Before head coach Jon Sumrall and Rusty Whitt, the Gators’ director of football performance who came with Sumrall from Tulane, made it to Gainesville, the Florida football team was not as big, strong, and physical as it needed to be given its final record of 4-8 in 2025.
The Gators first reported to fall camp this past Tuesday, and Sumrall and Whitt spoke on the success that the program had seen this offseason in the weight room. Whitt was proud of his players because they bought into the vision that he was offering them.
“Best job in the world,” Whitt said.
The Gators succeeded in practically every way in the weight room; they got stronger, faster, lost weight, gained muscle, and in total can nearly lift 14,000 pounds, which is the approximate weight of a seven-ton African bush elephant.
Yes, the Gators improved in the offseason, but you don’t often hear 14,000-pound improvements as a collective, all while working four primary lifts: power clean, bench, squat and deadlift
“The growth has been real,” Sumrall said. “It’s as impressive as what I’ve seen any group do over this length of period we’ve just had.”
This is Sumrall’s third head coaching job, and at his first two stops he found immediate success. Sumrall is following the former blueprints because he knows what works and what doesn’t.
“The first time I walked in there, I was like, ‘Okay, I didn’t love some of the layout.’ I’m not trying to take shots,” he said. “There’s a big patch of turf in the weight room. We got 120 yards of turf right outside. I don’t need turf in a weight room. We need weights in a weight room.”
“It’s like some guys I’m not gonna name any names, but you got a little patch of hair. What’s that doing? Just cut it, don’t try to hang on to it.”
Sumrall wanted a change to the weight room and received permission from the University Athletic Association to revamp the weight room after spring camp.
A sampling of the results Whitt shared Tuesday:
The Gators’ strength improvements look to propel them in a positive direction as they want to overpower and outrun opponents, while maintaining health.
“You have to be resilient and strong to play this game,” Sumrall said. “You cannot break. Well, how do you not break? You have to be resilient, strong. You have to train that way.”
If one thing showed the validity of the Gators’ weight room improvements, it was a video of defensive lineman Jayden Woods lifting 405 pounds in the power-clean technique that went viral around Gainesville.
“That’s elite,” Whitt said. “To put it in perspective, I think one player in the nation topped it, and he was at North Carolina State, a defensive lineman. So, as far as people putting stuff on social media, if somebody can hit better than a 405 clean at 245 (pounds), I haven’t seen it.”
The Gators officially started camp with Sumrall and Whitt looking to see how the work in the weight room translates to the gridiron.
“There’s a lot of lot of teams in our league who can say comparable numbers, but we have a fighting chance,” Whitt said. “We’re in the mix. I’m extremely excited, if you can’t tell. The first four days of camp are very critical because you put a helmet on them, and we haven’t done that in the last couple of months.
“So, they’re going to have hydration issues. They’re going to have fatigue, some dead legs. For the first four days of camp, we don’t lift weights. But after the first week, we’re going back in the weight room for a 50-minute lift, and we’re going to maintain.”
The college football season kicks off in a few weeks, and coach Sumrall likes what he is seeing from his program.
“I’m really excited about the work that’s been done,” Sumrall said, “but it’s not over.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: How Florida transformed the program in the weight room
Reporting by Michael Trim Jr, Gators Wire / Gators Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michael Trim Jr, Gators Wire | USA TODAY Network
