Aaron Philo, No. 12, at left, and Tramell Jones Jr., No. 9, at right, on Florida's sideline against South Carolina on Oct. 10, 2026. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. On June 2, 1925, Wally Pipp suffered what has become known as the most famous headache in history. Legend has it that Pipp asked for the day off because of a raging headache, so New York Yankees manager Miller Huggins replaced him in the starting lineup with Lou Gehrig, who went 3-for-5 against the Washington Senators. It was years before Gehrig relinquished his job as the Yankees' first baseman (2,130 consecutive games played). Pipp was sold to Cincinnati in 1926. When it comes to University of Florida football, there have been a couple of notable injuries in recent years. In 2019, Feleipe Franks dislocated his ankle at Kentucky with the Gators trailing 21-10 late in the third quarter. Kyle Trask led the Gators to a stunning comeback for a 29-21 UF win and never looked back. He started the rest of the year and in 2020 finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting. In 2024, Graham Mertz had the Gators teetering on the verge of an upset of Tennessee in Knoxville when he tore an ACL. Freshman DJ Lagway filled in the rest of the way as the Gators dropped a 23-17 decision to the Vols, but Lagway would go on to lead the Gators to an 8-5 record, their only winning record other than the Trask-led Gators 8-4 mark in 2020 during the six seasons from 2020 through 2025. It is unfortunate, but so often one man's injury is another man's opportunity. It was reported Wednesday that Florida (4-2, 2-2 SEC) starting quarterback Aaron Philo's availability is uncertain for Saturday's game in Austin against No. 7 Texas (4-1, 1-1 SEC). If Philo is unable to answer the bell against Texas (noon ET, ABC), Tramell Jones Jr. will be the starter. Jones is next in line as the Gators prep for the Longhorns. The Gainesville Sun reported that Philo suffered a shoulder injury in the Gators' 38-19 loss to South Carolina, a game that was finished by sophomore Jones. There has been no indication if it was Philo's right (throwing) or left shoulder, which could be the deciding factor in whether or not he is fit to play. If Philo is a no-go and Jones plays very well, either leading the Gators to what would be a stunning upset or a white-knuckle finish, would Sumrall abide by that unwritten football rule that you don't lose your starting job because of an injury or would he roll the dice and go with Jones against Georgia in two weeks? The old football rule sounds very good and reeks of loyalty but doesn't necessarily fly in this modern age when coaches are paid millions. There aren't that many seven-figure jobs to be had, so if a replacement QB steps in and has a hot hand, is he relegated back to the bench when the injured player is healthy again? Sumrall has said more than once that he believes the Gators can win with either Philo or Jones at quarterback, but certainly experience favors Philo, who has started all six games at UF including two on the road in SEC play (Auburn and Missouri). Jones has played in seven games, all of them off the bench. His career stats are 44-for-64 passing (68.75 percent) for 443 yards (6.92 yards per attempt) with four touchdown passes and two interceptions. In his last two SEC games, Jones is 11-13 for 126 yards with one TD and one interception. COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY: OCTOBER 15, 2026 EDITION EXTINCT SPECIES LIST Keep an eye on what happens with Rutgers at Maryland and Florida State at Miami. ON LIFE SUPPORT Mike Norvell, Florida State: The Seminoles led Louisville 14-0 in the first quarter, then lost the next three quarters 44-6. That was bad. What promises to happen this weekend at Miami will be even worse. The boosters want Norvell gone, but the buyout remains a major obstacle. That leaves two choices: Keep Norvell another year (bad) or convince Jimbo to coach for $1 million to $2 million for the next five years (bad idea, but better than keeping him). Dave Doeren, North Carolina State: The next six games are actually winnable but anything more than 3-3 or 4-2 would be a miracle. He has won more than he's lost but the faithful want more than bowl games in scenic, exotic locales like Shreveport. He will be gone with a losing season and could be gone