A few Sumrallisms from Monday

(Photo by Chris Spears)

 Fasten your seatbelts, folks. After four years of blah, blah, blah press conferences in which it seemed Florida’s head football coach was intent on using as many words without actually saying anything during 15 painful minutes, enter Jon Sumrall. He’s the type that if you’re afraid of the answer, you better not ask the question. He spent 37 minutes Monday offering far more info, detail, humor and enthusiasm than the question required. What a concept.

Here are a few Sumrallisms from Monday that might have been overlooked to a degree:

About the linebackers: “I've been really pleased with the depth of the inside linebacker room, the growth there. Ty Jackson, Myles Johnson, all those guys … Talking about Myles Johnson, effort plays more, and I'm like, whoa, he's getting better. And then, man, you talk about physically gifted, man, getting way better. So the depth there is stepping up.”

About the safeties: “I think the safety room is unique because you look at guys like Bryce (Thornton) and DJ (Coleman), really, really, really good football players. Like a lot of snaps. veteran experience, and then behind them you look and you got some really talented guys like Lagonza (Hayward) or maybe (Cam) Dooley, less time on task, less veteran, less proven. And then you have another guy in that room like Alfonzo Allen, who's just really steady as well, kind of complements like the top guys in that room, and he just does the right thing a lot and does it really well.”

About the D-line: “I like the rotation we got. I feel pretty good about the way that looks. Kam James being back makes it even look better. I mean, that's a group that right now can play with some depth.”

Who has to step up on defense: “So I think each room is just a little bit different as you go. But the guys that have to make the most adjustments are the linebackers and the safeties. Those are the guys that, when the picture changes, they have to adapt more. And so those guys have to be smart football players.”

The bad: “Two of the passing touchdowns we gave up on Saturday, we just decided not to cover anybody. Like, I could throw those. Like, it drove me crazy. Like, it's okay to get beat on a play. It's not okay to just give them plays. We can't beat ourselves. And so Florida beat Florida on defense a couple times Saturday, which was really frustrating.”

The good: “The one interception we threw on Saturday, as you watch it on tape, you're like, where do you go with the football? You know where you need to go with the football there? Nowhere. Because everybody was just blanketed.”

Another word about QB Aaron Philo and defense: “That was the most impressive thing to me of his (Philo’s) scrimmage was bad play and then followed it up with really good football afterwards. And that's the quarterback position. You're going to throw a pick, the whole crowd's going to boo, and what do you do next? That says a lot about you. And so, because like in full disclosure, he had one other throw and Trammell (Jones) had a couple that could have gone bad too. On the tight end over route, we threw it right into coverage one time as well just to get picked. Because the linebacker covered it, had hands like a snake. And so, when you have a bad play at quarterback, you gotta respond. It ain't always gonna go good.”

A name to remember: “Probably my favorite moment in the scrimmage was when Heze Kent was in the slot … We challenged him. He's responded. He still has a long way to go, but he's growing. There was times on Saturday's deal that he looked fatigued, but he's trimmed down quite a bit. He's lost a ton of weight. He's put in a great deal of work. He's shown a great deal of discipline to get his body right to where he can play tight end. I basically told him when we broke spring practice, I gave him the ultimatum of sort of two or three different goal weights by different timelines, or he could play either offensive line or nose. He could make the decision. And he's decided he doesn't want to play offensive line or nose by losing the weight. Now, we're not done with the weight stuff, but I tell you, Heze's impressive. Maybe, I'm not just saying this, this is the truth, he may have the best ball skills on our team.”

Associated Press top 25 (SEC teams bold face): 1. Ohio State; 2. Oregon; 3. Georgia; 4. Notre Dame; 5. Texas; 6. Indiana; 7. Miami; 8. Texas A&M; 9. Ole Miss; 10. Oklahoma; 11. LSU; 12. Texas Tech; 13. Alabama; 14. (Tie) Southern Cal; BYU; 16. Michigan; 17. Washington; 18. Penn State; 19. SMU; 20. Tennessee; 21. Utah; 22. Iowa; 23. Houston; 24. Louisville; 25. Missouri

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC

Alabama: Kalen DeBoer won’t name a starting quarterback yet, but Keelon Russell clearly outplayed Austin Mack in Saturday’s scrimmage. Post scrimmage DeBoer said, "As the scrimmage went on, they both got better. Both had their moments early where they could have executed better. They could use some help from some guys once in a while, they're not going to be perfect all the time.”

