A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: There is such a thing as paralysis by analysis, which some football experts translate to mean you can manipulate the numbers to say anything you want. In the case of the Florida Gators, the numbers are quite revealing. The last 15 years have produced only nine winning seasons and six losers. Florida has posted four losing seasons in its last five, cratering in 2025 when the 4-8 Gators ranked near the bottom in the SEC in most significant statistical categories. Here is a look at what the Gators did but for comparison’s sake, offensive numbers of both Georgia Tech (former GT offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner is now the Florida OC) and Tulane (formerly coached by Jon Sumrall, now Florida’s head honcho), plus the defensive numbers of Kentucky (DC Brad White now Florida’s DC) and Tulane. 110: That is the total number of wins for the Gators in the 15 years since 2011 under head coaches Will Muschamp (2011-14), Jim McElwain (2015-17), Dan Mullen (2018-21) and Billy Napier (2022-25). In the 21 years prior to Muschamp, the Gators won 210 games, more than any team in the country. Steve Spurrier (122 wins, 12 years), Ron Zook (23 wins, 3 years) and Urban Meyer (65 wins, 6 years). 79: That’s the total number of losses for the Gators since 2011. During that stretch the Gators posted six losing seasons. From 1980-2012 the Gators never had a sub-.500 season. Spurrier, Zook and Meyer lost a combined 57 games in their 21 years at the helm. 6: That is the number of losing seasons for the Gators since 2013. Muschamp, McElwain and Mullen each had one losing season while Napier had three in his four years on the job. Prior to 2013 you have to go back to 1979 to find the last sub-.500 season (0-10-1). 6.6: That is the average yards per pass attempt for the Gators in 2025 with DJ Lagway at quarterback and Billy Napier calling the plays. Anything less than 7.0 yards per attempt is a combination of too conservative and lack of offensive imagination. As the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech last year, Buster Faulkner had a passing game that averaged 8.7 yards per attempt. Jon Sumrall’s Tulane offense averaged 8.1 per attempt. 14: That is the number of interceptions thrown last year by Lagway. At Georgia Tech, Faulkner’s two quarterbacks (Haynes King and Aaron Philo) threw seven. In 14 games at Tulane, Sumrall’s quarterbacks threw nine picks. 4.27: That is Florida’s yards per rushing attempt even with Jadan Baugh averaging 5.32 for his 220 carries that produced 1,170 yards. The rest of the Gators gained 471 yards on 164 carries, a dismal 2.94 per carry. As a team, the Gators scored 10 rushing touchdowns with Baugh accounting for eight of them. Faulkner’s Georgia Tech offense averaged 5.54 per carry while scoring 31 touchdowns. At Tulane, Sumrall’s offense average 4.52 per carry but scored 26 touchdowns on the ground. 10.49: That is the average per catch by all of Florida’s pass receivers last year, a very pedestrian number. At Georgia Tech, Faulkner’s receivers averaged 12.41 yards per catch. Sumrall’s Tulane receivers averaged 13.1 per catch. 148: That is the number of offensive plays that went for 10 or more yards for Florida in 2025, 14th in the Southeastern Conference. There were seven plays that went for 40 or more yards. Faulker’s Georgia Tech offense produced 195 plays or 10 or more yards with 18 that went for more than 40. At Tulane, Sumrall’s offense produced 220 plays that covered 10 or more yards with 11 going for more than 40. 341.3: That is Florida’s average yards per game in 2025, 13th in the SEC and 104th in the nation. Georgia Tech averaged 460 yards per game, 11th in the nation. Tulane averaged 411.4, 38th nationally. 21.6: That is the average points per game by the 2025 Gators, dead last in the SEC and tied for 111th nationally. Georgia Tech averaged 32.2 per game (26th nationally) while winning nine games. Tulane won 11 games while averaging 27.8 per game (68th nationally) with a quarterback who didn’t show up on campus until August. 34.21: The 2025 Gators converted 34.21 percent of their third downs, 15th in the SEC and 116th nationally. Georgia Tech converted 46.1 percent of its third downs, good for 23rd nationally, while Tulane turned 42.1 percent of its third downs into first downs, 43rd in the nation. 20: Florida gave up 20 sacks for -106 yards, a tribute to the leadership of All-American center Jake Slaughter in the middle of the O-line. Georgia Tech gave up nine sacks for -61 yards, the third best total in the nation. Center Harrison Moore followed Buster Faulkner to Florida. At Tulane, Sumrall’s Green Wave allowed 12 sacks (tied for 7th nationally) for -80 yards. 153.92: That’s the number of rushing yards the Florida defense gave up per game in 2025 (14th in the SEC and 77thnationally). Brad White’s Kentucky defense gave up 134.25 yards per game, which ranked 10th in the SEC and 45thnationally. Tulane allowed 122.57 per game on the ground, 29th nationally. The Gators gave up 47 running plays that covered at least 10 yards (5th in the SEC, 26th nationally). Kentucky gave up 49 (8th in the SEC and tied for 26thnationally). Tulane gave up 61 long rushing plays (80th nationally). 3.99: Florida gave up 3.99 yards per carry (54th nationally) and 21 rushing touchdowns. Kentucky allowed 3.66 per rush attempt (31st nationally) and 20 touchdowns. Tulane allowed 3.58 per attempt and 18 touchdowns. 8.0: Florida allowed opponents to average 8.0 yards per pass attempt, 115th nationally. Opponents threw 13 TDPs. Kentucky also gave up 8.0 per pass attempt and 16 TDPs. Tulane gave up 7.7 per attempt (106th nationally) and 23 TDPs. The Gators gave up 106 pass plays of 10 or more yards, 68th nationally. Kentucky allowed 108 of 10 yards or more (76th). Tulane gave up 153 pass plays of 10 or more yards, 7th nationally. 10: The Gators intercepted 10 passes (62nd nationally). Kentucky intercepted 12 (42nd nationally) and Tulane 15 (tied for 14th nationally). 44.38: The Gators allowed opponents to convert 44.38 percent of their third downs, 15th in the SEC and 119th in the nation. Kentucky gave up 40.13 percent of its third down conversions (77th in the country) while Tulane got off the field 39.57 percent (67th nationally) of the time. 26: The Gators sacked quarterbacks 26 times for -141 yards, 11th in the SEC and 68th nationally. Kentucky had 25 sacks (74th nationally) for -177 yards. Tulane’s defense got to opposing quarterbacks 36 times (14th nationally) for -266 yards. 17: The Gator defense forced 17 turnovers last season (7th in the SEC, 59th nationally). Kentucky forced 14 turnovers (11th in the SEC, 91st nationally). Tulane forced 25 turnovers (9th nationally). 153: That is the number of opponent plays good for 10 or more yards in 2025, ranking 6th in the SEC and 42ndnationally. Kentucky gave up 157 plays of 10 or more yards, 8th in the SEC and 46th nationally. Tulane gave up 201 plays of 10 or more yards, tied for 129th nationally. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Kyle Whittingham, who was Urban Meyer’s defensive coordinator at Utah before becoming the Utes head coach for 21 years (177-88 including a 13-0 in 2008), is the 66-year-old head coach hired to restore a measure of integrity to Michigan. Whittingham made a name for himself as a coach who would make the best of what he had rather than take short cuts. He is a wise voice in a time when college football seems to be spiraling out of control. At Big Ten Media Days Monday, Whittingham offered the following suggestions: (1) A super league of 48-60 top college football teams; (2) make college football a minor league of the NFL; (3) players become employees; (4) salary cap; and (5) a commissioner with absolute authority to enforce the rules. Speaking to Rich Eisen of ESPN, Whittingham said that on its current trajectory, college football as we know it today is unsustainable. His suggestions might seem a bit radical overall, but a number of them make absolute good sense, such as points 3-5. The only way to get costs under control is to make players employees so that a salary cap can be implemented. A commissioner with absolute authority and unmatched integrity is a necessity because the NCAA do it by committee approach is a total disaster. A super league sounds very good on paper but it will take away too many rivalries and end traditions that are part of the fall fabric of college football. While it is true more than half the Division I programs have zero chance to ever win a national championship, a super league will go a long way toward many of them giving up football altogether. Since the big boys of college football are already relying heavily on talent developed by the lesser programs, it’s not worth taking the chance of putting any of them out of business.