with a break-even record. Mike Locksley, Maryland: If the Turtles figure out a way to lose to Rutgers this weekend, Locks could be the first coaching domino to fall. Maryland has given up 182 points during its four-game skid. Only Saturday's game with Rutgers looks remotely winnable. Maryland is a former ACC school trying to compete in the Big Ten and it's just not working out. Locksley's buyout is cheap comparatively speaking. Greg Schiano, Rutgers: A 1-6 record the rest of the way would be a small miracle. The one chance is Saturday at Maryland. This could be a loser gets voted off the island kind of game. The only thing that will stand in the way of Schiano getting pink-slipped is the buyout - which is roughly $18.5 million after the 2026 season. Bill O'Brien, Boston College: There are a couple of saving graces working in O'Brien's favor. First off, BC might spend less on football than any power conference team, so the fact he has the Eagles competitive could help him keep his job at least one more year. Second, the Eagles are competitive. They've lost two straight to Virginia Tech and SMU by a combined 16 points. Virginia Tech had to rally for two fourth quarter touchdowns to win. If any of the remaining teams other than Notre Dame and Miami blows the Eagles out, however, it could be the end of the line for O'Brien. Joe Moorhead, Akron: The Zips are 1-5, going absolutely nowhere. He's 14-40 for his career at Akron. He's lasted this long because Akron really doesn't have the money to go through the firing and hiring process even though Moorhead works very cheap. Miami (Ohio) should handle the Zips easily this week but the admin is unlikely to do anything until season's end. ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST Steve Sarkisian, Texas: The Longhorns are 4-1, formerly ranked No. 1. The Aggies await in the season finale. Anything less than 10-2 and Sark's job could be on the line. The buyout won't faze the boosters. Only God has more money than the Longhorns. Shane Beamer, South Carolina: He had one foot out the door last Saturday morning. By Saturday evening, he was off life support and moved to the Endangered Species List. The win over Florida is only a temporary reprieve. Now Beamer has to figure out a way to win four of the next six starting with Tennessee on Oct. 24 in Columbia. Bill Belichick, North Carolina: Beating Pitt on the road last week renewed hope among the faithful that perhaps Belichick can make the Tar Heels relevant on the national stage. The Heels are 3-2 this year and with the exception of Miami, there isn't a game on the remaining schedule that UNC can't win. All the same, he's got to get the Tar Heels bowl eligible. Deion Sanders, Colorado: Three straight losses and now Utah and Okie State back-to-back. The Buffs are 2-3 and will struggle to get to six wins. Six will buy another year. Five and things get really dicey. Dave Aranda, Baylor: The Bears are 4-1 and could be 8-1 before closing out the season with the (at) BYU, Texas Tech, (at) Houston gauntlet. Seven wins and Aranda's off the hook. Eight or nine and he gets a contract extension. Lincoln Riley, Southern Cal: The Trojans are 6-1 so why is Riley in any kind of trouble. Well, it has everything to do with no championships since he came to LA from Oklahoma. His tenure this year will be judged by what he does in games against Ohio State, Indiana and UCLA. Butch Jones, Arkansas State: He's 2-4 but Jones has made a habit of winning more than he loses in the second half of the season. He probably won't get canned this year unless the Red Wolves go completely in the tank, but if he doesn't get to six wins in the regular season his seat will be very hot to start 2027. Brent Venables, Oklahoma: The win over Texas was a shocker. The next three games - Kentucky, (at) Mississippi State and South Carolina - are must win games. A 6-2 record heading into November will have the Sooners in line for a CFP at-large. Dabo Swinney, Clemson: The Tigers are 3-2, but blessed with seven remaining games that are all very winnable. Clemson really isn't 10 wins good, but the ACC is that bad this year. Fran Brown, Syracuse: The schedule is brutal and there aren't many potential wins to be had. The Orange are 2-3 and heading for 3-9 or 4-8. Brown won't get fired this year, but he will be on the hot seat next year.

