GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jon Sumrall made his first hires as Florida’s football coach Thursday, bringing aboard Georgia Tech's Buster Faulkner as offensive coordinator and Kentucky's Brad White as defensive coordinator.
Both got three-year contracts to join Sumrall in Gainesville and likely will be considered solid hires considering their experience in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference.
Faulkner, 44, joined Georgia Tech in 2023 after three seasons as a quality control assistant at Georgia, where he worked with quarterbacks for national title teams in 2021 and 2022. Stetson Bennett threw for nearly 7,000 yards and 56 touchdowns as a two-year starter.
Faulker found even more success in three years with quarterback Haynes King in Atlanta. King threw for 7,653 yards, with 53 TDs and 23 interceptions. He also ran for 36 scores.
The year before coach Brent Key and Faulkner arrived at Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets averaged 17.1 points. They improved to 31.1 points per game in 2023, 28.5 points a game in 2024 and 33.1 points a game this season.
Faulker's offenses set records at Arkansas State (2016-18), landing him on Georgia's radar. He played quarterback at Valdosta State (2000-03), where he learned the Air Raid attack first made famous by late coach Mike Leach.
“I may be a defensive guy, but I want to be more of a defensive guy like ... Bob Stoops,” Sumrall said earlier this week. “I want the scoreboard to light up.”
Florida should be able to shut down opponents, too.
The 43-year-old White spent the last eight years in Lexington, including seven of those in charge of the Wildcats' defense. Sumrall and White overlapped on that side of the ball between 2019 and 2021, including working their final year together as co-DCs. Sumrall left Kentucky to become Troy's coach in 2022 and spent the last two years at Tulane.
Under White's direction, Kentucky fielded defenses that ranked in the top 25 nationally in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. His unit ranked sixth nationally in 2018 thanks in part to edge rusher Josh Hines-Allen. Hines-Allen recorded 17 sacks and five forced fumbles as a redshirt junior.
He went on to become the seventh pick by Jacksonville in the 2019 NFL draft and now owns the franchise's sacks record with 59 and counting.
“First of all, they're getting a great person, a great communicator, a guy that wants the best for his players,” Hines-Allen said. "He was my positional coach when I had him, and the time we spent together helped me develop and be where I am today. I give him a lot of credit and a lot of respect and love.
“He's done a lot of good things for that program. Hopefully he continues to have that success at Florida."
Current Jaguars coach Liam Coen, who was Kentucky's offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2023, faced White's defense daily and called him “one of the smarter guys I’ve been around at any level.”
“True teacher of the game,” Coen added. "I learned so much from Brad in terms of the way that he saw the game. He is one of the more detailed, organized coaches I’ve been around in terms of his process throughout the week, his checklists throughout the week and then his game plans to be able to go and cause issues for people.
“It gave me problems every day in practice. It's multiple. He knows how to scheme people up."
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FILE - Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White answers questions during the NCAA college football team's media day, Aug. 3, 2022, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
GENEVA (AP) — Public broadcasters in Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia on Thursday pulled out of next year’s Eurovision Song Contest after organizers decided to allow Israel to compete, putting political discord on center stage over a usually joyful celebration of music.
The walkouts came after the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs the glitzy annual event — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation, which some countries oppose over its conduct of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
At the meeting, EBU members voted to adopt tougher contest voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of their contestants, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.
The feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years, stirring protests outside the venues and forcing organizers to clamp down on political flag-waving.
“It’s a historic moment for the European Broadcasting Union. This is certainly one of the most serious crises that the organization has ever faced,” said Eurovision expert Dean Vuletic. “Next year, we’re going to see the biggest political boycott of Eurovision ever."
Vuletic, author of "Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest," predicted “tense” weeks and months ahead as other countries contemplate joining the walkout and protests set to overshadow the contest's 70th anniversary in Vienna next May.
A report on the website of Icelandic broadcaster RUV said its chiefs would meet next Wednesday to discuss whether Iceland would take part: Its board last week recommended that Israel be barred from the event in the Austrian capital.
The broadcasting union said it was aware that four broadcasters — RTVE in Spain, AVROTROS in the Netherlands, RTÉ in Ireland and Slovenia’s RTVSLO — had publicly said they would not take part.
A final list of participating countries will be announced by Christmas, EBU said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on social platform X that he was “pleased” Israel will again take part, and hoped "the competition will remain one that champions culture, music, friendship between nations and cross-border cultural understanding.”
“Thank you to all our friends who stood up for Israel’s right to continue to contribute and compete at Eurovision,” he added.
Austria, which is set to host the competition after Viennese singer JJ won this year with “Wasted Love,” supported Israel’s participation. Germany, too, supported Israel along with countries like Switzerland and Luxembourg, Vuletic said.
AVROTROS, the Dutch broadcaster, said the participation of Israel “is no longer compatible with the responsibility we bear as a public broadcaster.”
Spain's RTVE said the situation in Gaza — despite the recent ceasefire — and "Israel’s use of the contest for political purposes, make it increasingly difficult to maintain Eurovision as a neutral cultural event.”
RTÉ said Ireland's participation “remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza" and the humanitarian crisis there.
Some broadcasters — which run their country's news programs and wanted Israel kept out — cited killings of journalists in the conflict in Gaza and Israel's continued policy of denying international journalists access to the territory.
Israeli broadcaster KAN's chief executive Golan Yochpaz questioned whether EBU members are "willing to be part of a step that harms freedom of creation and freedom of expression.”
KAN officials said the Israeli broadcaster was not involved in any prohibited campaign intended to influence the results of the latest song contest in Basel, Switzerland last May — when Israel's Yuval Raphael placed second.
The contest pits acts from dozens of nations against one another for Europe's musical crown. It strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The war in Gaza has been its biggest challenge, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating against Israel outside the last two Eurovision contests in Basel, Switzerland, in May and Malmo, Sweden, in 2024.
Opponents of Israel's participation cite the war in Gaza, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.
A number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim that Israel — home to many Holocaust survivors and their relatives — has vigorously denied.
A boycott by some European broadcasters could have implications for viewership and money at a time when many broadcasters are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and the advent of social media.
The pullouts include some big names in the Eurovision world. Spain is one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest. Ireland has won seven times, a record it shares with Sweden.
The controversy over Israel's 2026 participation also threatens to overshadow the return next year of three countries — Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania — after periods of absence because of financial and artistic reasons.
“Next year’s edition is certainly going to be one of the most politicized ever,” Vuletic said. “It’s the 70th anniversary. It was meant to be a big celebration, a big party, but it’s going to be shrouded in political controversy yet again.”
Lawless reported from London.
FILE - Singer Yuval Raphael, from Israel, holds the national flag during a dress rehearsal for the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, May 16, 2025, in Basel, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
FILE - Israeli fans cheer for Yuval Raphael, from Israel, after she performed during the semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
FILE - JJ, from Austria, stands on the stage with his trophy after winning the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
