'I’m not so sure I don’t like the all blue pants jersey helmet better.' Jon Sumrall hasn’t called a single play in The Swamp. Doesn’t matter. The man already knows the one rule that trips up every outsider who walks into Gainesville: You honor Steve Spurrier, or you don’t survive here. Florida just rolled out the 2026 throwback — white jersey, white pants, orange-and-blue stripe, and that flat blue helmet with the old block “F.” Also, the blue helmets are making a comeback. Florida Football,revealed some interesting new uniform combinations for the 2026 season this week, including an all-blue look that will include blue pants, blue jerseys and blue helmets. The last time the Gators wore blue helmets was in 2020, when quarterback Kyle Trask threw for 433 yards and 4 TDs in UF's 31-19 win over Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. I appreciate the tribute to the HBC on going to the All-White throwbacks sometime this season, but in truth, I’m not so sure I don’t like the all blue pants jersey helmet better. What do you think? Sixty years ago, a brash, Tennessee kid named Spurrier slung it around Florida Field and became this school’s first Heisman winner. Nine and two. Orange Bowl win over Georgia Tech to close it out. That kid became the Head Ball Coach. The visor. The swagger. The national title. Everything Gator football thinks it is today traces back to him. You don’t get to skip that. Sumrall gets it. “I’ve seen them and I’m excited about them,” he said of the all whites. “I look forward to them… I do think they’re a cool tribute and such a cool look.” Smart. A first-year coach who leans into the program’s history instead of pretending he invented the place. No date locked yet, but smart money says Homecoming against South Carolina on Oct. 10. Now here’s where I’ll level with you: Two days later, Florida dropped an “all blue everything” combo — blue helmet, blue jersey, blue pants (Bleacher Report). And it’s got a hold on me I can’t shake. So let’s settle this the only way that matters — pro and con, no hedging. Here’s my ruling, and I’m not blinking on it: Wear the all-blue on the road when you want to scare somebody. Save the white-and-blue for the one Saturday big enough to deserve it. A uniform can look tough. Only one of these two actually means something. Sumrall picked the right one to lead with — don’t let a shiny alternate talk you out of that. Quick Jump Starts 1.Arrogance+Incompetence. College football journalist Bruce Feldman stated, "Arrogance plus incompetence is a lethal combination," while criticizing North Carolina general manager Mike Lombardi during an The Athletic discussion regarding the UNC football program's crisis mode under Bill Belichick. Brilliant! 2.Good move by Ole Miss to finally put the great Archie Manning in bronze. His number 18 was the first jersey number retired by Ole Miss. Archie finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1970 and was the second overall pick in the 1971 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989. 3.What a beautiful site for Rays fans! On top of all MLB, 6 1/2 ahead of those Damn Yankees! 4.Not posing as an NBA guy, but maybe the most underrated, unappreciated player ever? Respect from one league to another. Congrats on an incredible career, Russell Westbrook. 5. I’m flummoxed that the SEC Media Days crew didn’t even vote Jadan Baugh first team all-preseason. But ESPN voted him first team pre-season All-Americans. I predict he’ll become one of the greatest Gators ever. Today’s Signoff Jon Sumrall isn’t bluffing. When he says he’s going to play “a ton” of people against FAU and Campbell, believe him — and if you want a number, I’ll go ahead and stick my neck out: Somewhere in the 60-to-70-player range across those first two Saturdays, maybe more before it’s over. Here’s my thinking. He’s done it before, with the same math. Sumrall isn’t guessing about how deep he’ll dig into a roster he barely knows — he’s got a track record. Asked this week how many players he actually had at Tulane last season, his answer wasn’t a number pulled from thin air: “116, I think… yeah, 116, 118. We were under 120, but we were over 110 for sure,” he said. And that means he’s coaching deep in the roster. That concept worked well for Urban Meyer.

