Jon Sumrall certainly got our attention with his 2026 coaching staff. Photo credit: Matthew Lewis, WRUF
With the Jon Sumrall Era already a month old, we’re starting to get the first pieces of preliminary data trickling in to gauge him on.
Earlier this month, we spent time on our podcast breaking down Florida’s major coordinator hires—Buster Faulkner on offense and Brad White on defense—and we’ll have the entire offseason to dig deeper into their systems in written form. For now, the focus shifts to the position coach hires that will ultimately determine how well those systems function on Saturdays.
Here’s a position-by-position look at Florida’s new staff, along with early grades based on resume, fit, and upside.
Quarterbacks Coach: Joe Craddock
Grade: B
Joe Craddock reunites with head coach Jon Sumrall after working together at both Troy and Tulane. Most recently, as Tulane’s offensive coordinator, Craddock coached Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who threw for 3,168 yards in 2024—20th nationally in FBS—along with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Now he takes a step down from the offensive coordinator level to the quarterback coach role, where he’ll work closely with Buster Faulkner.
The analysis has to start with the 35,000 foot view: any time you bring in a sitting coordinator to be a position coach, it’s a win. Looking at Faulkner’s career path, he’s probably eyeballing a head coaching job either next year or the year after, so you may as well have him start grooming his heir apparent. And Craddock— at age 40, with nine years of calling the offense as the OC of Tulane, Troy, Arkansas, and SMU already under his belt— seems like a logical pick for that.
Craddock did a solid job with Retzlaff this year by any objective measure, though context matters. Retzlaff was playing in the American Athletic Conference, not the Big 12 or SEC, and his arrival at Tulane was somewhat circumstantial. That said, this was statistically the best season of his career, which reflects positively on Craddock. This isn’t a splash hire, and Craddock doesn’t bring a long list of elite quarterback development successes yet. But it’s competent, familiar, and reasonable for Sumrall and it’s an investment into the future. Nothing to hate here.
Running Backs Coach: Chris Foster
Grade: B-
Chris Foster comes to Gainesville on the heels of some irritated grumbling following Florida’s public (and unsuccessful) courting of Derrick Nix. To boot, many Florida fans wanted to bring Robert Gillespie home, and they didn’t get their wish. But none of that matters now; Foster is the hire. And it deserves to be graded on its own merit.
Not only has Foster been in the coaching profession for nearly two decades, but he’s twice been nominated for the Broyles Award (2020 at Georgia Southern, 2022 at ECU), which honors the best assistant coach in the country. More importantly, production follows him. Three of the last five seasons, his lead running back rushed for over 900 yards—including Nate Sheppard’s 962-yard season at Duke and Keaton Mitchell’s explosive 1,452-yard campaign at ECU in 2022. Mitchell is now an NFL running back with the Baltimore Ravens.
This isn’t a home run, but it’s a respectable, proven hire.
Wide Receivers Coach: Marcus Davis
Grade: B
Saying goodbye to Billy Gonzales was always going to suck and was never going to be easy, so— as is the case with Foster— it’s best to evaluate Marcus Davis in a vacuum. Because there’s a lot to like here. Davis arrives from Auburn, where his most notable accomplishment was helping land five-star receiver Cam Coleman.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this hire is that Florida pulled Davis away from his alma mater—Auburn—for the same role. That matters. Auburn’s receiver production last season was hampered by inconsistent quarterback play, making on-field evaluation difficult.
Davis also brings strong recruiting ties to South Florida, which should only improve now that he’s wearing Florida colors. Overall, a solid hire with recruiting upside.
Tight Ends Coach: Evan McKissack
Grade: B-
This is the staff’s biggest wild card. McKissack was part of Troy’s historic 2023 offensive staff, which ranked near the top of the Sun Belt in multiple offensive categories and finished ranked in a major poll for the first time in program history.
However, Troy’s tight ends accounted for just 7% of the team’s receiving production that year. At Tulane, McKissack served as co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, overseeing a unit that allowed for significant passing success.
McKissack is essentially taking a step down in title, but his experience coaching both offensive lines and tight ends could be valuable—especially for a Florida offense that needs tight ends to contribute heavily as blockers. This could turn into a very good hire, but it’s one that warrants patience.
Offensive Line Coach: Phil Trautwein
Grade: A+
This is, without a question, the marquee hire of the staff.
As most of us know, Phil Trautwein was a two-time national champion at Florida before embarking on his coaching journey. Now he returns home after significant success at Penn State as both a recruiter and developer. Representing the Nittany Lions, Trautwein has developed a pattern of landing the elite offensive line talent that has eluded Florida all these years—including five-stars J’Ven Williams and Malachi Goodman and top-three positional players Alex Birchmeier and Cooper Cousins.
Eighteen years after wrapping up his college career with a second national championship, he’s back at Florida, selling a place where he personally won championships. That matters—to recruits, to fans, and to the program’s identity. Trautwein brings credibility, proven results, and emotional resonance. It’s hard to imagine a better hire at this position.