Arkansas: The highlight of Sunday’s Arkansas scrimmage was a 96-yard completion from KJ Hill to Chris Marshall. Marshall was prevented from scoring by safety Miguel Mitchell, a former Gator, who ran him down before he crossed the goal line. Mitchell began his career at Texas A&M in 2023, then transferred to Ole Miss in 2024 where he was dismissed from the team. He comes to Arkansas after spending last year in junior college.

Auburn: After the weekend, the starting offensive line looks like LT Jo Simmons, LG Jacob Strand of Deryc Plazz, C Cole Best, RG Cole Skinner and RT Stanton Ramil.

Georgia: Georgia’s roster is 59.7 percent home grown, highest percentage of home grown talent on any SEC roster this year. Overall, that’s the 15^th best total in the country … Ellis Robinson, Demello Jones, Khalil Barnes and KJ Bolden seem to be mortal locks for the four starting jobs in the secondary.

Kentucky: Offensive coordinator Joe Sloan says junior college transfer Jordan Knox is going to play his way onto the field whether that is at center or at guard. Knox began his

LSU: Lane Kiffin weighed in on the controversy over corner DJ Pickett being assigned the No. 5 jersey, which was worn in 2023 Heisman Trophy quarterback Jayden Daniels. Daniels’ attorney sent a cease and desist letter to LSU while claiming disrespect because an LSU player will wear No. 5. Kiffin’s response: “I'm not going to judge something [that was done] when I wasn't here. But when a kid is promised something [jersey No. 5] to come to a school, he should wear it. So at that point, I don't think that's really my decision. We should honor what he was told." … Former Gator wide receiver Eugene Wilson III is emerging as the go-to guy for quarterback Sam Leavitt.

Mississippi State: Regarding the offensive line so far in camp, HBC Jeff Lebby said, “Got to create more consistency. Where we are today compared to a year ago today, it's not close. We've got to get better. But our guys are playing with a ton of urgency. I like where that group is. Just want more.”

Missouri: Expectations are that Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons is a lock for the starting QB job. Someone must not have told sophomore Matt Zollers, who played in eight games at Mizzou last year, threw for 503 yards and four touchdowns. Zollers has looked good in practice and may win the starting job if Simmons doesn’t show more consistency.

Oklahoma: Starting senior center Jake Maikkula’s knee injury isn’t nearly as bad as initially thought. He will miss the rest of August practice and possibly 2-3 games once the season begins.

Ole Miss: There are whispers that redshirt senior offensive guard Troy Everett is considering retiring from football. Everett, who has had injury issues throughout his career, is a transfer from Oklahoma.

South Carolina: Wide receivers Jayden Gibson and Jayden Sellers suffered season-ending injuries over the weekend. Gibson is a transfer from Oklahoma. Sellers, younger brother of starting quarterback LaNorris Sellers, caught 22 passes for 337 yards and a touchdown last season. Gibson missed the last two seasons due to injuries, but caught 14 passes for 375 yards and five touchdowns in 2023. Both Gibson and Sellers were running first team with returning starter Nyck Harbor, who led the team with 30 catches for 618 yards and six touchdowns last season.

Tennessee: Safety Edrees Farooq, who left Friday’s scrimmage in an ambulance suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right knee and is done for the season. Last season Farooq had 76 tackles, two interceptions and four forced fumbles … In Saturday’s scrimmage, true freshman QB Faizon Brandon threw the only touchdown pass while redshirt freshman QB George MacIntyre threw an interception.

Texas: Texas will open its new state of the art indoor practice facility September 4, the day before the season opener with Texas State …A flu outbreak caused several players to miss the first scrimmage. MIA were Daylon McCutcheon, Justus Terry, Brad Spence, Rasheem Biles, Ty’Anthony Smith and John Meredith. Terry, Spence, Smith and Meredith returned to practice on Monday.

Texas A&M: Sophomore Jamarion Morrow is pushing incumbent Rueben Owens for the starting running back job. Owens led the Aggies in rushing last year with 639 yards and five touchdowns. As a true freshman last year, Morrow gained 182 with one TD.

Vanderbilt: The quarterback battle between New Mexico State transfer Blaze Berlowitz and true freshman Jared Curtis heated up after Saturday’s scrimmage. Berlowitz has a better command of the playbook while Curtis makes more explosive plays. HBC Clark Lea said about Curtis, “I thought today, in particular, it was Jared's best day. From a consistency standpoint, I thought he operated well. I thought you saw some of his play creativity come into play today too.”