By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com Let’s get one thing straight before the compliance office starts sweating: Nobody is talking about stealing signs here. No trash cans, no drones, no guy in a hoodie with binoculars in the upper deck. What I’m talking about is something far more embarrassing for a coach to admit — getting figured out in broad daylight, on film, by people who did nothing more than watch enough tape and keep count. That’s the dirty secret of play-calling in football. You don’t need espionage. You need patterns. And for four years in Gainesville, Billy Napier gave the whole conference plenty of patterns to count. The Secret Isn’t Cheating — It’s Repetition Every defensive coordinator in America builds the same weekly homework assignment: Pull every snap from an offense’s last several games, sort them by personnel grouping, down, distance, hash and formation and look for the plays that repeat when the math says they shouldn’t. If a team runs the ball 66 percent of the time out of one specific set, that’s not a tendency anymore — that’s a tell. If the same route shows up on third-and-long enough times, a safety starts jumping it before the ball is snapped. None of that requires stealing anything. It just requires an opponent who never varies the disguise. That’s precisely what Miami defensive coordinator Lance Guidry admitted to doing before dismantling Florida 41-17 in the 2024 opener. Guidry told reporters the Hurricanes “took the top five to seven plays that showed up in every game last year — a reverse, the crossing routes, a tailback screen,” and that “within the first 10 plays, probably four or five of them showed up.” That is about as close as a coordinator will ever come to a public confession: We knew exactly what was coming. The Teams That Cracked the Code Miami wasn’t alone, and it wasn’t a one-time thing. Heading into 2024’s showdown with Texas A&M, Florida’s own athletics website admitted the Gators were “haunted by routine play-calling, running the ball out of the pistol on every first down” of the opening quarter of a 33-20 loss. By February 2025, it wasn’t just Miami saying it out loud. Three anonymous SEC coaches told Athlon essentially the same thing about Napier’s offense in Florida’s “11” personnel: “Our safety called route trees pre-snap. They are predictable in that grouping… they weren’t hard to scheme for us in the passing game.” Then 2025 happened, and it got worse before it got fixed. USF — a team that had never beaten Florida — walked into the Swamp and won 18-16, with the media flatly noting “the next time Napier genuinely surprises a defense will be the first, still.” Then came the rematch with Miami: 141 total yards, 0-for-13 on third down, the fewest yards for a Florida offense since 1999. Napier himself said afterward it was “not good enough.” And this year, former Gator Jordan Odom removed all doubt about how it looked from inside the building, telling a podcast that Napier “would fold anytime we got into pressure situations… and we just became super predictable,” calling the offense “a bland waste of food” and adding, “If I’m a defensive coordinator watching our film, I could predict everything that was going to happen” Napier was fired seven games into 2025 with a 22-23 record, the worst by any Florida coach since the 1940s. Shirley, Doug Dickey and the Family Football IQ Now, I’ve told this story on the podcast before, but it bears repeating for the youngsters: My sweet late sister Shirley had a football IQ of about a 2 — bless her heart, she thought a “nickel back” was spare change — and even she could call Doug Dickey’s plays before he called them. That’s not really an insult to Shirley, a very smart lady. It’s an indictment of Dickey, who by his own admission after a crucial 1976 loss to Georgia