Florida expects to nearly double The Swamp’s annual revenue, from $75 million to $145 million, largely by doubling its premium seating from roughly 8% of capacity to somewhere north of that. By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com Back in 1992, when Steve Spurrier was still just the wise-cracking quarterback-turned-coach that nobody in the SEC could out-talk, he cooked up a phrase that did more for Florida football than any offensive coordinator ever could. “The Swamp is a place where only Gators get out alive,” he said, and just like that, the ugliest little concrete bowl in Gainesville had a personality — hot, sticky, dangerous, and proud. Now Florida wants to spend $1.45 billion finding out if that swagger survives contact with an architectural rendering. The university spent nearly a decade — a decade! — deciding whether to tear the old girl down or fix her up before finally announcing this summer it’ll renovate rather than replace. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium turns 100 in 2030, which in stadium years is somewhere between “historic landmark” and “somebody call a structural engineer,” and it’ll get exactly that kind of attention: $500 million just to catch up on deferred maintenance, plus a full modernization, ADA compliance work, and — because nothing in college athletics happens anymore without a revenue angle — a fresh crop of premium seats to sell to the highest bidder. That makes it the most expensive college football stadium project in history, officially vaulting The Swamp into the billion-dollar neighborhood that used to be reserved for NFL owners with nothing better to do with their money. Here’s the part that’ll make old-timers wince: Adding handrails to the aisles, which the lawyers say is non-negotiable, means widening every aisle in the building, which means yanking out lower-bowl seats that have held three generations of Gator backsides. You can’t so much as make the place wheelchair-accessible without reshuffling the whole seating bowl. That’s not construction — that’s surgery. Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, to his credit, understands what’s actually at stake here isn’t just plumbing and premium boxes. “We did not want to come up with a plan that when you looked at the stadium, you weren’t sure where it was,” he said. “We think it’s one of the most unique venues in college football.” He’s right. Say “The Swamp” and everybody from Baton Rouge to Boise knows exactly which orange wing walls you’re picturing. That’s worth protecting, and to Florida’s credit, the plan keeps the shell — the bones, the identity, the postcard — while gutting the guts. So no, this isn’t LSU’s Death Valley getting bulldozed for a shopping mall. It’s more like your grandmother’s house getting a $1.45 billion kitchen remodel while somebody promises the front porch will look exactly the same. Wider concourses. More bathrooms — a genuine miracle, if you’ve ever stood in a Swamp restroom line during a TV timeout. Hot food for the first time, which means Gator fans can finally eat something besides a hot dog that’s been sweating since the National Anthem. New video boards, new audio-visual tech, the works. And then there’s the real headline hiding under all the construction jargon: Florida expects to nearly double The Swamp’s annual revenue, from $75 million to $145 million, largely by doubling its premium seating from roughly 8% of capacity to somewhere north of that — likely more than a thousand new club seats and suites stacked in a new two-story structure perched right on top of the existing bowl. Stricklin didn’t dress it up much. Florida could’ve done a cut-rate, code-compliant refresh for half the money, he said, or gone all-in on revenue and skipped the fan-experience stuff. Instead: “It’s either a go big or go home kind of moment for The Swamp.” They went big. Naturally — this is the SEC, where “go home” isn’t in the vocabulary. Which brings us back to Spurrier’s old line, because that’s really the only question that matters here. The Swamp got its menace from being uncomfortable — for everybody. Eighty-eight thousand people packed into a sweatbox with no mercy for opposing teams or, frankly, for the home folks either. Now you’re adding a two-story luxury deck with climate control and better food than most of Gainesville’s restaurants. You’re smoothing out the rough edges that made the place feel like a threat instead of a venue. There’s a real chance the loudest sound in the new Swamp on a Saturday afternoon isn’t 90,000 voices — it’s a suite full of donors clinking wine glasses over the shrimp cocktail while Georgia drives down the field. Here’s my answer, for what it’s worth: The Swamp isn’t dying, it’s just getting a little bit of Botox. The bones — the orange wing walls, the sunken bowl, the fact that visiting quarterbacks still have to walk out of that tunnel into a wall of noise — none of that is going anywhere. The suits upstairs will pay their money and sip their cocktails, sure, but there’s still 80-some-thousand people in that lower bowl who didn’t get the memo that football’s supposed to be polite now. If the board of governors signs off this fall like everybody expects, Florida will spend three years and a billion and a half dollars proving that tradition and modernization can share a blueprint. But let’s be honest about one thing, Gator Nation — with those aisles widened, those handrails installed, and a country club bolted onto the roof, getting out alive from The New Swamp might just mean surviving the concession line for a craft cocktail. The visiting team, though? They’ll still have to get through the fourth quarter first.

I have never been a fan of Congressional intervention into college sports, but considering the futility and ineptitude of the NCAA I’ve come to the conclusion that like it or not, Congress has to be involved. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, hasn’t the faintest idea what to do to reform college sports before they implode so it has turned to our elected officials in Washington to come up with solutions. To their credit, senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) have mustered up support on both sides of the aisle for a bill that takes a stab at regaining control. The Protect College Sports Act is an attempt to halt an impending disaster by injecting practical, common sense rules and regulations. The bill in its current form won't go before a Senate vote until September at the earliest and then it will have to be approved by the House of Representatives and sent to the president for signing into law. Months are almost sure to go by before the bill becomes reality. The bill has its share of flaws, which is why the Southeastern Conference is opposed to the legislation in its current form. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has responded with 10 tweaks to the bill that if implemented would result in the full scale support of the most powerful conference in all of collegiate athletics. Sankey and the SEC have made it perfectly clear they are willing to go it alone if their suggestions are ignored. This was considered nothing more than saber rattling by many in the national media attending SEC Media Days in Tampa last week. They think the idea of the SEC breaking away is preposterous and that this is simply an attempt to bully Congress into favorable legislation. After his state of the SEC speech a week ago, Sankey spent the next three days denying that the SEC is on the verge of declaring independence from the NCAA. The Commish knows that leaving the NCAA is impractical at the moment since there are no what to do next plans in place offering guidelines in the event further there is escalation of the problems currently kneecapping college sports. Every revolution begins with an idea. Ideas evolve into debates in which grow into a movement leading to consensus agreement that radical steps for change are necessary. Leading up to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, writers such as Thomas Paine called for revolution. Delegates from the 13 British Colonies met and sent envoys to England to ask King George to compromise what they believed to be harsh and unfair taxation. The compromise request bought time for planning what next in the event the king refused. When the king responded negatively, independence declared and with it came a plan to fight. This is not all that dissimilar to what the Southeastern Conference is doing. If nothing else, Sankey’s 10 suggestions buy time. Once Congress returns from its August recess it will have to decide whether to reword the bill to accommodate the SEC or reject the suggestions altogether. Either way, it gives the SEC time to plan out what is next. If there is compromise and the SEC accepts the provisions of the Protect College Sports Act there is time to see how the new rules are enforced and/or if they impede the league from doing business. If there is no compromise, things will drag on, again allowing the SEC enough time to plan for the next move. The Protect College Sports Act may be just what the NCAA needs, but given its history for choosing poorly and selectively enforcing rules, this legislation is probably just a band-aid when a tourniquet is required to stop the bleeding. The NCAA desperately tries to hang on to the notion of the student-athlete. That concept probably works down in Divisions II and III where scholarships are limited (Division II, non-existent Division III) and there is zero in the way of NIL money. Athletes can be held accountable for their work in the classroom, but sports in Division I are a full-time job. This is professional sports, something for which the NCAA was never prepared. It is also a multi-billion dollar enterprise that requires shrewd business people making decisions. The academic people who lead the NCAA are mostly clueless when it comes to sports and even less savvy when it comes to business. Although Sankey spent last week insisting that the SEC is committed to remaining in the NCAA he is smart enough to read the tea leaves. The NCAA and college sports as we know them are incompatible but leaving the NCAA is a rather complicated proposition. To its credit, the NCAA runs outstanding championship tournaments and events (college football is not one of them). The NCAA also has television contracts for the multi-billion dollar NCAA basketball tournament. For the non-football playing Division I schools, the basketball money is vital to their existence. There are leadership and timeline questions that have to be answered. Is there a leader with the business savvy and the sports knowledge capable of being the CEO? Who would pay for setting up the new organization? How long would it take to set up a new organization so it could operate efficiently from day one? Would the non-football schools be willing to join a football-centric organization? These are only a few of the questions that will have to be answered before the NCAA is put out of its misery. A more practical solution would be to make this a step-by-step process that starts with football being granted autonomy to operate completely outside the web of the NCAA. Let football establish its own organization with its own rules, a plan for enforcement and a commissioner with absolute authority. Send this up as a trial balloon to work out the kinks while turning it into an organizational model that can be replicated if and when all the other sports elect to jump the NCAA ship. There is also the possibility that an organization is the long term solution for football while the other sports remain under the NCAA umbrella, but this has its own set of complications. Football would probably bring in record amounts of revenue but would fair shares of the football money be spent to support the other sports that can’t make it on their own? Whenever the NCAA tries to defend itself after it gets caught doing something stupid it is quick to point out that membership is voluntary. However true that may be, those voluntary members have to know that an organization that continues to fight losing battles in court eventually will go belly up. At the moment there is no Plan B in place for that moment when the NCAA collapses. Right now all we have is Greg Sankey and the SEC serving as a voice in the wilderness. There has not been a call for an all-out revolution just yet. Revolutions are never spur of the moment overnight occurrences. They begin with a single voice crying out while circulating brand new ideas. At SEC Media Days last week, Greg Sankey was the voice in the wilderness. He didn’t call for the abolishment of the NCAA nor did he confirm the SEC is in the midst of making plans to become a self-governing model. He is too shrewd to tip his hand but the hint was loud and clear. When it comes to international business there is this old saying that if America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. When it comes to college sports, Greg Sankey has that same effect. Last week in Tampa he tossed a rock into the water. The ripples reached everyone from the networks to the conference commissioners to the school administrators, putting them all on alert that change is in the works. It’s not a matter of if but when.

