GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The relationship between a head coach and the strength and conditioning coach of a football program can sometimes be unique.

Such is the case between Jon Sumrall and Rusty Whitt. In his inaugural press conference as a member of Florida’s coaching staff, the 54-year-old Whitt used a scene from a classic comedy to describe their bond.

“You ever seen the movie ‘Step Brothers’?” Whitt asked. “When they’re in the front yard looking at each other, and he goes, ‘They call me dragon.’ And he goes, ‘I’m Nighthawk’. Well, that was like our first meeting.”

However, Dragon and Nighthawk almost never made a connection. When Sumrall took his first head coaching job at Troy in 2022, Whitt was already there as a member of the previous coaching staff.

“When I took the head job at Troy, I fully intended on firing him. Like, he was not being retained,” Sumrall said. “I did my homework, and I’m like, ‘okay, maybe this could work.’ I did more homework, and me and him had a bunch of one-on-one meetings, and I’m like, ‘okay, this guy is probably part of the solution here, not the problem.’ “

Sumrall’s re-evaluation of Whitt proved beneficial, leading to two conference titles at Troy and a conference title and a College Football Playoff appearance at Tulane. In his four years as a head coach, Sumrall’s only strength coach has been Whitt – his title with the Gators is director of football performance – demonstrating that they are more than just step-brothers.

“Now we’re like brothers,” Sumrall said. “He’s very, very close to me. I have a lot of confidence in him. We can usually, like this morning in our workout, I can usually look at him and say two words, and he knows exactly what I’m thinking and vice versa.”

Despite his reference to the film, Whitt, a native of Azle, Texas, is a no-nonsense guy.

A decorated Army veteran, Whitt joined the military after the events of 9/11, while he was in the midst of his coaching career.

Having come from a military family, he says he felt his calling after witnessing the horrific scene at the World Trade Center on TV. His grandmother also called him that morning in 2001 and said, “Rusty, this is your Pearl Harbor.”

He served from 2003 to 2009, during which he was deployed to Iraq as part of Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) V and VI, according to his bio.

With a similar decision to join the Army, Whitt was asked about former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman. He said he didn’t join because of Tillman, but did mention that the Cardinals Ring of Honor member was “two basic-training classes ahead of me in the same company.”

There is no question that Whitt’s military background influences his coaching.

“The main thing is the standards,” he said. “The standards that we expect out of our team and out of our individual players, football is a game of high standards, and it’s an accountability contest,” he said.

A gifted storyteller, Whitt shared a story from his time in basic training that relates to standards and accountability: one person out of 200 across four 50-person platoons had a popped collar, forcing everyone to bear-crawl around a cinder track from 8 a.m. to noon.

For Whitt, standards and accountability are more than just words; they are a state of being.

 

“So those two simple phrases, you can go on a lot about, but I’m going to bring standards and accountability to this program,” he said. “My staff that I’ve brought with me, they do an exceptional job of that. And the guys that we absorbed here understand it, and we’re all going to be on the same page.”

He also emphasized player-led accountability, referring to a mantra used by Sumrall: “Good teams are coach-led, and great teams are player-led.”

Not only are players expected to learn and perform themselves, but they are also expected to teach and coach their teammates in a system, which Whitt refers to as “force multiplier.”

This idea of player-led accountability is crucial with a new program Whitt introduced at Florida called “The Gauntlet.” The systematic training with penalties is something he has taken from other coaches, built on, and used with his teams since early in his career.

Sumrall makes every team, every year pass it and threatens “that if we don’t pass it before spring break, we will come back and do it later.” So far, the two Troy teams and two Tulane teams have passed, and the Gators look to be the fifth team to do so under Sumrall.

“The thing I love about what he does is he’s old-school in the weight room. He makes these guys lift heavy, and I still believe in that,” said special teams coach Johnathan Galante, who came from Tulane with Whitt. “When it gets down to championship-level football, the strongest, most well-conditioned team wins, and he instills that in the weight room. I love what he does with the Gauntlet with the competition; that’s a lot of fun. Guys are getting matched up against other guys with similar skill sets, you get to watch those guys compete, and that’s huge for me because I can evaluate those guys early.”

In relation to his Gauntlet program, Whitt thinks of his role now as more of a scientist and a mentor, not someone who is “out front doing jumping jacks.”

“You can look back at some coaches – I won’t name any names – who were just waving towels and jumping up and down,” Whitt said. “That’s not me.”

At least not anymore.

While still more than a hype man, as Louisiana’s strength and conditioning coach in 2011, Whitt made national headlines after a picture of him with blood gushing down his head and shades standing on the sidelines, unfazed, went viral.

The photo was from a New Orleans Bowl game between Louisiana and San Diego State, in which Whitt headbutted one of his players, who was wearing a helmet during pregame. The Ragin’ Cajuns went on to win 32-30.

Although he may not be jumping up and down or headbutting players on the field, he still pushes them mentally in the weight room. With his new team, composed of over 40 newcomers, Whitt’s initial feedback has been positive from the Gators.

“You never know what you’re going to get into with a new team,” Whitt said. “They want to go. They want to do hard things together.”