Chris Spears worked the sideline for the 500th game in The Swamp. Here are 36 frames from Homecoming: the tunnel, the runout, Bailey Stockton's 59-yard touchdown and Jon Sumrall on a long afternoon in South Carolina's 38-19 win over No. 16 Florida. Photos by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. Tap any photo to open it full size. Game story: South Carolina beats No. 16 Florida 38-19, spoiling Homecoming in The Swamp Buddy Martin: GAMECLOCKED! No. 500 Was a Lousy Homecoming in the Swamp

Aaron Philo was limited at practice Wednesday, according to On3. Tramell Jones Jr. would be next in line if Philo cannot play. Aaron Philo runs against Auburn on Sept. 19, 2026. Archival photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. GAINESVILLE - Florida's trip to Texas now includes a question about whether Aaron Philo will be available to run the offense Saturday. On3 reported Wednesday, citing GatorsOnline reporter Zach Abolverdi, that Philo threw at practice but was limited by an injury. His availability for the game is uncertain, according to that report. Tramell Jones Jr. would be next in line if Philo cannot play. The report does not establish that Philo has been ruled out, and an injury-driven change would be different from a decision to replace him as Florida's starter. The Gators, 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC, visit No. 7 Texas on Saturday, Oct. 17. Kickoff in Austin is noon ET on ABC. Philo completed 21 of 28 passes for 227 yards, one touchdown and one interception in Florida's 38-19 loss to South Carolina last Saturday. Jones entered in the fourth quarter and finished 6 of 8 for 40 yards with an interception. Florida opened the season with four wins before losing at Missouri and at home to South Carolina. The Gators scored 36 points combined in those two losses. Read Franz Beard's full follow-up: what Philo's injury could mean for Tramell Jones Jr. For the context behind the quarterback decision, Franz Beard's Oct. 13 quarterback analysis covers the offense's protection problems and the debate over playing Tramell Jones Jr. Injury reporting: On3, citing Zach Abolverdi. Game statistics: FloridaGators.com. Schedule: FloridaGators.com.

Because it is universally described as the single most important position in all of team sports, when it comes to football fingers immediately point to the quarterback whenever things go south, which they have the last two weeks for the Florida Gators (4-2, 2-2 SEC). Aaron Philo, whose numbers were just a shade under brilliant in Florida's 4-0 September have taken a serious plunge in losses to Missouri and South Carolina. In the four wins, Philo was 76-104 passing, good for 1,091 yards (10.49 yards per attempt) and eight touchdowns. Two of his three interceptions were deflections by a wide receiver who should have caught the football. In the losses, Philo is 53-75 for 550 yards (7.33 yards per attempt), three touchdowns and two picks. The yards per pass attempt is the single most revealing stat in football and a three yards per attempt differential between games one through four and the last two says plenty about an offense that scored more than 40 points each ga/me in September to one that has produced a combined 36 points in October. The Gators were a top five offense in September, averaging more than 523 yards per game, but that plunged significantly starting with Missouri (325 yards) and got only slightly better against South Carolina (387). When numbers plunge from midday summer heat on black asphalt hot to slightly better than permafrost cool the first fingers of blame always/ point at the quarterback. Things came to a head against South Carolina when Philo threw a pick that led to a South Carolina touchdown before the first half ended then killed a promising drive with a fumble when the Gators still had a chance to make a comeback. When Tramell Jones Jr. came on in relief in the fourth quarter with a touchdown and moderate success moving the ball a growing faction of fans began calling for Jones to at least have a shot at replacing Philo on a permanent basis, but are the calls justified? Change isn't always a bad thing but quarterback controversies are and before declaring this a controversy other factors have to be injected into this equation, starting with the play of the offensive line and on to injuries at wide receiver. The O-line that allowed only two sacks among the scant 14 negative plays in September has been exposed the last two. Philo has been sacked six times in the losses and there have been 11 other negative plays. Jadan Baugh, who was second in the nation in rushing through four games has gained 72 yards on 27 carries (2.66 per carry) in the last two. The running game produced 1,040 yards in September but has 162 yards on 38 carries in October (2.66 per carry). The threesome of left guard Knijeah Harris, center Harrison Moore and right guard TJ Shanahan have played consistently well all six games, but there are issues at the tackles which opposing defensive coordinators have figured out and