said his staff “did a miserable job… I made some dumb calls” on a fourth-down gamble so predictable the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) paper ran the headline “Fourth and Dumb” the next morning. Conservative, by the book, and easy to see coming — that was Dickey’s brand, decades before anybody called it “predictable playcalling” on a podcast. Here’s the thing, though — decoding an opponent can be exhausting work on both sides of the headset. Even Steve Spurrier, the most creative offensive mind the SEC has ever produced, occasionally needed to hand the keys to somebody else. Back in 2010, with South Carolina on the verge of history, Spurrier turned play-calling into what ESPN called a “community effort,” sharing duties with his staff. He did it again in 2014 after second-guessing himself early in the season, before deciding a year later he’d rather live with his own mistakes: “You make a bad call and you say, ‘Aw, dumbass, why did I do that?’ Maybe somebody else can do it better… but I plan to be the playcaller again. “ Even the Head Ball Coach needed a breather now and then. That’s how demanding this actually is — which makes it all the more inexcusable when a coach refuses to ever hand it off, the way Napier famously did in Gainesville, per multiple reports of his “stubborn refusal to give up offensive play calling duties.” Enter Sumrall and Faulkner So how do Jon Sumrall and Buster Faulkner avoid becoming the next punch line? Start with the obvious structural fix: Sumrall is a defensive-minded head coach who has no interest in also being his own offensive coordinator. He hired Faulkner away from Georgia Tech specifically to own that job, calling him “one of the most innovative offensive coaches in football.” That alone separates this regime from the last one — nobody at a headset is going to tell Faulkner “we’re not changing what we’re going to do for one gap,” the way Odom said Napier once did. And Faulkner’s résumé backs up the hire. He was part of two national championship staffs at Georgia (2021, 2022) and one at Valdosta State (2007), spent three years building Georgia Tech into a top-12 national offense, and was named the 2025 FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year before Florida ever called. 247Sports labeled him “widely regarded as one of the top offensive coordinators in college football” at the time of the hire. The antidote to predictability isn’t a trick play — it’s disguise: Multiple formations that produce the same handful of core concepts, and enough answers on third down that a safety can’t just call it out anymore. That’s what a genuinely multiple offense buys you, and it’s the exact muscle Napier’s staff never built. So Who’s Actually the Best Play-Caller in the Country? Depends who you ask, and everybody’s got a favorite. On3’s Coach Dan Casey put Texas’s Steve Sarkisian at No. 1 this offseason -- we’ll see about that this season — followed by Kentucky’s Will Stein, Vanderbilt’s Tim Beck, LSU’s Charlie Weis Jr. and Navy’s Drew Cronic, with Lincoln Riley an honorable mention. Down in Athens, quarterback Gunner Stockton will tell you it’s his own coordinator, Mike Bobo, hands down — yet every day we hear a segment of Dawg fans calling for his head. My take, for what it’s worth after decades of watching this sport from the press box: There’s no wrong answer among that group, because they share the one trait Napier’s Florida never had — they change the picture enough that a defense can’t just count snaps and know what’s next. If Faulkner meets expectations in Gainesville, anything close to what he did at Georgia Tech, don’t be surprised if his name is on that list a year from now. Shirley would’ve liked that. She never did enjoy calling plays that already got called for her.

