Summers Proved His Value in 2014; Ready to Rebuild in 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Mike Summers was no different than the rest of Florida's coaching staff when he learned Will Muschamp would not return next season.
Summers pondered if he would have a job at UF next season and whether another move was in his near future. Summers faced the same dilemma in 2013 as Southern Cal's offensive line coach when Lane Kiffin was fired during the season.
When the Gators announced the hiring of former Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain in early December, Summers at least had a connection. While he had never worked directly with McElwain, they both had stints as assistants at Louisville and knew many of the same people in the coaching fraternity.
“We've known each other for a while,'' Summers said. “I guess one of the advantages of being an old coach is that you have a chance to touch a lot of people. Being retained on this staff is something that energizes me.”
While McElwain has hired an impressive staff that features successful college assistants, former NFL assistants, and proven recruiters in Florida and the Southeast, retaining Summers could be his wisest move.
One could make a strong argument that Summers did as good a job as any assistant who worked for Muschamp over the last four seasons.
Summers inherited an offensive line that faced significant injury issues in 2013 – Chaz Green (shoulder, out for season), Tyler Moore (elbow) and D.J. Humphries (knee) all missed multiple games – and retooled the unit into a strength in 2014.
Summers did it with a mixture of veterans and youth.
The Gators moved senior Max Garcia to center, a position he had never played, and Garcia earned Offensive MVP honors. Green stayed healthy until missing the Birmingham Bowl, and Moore returned to play in all 12 games, starting eight.
Meanwhile, after missing two games early in the season, Humphries started the final nine games before declaring for the NFL Draft. Senior Trenton Brown and redshirt junior Trip Thurman improved and offered versatility, and a pair of young offensive tackles, redshirt freshman Roderick Johnson and true freshman David Sharpe, provided depth as future building blocks.
Roderick Johnson is a key building block on the offensive line next season. (Photo: Tim Casey)
The Gators reduced their number of sacks allowed from 27 to 17 – their fewest allowed since 2008 – and boosted their rushing attack to 4.4 yards per carry, nearly a yard more than their 3.6 average in 2013.
“When I came in last year, I wasn't sure what all we had,'' Summers said. “There were some guys that were injured, some guys that didn't go through spring and different things. So I wasn't sure about all the pieces and how they would fit together.
“As we went through the season, I saw improvement and was very encouraged. They hung tough in the face of adversity.”
While Garcia and Brown are at the Senior Bowl this week trying to catch the attention of NFL scouts, Summers is focused on searching for their replacements. In McElwain's first season, the offensive line is perhaps the biggest question mark considering the Gators lose Garcia, Brown, Green, Moore and Humphries.
That leaves 12 career starts among the eight scholarship linemen currently on the roster, 10 by Thurman and two by Johnson.
“There's young players that have been developing and they will have their opportunity to step forward,'' Summers said. “Certainly that's an area that we're going to have to address [in recruiting].”
The task ahead is a challenging one, but McElwain feels comfortable with Summers leading the charge. That's why Summers is the only coach from the previous staff he retained. He also wanted to keep some continuity at the position.
The Gators had three offensive line coaches in four seasons under Muschamp.
“I've had previous history with Coach Summers and we have been in like-systems,'' McElwain said. “If you look at his history of some of the people he's been with, they probably go along the same line as what we've done. I had a great comfort level there.”
So does new offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier.
“He's worked for Coach [Bobby] Petrino, who was my first position coach in college football,'' Nussmeier said. “When you talk to a man in football about Mike Summers and the type of person he is and the quality of football coach he is, you hear nothing but great things.”
That says something considering that in 2015, Summers will be on the sideline coaching for the 36th consecutive year since starting as an offensive line graduate assistant at Kentucky, his alma mater, in 1980. Florida is his 13 different stop.
Summers had two stints at Kentucky and a season in the NFL with Atlanta in 2007. He turns 59 in June but hasn't lost his passion for teaching the game as demonstrated last season.
As the only member of the staff who doesn't have to ask where everything is in town, Summers has taken on an added role of helping the new coaches learn about their new players.
“Hopefully that is the role that I can fill,'' he said. “I have a baseline knowledge of these guys and I do have relationships now with them, so I am a bridge between those guys and the new coaches.
“All of us are ready to roll our sleeves up and go to work to put this program where it needs to be and [where] we can sustain success. That's what we're looking for.”
And a few good players before National Signing Day.
