Florida Gators hires Brad White as defensive coordinator: Jon Sumrall adds peer from Kentucky

Football

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Image Credit: UAA

A familiar name will join new Florida Gators head football coach Jon Sumrall on the sideline next season as the first-year coach from Tulane has decided to bring in Brad White as defensive coordinator. White, who led Kentucky Wildcats defense for the last seven seasons, shared duties with Sumrall for one season in 2021.

“Brad is one of the best defensive minds in football and I’m thrilled he will be joining us in Gainesville,” Sumrall said in a release. “Brad has led one of the best defenses in the SEC the last seven years and has extensive experience in the NFL as well. His defenses possess the exact characteristics we are going to have here at Florida and I can’t think of a better leader for that unit.”

While White may have been available anyway, he suddenly found himself without a job Sunday when Kentucky fired his boss, head coach Mark Stoops, after 13 seasons. He earned $1.75 million last year and is being listed by Florida as the sole defensive coordinator without a position assignment included as part of his title.

The Wildcats ended the Gators’ 31-game series winning streak in 2018 with White serving as linebackers coach. Kentucky has won three of the last four meetings, holding Florida to 16 points or fewer in each defeat, with White as defensive coordinator. (That accomplishment comes against UF’s offense being helmed by Billy Napier, of course.)

“Extremely thankful to Coach Sumrall for this exciting opportunity” White said. “I’m ready to hit the ground running on helping construct a defense that will make Gator Nation proud. Coach has already stated the vision — be the most feared defense in college football. Now comes the hard work necessary to make that vision a reality.  And while scheme has its importance, the most critical focus we’ll have as a defensive staff will be to develop the highly-talented playmakers we recruit and demand that they play with a pace and violence second to none.”

Determining how much of the defensive success should be attributed to White compared to Stoops is tough, and the UK offense has been terrible of late, which regularly put the defense in difficult positions. However, the unit this season was ranked 75th nationally, the worst in his tenure. Kentucky may have squashed Florida, but it gave up 86 points combined in its final two games and allowed six opponents to score 30+ points in 2025.

The UK defense ranked 11th nationally in 2022, 14th in 2019 and 26nd in 2021, but it also placed 61st in 2023. The 2021 season was the lone campaign in which Sumrall and White coordinated the unit together.

Kentucky does not recruit at the level of Florida, and it’s impossible to know what level of success White may have leading a defense with more talent, yet without Stoops’ oversight. He does bring significant SEC experience to the table, and White also spent seven years at the NFL level, ultimately becoming outside linebackers coach in his final three seasons with the Indianapolis Colts (2012-17).

If Sumrall hires another person to share defensive coordinator responsibilities with White splitting his focus with coaching linebackers, this could work well. If the defense is indeed White’s to control in totality, it’s questionable as to whether this is the best hire Florida could make for the role — especially considering it is not paying one of the higher coaching salaries in the SEC. Grade: B–