DT Jeremiah McCloud hits a sled during a practice drill on Tuesday (Photo by Chris Spears) The pads go on and football gets very serious for the Florida Gators today. With 24 days remaining until the season opener with Florida Atlantic at The Swamp, Jon Sumrall has 93 players on scholarship, 45 on offense, 42 on defense and six on special teams. Talent isn’t an issue for Sumrall and the Gators, but depth and experience pose potential issues at several positions, starting with quarterback where Aaron Philo and former walk-on Aidan Warner have exactly two starts between them. The size and strength are more than adequate at tackle, but experience is lacking. At linebacker, the Gators have seven scholarship bodies, three of them outstanding, but most experts believe it takes at least nine to make it through an SEC schedule. Here is a position-by-position breakdown of the scholarship players with concerns that follow each unit. OFFENSE (45 ON SCHOLARSHIP) QUARTERBACK (4) Aaron Philo (6-1, 207, RSO); Tramell Jones Jr. (6-0, 196, RFR); Will Griffin (6-3, 219, FR); Aidan Warner (6-3, 202, RJR) Concerns: There are exactly two starts among this group – one by Philo at Georgia Tech and one by Warner at Texas in 2024 when DJ Lagway was hurt. There is no question Philo and Jones are bright, talented young guys but game three at Auburn will begin a 9-game SEC gauntlet, the kind of which will either bring out the best in them or humble them. Philo has great natural running instincts while Jones has a strong enough arm that safeties will back off when he’s in the game. Philo likely will start the season at No. 1 but for how long? RUNNING BACK (5) Jadan Baugh (6-1, 225, JR); Evan Pryor (5-10, 189, RSR); London Montgomery (5-10, 192, RJR); Duke Clark (6-2, 208, RFR); Byron Louis (6-0, 195, RFR) Concerns: None. Baugh is one of the five best backs in the country, now with the opportunity to work in an innovative offense after toiling the last two years in a predictable, pedestrian scheme. Baugh should average between 15-20 carries per game, leaving another 15-17 to be shared by teammates. Pryor and Montgomery are former top 10 recruits who joined the Gators from the transfer portal. Both have make-you-miss moves, good hands catching the ball and they’re good enough to play in the slot where they will give the Gators an additional running threat. Clark has the size and speed to be the running back of the future. WIDE RECEIVER (11) Eric Singleton Jr. (5-10, 184, SR); Vernell Brown III (5-11, 178, SO); Dallas Wilson (6-3, 212, RFR); Bailey Stockton (5-10, 183, RJR); Micah Mays Jr. (6-1, 197, RJR); TJ Abrams (5-10, 198, RSO); Jaylen Lloyd (5-10, 185, RJR); Davian Groce (6-2, 199, FR); Kahliel Jackson (6-3, 214, FR); Justin Williams (5-11, 199, FR); Marquez Daniel (6-5, 219, FR) Concerns: None. The Gators haven’t had this much talent and speed at wide receiver since the 2019 team which featured six who went on to play in the NFL. The Gators have the receivers. The only question is can someone get the ball to them? Singleton has 152 career catches, 104 of them when he was the go-to guy in Buster Faulkner’s Georgia Tech offense. He figures to start along with Vernell Brown III and Dallas Wilson, both of whom should find a lot more space to operate in the Faulkner offense. Micah Mays Jr. is a big play looking for a place to happen. Bailey Stockton is a possession guy and TJ Abrams has world class speed. He might actually see the ball. Keep an eye on Jaylen Lloyd who is a legitimate deep threat. TIGHT END (7) Amir Jackson (6-5, 232, RSO); Lacota Dippre (6-3, 248, RJR); Luke Harpring (6-3, 237, RSO); Evan Chieca (6-4, 253, RJR); Jaylen Jordon (6-5, 247, SR); Micah Jones (6-4, 253, RFR); Heze Kent (6-6, 288, FR) Concerns: Blocking. The Gators have experienced pass catchers, but can they block at an SEC level? Jackson has speed