Rueben Chinyelu a reason Gators are preseason No. 1 (Photo by Chris Spears) If the late, great Al McGuire were alive today and able to evaluate the rosters of the teams that seem to have the best chance of winning the 2027 NCAA basketball championship, his no-brainer pick would be Florida for one specific reason – the Gators have the aircraft carriers. In Al-speak, aircraft carriers are big, strong guys who control the paint, protect the rim and limit the other team to one-and-done possessions. The Gators have three of them, all returning starters who would have been drafted if they had chosen the NBA Draft rather than return for a chance to win a second national title in three years. Depth comes in the form of four who measure out at 7-0, 6-11, 6-10 and 6-9. If he were still around, Al McGuire would call that an entire fleet. Nearly every media outlet that covers college basketball seriously has the Gators on top of their preseason rankings with good reason. No one in the country can match Florida’s size, talent and experience up front. Lots of teams have good guards but guards can only take you so far. If you don’t have the aircraft carriers who can dominate in the paint, the road to glory is very, very difficult. You can have a bad day shooting the three if you have big guys who dominate the offensive glass. Because the Gators were the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the country a year ago, they were able to cover for a lot of sins on the nights when shooters couldn’t find the ocean from the end of the pier. Florida has finished top six nationally in defensive efficiency each of the last two seasons per the kenpom.com analytics. Florida’s big guys limit scoring in the paint and if the opponent isn’t lighting it up from beyond the arc, there are a lot of one-and-done possessions. That’s not the way to beat the Gators. There are a few schools with more size than Florida’s starting threesome of Tommy Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, but no team can match the productivity and experience. That sets the Gators apart. The three of them have combined to play 317 games with 198 starts. Combined, they have 3,077 points, 2,177 rebounds, 485 assists, 202 steals and 345 blocked shots. Haugh (17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds) was a first team All-SEC and second team All-America selection in 2025-26. Condon (15.1 points, 7.5 rebounds) is a two-time All-SEC second team selection. Chinyelu (10.9 points, 11.2 rebounds) was a first team All-SEC last year when he won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Awards. Condon and Chinyelu were starters on Florida’s 2025 NCAA championship team, while Haugh was an invaluable sub off the bench capable of playing all three front court positions. Haugh showed his versatility last season when he moved to the wing, but in a typical game he will play outside plus do a stretch at the high post and also down low. Condon struggled with his outside shot a year ago, but he developed a little push shot that was effective from 10 feet in to become a dominant force in the second half of the season. Chinyelu is a physical presence defensively whose offensive game continues to evolve. The possibility of injuries and foul trouble led Todd Golden to add depth in the offseason. With only Viktor Mikic returning as a backup, Golden signed international blue-chippers Domen Petrovic and Arturas Butajevas plus true freshman Jones Lay. Mikic has only played 21 games in his career and Lay is that unknown freshman quantity, so Petrovic and Butajevas were critical additions in the offseason. Petrovic averaged 16.1 points and 6.1 rebounds while shooting 36.3 percent on 3-pointers last year in Slovenia while Butajevas averaged 13.9 points and 6.8 rebounds while playing in Spain. Florida was also very big last year, but Golden didn’t have the depth nor the versatility that he will have this year when the four big guys off the bench are added into the equation. Size and front court production were rarely a problem in a 27-8 season in which six of the eight losses were by a combined 18 points. Most of the issues a year ago had everything to do with guard play, and in particular, shooting from the 3-point line. After losing one of the great backcourts in recent college basketball memory – Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard, who all play in the NBA, and sixth man Denzel Aberdeen, who transferred to Kentucky – Golden started transfers Boogie Fland (from Arkansas) and Xaivian Lee (from Princeton) with Urban Klavzar and Isaiah Brown as the chief backups. Fland and Lee both had big moments, but they never provided 3-point shooting with any consistency and they never seemed to be an exact fit. Fland shot 24 percent from three while Lee shot 29.2 percent, both well below their pre-Gator levels. Klavzar won SEC Sixth Man of the Year, averaging 9.6 points while shooting 40.6 percent from three. Brown, a highlight reel dunker, shot a streaky 34.6 percent from three. Fland will be back this year as the lead guard. He is an elite defender and is expected to regain his lost shooting touch. He will be paired with Aberdeen, who has transferred back to UF from Kentucky. Aberdeen’s request for a waiver to play a fifth year of college basketball is pending, but bet the farm that either the NCAA grants his request or else he will win in the courts. Aberdeen is most comfortable as the off guard who can do a spell at the point several minutes per game. He is an excellent defender who played critical minutes in Florida’s run to the 2025 national championship. Klavzar and Isaiah Brown are back proving experienced depth and production. AJ Brown, Isaiah’s older brother, spent the 2026 season rehabbing from shoulder surgery. He brings experience plus firepower to the table as both a shooter and driver. CJ Ingram is an X-factor. He’s still growing and can legitimately play three positions (both wings and the high post). He will see a lot of action as Haugh’s stunt double and in full court press situations. Reports are that Alex Lloyd and the first year jitters are a thing of the past. He is a point who is also a microwave shooter capable of going off on serious streaks. Alex Kovatchev got in late last year after transferring from Sacramento so he spent the year learning the offense and defense. Minutes will be hard to come by but he brings size and experience to the wing. A key word in all this evaluation is experience. Florida’s starting five will have a combined 492 games played with 291 starts. If the Gators don’t have the most experienced starting five in the country, then they certainly are on the short list. Off the bench the Gators have 299 games of college basketball experience with another 131 games (98 starts) of international experience. That is 791 college basketball games with 361 starts, plus there is the international experience. On paper, this is the deepest and most experienced college basketball roster since Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team that eventually sent nine players to the NBA. That team’s top 11 combined to play in 898 games through that season with a collective 388 starts. In building this year’s Florida roster, Todd Golden has put together a team with so many interchangeable parts that it can adjust to any style of play by opponents and survive a case of happy whistles by SEC zebra crews. The Gators are loaded. Probably the only fair description is scary good. THE 2026-27 FLORIDA ROSTER Starters Tommy Haugh (6-9, 215, SR): 100 games played, 41 starts; career 1,111 points, 586 rebounds. Alex Condon (6-11, 236, SR): 107 games played, 70 starts; career 1,181 points, 762 rebounds. Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 260, SR): 110 games played, 87 starts; career 785 points, 829 rebounds. Boogie Fland (6-3, 185, JR): 56 games played, 53 starts; career 689 points, 229 assists. Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 200, SR): 119 games played, 40 starts; 911 points, 203 assists. The bench Urban Klavzar (6-1, 190, SR): 61 games played; career 418 points, 39.1 percent 3-pointers Isaiah Brown (6-5, 210, JR): 52 games played; career 217 points, 101 rebounds. CJ Ingram (6-7, 210, SO): 21 games played; career 46 points, 50 percent 3-pointers. Viktor Mikic (6-11, 260, JR): 21 games played; career 22 points, 16 rebounds. Alex Lloyd (6-4, 190, SO): 17 games played; career 21 points, 13 rebounds. Alex Kovatchev (6-5, 200, RJR): 52 games played, 16 starts; career 206 points, 147 rebounds. AJ Brown (6-4, 210, RSR): 65 games played, 46 starts; career 731 points, 37.1 percent 3-pointers Domen Petrovic (6-9, 225, JR): 94 international games played, 70 starts; 1,041 points, 491 rebounds Arturas Butajevas (6-10, 220, FR): 37 international games played, 28 starts; 482 points, 254 rebounds Jones Lay (7-0, 240, FR): True freshman

The oldest truth in coaching: Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. “I think fear. I hate to say that. I wish I could control it, but there’s still a piece of me,” he said. “Fear of failure. Fear of letting people down. That drove me in my career." By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com Urban Meyer won three national championships doing what nobody could really see. He pulled scholarships as threats. He told kids they were too soft. He built dynasties on the back of fear — his own, and the fear he planted in twenty-year-olds who wanted to be great badly enough to let him plant it there. He said as much himself, sitting across from an interviewer this past summer, sounding less like a coach defending his legacy and more like a man finally telling the truth about how the sausage got made. “The strongest forms of motivation are love, fear and hate,” Meyer said. “Only one is sustainable. “Fear and hate are powerful motivators. Powerful. Have I used those? Oh, hell yeah. “‘I’m going to pull your scholarship. You’re too soft. You can’t do this.’ I would try to motivate that person toward greatness,” he admitted, describing the fourth-and-one version of himself that most of us watched from the press box and some never fully understood. “Is fear and hate a great motivator? It’s about as good as it gets,” Meyer said. “But it’s not sustainable. Love is the only sustainable motivator.” A coach basically comes from the word “stagecoach” — Jim Tressel’s word, from The Winners Manual — hauling folks from where they are to where they want to be. The methods, though, vary wildly. As we are going to see with new Gator coach Jon Sumrall, methodology TBD — although Urban has admitted he sees a lot of a younger version of himself in Sumrall. They all do it differently, if not similarly. Lou Holtz drove with fear: “You eliminate those who are not motivated.” Dabo Swinney handed Clemson players poker chips in 2015 and told them to push them to the middle — All In, literally. Steve Spurrrier once got himself arrested and cuffed at South Carolina practice just to make a point about mistaken identity. Corny? Sure. Effective? Also sure. But Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll cracked the real code: Competition. Meyer opened Florida practices hot and fast to spike the pulse. Carroll made everything at USC a contest, because — unlike homework — competition is fun. At clinics, it works better than any speech. Still, none of it beats the oldest truth in coaching: Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. The flip side of that is pseudo rejection and using fear as a weapon. That’s the coach’s confession. Here’s the cost of it. Ask Meyer today which one still runs his engine and he doesn’t reach for the poetic answer. “I think fear. I hate to say that. I wish I could control it, but there’s still a piece of me,” he said. “Fear of failure. Fear of letting people down. That drove me in my career. “It’s probably why I had the shelf life. Some coaches are coaching until they’re 75 years old. I could never have done that,” Meyer said. “My body couldn’t take it.” That’s the part people miss about Urban Meyer’s career, and about coaching in general. Fear wins championships. Fear also collapses a man twice on a sideline in Gainesville and sends him to a hospital in the middle of a season he’s supposed to be winning. Fear built the machine and fear is what finally shut it down. Meyer knows it now the way you only know these things looking backward — that the very thing that made him great is the same thing his own body eventually rejected like a bad transplant. But love. Love doesn’t come with a shelf life. Which brings us to the guy who played quarterback for Meyer at Florida and never once, as far as I can tell, ran from the truest word in that whole equation — even when using it cost him something. Tim Tebow has spent more than a decade being asked to explain Aaron Hernandez, his old Gator teammate turned murderer turned tragedy, and for years Tebow gave the company answer: heartbreaking, sad, prayers to the families. Safe. Understandable. This past November, on Andrew Schulz’s podcast, something cracked open instead. “It’s so hard for me to talk about it for a lot of reasons,” Tebow said, visibly emotional. “One, because we loved him very much.” Pressed further, he didn’t walk it back. “He’s family, you know, it’s tough. I loved him very much.” Think about what that actually is. Not nostalgia. Not a highlight-reel memory of a tight end who could run like a wide receiver. Tebow is describing present-tense love for a man who did unspeakable things, who broke a family in Boston beyond repair, who left behind a trail of pain that a Heisman-winning quarterback’s compassion cannot undo and was never going to undo. And still — love. Still family. Still, as Tebow put it in a separate interview with Graham Bensinger, an obligation to “paint him accurately” rather than let the world reduce a complicated, struggling young man to a headline. That’s not a soft answer. That’s the hardest answer there is. It would be far easier for Tebow to disown the association, to let Hernandez become somebody else’s tragedy. Instead he carries a version of the weight Meyer talked about — “I think there’s a weight that I probably feel,” Tebow admitted, wondering aloud whether he could have done something more. That’s love refusing to check out even when the story gives it every excuse to. And here’s where Meyer’s whole thesis snaps into focus. Fear and hate are transactional. They work only as long as the threat is live — the scholarship still hangs in the balance, the coach is still standing on the sideline glaring at you. The minute the threat is gone, so is the motivation. That’s why Meyer’s body finally said no more at 55, while old rivals kept grinding into their seventies on a gentler fuel. Love doesn’t need the threat to still exist. Aaron Hernandez has been dead since 2017. The national championship they won together is nearly two decades old. There is no scholarship left to pull, no fear left to leverage, no reason on paper for Tim Tebow to still feel anything for a convicted murderer except relief that the chapter is closed. And yet the love is still operating, present tense, all these years later — which is precisely the definition Meyer gave it. Sustainable. The one that doesn’t run out. Urban Meyer coached with fear because it worked, and it worked right up until it didn’t — until his own body cashed the check fear had been writing for twenty years. Tim Tebow, meanwhile, has spent his whole post-football life proving the other half of his old coach’s equation, whether he set out to or not: That love for a broken teammate, for a broken world, doesn’t have a shelf life at all. That’s the real lesson buried in all that championship hardware from Gainesville and Columbus. The trophies came from fear. But the thing that actually lasted — the thing that’s still standing on a podcast couch fighting back tears over a guy who can’t say thank you for it anymore — that came from love. Urban Meyer figured that out the hard way, with his body as the receipt. Tim Tebow never needed the lesson. He was living it the whole time.

