There's a school of thought among coaches that the recent changes to college football have brought an equivalent change to how coaches must handle players. There are ample quotes from coaches in recent years lamenting that they can't be tough on them the way they used to -- and the way players need, even if they don't realize it -- because they can just up and leave at basically any time.
New Florida head coach doesn't agree. In fact, he believes that players getting paid actually makes it easier to bluntly motivate them.
"I actually think it's easier, because if a guy wants to act some sort of way about having to do something tough, I'm like, 'Dude, you make money. Shut up, bro. You're getting paid, dog. Put the work in,'" he told Sirius XM College Sports. "I think some coaches in the world we're living in of the transfer portal and NIL have gotten softer, I've probably gotten crazier. I'm like, 'No, don't tell me about this is too hard. We're all pros here. Be a pro.'"
“Don’t tell me about, 'this is too hard.’ We are all pros here. Be a pro.”@CoachJonSumrall tells @DustyDvoracek & @dannykanell he treats his guys like professional athletes now in the NIL era.@GatorsFB pic.twitter.com/n4mbz4gICx
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) February 17, 2026
That's not to say Sumrall's only motivational tool is dangling the players' pay stubs in front of them, carrot-and-stick style. Last month, he revealed Florida is using the oldest, most rah-rah motivational stool in the book -- making players earn the right to wear the Gator logo. "We ain't earned it yet. We haven't earned a damn thing. All we've got is our name," he said. "To wear the Florida Gator logo, to wear the Gators across your helmet, to wear the Gator head, you got to earn that." (Amusingly, when asked what Gators players had to do to earn the logo, Sumrall said he "hadn't thought about it yet.")
No matter how much college football has changed this decade, Sumrall recognized that the fundamental truth of coaching remains the same. Even if players are earning actual, legal currency these days, the currency that runs football teams is trust -- and Sumrall is earning his players' trust through sweat equity. He can be blunt with his players -- and, surely, the tone the above quotes are delivered are more sarcastic than authoritarian -- because he spends time with them.
"I live downstairs. I actually hate being in (my office). We have two big weight groups, offense and defense, I'm in one of the weight groups every day. I'm usually lifting with them. Yesterday I lifted with our receivers. I'm probably going to go do deadlifts and squats here in a minute. We do mat drills, I'm at every second of them. I don't miss them."