and good hands, but he’s light (232) for the position. Dippre had 17 catches for James Madison’s playoff team. Harpring showed good hands at Georgia Tech and Chieca was a reliable pass catcher (31 receptions) at DII New Haven. Jordon is a former basketball player trying his hand at football. TACKLES (8) Emeka Ugorji (6-4, 308, SO); Caden Jones (6-8, 319, RJR); Eagan Boyer (6-8, 306, RSO); Fletcher Westphal (6-8, 309, RSO); Jahari Medlock (6-5, 309, RFR); Chancellor Campbell (6-8, 318, FR); Tyler Chukuyem (6-6, 300, FR); Javarli Lucas (6-6, 313, FR) Concerns: Plenty. Phil Trautwein has his work cut out for him with this group. Once past Ugorji, who started at Stanford last year, and Jones, who took over right tackle for UF in the last half of 2025, there isn’t much in the way of experience. Boyer came from Penn State where Trautwein was his coach. Westphal is long on potential but playing time has been minimal because he can’t stay healthy. If Boyer and Westphal are capable of giving rotation minutes, this unit could be better than expected. A fifth guy in the rotation has to be developed. There isn’t enough quality depth so these guys have to stay healthy. GUARDS (8) Knijeah Harris (6-3, 308, SR); TJ Shanahan (6-4, 309, RJR); Roderick Kearney (6-4, 303, RJR); Bryce Lovett (6-5, 305, RJR); TJ Dice Jr. (6-3, 298, RFR); Daniel Pierre Louis (6-4, 327, RFR); G’Nivre Carr (6-4, 311, FR); Desmond Green (6-5, 321, FR) Concerns: Minimal. Harris will be a fourth-year starter. Shanahan has emerged as a team leader. He knows Trautwein’s system and is a mauler in the running game. Kearney and Lovett have a lot of experience. Kearney can shift over to center if there are injuries. Lovett is versatile enough to slide over to tackle. Like tackle, there isn’t a lot of experience after the first four guys, but if they stay healthy they should be very good. CENTERS (2) Harrison Moore (6-4, 293, JR); Jason Zandamela (6-3, 286, RSO) Concerns: None as long as Harrison Moore stays healthy. He’s drawing comparisons to Jake Slaughter by the guys who were here last year. Tough enough to handle a nose tackle by himself, athletic enough to lead a sweep or get to the second level. Zandamela is long on potential but extremely short on experience. If anything happens to Moore, Rod Kearney may shift over from guard to be the replacement. DEFENSE (42 ON SCHOLARSHIP) ENDS (5) Kamran James (6-6, 278, SR); Emmanuel Oyebadejo (6-6, 299, RSR); TJ McCray (6-6, 277, RSO); Jaylen Wiggins (6-5, 271, RFR); JaReylan McCoy (6-7, 268, FR) Concerns: Potentially a force as pass rushers, but can they stuff the run? James has put together solid seasons back-to-back. Oyebadejo had a spectacular season as a pass rusher at Jacksonville State last year, but can he do it against SEC tackles? McCray is in the best shape of his life and appears ready to put it all together for an impact season. Depth is in short supply. Injuries must be avoided. TACKLES (8) Brendan Bett (6-4, 319, RJR); Joseph Mbatchou (6-5, 321, SO); DK Kalu (6-3, 309, RJR); Jeremiah McCloud (6-3, 294, SO); Jamari Lyons (6-4, 312, RJR); Mason Clinton (6-5, 293, RJR); Kendal Guervil (6-5, 309, FR); Stive-Bentley Keumajou-Yondui (6-3, 295, FR) Concerns: When it comes to sheer numbers, the Gators have it. When it comes to experience, not so much. Bett had exceptional games against Miami, Texas A&M and Ole Miss, but had games against lesser opponents in which he disappeared. Mbatchou erupted for a big game against Tennessee late season but otherwise rarely made a mark. He’s got ideal nose tackle size and mobility. Lyons can be a difference maker if he can stay healthy. Kalu and McCloud are long on potential, short on experience. Same with Clinton. JACK (3) Jayden Woods (6-3, 245, SO); Kofi Asare (6-5, 247, RSR); KJ Ford (6-4, 250, FR) Concerns: Depth. Great