Sumrall on the Gator QB room: "I think experience can be oversold"

“What, me worry?” – Alfred E. Neuman

When he checks the career stats of his scholarship quarterbacks, Jon Sumrall sees 80 completions in 137 attempts (58.3 percent) for 1,129 yards (8.24 yards per attempt), four touchdowns and three interceptions. Those numbers are accumulated over 10 games in two seasons, eight at Georgia Tech for Aaron Philo, two at Florida for Trammel Jones Jr. There is one start in there by Philo against a D1AA team, although he did finish and win a game against North Carolina State in 2024 after Georgia Tech starter Haynes King was injured.

Then there is freshman Will Griffin, whose 12,000-plus passing yards rank among the best totals ever among high school quarterbacks in the state of Florida. He’s impressive and already enrolled for the spring semester at UF, but he still hasn’t thrown a single pass in a collegiate game.

Experience is in rather short supply when it comes to quarterback at the University of Florida. Yet, Jon Sumrall, the fifth and latest Gator football coach since Urban Meyer retired after the 2010 season isn’t fazed.

He is not panicking. There are no nervous shivers running up and down his leg. It’s just another day here in paradise for a coach who, upon opening a door to a room filled to the ceiling with horse poop is like a kid looking for a shovel because he sees the possibility of a pony.

“I like our quarterback room,” Sumrall said Saturday in an impromptu Q and A with the media at halftime of the Florida-Auburn basketball game.

There isn’t a proven starter in the bunch and in the fall the Gators will be facing teams with serious QB talent in Auburn (Byrum Brown), Ole Miss (Trinidad Chambliss), South Carolina (Lanorris Sellers), Texas (Arch Manning), Georgia (Gunner Stockton) and Oklahoma (John Mateer). When it comes to experience, Florida’s quarterback room doesn’t stack up to that.

It’s not like Sumrall hasn’t gone through a situation like this in the past. He knows the drill.

“You know, we started Darian Mensah my first year at Tulane,” Sumrall recalled. “He had never taken a collegiate snap.”

All Mensah did was throw for 2,723 yards (9.5 yards per attempt) and 22 touchdowns while leading Tulane to a 10-3 record that included the American Conference championship game.

“I get it, it’s the American Conference, not the SEC, right?” Sumrall asked rhetorically. “So a little bit different, but, man, if you get the right guy, sometimes I think experience can be oversold. There's a lot of guys who are experienced and aren't very good.”

When Sumrall took the job, Florida’s 2025 starter DJ Lagway took to the portal with his 18 career starts, 4,179 yards (7.9 yards per attempt) and 28 touchdown passes (23 interceptions), leaving behind Jones as the only scholarship quarterback on the roster. In two games of relief duty – Long Island and Kentucky – Jones was 21-35 for 191 yards and two touchdowns. First on Sumrall’s agenda was to ensure Griffin didn’t de-commit Florida and go somewhere else on the December signing date.

Once Griffin was secured, his attention turned to Philo on the insistence of Buster Faulkner, who departed Georgia Tech to become Sumrall’s offensive coordinator. Faulker recruited Philo to Georgia Tech out of Prince Avenue Christian Academy in Atlanta, where he set state passing records.

“I think Buster has extreme confidence in him,” Sumrall said. “You know, as I did my homework, I think the place he was at, they didn't want to leave. There's a lot of people there that felt like he was ready to be the starter there, and I trust our opportunity to make the call. And, I watched him in high school as well.”

At Georgia Tech Philo showed flashes of the potential he showed in high school where he was a dual threat quarterback. In leading Georgia Tech to the win over North Carolina State in 2024, Philo ran seven times for 57 yards and a TD while throwing for 265 yards. He also contributed13 rushing yards and 67 passing yards off the bench in Tech’s win over Miami.

There is less tape on Jones, who only played in two games as a true freshman last year. He does throw a very catchable ball and he’s quite accurate with great fundamentals. As a high school QB at Mandarin in Jacksonville, Jones threw for 7,197 yards (9.4 yards per attempt) and 75 touchdowns. He broke his ankle two games into his senior season, otherwise he probably would have thrown for 10,000-plus yards and more than 100 touchdowns.

“I think Trammell, I'm excited about,” Sumrall said.

With spring practice just weeks away, Sumrall is going to get a good look at all three of his scholarship quarterbacks. None of them are proven starters and their experience is truly limited, but there is no lack of talent.

Experience? That’s a totally different story, but for now at least, Sumrall seems unfazed.

“Is there guys that I think can help us win football games here? Yeah,” Sumrall said. “We've got a lot of work to do to figure out what that looks like. Who's the starter and all that stuff's a long way from making that decision, but they'll make it for us. The quarterback competition, they decide who starts for me by how they practice and how they play.”