WATCH: Jon Sumrall introductory press conference at Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Jon Sumrall was formally introduced to Gator Nation on Monday. Sumrall is the 31st head coach in Florida football history and will take over full-time after Tulane’s 2025 season ends.

Check out video from Jon Sumrall’s press conference above along with his opening statement below.

RELATED: Jon Sumrall delivers on Day 1 as Florida Gators coach: ‘We’re going to win’
RELATED: Sumrall knows fans wanted Kiffin, and Spurrier told him how to overcome that

Jon Sumrall opening statement

JON SUMRALL: “As I start, I’d like to say going through the process of making decisions on jobs this time of year, maybe not being ideal coaching in the season. There’s very few people that you can trust to maybe have that conversation about what it’s like to go through this because it’s unique.

I do want to be very direct on one thing, and you may or may not appreciate this, but Lane Kiffin and I have been going through the same thing. We’ve talked a lot. We were both in agreement that I was the right man for this job (laughter). He co-signed on that. Lane is a dear friend, and I have to poke a little fun at him.

In all seriousness, I’d like to thank President Landry, the board of trustees, Scott Stricklin and his staff, Chris LaFace, Gary Condron for getting me here today and all of the Florida Gator Nation that has made this possible for me and my family.

Before looking ahead to what is to come next, I’d like to reflect briefly on where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing, and I owe a couple thank-yous there.

I’d like to acknowledge Troy University for giving me the opportunity to be a first-time head coach four years ago. I was a linebacker coach, co-defensive coordinator, and then most people in America didn’t really know my name unless you really loved studying football.

Dr. Jack Hawkins, the chancellor at Troy University, and athletic director Brent Jones gave me the opportunity to be a first-time head coach, and for that, I will be forever grateful. I’d like to thank Tulane, President Mike Fitts, Patrick Norton, athletic director David Harris, for giving me the honor and privilege to be the head football coach there in New Orleans where my oldest two kids were born and lead that program. Both opportunities have been special and have meant the world to me.

I’m also very grateful for Tulane for allowing me to finish the job. The job is not done, and I’ve got work to do. So today is going to be quick. It’s going to be fast. It’s been a little bit dizzying at times. But I’ve got to go back tonight because we’re in pursuit of doing something special as a team, and I’d like to thank Tulane and Scott and Florida for allowing me to go back with my guys and finish that job the right way.

I’m also grateful for all those players I’ve had the opportunity to serve as a head coach at both institutions. The way we lead, the way we coach, man, I do life with the guys I coach, and those guys have afforded me this opportunity. I didn’t get here on my own. We’ve won a lot of games over the years because the players that I’ve been privileged to coach. So I want to acknowledge those guys, and I want to tell my guys back at Tulane that I was at practice with this morning, I can’t wait to see you first thing tomorrow morning.

It’s great to be a Florida Gator. It’s great to be a Florida Gator. I am honored and humbled to be the head football coach of the University of Florida.

I’d like to talk about my family. My wife Ginny, my best friend. I’m going to try not to get emotional. We’ve known each other since we were in high school. My senior year prom — I forget which dance. It was prom. I went with one of her best friends and she went with one of my best friends. We grew up about two miles apart. I’ve known her since I was a high school kid. But she’s my best friend. She’s been there every step of the way.

When we got married, I was the defensive coordinator at the University of San Diego, which is a 1-AA non-scholarship football. Not San Diego State, the University of San Diego, the Toreros. Pioneer League, PFL, baby.

We were sitting there, I think we were on Pacific Beach one night, and I was getting close to maybe thinking about asking her to marry me, and I said, Could you live in Pocatello, Idaho, and she said, Why would we do that. I said, That’s where Idaho State is; I may have to coach there one day. She said, Jon, if you’re there, I can go. I said, All right, I think this will work.

Ginny, I love you. I’m grateful for you. You’ve been there every step of the way. Thank you for letting me pursue my goals and dreams.

