it's
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: the connectivity of a team. I think teams– I'm a
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: firm believer that teams– play for each other more than
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: against somebody. Like if they're great teams and now playing
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: who you play gets, I am a believer that rivalries matter. Okay.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I'm not one of these guys. It's like, ah, it's
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: just another game. No, they're not just another game. They're
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: just not like, they're not for our fan base. What
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: makes college football special and unique. And, but you may
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: be game plan like another game, like your game plan
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: process doesn't change, but you have to have your guys
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: maybe informed to understand like, Hey, There are certain games
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: that the fan base, it's different. It hits different. It
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: feels different. And we have to embrace that and make
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: sure our guys understand that. And we have to start
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: handling ourselves in those games the way we want to
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: be viewed nationally, maybe from a different light.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: You seem to be a fan of abbreviations. You've tweeted
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: out that GMFG. We have our own thing at UFTHWG.com.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Have you officially said to hell with Georgia, or are
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: we going to get a John Summerall first right now?
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Now, look, we've got to win against Georgia, and I'll
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: say plenty of things, but we've got to win some
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: football games. Yeah, my job right now is getting this
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: team ready to win games. I like that acronym. I'm
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: down with it. I'm good with it. It's coming, hopefully,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: but we've got to go win. We've got to get
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: this team equipped to win. I do love the acronym.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: And when you do win, what are you going to
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: be drinking to celebrate? You said you like to party
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: after a game for one night.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Blanton's, Weller. Those are kind of my two–
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: probably Weller 12 are kind of like my two go-tos.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: And then we win a conference championship or we're in
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: the CFP. That's when Pappy gets opened.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: My husband said that there is a right or a
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: wrong answer to this question. You just– answered it correctly.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: He is very, Eric Wilber is a German guy. So
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: he is, he's pumped. Well, coach, I appreciate you so much.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: I think this was so much fun. I'm excited for
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: this season and to see how spring plays out.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: We told you all year about sleeper, but here's a
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: little bit of an update. They've just launched team picks
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: where you can choose winners for individual games. For example,
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: go get on there right now and take our Gators
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: to take down Mike White and UGA in tonight's basketball game.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: We appreciate Sleeper for all their support. So go check
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: them out right now. The link is in my description.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Football is back.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Time to wake up the group chat and catch up
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: with old friends.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Even the grumpy ones. What a baby.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: Because when football's back.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: So are we. Sky Sports is your home of football.
• 25:50
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• 25:53
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• 26:02
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