Jon Sumrall Speak at SEC Media Days 2026 | photo credit Brenden Martin gatorbaitmedia.com TAMPA – Experience has taught Jon Sumrall that the more things change, the more they really do stay the same. As Florida’s first year coach, this is the third time since 2022 that Sumrall has taken over a new program and while he is quick to tell you that every situation is different, there are similarities that cannot be discarded as mere chance. New places, new faces, new schools, new leagues, nothing is remotely close to the same and yet each stop along the journey finds the building blocks necessary to win football games. Start with Troy. That was 2022, Sumrall’s first head coaching job. Small town about 30 miles north of Dothan in the wiregrass region of Alabama, a school probably best known for offering courses that lead to a college degree on practically every United States military base in the world. Sun Belt Conference, not a bottom feeder league by any stretch but still a conference whose member schools are once or twice a year willing to take a beating for a paycheck to help keep the athletic department lights on. There is tradition here although not at the Division I level. Troy was an NAIA and Division II power that has three national championship trophies on display. Prior to Sumrall’s arrival from Kentucky where he was the co-defensive coordinator for Mark Stoops, Troy had three consecutive losing seasons. Just the kind of place that hires a head coach from a school whose most famous football moment came in the 1950s when Bear Bryant left for a place (Texas A&M) where football actually mattered. If Troy was lemons, then Sumrall was about to make lemonade. “I went to the first few weeks of workouts and I thought we had a chance to be okay here, like I think we can be decent,” Sumrall said Wednesday morning at SEC Media Days at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Tampa. “I met with my athletic director at the time, Brent Jones, who hired me, and I said, ‘I think we can go to a bowl game, like be decent. Well, we won 12 games. “The roster was a lot better than I realized or probably anybody realized. There was about six, seven guys off that team that are in NFL training camps right now from five years ago at Troy, and they hadn't been winning.” Two seasons and two Sun Belt championships later, Tulane came calling. Apples and oranges academics. Troy is a good school that cranks out productive graduates, but Tulane grads have earned the right to feel a bit snooty about their academic achievements. New Orleans, more famous for music, food and decadence than college football, except the one day a year when the Sugar Bowl is played. The American Conference is a step up from the Sun Belt, a step down from the power conferences and light years from the SEC. There was a time, decades ago, that Tulane was an SEC member that actually won three league championships, but that was before divorcing to go independent in 1966. In the two years prior to Sumrall, Tulane went 23-4 for Willie Fritz, capturing the American title in 2022. “I walked in and they had been winning for a couple years … and there were still some good players left but most the guys that had won a lot of the games that occurred right before I got there, they weren't there anymore,” Sumrall recalled. “I'm like, hang on, where did that running back go? Well, he's with the Titans now. A lot of the guys were gone.” Graduation and the portal wiped out most of the offensive productivity from Tulane’s 11-win 2023 team. With a true freshman quarterback (Darian Mensah) who arrived just prior to practice beginning in August, Tulane went to the American Conference championship game in 2024. Mensah left for Duke where he won an ACC title in 2025. He’s now at Miami where supporters of The U believe he could lead the Canes to the promised land. With Mensah and most of the offensive production either graduated or gone in the portal, Sumrall won the 2025 American title and made it to the College Football Playoff, a first for any American Conference team. What Troy and Tulane taught Sumrall prepped him for leaving the comfort zone of Group of Six football for the Southeastern Conference. He is Florida’s fifth coach since Urban Meyer retired after the 2010 season. The previous four have been pink slipped. Florida has off the chart academics, a national championship pedigree in nearly every one of the 21 sports it sponsors, and it carries the weight and expectations of the Southeastern Conference, from top to bottom the most dominant sports conference in the country. Four losing seasons in the last five and six losing seasons since 2013 for a school that went from 1980-2012 without dipping below college football’s Mendoza Line. It’s a challenge. It’s pressure. It’s a different situation than either Troy or Tulane, for sure, but the similarities cannot be ignored. There was tradition at both Troy and Tulane although not like Florida, which boasts eight SEC titles, three national titles, three Heisman Trophy winners and a football alumni association that reads like a who’s who. There was talent at Troy and Tulane when Sumrall arrived. Four straight conference championship game appearances and three conference championships are solid indicators that those perceived lemons became very sweet tasting lemonade. “Sometimes you walk into situations and think, man, it's going to be really adverse and you're not set up to have immediate success, and you find it because maybe there is more pieces in place to be successful than you realize,” Sumrall said. “Sometimes you walk into a situation and it's been going good, like, man, we got more work to do here than I thought.” Figure Florida is somewhere in between. There are pieces in place that can restore Florida to life among the elite in the Southeastern Conference. There is also far more work to be done than there should be for a program that doesn’t lack for facilities or money. Facilities lagged way behind for years but that is no longer an excuse. And, while Florida may not have high profile alums with accounts that would make Milburn Drysdale drool, there are enough people with enough money to compete in the high stakes NIL battles. Winning is the tonic that can cure all ills but it begins with a massive change in perceptions. The feelings of mediocrity and impending doom and gloom left behind by the previous coaching staff have been replaced with a contagious optimism that has swept the Gator Nation off its feet, not to mention raising the eyebrows of the national media. The national media talks openly about Florida doubling last year’s win output. Sumrall has yet to coach his first game at Florida, but higher expectations are perceived as attainable and not rah-rah, sis-boom-bah sunshine pumping wishful thinking. There is talent available, maybe not as much as there will be in the future when the name Florida rolls off the tongues of recruits as quickly as Georgia or Alabama, but Sumrall didn’t step into nuclear winter. He has supplemented the 60 holdovers with transfers and freshmen. There may not be a lot of household names in the bunch, but winning football games will cure recognition deficits. History says Sumrall will do what he’s done before, which is win. “Every situation you walk into I think you have to evaluate, okay, what needs to be recalibrated and what's been going good,” he said. “There have been some really good things going on at the University of Florida before my arrival. There have. We haven't won enough games. We need to win more games. Like 4-8 last year is not okay at the University of Florida. We got to fix that.” Jon Sumrall doesn’t consider himself a walk on water or part the Red Sea type nor does he think of himself as Mr. Fix It. Rather he envisions himself as the blue collar guy who shows up every day willing to swing away with a sledgehammer that knocks down the barriers that stand in the way of winning. This is a far different situation than the one he inherited at Troy and then Tulane, but experience has taught him that while circumstances and locales have changed, the pathway to success remains quite the same. “There are no shortcuts,” he says. “I don't care if you've been winning or you hadn't been winning.”

Vernell Brown III will have an important role for the Gators this fall (UAA Photo) A few thoughts to jump start your Friday afternoon: Here are a few things we learned from SEC Media Days this week starting with the general consensus among the throng of writers and broadcasters that descended on Tampa from all corners of the United States that this was a very good week for the Florida Gators. Sumrall owned Wednesday and looking back on the four-day event, it’s not a stretch to say his were the best 30 minutes at the podium of all 16 coaches who did their annual state of the program addresses. Sumrall was so impressive in the changes he’s made at Florida since taking over the program last December that some in the media think Florida is a dark horse challenger for the four or five expected berths in the College Football Playoff. Not only did Sumrall say all the right things, he was accompanied by Jadan Baugh, Myles Graham and Vernell Brown III, all of whom came across as poised, smart, respectful and superb representatives of the University of Florida. For the bulk of the attendees, this was their first encounter with the three Gators and they spoke in the hallways of how impressive these kids were. While on the SEC Now set, Sumrall got a good-natured shot from Nick Saban: "I'm a Florida resident now, and down there amongst the Gators, and Governor [Ron] DeSantis is a good friend. You took our former [University of Alabama] President Stuart Bell, who's now a Gator, and I want you to know I'm kind of a semi-Gator. If you don't get your sh#t together, I'm gonna be in the middle of that. I just want you to know that." SUMRALL QUOTE OF THE WEEK FROM THE PODIUM "I would say no two decisions are alike. Lane (Kiffin) and I are friends, and we talked several times through the process of October-November about what it was looking like for both of our schedules of how things were going to unfold. Lane and I talked as we were going through. He was like, you and I are going through the same thing in November. I was like, No, Lane, we're not. If you leave, you're leaving an SEC school to go to another SEC school. It's a little different. I'm leaving Tulane." SUMRALL NON-PODIUM QUOTES OF THE WEEK "Last year's ACC champion was who?
