I’ll admit it: I didn’t really know who Rusty Whitt was when Florida hired him.
After actually looking into him, I’m extremely impressed.
Whitt is Florida’s Director of Football Performance, and he came to Gainesville with Jon Sumrall after working with him at Troy and Tulane. But calling him simply a strength coach doesn’t really tell the story.
He’s been in strength and conditioning for decades. He has a master’s degree in kinesiology, has worked at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and has built programs around strength, speed, mobility, conditioning and rehabilitation.
Then there’s the part of his résumé that really jumps off the page.
Whitt stepped away from coaching and served in the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group. He deployed to Iraq, earned a Combat Infantryman Badge and an Army Commendation Medal with Valor, and even designed conditioning programs for his Special Forces team.
That background helps explain what Florida players went through this offseason.
Whitt introduced what they call “The Gauntlet,” a demanding offseason program built around more than simply lifting heavier weights. It’s designed to test conditioning, discipline, mental toughness and how players respond when they’re exhausted.
And there are already measurable results.
During Florida’s summer training period, the team reportedly added nearly 14,000 combined pounds across its power clean, squat, bench press and deadlift totals.
That doesn’t automatically mean Florida is going to win football games. Strength coaches shouldn’t get credit for everything that happens on Saturdays.
But it does tell you Florida brought in somebody with a serious résumé, a serious philosophy and a long track record of developing athletes.
Maybe the most telling thing about Whitt is Jon Sumrall’s trust in him.
Sumrall inherited Whitt at Troy, kept him, brought him to Tulane and then brought him again to Florida.
That tells me Whitt isn’t just another member of the support staff.
He appears to be one of the people Sumrall believes is essential to building the kind of football program he wants.
I didn’t know much about Rusty Whitt before I started looking into him.
I do now.
And I’m extremely impressed with the man Florida has running its football performance program.