We had options. We had choices. My wife and I, we sat down and we chose Florida. We made that decision. Florida had to choose us, but we chose it back.

Our four kids that are here today, Sam, Sadie, 12-year-old twins, Stella, our nine-year-old daughter, and Selah, the caboose, our seven-year-old, the greatest privilege I have other than being your mom’s husband is being y’all’s dad.

When I shared with the kids and Ginny and I shared with the kids what we were about to do next, their responses were very fitting to their personalities. Sam’s immediate reaction was, Do you think I’ll get a chance to meet Tim Tebow? He’s read his book. He also was fired up because we’re Jordan brand. He’s got his J’s on right now.

Sadie, his twin sister, her first response was, Dad, the place that gets to play their games in The Swamp? I said, yeah, Sadie, The Swamp. She goes, tell Mom I’m not sitting in the suite area, I’m sitting in the stands, because it seems like a lot of fun there. She knows more football than most of you men in the room, too. She can draw up power. I’m not sure if she’s got counter down yet.

Stella, affectionally in our family, are known as — what is she known as? Y’all say it. She’s the rattlesnake. She’ll bite you. She just wanted to know, when I told her we were going to be closer to Orlando, could we go to Disney every summer. I said, Mom might be able to make that work.

Then Selah, her name has the most significance of meaning in our family. Selah is the Psalms, at the end of Psalms, Selah means to stop, to pause, to reflect and to praise, and with Selah, our No. 4, we have stopped. (Laughter).

Her immediate response was, Dad, can we win a championship there? I said, you’re damned right we can. She’s the life of the party.

To my mom and dad, George and Sandra Sumrall, thank you for being there. They’ve been there every step of the way my whole life. Mom is a saint. Dad is stubborn. I love y’all. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. It’s an honor that you’re here today. It means the world that y’all made it. Thank you.

My in-laws, the Nixons, thank you for allowing me to have a wife and it be your daughter and being the best in-laws in the world. I actually get to say that.

Then my brother Joe, my biggest fan, Joe, we can win or lose and Joe usually can find the positives. I think he might be related to Ted Lasso. We leave a game and my dad used to — doesn’t do it quite as much anymore, but used to question play calls we’d make. Now that’s my son. My brother thinks all the play calls are great because I’m his brother and we’re making them. But thank you for being my biggest fan and being there every step of the way to support me.

I can assure you, our family is going to be all into this university and all into this community. We will be connected. We will be engaged. We are excited to do life in Gainesville. We are excited to partner with everyone here. The only way we know how to do it is all in.

I also look forward to doing life and partnering with other head coaches here at the University of Florida. As we went through this process of making a decision of what we were going to do next with our future, I had the privilege of spending some time on the phone and visiting with Todd Golden. His wife Megan kind of helped recruit Ginny a little bit, too, and man, I’m excited to support the other sports here at the University of Florida. You’re going to see us at basketball games.

That was one of the other questions the kids had is when can we watch Gator basketball, and I said, Soon. Tomorrow night against Duke. Not in person probably.

But Todd and Megan have been great. I can’t wait to meet the others and partner with them and help bring championships to Gainesville.

To the Florida football family, it’s got to start with Coach Spurrier and Urban Meyer. Are you kidding me? I get to stand in the same spot and do the same job as two absolute legends in the football community. And the fact that they’re here today means the world to me. I’m kind of pinching myself.

I’ve come a long way to hold the job that they once held. It means the world that y’all are here.

To the former players, you’re always welcome home. We want you to know, man, the doors are open. Please come back. Danny Wuerffel, I had a chance to spend time with Danny and visit with Danny and communicate with Danny and visit with Danny through the process. We want all of you back. We need all of you back. You’re always home here.

To our fans and donors, we can only maximize our success and potential with your full support. It takes all of us working together to win championships. I love, love, love your passion and your enthusiasm. 18 straight sellouts here in The Swamp. That streak is not going to end anytime soon. We need to build upon that.