expectations for Woods, a potentially spectacular pass rusher who can also cover in space. Sumrall raves about him for both on and off the field demeanor. Asare is experienced but not overly productive. Ford is good enough to be on the field early and often as a true freshman. Behind Woods experience and depth are a concern. Woods has to stay healthy. LINEBACKERS (7) Myles Graham (6-1, 228, JR); Aaron Chiles (6-3, 238, JR); Jaden Robinson (6-0, 227, SR); TJ Bullard (6-1, 213, RSR); Ty Jackson (6-2, 228, SO); Myles Johnson (6-1, 232, SO); Malik Morris (6-0, 246, FR) Concerns: Graham, Chiles and Robinson are one of the better threesomes in the SEC. Graham is capable of an All-SEC type season. He’s rarely out of place. Run stuffer and good against the pass. Chiles was extremely productive the last seven games of 2025. Robinson’s best quality is he makes few mistakes. The problem is depth and the lack of experience behind the three starters. With only seven scholarship linebackers, the Gators can’t afford any kind of debilitating injuries. CORNERS (9) Jordy Lowery (5-10, 183, RSR); Dijon Johnson (6-1, 202, RJR); Cormani McClain (6-2, 181, RJR); Javier Jones (6-1, 181, RFR); J’Vari Flowers (5-10, 189, SO); Ben Hanks III (6-1, 186, RFR); Onis Konanbanny (6-0, 190, RFR); CJ Bronaugh (6-0, 183, FR); CJ Hester (6-0, 192, FR) Concerns: Experience. The Gators don’t lack for talent, but they have experience issues. Johnson was well on his way to a big year in 2025 when he went down with a knee in game four. He’s back but until he shows he’s back 100 percent in a real game there will be questions. McClain has put on weight since he arrived after his freshman year at Colorado. He’s good in coverage but has to improve his tackling. Lowery played his first two years at Western Carolina, last year at ECU where he was outstanding in the second half of the season. Flowers played very well last year once he got a chance to play. Hanks is a ballhawk who is going to be on the field. Bronaugh has world class speed. SAFETIES (7) Alfonzo Allen Jr. (5-11, 196, RSR); Bryce Thornton (5-10, 211, SR); DJ Coleman (6-0, 206, SR); Cam Dooley (6-2, 207, JR); Lagonza Hayward (6-1, 207, SO); Drake Stubbs (6-1, 203, SO); Kaiden Hall (6-2, 210, FR) Concerns: Very few. The Gators have experience and just enough depth. Best looking group of safeties in several years. Picking up Coleman and Dooley in the portal turned one of last year’s weak positions into a position of strength. Coleman is a hard hitter who plays the ball very well while Dooley plays the run well and doesn’t miss tackles. Allen didn’t play the first six games of 2025, but played very well the second half of the season. Thornton has been a regular in the lineup for three very productive years. Hayward is talented but needs more playing time. STAR (3) Kanye Clark (5-10, 184, RJR); Elijah Owens (6-2, 209, RSO); Dylan Purter (6-0, 185, FR) Concerns: Experience. Clark played well coming off the bench last year at UCLA. Owens is a juco transfer with skills. If Clark were injured Bryce Thornton might be moved from safety to STAR where sure tackling and coverage as a must. SPECIAL TEAMS (6) KICKERS (2) Patrick Durkin (5-11, 189, RSO); Liam Padron (5-9, 191, RSO) Concerns: None. Durkin was 25-28 on field goal attempts at Tulane with two of the three misses from beyond 50 yards. Padron was a kickoff guy at Texas A&M last year. PUNTERS (2) Alec Clark (6-0, 186, RJR); Miller Fealy (6-1, 208, RSO) Concerns: None. Clark averaged 46.52 yards per punt a year ago at Tulane, landing 16 punts inside the 20. Fealy punted at DII Southwestern Oklahoma. LONG SNAPPERS (2) Carter Milliron (SR); Hunter Solwold (6-3, 232, FR) Concerns: Newbies. Milliron has experience at Louisiana and Solwold took a redshirt at Washington. Neither one has snapped in an SEC environment.