Defensive Line Coach / Assistant Head Coach: Gerald Chatman
Grade: A-
Retaining Gerald Chatman was a smart move. Florida’s defensive line was arguably the team’s strongest unit last season, even without key contributors like Caleb Banks. And more generally, this unit has improved noticeably since Chatman took over for Sean Spencer after 2023.
Put simply, Chatman has delivered consistent results and earned his expanded role. He’s done his job well and deserved to stay.
Outside Linebackers Coach: Bam Hardmon
Grade: B
Another former Gator returns home. Bam Hardmon earned All-SEC honorable mention status at Florida in 2002 and even more importantly, has extensive experience under Sumrall at Troy and Tulane. That includes his title as Tulane’s defensive run game coordinator last year, when the Green Wave’s rush defense finished 34th out of 136 FBS teams.
He’s taking a reduced role at Florida under Jon Sumrall, focusing solely on outside linebackers, but his familiarity with the system and connection to the program are positives. And generally speaking, when you have a coordinator at a smaller school take on a reduced role at a bigger school, everybody wins. This is a solid hire that sits just below “great.”
Inside Linebackers Coach: Greg Gasparato
Grade: B-
As the defensive coordinator, Gasparato led a strong Troy defense in 2023 that set program records for sacks and performed well across key metrics. While “best in Troy history” isn’t the highest bar nationally, it still indicates quality work. Then he followed Sumrall to Tulane, and his defense fell off a little bit (78th in the FBS, which even at Tulane, isn’t great).
The even bigger eyebrow-raiser: he’s only worked for a Power Four school for two years, ever. Both were at Louisville: 2021 as their safety coach and 2022 as their linebacker coach. But as is the case with Hardmon, it’s a huge victory for the entire staff when you can get coaches with coordinator experience taking the step down and serving as position coaches.
This hire continues Sumrall’s trend of bringing over familiar faces, which raises some questions—but on-field results suggest competence.
Cornerbacks Coach: Brandon Harris
Grade: B
Somehow, despite Central Florida going 5-7 and surrendering 30+ points in five different games, Brandon Harris managed to coach the Golden Knights’ secondary to a top-25 passing defense in the country. That was when Harris had an epiphany, realized he was wasting away at a bottom-feeder program, and went shopping for a new school. Eleven days after Central Florida’s season came to a close, he was headed northwest to FSU.
That is, until Jon Sumrall decided he wanted him, got involved in the courtship process, and just took him away from Mike Norvell and the Seminoles. Absolutely hilarious. As a result, Harris— who also previously served as a co-defensive coordinator at FAU— takes control of Florida’s cornerback room.
And that makes yet another Gator position coach with prior coordinator experience on Jon Sumrall’s 2026 staff.
Safeties Coach: Chris Collins
Grade: C
This is the most uncertain hire on the defense. On the positive, Collins spent five years at Kentucky and coached Max Hairston into becoming the first first-round defensive back in school history. That’s significant.
However, Kentucky’s overall pass defense metrics under Collins were inconsistent. This is a wait-and-see hire that comes with questions but also some developmental upside.
Special Teams Coordinator: Jonathan Gallante
Grade: A-
Any time you’ve got a Broyles Award nominee on your staff, you’re doing something right. For Jonathan Gallante, that was supervising a stellar freshman season for kicker Patrick Durkin, who nailed 25 of his 28 field goal attempts, and a damn good year from punter Alec Clark to boot (48 punts for an average of 46.5 yards and 16 downed inside the 20).
Oh, and as an added bonus? Unlike Billy Napier, Gallante’s units seem perfectly capable of counting to eleven.
Strength & Conditioning Coach: Rusty Whitt
Grade: A-
Rusty Whitt brings a background to Gainesville that few others in the college game boast.
In 2003, Whitt made the decision to leave his position at Sam Houston State and enlist in the United States Army. Over the next six years, he served as a communications sergeant with the 10th Special Forces Group, deploying twice to Iraq and earning a Combat Infantryman Badge in 2007, along with two Iraq Campaign Medals and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor. Even more impressive: while on active duty, Whitt developed and implemented a comprehensive pre-deployment training program designed to physically prepare his Special Forces team for the demands of combat.
That pedigree fits well with Florida’s need to regain physical toughness and durability. True, being in “US special forces” shape and “SEC football” shape are different things, but I at least feel
Final Thoughts
This staff that Jon Sumrall put together doesn’t scream “instant transformation,” but it does signal pretty much everything short of it. Of course, thanks to Billy Napier, competence, alignment, and cultural recalibration are no longer given at Florida. Rather, those descriptions make up the first checkpoint to clear on the program’s journey back up to relevance.
At a minimum, I think this staff does that.
Sure, Jon Sumrall brought in a lot of people from Tulane after saying he doesn’t hire his friends. But to me that says something entirely different. Florida prioritized familiarity with Sumrall’s SOPs, brought multiple former Gators back into the building, and made at least one unequivocal elite hire in Trautwein.
Now comes the hard part: turning résumés into results.