Duke. We beat them at Tulane … I will say this too: every time at Tulane, and when we ran up against a team from this league [SEC], it didn’t feel very good, but when we ran up against ACC teams. When we beat Northwestern (Big Ten) last year, I wasn’t real worried. Going into the game I looked across the other sideline and thought I think we can win today. There are some differences but let’s not act like all Power 4 teams are alike and all G-6 teams are alike." PRESEASON PREDICTIONS AS VOTED ON BY SEC MEDIA Order of finish: 1. Georgia; 2. Texas; 3. Ole Miss; 4. Texas A&M; 5. LSU; 6. Alabama; 7. Oklahoma; 8. Tennessee; 9. FLORIDA; 10. Missouri; 11. South Carolina; 12. Auburn; 13. Vanderbilt; 14. Kentucky; 15. Mississippi State; 16. Arkansas First team All-SEC offense QB: Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss; RB: Kewan Lacey, Ole Miss; Ahmad Hardy, Missouri; WR: Cam Coleman, Texas, and Ryan Coleman-Williams, Alabama; TE: Trey’Dez Green, LSU; OG/OT: Trevor Goolsby, Texas; Cayden Green, Missouri; Jordan Seaton; and Earnest Greene III, Georgia; C: Drew Bobo, Georgia; AP: Mario Craver, Texas A&M First team All-SEC defense: DL: Colin Simmons, Texas; Willie Echoles, Ole Miss; Dylan Stewart, South Carolina; and Princewill Umanmielen, LSU; LB: Whit Weeks, LSU; Xavier Atkins, Auburn; and Rasheem Biles, Texas; DB: KJ Bolden, Georgia; Zabien Brown, Alabama; Bray Hubbard, Alabama; Ellis Robinson IV Second team All-SEC offense: QB: Arch Manning, Texas; RB: JADAN BAUGH, Florida; Nate Fraier, Georgia; WR: Mario Craver, Texas A&M; Isaiah Sategna III, Oklahoma; TE: Lawson Luckie, Georgia; OG/OT: Dontrell Glover, Georgia; Michael Fasusi, Oklahoma; Michael Carroll, Alabama; and Lance Heard, Kentucky; C: Mark Nabou Jr., Texas A&M; AP: Ryan Niblett, Texas Second team All-SEC defense: DL: David Stone, Oklahoma; Elijah Griffin, Georgia; Taylor Wein, Oklahoma; and Quincy Rhodes Jr., Arkansas; LB: Raylen Wilson, Georgia; Suntarine Perkins, Ole Miss; and Kip Lewis, Oklahoma; DB: Kelley Jones, Mississippi State; DJ Pickett, LSU; Ty Benefield, LSU; Eli Bowen and Peyton Bowen, Oklahoma Third team All-SEC offense: QB: Gunner Stockton, Georgia; RB: DeSean Bishop, Tennessee; Hollywood Smothers, Texas; WR: Ryan Wingo, Texas; Nyck Harbor, South Carolina; TE: Willie Rodriguez, Kentucky; OG/OT: David Saunders Jr., Tennessee; Patrick Kutas, Ole Miss; Brandon Baker, Texas; and Wendell Moe Jr., Tennessee; C: Braelin Moore, LSU; AP: JADAN BAUGH, Florida Third team All-SEC defense: DL: Kam Franklin, Ole Miss; DJ Hicks, Texas A&M; Gabe Harris, Georgia; and JAYDEN WOODS, Florida; LB: Arion Carter, Tennessee; TJ Dottery, LSU; and Yhonzae Pierre, Alabama; DB: Keon Sabb, Alabama; Champ Anthony, Auburn; Khalil Barnes, Georgia; and Jelani McDonald, Texas First team All-SEC Special teams: PK: Tate Sandell, Oklahoma; P: Grant Chadwick, LSU; RS: Ryan Niblett, Texas; KOS: Tate Sandell, Oklahoma; LS: Ben Anderson, Oklahoma Second team All-SEC Special teams: PK: Lucas Carneiro, Ole Miss; P: Grayson Miller, Oklahoma; RS: Isaiah Sategna III, Oklahoma; KOS: Lucas Carneiro, Ole Miss; LS: Trey Debuc, Texas Third team All-SEC Special teams: PK: Alex McPherson, Auburn; P: Ethan Pulliam, Mississippi State; RS: VERNELL BROWN III, Florida; KOS: Terry Bussey, Texas A&M; LS: Brett LeBlanc, Missouri SOME NON-FLORIDA OBSERVATIONS On a Wednesday that Sumrall clearly owned, Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer came across as the least impressive. He’s lost eight games in two seasons – the first time that has happened since Nick Saban’s first two years (2007-08) – and his roster is the least impressive since the days of Mike Shula. I do not think Alabama is one of the six best teams in the SEC. Sixteen SEC coaches each brought three players with them to Tampa. There were a lot of very impressive young men, but Texas A&M safety Marcus Ratcliffe easily ranks among the top two or three. On the field he tackles, he covers and directs traffic for the players in front of him. His off the field good works should make him a prime candidate to win the Wuerffel Trophy. Lane Kiffin’s appearance Thursday seemed rather subdued. Instead of “The Mouth That Roared” Lane did his best to come across as introspective and in control. In an interview he did with ESPN he regretted how he left Ole Miss, saying, “I wish I would have gone in when I met with Keith (Carter, Ole Miss AD) and said, 'I've made the decision to go.’ "I wish I would have just said, 'Hey, I'd like to coach the team,' and he'd say, 'No', and I'd say, 'Hey, okay, I appreciate it', move on [and] never even discussed it again." Expectations are through the roof for Texas and Steve Sarkisian. The Longhorns spent the offseason on a mission to prove only God has more money, spending freely to surround Arch Manning with elite offensive talent and bringing in Will Muschamp to take over the defense. Texas is on the short list of favorites to win the national championship. If the Longhorns endure a three-loss season there is every good chance Sark will get the pink slip. There is no conference in the country with such an impressive array of quarterbacks as the SEC, which lends to the belief the three-year national championship drought will come to an end this year. Georgia (Gunner Stockton) Texas (Arch Manning), Ole Miss (Trinidad Chambliss), Oklahoma (John Maeer), Texas A&M (Marcel Reed) and LSU (Sam Leavitt) could all be in the national championship hunt in large part because they have playmaking quarterbacks capable of taking over a game. And this does not count quality QBs at non-national contenders such as LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina), Byrum Brown (Auburn), Austin Simmons (Ole Miss), and Kamario Taylor (Mississippi State). After a week of the SEC dog and pony show plus the interaction with writers and broadcasters from around the country here is my predicted order of finish for the SEC: 1. Texas; 2. Georgia; 3. Oklahoma; 4. Ole Miss; 5. LSU; 6. Texas A&M; 7. FLORIDA; 8. Alabama; 9. Missouri; 10. Tennessee; 11. Auburn; 12. South Carolina; 13. Vanderbilt; 14. Mississippi State; 15. Kentucky; 16. Arkansas. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Never underestimate the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s ability to do the dumb thing. Given an opportunity to gracefully compromise on its 5-for-5 legislation, the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has elected to continue fighting it out in courtrooms across the country where losing is almost a foregone conclusion. Judge after judge has sided with athletes challenging the fairness of 5-for-5, which excludes last year’s fourth-year seniors from gaining a fifth year of eligibility while granting the fifth year to athletes who were in their first, second and third years during the recently concluded athletic year. Earlier in the week an Austin judge issued a TRO against the NCAA that has allowed Texas offensive guard Cole Hutson to rejoin the team. Hutson was the starting right guard a year ago but wasn’t selected when the NFL drafted back in the spring. Hutson’s return means the Longhorns return all five starters from last year’s O-line. While most of the lawsuits against the NCAA involve basketball players, attorney Darren Heitner said in an email conversation a couple of weeks ago that there will be lawsuits filed on behalf of football players. Since we’re only a couple of weeks away from the opening of August preseason football camps, it is likely the NCAA will be bombarded with lawsuits on behalf of seniors who played their fourth year in the 2025-26 athletic year. Meanwhile, more lawsuit will be filed on behalf of basketball players. This is a fight the NCAA is not going to win, but in typical fashion it will go down in flames in courtrooms rather than show the wisdom of compromise. How difficult would it be to grandfather in last year’s fourth-year seniors? A benefit of compromise would be decent publicity, something the NCAA hasn’t had in a long, long time. No telling how many billable hours attorneys representing the NCAA have racked up so there is a legitimate cost savings if a compromise could be reached. Among the many debates questioning the NCAA’s choice to duke it out in the courts was a thought that the NCAA was simply stalling for time until Congress passes the Protect College Sports Act. If that indeed were the case, then the NCAA has taken a torpedo to the engine room. Sources indicate there is no way this legislation can reach the Senate floor prior to the August recess, therefore no Congressional lifeline prior to the start of football season and the fall semester.