Independent Florida Gators news, football, recruiting, analysis, original photography and The Buddy Martin Show from GatorBait Media. Today’s Edition Dive into today's edition featuring the latest insights for Florida Gators fans. Explore our lead headline and get teasers on two exciting stories. Stay updated with GatorBait Media, your trusted source since 1980. Read Latest Sumrall’s Right. Don’t Screw This Up. Sumrall gets it. “I’ve seen them and I’m excited about them,” he said of the all whites. 10 hours ago My Sister Shirley Could Call It: The Real Secret Behind Cracking A Predictable Offense Buddy Martin examines how opponents cracked Billy Napier’s predictable Florida offense and why Jon Sumrall’s decision to hand the attack to Buster Faulkner could change the Gators’ offensive identity in 2026. 2 days ago Florida Gators Roster breakdown as pads go on Today DT Jeremiah McCloud hits a sled during a practice drill on Tuesday (Photo by Chris Spears) The pads go on and football gets very serious for the Florida Gators today. With 24 days remaining until the season opener with Florida Atlantic at The Swamp, Jon Sumrall has 93 players on scholarship, 45 on offense, 42 on defense and six on special teams. Talent isn’t an issue for Sumrall and the Gators, but depth and experience pose potential issues at several positions, starting wi 2 days ago Good Call On 1966 Throwback Uniforms Keep an eye out for something special coming from Florida Legends involving the Isaiah 117 House in Ocala. 2 days ago Sumrall happy to let the quarterback competition play itself out Aaron Philo (12) and Tramell Jones (9) await a rep at QB (Photo by Chris Spears) If you hold your breath waiting for Jon Sumrall to name a starting quarterback for the Gators’ season opener with Florida Atlantic four Saturdays from now, you’ll turn blue, pass out and the paramedics will have to be called to revive you. Sumrall has a competitive war being waged between Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. for the No. 1 job, which suits him just fine but to give the edge to one or 3 days ago Spurrier: The Ghost That Won’t Go Away. He Still Lives In The Headspace Of Haters. Georgia fans still twitch when they hear “half a hundred.” Somewhere between Athens and Jacksonville, there are grown men who break into a cold sweat at the number 52. Spurrier didn’t just beat the Bulldogs — he embarrassed them, and then he reminded them about it before the ink dried on the box score. 4 days ago The Monday Chomp Enter your email here Sign Up Thanks for submitting!

Independent Florida Gators news, football, recruiting, analysis, original photography and The Buddy Martin Show from GatorBait Media. Welcome to GatorBait Media Hey Gator! Read daily articles Buddy Martin, Franz Beard, Loren Meadows, Kyle Curtis, Matt Quarterero and Photos by Chris Spears. Watch The Buddy Martin Show, Comment on our GatorBait.net Message Boards, or download our mobie app. Read More HOME Latest SHOP JOIN SIGN IN More FLORIDA GATOR NEWS Sumrall’s Right. Don’t Screw This Up. Sumrall gets it. “I’ve seen them and I’m excited about them,” he said of the all whites. My Sister Shirley Could Call It: The Real Secret Behind Cracking A Predictable Offense Buddy Martin examines how opponents cracked Billy Napier’s predictable Florida offense and why Jon Sumrall’s decision to hand the attack to Buster Faulkner could change the Gators’ offensive identity in 2026. Florida Gators Roster breakdown as pads go on Today DT Jeremiah McCloud hits a sled during a practice drill on Tuesday (Photo by Chris Spears) The pads go on and football gets very serious for the Florida Gators today. With 24 days remaining until the season opener with Florida Atlantic at The Swamp, Jon Sumrall has 93 players on scholarship, 45 on offense, 42 on defense and six on special teams. Talent isn’t an issue for Sumrall and the Gators, but depth and experience pose potential issues at several positions, starting wi Good Call On 1966 Throwback Uniforms Keep an eye out for something special coming from Florida Legends involving the Isaiah 117 House in Ocala. Sumrall happy to let the quarterback competition play itself out Aaron Philo (12) and Tramell Jones (9) await a rep at QB (Photo by Chris Spears) If you hold your breath waiting for Jon Sumrall to name a starting quarterback for the Gators’ season opener with Florida Atlantic four Saturdays from now, you’ll turn blue, pass out and the paramedics will have to be called to revive you. Sumrall has a competitive war being waged between Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. for the No. 1 job, which suits him just fine but to give the edge to one or Spurrier: The Ghost That Won’t Go Away. He Still Lives In The Headspace Of Haters. Georgia fans still twitch when they hear “half a hundred.” Somewhere between Athens and Jacksonville, there are grown men who break into a cold sweat at the number 52. Spurrier didn’t just beat the Bulldogs — he embarrassed them, and then he reminded them about it before the ink dried on the box score. FLORIDA GATORS FOOTBALL NEWS Join Us THE BUDDY MARTIN SHOW

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