“Weak things break.”
This is the mentality Rusty Whitt brings to Florida as its newly hired director of football performance.
Whitt took the Florida job after two seasons of serving as Tulane’s director of strength and conditioning under Jon Sumrall. Prior to Tulane, the military veteran served as strength & conditioning coach at Troy from 2020-23 and led the Trojans to back-to-back Sun Belt Conference championships.
Now, entering the Gators’ 2026 campaign, Whitt expects to prepare UF’s players to grow together and face adversity.
“I just want to make sure that any entitlement in this program is squashed out,” he said.
Whitt brings over 25 years of experience as a strength and conditioning coach to Florida, as well as a distinguished 6-year military career that guides his approach to player development.
He said the military has affected his leadership capabilities by teaching him “The standards, the accountability, [and] the urgency you have to have to be successful.”
Looking to heighten the standard of Gators football and bring an increased level of accountability to the program, Whitt has installed a familiar strength and conditioning regimen that his programs have braved for decades — “The Gauntlet”. An intense training program used to build strength and camaraderie — and highlight weak spots among the team’s physicality or chemistry — The Gauntlet, will be run until the Gators get it right. If they do it wrong, they start over.
Whitt explained “The Gauntlet” helps a team prepare for adversity and that you can really see a team grow together in a short amount of time when they’re pushing toward the common goal of success. He said he’s seen four teams — two at Troy and two at Tulane — complete The Gauntlet in his time as a coach and that the Gators are working to be number five. He noted that they completed their fourth attempt at “The Gauntlet” this morning, and that they got closer than the previous run.
“These guys are so used to being successful that they don't understand what failure really means,” Whitt said. “I learned a lot about myself and the urgency and desire to exist and to last and to mean something. And I try to get that instilled to our players at a young age.”
Whitt takes accountability seriously, not just for his players, but for himself. He’s confident the Gators will shine in the trenches and that his approach to development will allow Florida’s lines to remain steadfast on both sides of the ball.
“I take a lot of pride in our offensive line and our defensive lines inside the box players, and they are a direct reflection of your strength program,” Whitt said. “If they’re getting beat up and pushed around, it’s my fault. You know, fire me, it’s my fault.”
He also harped on the idea that leadership and being a leader starts with leading yourself, and hopes to see UF players take accountability and push themselves as leaders. He’s set a 9 p.m. bedtime as the ideal routine for the Gators and was adamant that his guys need to learn that they can’t live the same lives as regular college students and 20-year-olds. Once they learn they have to alter their behavior, they’ll get it, Whitt said.
“I’m going to bring standards and accountability to this program,” Whitt said. “The guys that we absorb here understand it, and we’re all going to be on the same page.”
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is a junior sports journalism student in his fourth semester at The Alligator. He is currently the sports desk's football and enterprise beat writer, and previously served as a reporter for men's tennis, sports enterprise and football. He is currently pursuing a public relations minor and is an avid Duval sports fan. (#DTWD)