UAA Photo So here’s the question I keep chewing on like week-old gum: If the man is this good at selling the vision, why isn’t anybody buying the stock? Anybody who’s spent five minutes around Jon Sumrall will tell you the man communicates like it’s his second sport. And yet, when the actual ballots got counted, the league’s media members shrugged and slotted Florida ninth in the USA Today preseason poll — with zero Gators making the All-SEC team, one of only four schools in that boat. By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com Here’s the thing about SEC Media Days: It’s the only event in sports where a man can throw a fake tantrum about a cell phone alarm, get compared to a “sleeping giant” by Nick Saban himself, and still walk out of Tampa ranked ninth in a 16-team league. Welcome to Jon Sumrall’s introduction to the conference that eats optimism for breakfast. By all accounts — and I mean all of them — Sumrall owned that podium on Wednesday. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, who doesn’t hand out compliments like Halloween candy, came away calling him “the best thing to happen to Florida football in almost 20 years.” Nick Saban, sitting across the SEC Network set, gushed that Sumrall has “the right stuff” to build something that lasts, dropping the phrase that’s now stuck to this program like gum on a shoe: “Florida, I think, is a sleeping giant.” Even the reporter whose phone went off mid-answer got a highlight reel out of it, with Sumrall threatening — through a grin — to “throw this freaking podium right now” That’s not an act. Anybody who’s spent five minutes around Sumrall will tell you the man communicates like it’s his second sport. And yet, when the actual ballots got counted, the league’s media members shrugged and slotted Florida ninth in the USA Today preseason poll — with zero Gators making the All-SEC team, one of only four schools in that boat. The 247Sports poll was even less charitable, tucking the Gators in at 10th. Same neighborhood, same middling zip code. So here’s the question I keep chewing on like week-old gum: If the man is this good at selling the vision, why isn’t anybody buying the stock? Easy answer. Preseason polls don’t vote on vibes. They vote on résumés, and Florida’s résumé says 4-8 last year, a first-year coach who’s never called a play in the SEC, and a brand-new nine-game conference gauntlet that has grown men griping in the hallways of Tampa hotels. You can be the most electric guy in the room and still get graded on last year’s transcript. That’s just how these polls work — ask Billy Napier’s ghost. But here’s where I think the voters are missing the forest for the trees, and where Feldman’s piece nails it: Sumrall isn’t some motivational speaker who happens to coach football. The man has receipts. He walked into a dead Troy program and went 23-4 with back-to-back Sun Belt titles. He walked into Tulane and won the American Conference in year two, then took the Green Wave to the College Football Playoff. That’s not a hype man. That’s a guy who turns programs around on a schedule, and he’s done it twice. And it’s not just talk that’s kept this thing from cratering further. Jadan Baugh, Dallas Wilson and Jayden Woods — legitimate difference-makers who could’ve bolted for greener pastures after a 4-8 fire sale — stuck around for Sumrall. Players don’t stay for a good speech. They stay because they believe the guy giving it. That’s the tell the pollsters can’t quantify, but it’s the one that actually predicts wins. This “sleeping giant” business, by the way, isn’t just a media-day soundbite Saban cooked up for TV. Sumrall’s been saying it since the spring game back in April — “it’s not a question of if we will win here, but rather how quickly” — long before any pollster had a chance to weigh in. And way back in the 1960s the first person to hang that tag on UF was Bear Bryant. Say what you want about a coach who repeats his own catchphrase, but at least Sumrall is consistent, which is more than you can say for the parade of personalities that’s marched through Gainesville since Urban Meyer departed. Muschamp, McElwain, Mullen, Napier — all of them had something to sell, and none of them could close. Since 2010, Florida’s had more losing SEC seasons than winning ones. That’s not a program in a rut. That’s a program that forgot which way is up. In post-mortems, while Sumrall racked up kudos, Pete Golding garnered recognition. In fact, Paul Finebaum flat out said, “the winner of SEC Media days was Pete Golding!” Which seems odd considering that just a couple of years ago they wanted to run Golding out of Tuscaloosa as defensive coordinator. I did not notice Finebaum coming to his rescue then. So where does that leave us? Not with a coronation, and not with the same tired “same old Gators” cynicism that’s been the house special in this state for a decade and a half. Somewhere in between, which is exactly where an honest column ought to land. Here’s my balanced read: I’m not picking the Gators to shock the world and win the East in year one — the schedule’s too cruel and the roster’s still finding its legs under a new staff. But I’m also not buying ninth. A team that kept its best players through a coaching change, that’s got a coach who communicates at an elite level and has never had a losing season as a head coach anywhere, doesn’t play like a ninth-place outfit. I’ve got Florida finishing closer to the middle of the pack than the bottom of it — bowl eligible, with at least one signature win over a ranked opponent that makes the rest of the league sit up, and a foundation in December that looks a lot more finished than it does right now in July. The giant isn’t awake yet. But for the first time in a long while, somebody’s actually banging on the door instead of just talking about it. Ask me again in December — I’ve got a feeling the pollsters are going to owe Sumrall an apology.

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” – from “Common Sense” which was written in 1776 by Thomas Paine The words of Thomas Paine helped to spark a revolution. Months after he wrote “Common Sense” delegates from 13 colonies met in Philadelphia to declare independence from England. A war was fought and won. The world changed forever. Some 250 years and 16 days following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey talked about common sense as it applies to the Protect College Sports Act. If enacted by the United States Congress, college sports will change forever. Reforms are necessary and long overdue, but the way the SEC views this legislation much of it is one size fits all, which is unacceptable. The SEC may be willing to compromise on certain provisions in the bill, but it is a no go on such things as pooling television revenues for equal sharing among the conferences. That is the major sticking point for the SEC but not the only one. To counter this legislation, which is fully backed by the NCAA, the SEC has offered 10 suggestions that are both “achievable and reasonable.” Perhaps “achievable and reasonable” to the SEC but not everyone agrees. The SEC views the changes as common sense re-structuring that will help level a playing field that favors the smaller, less prosperous conferences. Those cash-starved bottom feeders want the big guys to relinquish some of the monopoly they have on access to money sources. They view the SEC and its list of suggestions as nothing more than bully tactics that will make it far more difficult to stave off extinction. Sankey has the full support of the presidents and athletic directors of the Southeastern Conference, who are in serious discussions about taking the route of self-governance rather than agree to the provisions of the Protect College Sports Act as it is written today. This is not a threat but rather a calculated demand made because the SEC has the further backing of ESPN, which holds an exclusive contract with the SEC through 2034. The SEC is ESPN’s most valuable property. Considering the SEC accounts for a full 40 percent of the television viewing audience for all football among the power conferences it doesn’t take a PhD in astrophysics to understand that whatever direction the SEC wishes to go, ESPN will stand side-by-side. For all practical purposes, if the SEC elects the route of self-governance it will be a full-scale revolution not only against Congressional control but also the NCAA. Most of the problems facing collegiate athletics today are the result of the NCAA’s combination of inept leadership and selective enforcement of antiquated rules. Because it lacks the wherewithal to deal with problems it created, the NCAA is trying to get a bailout from the Congress. Rejecting the legislation will require the SEC to also declare independence from the NCAA and its bureaucratic bungling. Thomas Paine called for a revolution that would begin the world over again. Monday, without coming right out and calling for a revolution, Greg Sankey let it be known that the Southeastern Conference has the power to begin the world of college sports all over again. KIRBY SMART SAID IT “You got to be able to wear multiple hats, more than I ever imagined. You got to choose which hats you want to wear the best. Maybe that is dictated by the strength of your staff. Like if you’ve got really strong continuity and coaches and X and Os and schemes and recruiters, then you go focus on the relationships with the players. You go focus on maybe raising money and doing things with the owners. You have to choose what you want to, and I think that’s the strength of our program. I’m not afraid to change what we need to change to be successful. If I need to spend for time with one player because he plays harder and less time with the offensive staff or the offensive coordinator or the defensive staff or the defensive coordinator, special teams, I’m willing to do that.” “I don’t have an ego that says you have to do it my way. I want to hear how you want to do it, and let’s find the best way. What I am worried about is what kind of product do we put on the field in terms of physicality, toughness, all those things, how we practice, that’s non-negotiable for me. The landscape is kind of over on the side. If you get really lost and caught up in landscape and you’re constantly arguing and fussing and complaining and tweeting and doing all that, guess what you’re not the worrying about? What matters. We’re going to worry about what matters first all our place.” CLARK LEA SAID IT “Well, I think we’re still internally the chip-on-the-shoulder underdog that has a lot to prove. Again, there’s nothing that we inherit from last season that has to do with any future win. Everything is about the responsibility we have over the program that we have built, but how this team can actually move it forward, and maybe more importantly, how this team can fully express itself over the course of the next six months.” “Our objective remains what it’s always been, to build the best football program in the country. While progress is encouraging, complacency is dangerous. The moment we turn to protect the ground we’ve covered, we stop our pursuit of what’s possible at Vanderbilt. We must be willing to risk what we are for what we could become.” ALEX GOLESH SAID IT “The identity is one thing for me to talk about, one thing for me to preach, one thing for me to hold a standard in every aspect of our program, but it’s another for our kids to embrace it and live it. The first piece of this identity that we’ve hammered home is the ability to be physically and mentally tough. That’s what Auburn football was built on, physical and mental toughness. The ability to be the most violent football team on the field every Saturday. Violent.” “Byrum Brown is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and he’s shown that over the years. What has to happen for Byrum is he’s just got to continue to be him every single day. What gives him confidence is everything that we preached from day one. It’s your daily process. It’s how you come in that building. It’s how you treat people. It’s how you take care of your body. It’s how you show up to work. It’s truly how your locker looks. How you approach getting on the field, off the field, how you communicate on the sideline, on top of how you actually work when it’s time to go to work.” “I don’t set goals. I’ve always thought that that’s like a little bit like New Year’s resolutions. They usually work for a little bit and you kind of keep it moving. I set standards. We set standards as a program. Our standard is to be the best versions of us every single day.” SHANE BEAMER SAID IT “Last year at this time most of you guys picked us very high because of the players that we had returning on our team – on the 2025 team. This year we won't be picked very high. I get that, but we got the same players that you picked us high for last year. They're back this year, and they're a year older, which excites me.” “If you look back at last year's team, I think we only had four seniors that started for us total on last year's team. So for me, as the head coach, it was making sure that we got older. We brought in some transfers that have played a lot of football at a lot of places, so we increased the experience. That was one thing that I, as a head coach, can control. We tweaked some things with how we do things in the offseason, practice, things like that. But you do that after every season. You're introspective and look at how you can be better. But we've been very intentional about getting better. We've gotten older, like I said. Certainly when you have the season that we had, that's on me. I did not do a good enough job last year to say the least.” CHRIS DOERING RATES THE SEC QUARTERBACKS 1. