Florida didn’t just buy a new head coach this offseason. It bought experience, too.
When the Gators kick off their 2026 season Saturday, Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic at The Swamp, the spotlight will naturally land on first-year coach Jon Sumrall. But the more revealing subplot is sitting beside him on the sideline: Florida spent big to bring in two veteran coordinators from Power Four programs, and the opener should offer the first real read on whether that investment was worth it.
Buster Faulkner arrives from Georgia Tech and will make $2.1 million in 2026 as Florida’s offensive coordinator. Brad White, hired away from Kentucky, is set to earn $1.85 million as the defensive coordinator.
Together, they form a $3.95 million tandem, which ranks fifth among the 15 public SEC schools. Vanderbilt, a private school, does not disclose salaries.
Florida’s coordinators are not at the very top of the league’s spending chart. LSU leads the SEC with $5.6 million for its staff, followed by Georgia at $4.4 million, Texas at $4.225 million and South Carolina at $4 million. Still, the Gators clearly paid up for proven hands.
"You want people that you trust, and I trust both of those guys because they've got great experience and they’re both really qualified," Sumrall said. "And the way they carry themselves. They're good men, and they're good at what they do."
That approach marks a sharp break from what Florida had before. Under Billy Napier, the Gators leaned younger and lighter on coordinator experience.
Patrick Toney, hired from Louisiana in 2022 at 32 years old, lasted one season and oversaw a defense that finished last in the nation in third-down defense, allowing conversions on 49.7% of attempts. Austin Armstrong followed in 2023 after coming from Southern Mississippi at 29, and Florida still struggled, ranking 11th in the SEC in total defense at 382.3 yards allowed per game.
Napier eventually went veteran on defense, promoting 56-year-old Ron Roberts from linebackers coach to call the defense in 2024 and 2025. Offensively, though, he kept the play-calling to himself and leaned on young analysts and position coaches to help patch things together. The result was a 22-23 record over his three-plus seasons before he was fired last October.
Sumrall doesn’t see experienced coordinators as a threat to his authority. He sees them as the point.
"If I'm smarter than the entire room, then we've got a really bad staff," Sumrall said. "So, I want to have great people in the room that challenge me and help me think outside the box a little bit or maybe bring up ideas, whether it's Buster, Brad or an analyst. I don't care who it is that can give me ideas."
Faulkner brings an offense that produced numbers at Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets ranked second in the SEC and 11th nationally with 460.0 yards per game.
He comes out of the Air Raid branch with Valdosta State roots, and his arrival has already shaped Florida’s quarterback situation: Georgia Tech backup Aaron Philo followed Faulkner to Gainesville and will start Saturday against FAU. Philo, a redshirt sophomore, will be making his third career start.
"We’re gonna have a young quarterback," Faulkner said. "We’ve got some weapons around them, you know, some guys that have played a lot of ball at other places but haven’t played a lot of ball here.
We haven’t played a lot of ball together. So, we’re still a work-in-progress, we’re nowhere near a finished product, but we’re gonna continue to strive every day to be the best we can be."
For Faulkner, the biggest jump from spring to fall camp came in the run game. He pointed to the challenge of getting returning All-American junior running back Jadan Baugh comfortable in a new system and with new blockers in front of him.
"That was something we harped on in spring, didn't get really where we wanted it to," Faulkner said. "By the end of camp, I was really pleased where we were at.
You know, starts up front, if you want to run the ball you have to be good up front. And then I thought the backs did a much better job, including Jadan, understanding what they're seeing, all the different run schemes that we have."
White brings the kind of résumé Florida has been chasing. Kentucky’s defensive coordinator from 2018 through 2025, he produced four Top 25 FBS defenses in seven seasons - in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 - and helped develop 14 NFL Draft picks, including six players taken in the first two rounds. Sumrall has already praised White’s mind, saying at the start of fall camp that if he weren’t coaching, he could imagine him running a Fortune 500 company.
White’s scheme is a 3-4 look built to heat up the quarterback while mixing in different coverage looks. Last season at Kentucky, that defense gave Florida quarterback DJ Lagway a brutal afternoon, forcing three first-half interceptions in the Wildcats’ 38-7 win over the Gators.
"I've been blessed to be around a lot of really good coaches and schemes and thought processes," White said. "It's about blending everything ... you try to figure out the best of all worlds and what fits best at that moment."
Florida’s spending on Faulkner and White won’t be judged by payroll rankings. It’ll be judged by how the Gators look when the ball kicks off against FAU.
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The bigger question now is how much of Whites old identity follows him to Florida and how much gets left behind. Kentuckys formula fit some opponents well enough, but Floridas coaching staff seems to view this as a chance to build something less rigid and more tailored to the players on hand. If the Gators are going to get where they want on defense, the answer may not just be about fronts and coverage calls, but whether White is willing to lean into a philosophy that looks noticeably unlike the one he used before. [Read more 🡒]