Florida football coach Jon Sumrall press conference video highlights
Take a look at some highlights from Florida football coach Jon Sumrall’s introductory press conference, including comments from Steve Spurrier.
Florida football has hired former Jacksonville Jaguars GM David Caldwell as its new general manager.Caldwell will oversee roster management, recruiting, and long-term strategic planning in partnership with new head coach Jon Sumrall.He previously served as a senior personnel director for the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was mentored by GM Howie Roseman.One of Caldwell’s first priorities is player retention, including developing players for their future NFL careers.
Florida football officially announced the hiring of David Cadwell as its general manager on Dec. 1.
The 51-year-old Caldwell got to work that Monday morning, studying the Florida Gators roster while meeting with players. Caldwell served as general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2013-20, then served as served as the Philadelphia Eagles senior personnel director/advisor under Eagles GM Howie Roseman, a UF grad.
“It was a tough decision,” Caldwell said. “I was so fortunate to be with the Philadelphia Eagles. They have a first-class owner, probably the best owner in the NFL. You know, like I said, best GM in sports.”
Caldwell said working under Roseman honed his skills as an executive and personnel evaluator.
“Howie’s been a great mentor over the last five years,” Caldwell said. “Learning how they do things in Philadelphia and their process there has been eye-opening. Howie, I tell him and anybody that’d listen, I wish I had those five years before I had my eight years in Jacksonville.”
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin felt the need to create a more active general manager position to support new UF head coach Jon Sumrall. Caldwell had interviewed for the job previously before Florida hired former Atlanta Falcons personnel executive Nick Polk as GM. But Polk took on more of an administrative role and less of a hands-on role under former UF coach Billy Napier.
“He brings deep experience in roster construction, talent evaluation, analytics and long-term planning,” Stricklin said of Caldwell. “This structure matters. It creates alignment. It creates clarity. But most importantly, it allows Jon and the staff he’s going to build to focus fully on leading our players, developing our roster, and winning football games.”
Sumrall was aware that Florida was going to hire an active GM as he was being interviewed. He met with Caldwell before he accepted the offer to come to UF.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Dave,” Sumrall said. “He’s obviously been an NFL general manager. It’s a pretty big title, big role, impressive resume. Have several people that know Dave and have worked with Dave or encountered Dave professionally, and all of the feedback I got was off-the-charts good.”
What are David Caldwell’s duties as Florida football GM
As GM, Caldwell will oversee roster and contract management, recruiting, the personnel department, football operations and the GatorMade program. He will work with Sumrall to support UF’s recruiting, roster retention efforts and long-term strategic planning.
“It’s going to be everything,” Caldwell said. “I think everything. It’s a true partnership. And I think anything that we do here is going to be a team effort and it’s going to be Coach and I and Scott. The people we bring in, it’s going to be a universal system.”
Sumrall expects to have a say in recruiting and transfer additions as well.
“With the model we’re in now, it’s not going to be a deal where Dave just goes out and gets players and I hope it worked out that we got good players,” Sumrall said. “I’m going to be very involved. We’re going to be a partnership, and we’re going to be in lockstep on how we put together our roster, but I also think the head football coach, you can get pulled a lot of different directions.”
During his time as Jaguars GM, Caldwell had some hits and misses on draft picks. His best draft pick was LSU running back Leonard Fournette, who was taken fourth overall in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Fournette had two 1,000-yard rushing seasons in three years, and helped lead the Jaguars to the 2017 AFC Title Game.
One of Caldwell’s first mentors was Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian, who built the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl teams of the 1990s and the Indianapolis Colts teams with Peyton Manning that won the 2006 Super Bowl.
“I grew up in an era I learned how to evaluate subjectively through your eyes,” Caldwell said. “Bill Polian was a great mentor of mine, and (former Cleveland Browns scout, Carolina Panthers executive) Dom Anile, and they taught me how to evaluate players. Well, Howie puts together great analytics and some of the objective data on how they add everything together, and then just the process that he puts in place to make sure you get the best players for your team”.
One priority for Caldwell is player retention, including UF sophomore running back Jadan Baugh, who is coming off a 266-yard rushing effort in Florida’s 40-21 season-ending win over rival Florida State.
“Jadan’s a really good player and, man, a tough mindset,” Caldwell said. “We’re here and we’re going to try to have an NFL development plan, a players’ program department, where we think is going to be the best in the league, and we’re going to carry them all the way to their draft day. So, hopefully we can maximize their value on draft day.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com