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss; 2. John Mateer, Oklahoma; 3. Arch Manning, Texas; 4. Byrum Brown, Auburn; 5. Marcel Reed, Texas A&M DIVISION I QUARTERBACK RATINGS PER THE ATHLETIC Top 25 (SEC QBs in bold): 1. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss; 2. Dante Moore, Oregon; 3. CJ Carr, Notre Dame; 4. Darian Mensah, Miami; 5. Julian Sayin, Ohio State; 6. Drew Mestemaker, Oklahoma State; 7. Arch Manning, Texas; 8. Sam Leavitt, LSU; 9. Jayden Maiava, Southern Cal; 10. Noah Fifita, Arizona; 11. Gunner Stockton, Georgia; 12. Josh Hoover, Indiana; 13. Marcel Reed, Texas A&M; 14. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, California; 15. Kevin Jennings, SMU; 16. John Mateer, Oklahoma; 17. C.J. Bailey, North Carolina State; 18. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina; 19. Byrum Brown, Auburn; 20. Demond Williams, Washington; 21. Malik Washington, Maryland; 22. Devon Dampier, Utah; 23. Mason Heintschel, Pittsburgh; 24. Rocco Becht, Penn State; 25. Nico Iamaleava, UCLA Other SEC quarterbacks: 26. Austin Simmons, Missouri; 32. Kamario Taylor, Mississippi State; 33. Keelon Russell, Alabama; 34. Kenny Minchey, Kentucky; 55. Aaron Philo, Florida; 57. Jared Curtis, Vanderbilt; 63. KJ Jackson, Arkansas; 75. Faizon Brandon, Tennessee Former SEC QBs now starting elsewhere: 25. Nico Iamaleava, UCLA (formerly Tennessee); 28. Conner Weigman, Houston (formerly Texas A&M); 40. Cutter Boley, Arizona State (formerly Kentucky); 42. DJ Lagway, Baylor (formerly Florida); 46. Beau Pribula, Virginia (formerly Kentucky); 60. Ashton Daniels, Florida State (formerly Auburn); 64. Jackson Arnold, UNLV (formerly Oklahoma; formerly Auburn); 67. Carolos Del Rio-Wilson (formerly Florida); 71. Maalik Murphy, Oregon State (formerly Texas); 72. Michael Hawkins, West Virginia (formerly Oklahoma); 73. Michael Van Buren, South Florida (formerly Mississippi State; formerly LSU); 83. Tayven Jackson, North Texas (formerly Tennessee); 100. Max Johnson, Georgia Southern (formerly LSU; formerly Texas A&M); 102. Jake Merklinger, UConn (formerly Tennessee)

TAMPA – Ever so quietly, Danny Wuerffel made the rounds at SEC Media Days, always smiling, always deflecting praise while giving thanks to God for a life that has far exceeded expectations both on and off the playing field. As a quarterback, he earned membership in college football’s most exclusive club when he won the Heisman Trophy while leading the Florida Gators to the 1996 national championship. In the life after football that evolved into one of constant giving and constant service he continuously answers to what Steve Spurrier has always called “a higher calling.” Just as he had a heart for inspiring teammates as a Gator, he continues to inspire others as an advocate for the less fortunate through his Desire Street Ministries and through the Allstate-sponsored Danny Wuerffel Trophy, given to the player whose community service offers a beacon of hope. “A college football award not for touchdowns or wins but an award just for community service and we’re proud of that,” Wuerffel said. “We just announced 113 nominees for the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy and it’s going to be an exciting year.” We remember the Wuerffel years at Florida during which the Gators went 45-6-1 with four Southeastern Conference championships, a national runner-up in 1995 and a national championship in 1996. The numbers speak for themselves – 10,875 passing yards for 114 touchdowns – but as great as the stats were, perhaps the lasting memory of Danny Wuerffel is prayerful hands and eyes lifted to the heavens after every touchdown pass. For a higher percentage of college football players than we care to admit, football is perceived as their ticket to fame and fortune. For Wuerffel, football opened doors for service. “I think it's baked into my faith as well and my understanding of what authentic faith looks like and serving and caring for others, especially those that are vulnerable,” Wuerffel said. “And then just like a lot of things in life, sometimes as you start to take steps, you never would imagine where you'd end up. You just try to take the next best step. And it's led me to the things that we've done. And then just, you know, work hard. We have a lot of things that are sad that, you know, when things go wrong for people and you work in difficult neighborhoods, but at night when you go to bed, you just feel like your life matters and you're helping people. And it's a great feeling.” His National Football League career never took off but in retrospect, the NFL was simply an outpost on a path of divine purpose. The three years he spent in New Orleans following his college career exposed him to the Ninth Ward projects, particularly Desire Street, notorious for poverty that breeds crime, drugs, lifespans ended way too early and prison sentences. When he retired from football, Desire Street Ministries became his focus, a faith-based organization to offer hope and opportunity for at-risk kids. Just as Desire Street was beginning to have a positive effect in New Orleans, along came Hurricane Katrina (2005), wiping out the Ninth Ward with the floods that broke through the levees destroying Wuerffel’s home. A setback, for sure, but not the end. Desire Street rebuilt and continues to thrive. Another setback came in 2010. “I was diagnosed with autoimmune disorder (Guillain-Barre Syndrome), was paralyzed for a while and was really almost unfunctional for a lot of months,” he recalled. “Those in many ways kind of reshape and define who you are on the inside. Getting though Katrina was tough but we had a lot of support and ultimately I think my faith in God and belief that good can come out of bad can carry you through those times.” Wuerffel recovered again, came back stronger than ever and continues to inspire others. Football not only provided the key to open doors of hope that offer young people a way out of the unwalled prisons of the inner city, but the adversity he faced during his college days toughened him and prepared him for the future. “I think there's this hope and belief and dream that life and success is linear and you can just sort of get there without the struggle,” he said. “But almost anybody of substance that I've ever met has been through a lot, and so often that's what shapes and molds and defines us. I look at the struggles. I mean, even the 96 football team, we were undefeated. We lose to Florida State, and now we're out, and yet we hung together, and a lot of things happened, and we got a second chance, and that made it in some ways all the more special.” It isn’t an exaggeration to call Wuerffel the All-American hero. He is a doer and a giver in a world filled with those whose very existence is defined by taking. He never forgets the people who impacted his life, taking the time to steer him in the right directions. He has fond memories of his high school football coach, Jimmy Ray Stephens. Jimmy Ray came to Fort Walton Beach after serving as Eddie Feely’s offensive coordinator at Gainesville Buchholz and then a remarkable 33-3 run as the head coach at Williston where very few had answers for the Flying T offense first devised by high school coaching legend Tom Perrin but perfected at Georgia Southern. At Fort Walton, Jimmy Ray had the cerebral quarterback he needed to run the Flying T in Wuerffel. The two of them combined for a 14-0 record in 1991 when they destroyed St. Thomas Aquinas in the Class 4A state championship game at Florida Field. Wuerffel threw for three touchdowns and put the exclamation point on a 39-14 win with an 80-yard touchdown run. Following the state championship trophy presentation Jimmy Ray Stephens grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the Fort Walton Beach locker room. I expected to see a bunch of high school kids hugging each other and celebrating a win over a team (St. Thomas Aquinas) that most experts thought was unbeatable. Rather than unhinged joy, Danny Wuerffel stood in the middle of the locker room singing “Amazing Grace.” As we listened, Jimmy Ray leaned over and spoke in my ear, “There isn’t a kid like this one anywhere. He is everything you could ever ask for. He is a blessing to everyone he meets on and off the field. He is destined for great things.” So here we are 35 years later. Danny Wuerffel continues to bless people and his unmatched character is one of the reasons that Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin made him a prominent member of the search committee when the Gators went searching for a new head coach. The first and initially most prominent name before the search committee was Lane Kiffin, who Wuerffel says was “high on the board and was a priority.” Kiffin wasn’t the only name on the board, however, and the more the committee dug into the candidates, the more Jon Sumrall’s name kept rising in importance because, as Wuerffel concluded, “He gets it.” From the first Zoom call Wuerffel was impressed. Subsequent interviews kept checking all the necessary boxes until it became a no-brainer that this was the right coach at just the right time for the Florida Gators. There was legitimate excitement when the decision was made and Sumrall accepted. “I think it was a combination of his intensity, he was really smart with the ability to surround himself with great people and then also he had a characteristic about him that a lot of successful people don't have,” Wuerffel said. “He has this ability to look at himself and have a process for receiving feedback. I think a lot of successful people get blind spots because they don't really have people around that can speak into the truth. And he's just got a way of getting really good feedback from people to make sure that he's covering his blind spots … He’s our guy.” And so is Danny Wuerffel. Thirty years ago when he won the Heisman and led the Gators to the national championship, Danny Wuerffel earned his place among Florida football legends. Thirty years later he continues earning a place in our hearts. The football legend fades with the passing of time, but the legend of integrity, compassion and faith in action continues to grow. As great a football player as he was, Danny Wuerffel is a much greater man, well worth our love and admiration.

