Florida football reportedly hiring former Jags GM as new general manager

Jon Sumrall, who is reported to be Florida football’s next head coach, appears to already be set with some help in the personnel department.

According to a report from On3's Pete Nakos, the Florida Gators are set to hire former Jacksonville Jaguars general manager David Caldwell as the program’s new general manager.

The move by Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin is designed to create an NFL-style front office to take pressure off the coaching staff when it comes to evaluating recruits and transfer portal options.

Caldwell, 51, worked as a general manager for the Jaguars from 2013-20, an up and down stretch that peaked in 2017 when the Leonard Fournette and Blake Bortles-led Jaguars won the AFC South and reached the AFC title game before falling to the New England Patriots.

A Buffalo, N.Y., native, Caldwell has most recently worked as a personnel executive under Eagles vice president and Florida graduate Howie Roseman. The Eagles are the defending Super Bowl Champions and have become a perennial winner under Roseman's leadership.

Under former Florida coach Billy Napier, the Gators had two staff members handling personnel matters: Jacob LeFrance (high school recruits) and Bird Sherrill (transfers, before Sherrill left for a job with the New York Jets last summer). Nick Polk was hired at UF's associate athletic director/football general manager earlier this year to oversee both LeFrance and Sherril but served in more of an administrative role.

Florida had some hits and misses in the transfer portal under Napier, but UF is hopeful Caldwell and Sumrall can team up to ensure a higher success rate with transfer portal additions.

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at [email protected]. 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

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football set to hire new GM to join new head coach