But that passion and enthusiasm, the fire, that’s part of what attracted me here, because I’m wired the same way. The standard here is championships. That’s why I came. I’m built for this job. I was made for this job. Winners win; I’m a winner; we’re going to win.

Roster building. It starts with our current team. I just got the chance to meet with those guys. Retention in these days of the college football world is the most important thing to build a team. We need those guys to stay, and that’s the first recruiting effort I have.

We also have signing day on Wednesday, which is vital. I believe that the lifeblood of your program is recruiting good high school players, and at Florida, elite high school football players.

It starts here at home. We’re privileged to be in the state of Florida which has got just such a great hotbed for not just high school football players but great coaches, and we don’t have to go very far to find what we need to win championships.

We’re also very privileged, though, to have a national brand where we can go all across the country and get the best of the best, the cream of the crop.

We will use the transfer portal. If you’ve studied my rosters the last couple years, I haven’t had the resources to keep very many of my good players. They all end up getting poached. So I’ve had to embrace the transfer portal probably more than most, maybe even more than I’d like to at times, by necessity.

But we will use the portal to enhance our team and to supplement where there may be holes or deficiencies. We’re going to run a player-driven program. My job as the head football coach here is to serve and to develop the players. It’s not to be served, it’s to serve.

If there were no players, there would be no coaches. If there weren’t players on the football team, you wouldn’t need me. Those players are going to get everything I’ve got to help them become their best.

I’m also excited to partner with the Gator Made program. The more I learned about that program, I’ve been really excited about partnering with them and what they do to equip our players and young men for life.

We’re going to attract a championship-level staff here at the University of Florida. We’re going to play with an edge, a blue-collar mindset, and a chip on our shoulder. We will be tough. We will have grit. We will not be outworked. We will play with passion and physicality. We will build our scheme in all three phases around our players and their strengths.

On offense, when I think of Florida football, I think of aggressive, I think of explosive, I think about mixing tempos, using it to your advantage, and dictating the game to the opponent.

I think about stretching the field and threatening every blade of grass. It all starts with the quarterback and the pieces around him. We’ll get elite skill players here. We’ve got some already; we’ve got to keep them. Our O-line has to play with a demeanor that’s nasty and that is a force to be reckoned with, and that’ll happen.

I may be a defensive guy, but I want to be more of a defensive guy like somebody Coach Spurrier knows like Bob Stoops. I want the scoreboard to light up. The way we’ve played maybe where I’ve been has looked a little different than how I want to play moving forward because your job everywhere you are is to figure out how you win for the place you’re at. Here, I think we can score a lot of points, and that’s what I want to do.

Defensively we will swarm, and we will attack. We will play with great pursuit of the football and relentless effort. We’ll always be on the hunt because that’s what Gators do. We’re going to make our opponents uncomfortable. I want to be the most feared defense in the country.

On special teams we’re going to play special. We’re going to be detailed. We’re going to be sound. We’re going to win the hidden yardage. We’re going to create an advantage in the kicking game. I’ve got a background in special teams. I’ve been a special teams coordinator. That will have my fingerprints on it.

Before I move on, I’d like to acknowledge we’ve got some players here in the back, and I can’t wait to partner with y’all. I’m fired up y’all are here. It means the world that y’all are in here today. It’s all about y’all.

In closing, I’ll wrap up with, just like around here when we go to the fourth quarter, we sing, I won’t back down. I won’t back down. I will never back down. The Florida Gators, we will not back down. Go Gators!”

Jon Sumrall coverage

* Florida Gators hiring Tulane’s Jon Sumrall as UF’s 30th head coach
* Jon Sumrall, Scott Stricklin comment on his hiring at Florida
* Florida coach Jon Sumrall gets strong backing from Gators legends
* Florida commits react to first meeting with Jon Sumrall
* About Jon Sumrall … from someone who has covered him
* What On3 Insiders are saying about Jon Sumrall
* ESPN grades Florida Gators’ hiring of Jon Sumrall

Full Sumrall presser