“Let me just say one thing to you, Jon. I’m a Florida resident now and down there amongst the Gators … and I want you to know, I’m kind of a semi-Gator,” Saban said. The sun was already baking Water Street by the time Jon Sumrall walked into the JW Marriott on Wednesday morning, and by the time he walked out nearly six hours later, the Gators’ first-year head coach had done everything from radio row to a live jab session with Kirby Smart to getting playfully threatened by Nick Saban on national television. Welcome to SEC Media Days, Tampa-style — the league’s first time hosting its preseason circus in the city, and Sumrall’s first time doing it as an SEC head coach. First report card: He gets an A, borderline A-Plus. Not even needing the Orange and Blue glasses. Off they go to Tampa. (UAA Photo) The beauty contest is over, however, and we don’t care who won Mr. Congeniality. His day started early. Sumrall hit SEC Creative at 9:05 a.m., then rotated through SEC Network Social, SEC Radio, SiriusXM, CBS and Electronic Media before finally stepping to the main podium at 10:30 for his address to the full room of assembled media, followed by stops with ESPN, Marty & McGee and the SEC Network set to close out his morning. “This is Gator country,” he announced right away, drawing battle lines. Running back Jadan Baugh, linebacker Myles Graham and receiver Vernell Brown III (see photo) worked their own gauntlet of interviews alongside him, representing a Florida program that opens the season September 5 against Florida Atlantic. It wouldn’t be a Sumrall press availability without somebody asking about Lane Kiffin. The two coaches lived parallel lives last November — both fielding calls about jobs in the SEC, both angling toward the College Football Playoff with their old teams — before their paths split. Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU before the Rebels’ playoff run was finished; Sumrall stayed at Tulane through the end of the American Championship before officially taking over at Florida. A reporter pushed him on whether the two situations were really as similar as everyone kept saying. Sumrall wasn’t having it. “I’d say no two decisions are alike, right,” Sumrall noted. “Lane and I are friends, and talked several times during the process in October and November about what it was looking like about how things were going to unfold. Lane said, ‘you and I are going through the same thing,’ and I’m like, ‘No Lane, we’re not. If you leave, you’re leaving an SEC school to go to an SEC school.’ I was leaving Tulane. But it was challenging to do it, but I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I wanted to make sure I left Tulane the right way. If any university told me I couldn’t coach in the playoff game, I don’t think I would’ve taken the job, just because I couldn’t leave the team I had coached all year.” While Kiffin and Sumrall have discussed the situation numerous times since last December, there was one part of the process the two coaches never agreed on — they were not the same situations, at all, and Sumrall made sure everyone in the room understood that distinction. Even so, he made clear there was no bad blood in it. “I did not envy Lane’s situation at all,” Sumrall said. “Every time he and I would converse, I felt terrible for what he was enduring and for everyone involved, because it was unfair to all parties”. Not every moment was so serious, either. A reporter’s phone rang mid-answer, and Sumrall didn’t miss a beat with the crowd. (Later he admitted he was joking.) “You would be kicked out of our team meeting, I swear,” he said. “Like, you’re lucky I’m not going to throw this podium right now. That drives me crazy. I would say who is that, but I’m not going to embarrass anybody.” If the podium session was measured, Sumrall’s stop on the SEC Network set was pure theater. Once he wrapped his main media session, the crew — including Nick Saban — broke down his performance live, and the Hall of Fame coach couldn’t resist needling the rookie. “Let me just say one thing to you, Jon. I’m a Florida resident now and down there amongst the Gators … and I want you to know, I’m kind of a semi-Gator,” Saban said. “So, if you don’t get your shit together, I’m gonna be in the middle of it” Sumrall laughed it off and told Saban he appreciated the vote of confidence. Underneath the joke, Saban was genuinely complimentary of the job Sumrall has done building out his first Florida staff. “I think that Jon has a great attitude. I think he’s had a great attitude in terms of how he’s taken over every opportunity that he’s gotten as a head coach, and he’s done a phenomenal job,” Saban said, praising Sumrall’s approach of building on what’s already working rather than blowing things up. He singled out offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and defensive coordinator Brad White as strong hires, and predicted quarterback Aaron Philo is “a little bit underrated as a passer” who fits Faulkner’s system well. Saban did flag two trouble spots for Gainesville to watch — the offensive line and the back end of the secondary — as the things standing between Florida and “a really good team”. Sumrall also had to answer for a needling he took days earlier from Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who cracked at a Steve Spurrier award event about how many head coaches Florida has burned through during Smart’s tenure in Athens. Sumrall shrugged it off with respect rather than a rebuttal. “Yeah, it’s a great rivalry, I think it’s one of the best rivalries in college football. I have a lot of respect for Kirby and the job he’s done over the years, they’re very consistent,” he said, adding that the two had already caught up before the event went live. “What would you expect from the coach Spurrier award show other than a lot of jabs being thrown? There might not be as an authentic coach in the SEC, besides Pete Golding, and both were making their conference debuts this season a few hours apart in the same Tampa ballroom. And if anyone bet on either man getting through a press conference without cussing at least once, they most certainly lost that bet on Wednesday. Sumrall had nothing but praise for his fellow first-year man, even with Tulane having been run over twice by Ole Miss last season under two different coaches. “Pete is going to be himself. He’s not going to change,” Sumrall said of Golding. “I have an appreciation for that. You have to be authentic. I think he’s going to do a phenomenal job. Really do. Happy for his opportunity there”. By the time Sumrall left the SEC Network set, he’d covered a coaching carousel soap opera, absorbed a good-natured threat from arguably the greatest coach of his generation, and still found time to talk up his quarterback battle and the fanbase that helped sell him on Gainesville in the first place — an 18-straight-sellout streak “through maybe not ideal on-the-field results,” as he put it. Kiffin and Sumrall won’t even meet on the field in 2026 — the first year since 1970 that LSU and Florida haven’t been scheduled against each other — but their story will keep following both coaches into the season anyway. No two decisions are alike. But in Tampa, everybody sure wanted to talk about the one everyone insists on comparing anyway.

People, places and things from Tampa and beyond: There was nothing in Jadan Baugh’s demeanor or tone to indicate even a hint of bitterness Wednesday afternoon as he politely answered one question after another from a host of writers and broadcasters curious to get the scoop on a young man who chose to return to Florida for year three rather than get caught up in a bidding war for his services. Shortly after Billy Napier was fired and the transfer portal opened, Baugh would have been a top five commodity. He could have named his own price and someone would have met it. Make no mistake about it, Florida will pay Baugh well to run and catch the football in the fall, but literally dozens of schools would have been willing to write bigger checks if necessary. Running backs with Jim Brown size and power are hard to come by so there was plenty of money to be had, but Baugh chose to remain at Florida to play for Jon Sumrall, whose Christmas Day home visit sealed the deal for his return. “People don’t know it, but he came to my grandmother’s house on Christmas Day and we sat there and just talked about everything, and that stuck out to me the most because that show is a guy who cares,” Baugh said. “It showed a guy with character that when anything’s going on, he does not care to a point where we’re just trying to get me back on the team, you know?” So he’s back, one of the faces of the Florida program that first year head coach Jon Sumrall intends to restore to its championship glory. In the two years Baugh has been a Gator, he has accumulated 1,843 rushing yards, which sets him just outside the top 10 in UF history. If he can match last season’s 1,170 yards he can slide past Tim Tebow om Florida’s all-time rushing list. While answering questions, Baugh was asked the difference in the Gators under Sumrall and the previous years when Billy Napier was the coach. "We always had the pieces," Baugh said. "It was just more of the inside stuff with the team as to buying into the process, understanding the process a lot more just to keep going. And I feel like this year we have a lot of guys who want to and a lot of guys who are willing to sacrifice anything for the team." There is more want to among the new coaching staff as well. "Well, I can say for a fact that the coaching staff now, we have a lot more guys into certain areas as we have an OC, we have a defensive coordinator,” Baugh said. “You have the guys who stand around and help, you know? They all coach us like it's the last day. And with that, I feel like that makes us better each and every day and they push us 24/7." JOHN SUMRALL (FLORIDA HBC) SAID ITThe challenge presented by the entire Florida athletic department: “When you look on our campus, every sport has success. Every sport at the University of Florida has high standards, every sport is in pursuit of championships it feels like year in and year out …That's not exclusive to football. We have got to get Florida football back to that standard.” About his enthusiastic demeanor: “I'm just trying to inject an attitude we're going attack every day with enthusiasm. I may have some bad moments; I don't have bad days. I got life pretty good.” About NIL and the portal: “I do feel fortunate to maybe have only been a head coach since 2022, and so the transfer portal and NIL and all the chaos that has ensued is all I know. It's not like I've been doing it forever and had to shift mid-stream. It's all I've known.” When a reporter’s phone went off while he was speaking: “You would be kicked out of our team meeting, I swear. Like you're lucky I'm not going throw this podium right now. That drives me crazy. I would say who is that, but I'm not going to embarrass anybody.” The quarterback situation: “Do we have a Heisman Trophy candidate? No, but they both have enough arm talent. They both are adequate runners. Neither one of them are elite runners. Neither one of them are slugs either. Both have good arms, both have good releases. Both can make all the throws. So there's enough there for us to win with." Offensive linemen whose leadership has stood out: “Two transfers that have really set the standard how we work. Harrison Moore, offensive center from Georgia Tech, and TJ Shanahan, offensive guard from Penn State have both kind of elevated maybe the rhythm that that room marches to.” VERNELL BROWN III (FLORIDA WR) SAID IT About singing Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” at the end of the third quarter: “Yeah, of course, I sing along every time. You know, I know the song word for word. I didn't know it before I got there, but I was always mumbling it. But I mean it just means everything, just everything about The Swamp, the Florida Gator brand, Florida Gator football and the University of Florida in general means everything.” MYLES GRAHAM (FLORIDA LB) SAID IT About responsibility: “The coaches can do whatever Xs and Os, they can coach how hard they want, but we're out there making the plays. So it's really up to us. We have to be very focused and very honed in on what we're doing and just executing our job.” About Coach Jon Sumrall: “He's energetic. He's the same guy every single day. He's going to push us to be the best. He really loves us. He'll yell at us, but at the end of the day, he's going to remind us that he loves us. No matter what, he's always going to be there for us." PETE GOLDING (OLE MISS HBC) SAID IT About tampering accusations: “Like coaches, we're under contract. You don't think other ADs are calling us during the year? Same ones that are bitching about all this stuff are the same ones calling coaches to come to other schools, so it's ever where in every profession. I am not saying I have all the answers.” More about tampering accusations: “Would you quit your job before interviewing for another job or being offered another job? No. Nobody would. But we have a portal we can go in with a do not contact, I'm going quit my job where I'm getting paid and I'm going to go in saying I need a new job, which nobody can call me to interview. What have we created? So we've created it on top of representation for these players, right, that it's their responsibility to make sure they get paid really well and they also have opportunities. So by design it's put a lot of people in bad positions. Let's not act like recruiting in college football for the last 100 years is the most moral thing. What are we talking about here?” TRINIDAD CHAMBLISS (OLE MISS QB) SAID IT About the Heisman Trophy: “Individual awards are nice, but I'm nothing without my team, I'm nothing without my offensive line, I'm nothing without my defense and all the people that have poured all their time and energy into making the team the best.” KEWAN LACEY (OLE MISS RB) SAID IT Where his love of football comes from: “I would just say I feel like God gives everybody a purpose in life and He pushes them to live in their purpose by putting them through trials and tribulations. So I feel like God put football in my heart right now, and I'm just passionate for it. It's just something I don't have to think about doing.” MIKE ELKO (TEXAS A&M HBC) SAID IT About safety Marcus Ratcliffe: “He's put together one of the most thoughtful charity initiatives I've ever witnessed as a college football player. He created the Mission 312 Program; 3 for his jersey number, 12 for the 12th Man. It's a mission that helps give money to World War II veterans. So his organization donates $312 for every turnover we cause on defense at Texas A&M. They have raised over $30,000 for Army vets from World War II, so just a really, really cool kid who has done some amazing things with his platform and his opportunity to represent Texas A&M.” SARK SPEAKS OUT Texas coach Steve Sarkisian will take to the podium at SEC Media Days in Tampa today, but before leaving Austin he spoke to The Stampede about the lawlessness in college sports and the inability of the NCAA to enforce the rules. “I don’t want to be worried about my fourth wide receiver getting talked to by another school’s coach in pregame warmups,” Sarkisian said. “Hey, come transfer here at the end of the season. You’re not playing there anyway.’ Those are the things, like, if you do those things, there’s got to be consequences for breaking rules. And right now, we can’t govern our own rules, and that’s the most frustrating part of where we’re at in college football society right now. We can’t enforce our own laws. We can’t enforce our own rules. There’s no consequences right now. “We’re living in a lawless society, unfortunately, and that’s not good. That’s not good for anybody. It’s not even good for those that are breaking the rules and getting away with it because sooner or later, those rules are going to get enforced, and then what are you going to do? So I think that that’s some of the challenges that we’re going through.”