exploited. That has affected the running game, and certainly it has plenty to do with the falling productivity of Philo. He has had little to no help from the running game and has been under constant pressure off the edge. At wide receiver, Vernell Brown III has missed the last two games with the lingering problems caused by a sprained MCL and Eric Singleton Jr. hasn't been effective since suffering a high ankle sprain in game one. Brown had 17 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns before injuring his knee against Ole Miss. Singleton has played in four games, but has only three catches for 50 yards to show for it. Against South Carolina, Singleton had a noticeable limp. When Brown and Singleton are healthy, safeties have to back off and when the box isn't stacked with defenders, the running game instantly gets better even if the tackles aren't exactly playing at a high level. The threat of a running game makes play action possible and effective, which makes a substantial difference in Philo's productivity. Compounding issues with the offense is the inability of the defense to get stops. Bad defense, spotty play by the offensive line, little to no help from the running game and injuries at wide receiver have put the Gators in constant come-from-behind mode which raises the question is he the type of quarterback who can thrive when he has to rally the troops? Jon Sumrall sees the problems, feels the pain and understands something has to be done to tap the brakes to stop this from becoming a freefall. The season is halfway through but three of the next four games will be played away from Gainesville and the next three (at Texas, Georgia in Atlanta and Oklahoma) are against defenses that are among the most ferocious in the country. Saturday in Austin (12 noon, ABC) the Gators will face a Texas defense that has allowed only two touchdowns in the last 14 quarters and only one of those TDs was scored on a lengthy drive. Tapping the brakes, at least for the moment, doesn't mean making a change at quarterback. Right now, Philo is Florida's best chance to help the Gators revert back to their winning ways. Monday at his press conference, Sumrall used a couple of examples during the South Carolina game to point out that not all Florida offensive problems are quarterback induced. "Philo had the pick and the fumble, those were two not-good football plays," Sumrall said. "… People might have booed on this one where he threw the ball to our sideline. Well he made the right throw and the guy ran the wrong route. I'm not even going to take a shot at who ran the route, but we have to run the right route. Now he didn't throw the cleanest ball on that throw, but like, the route wasn't the right route. "I actually thought when you looked at his decision-making outside the two turnover-worthy plays that do matter – the fumble wasn't the decision, it was just not finishing with the ball; the interception wasn't a bad decision; they had a good call on for our route concept. They played cloud coverage, corner fell off on the sail route. It was best call for that route. And on that route, we have our running back chip in protection, supposed to chip the edge rusher, but because we got penetration inside, we didn't get to chip the edge rusher; we had to chip the interior rusher. Now, the edge rusher gets pressure on the quarterback, the quarterback's like, 'I gotta get the ball out,' and forces it to speed up this process. I thought Philo, honestly, with his decision-making was decent, was good … but his performance wasn't such that, like: you played so bad that you cost us by yourself. There's a lot of things around him that need to go better." Yes, things do have to get better in all phases on both sides. The defense certainly has to share some of the blame for what is going on with the offense. When deficits reach two touchdowns, the game plan goes in the shredder and the running game is forgotten. Everybody in the ball yard and watching on TV knows what's coming next. And when there is no threat of a running game and the injuries at receiver have limited the play calls, it spells trouble. Pass rushers coming off the edge live for such moments. "It's really easy to critique the quarterback position when we don't block the edge rusher very good," Sumrall said. "You're getting ready to get smacked, and you have to speed up your process, and you don't get the opportunity to take a good picture of the coverage." For the Gators to have any chance at all to beat Texas in Austin, Philo has to elevate his game. If he turns the ball over multiple times or has a game in which his decision-making jeopardizes the offense, it might force Sumrall and offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner to consider a change at QB. Since there is an open date following Texas and leading up to Georgia, the timing will be right if they think the Gators would be better off with Tramell Jones Jr. taking the snaps. Right now, the plan is for Philo to be the starter with Jones ready to step in when his name is called. "There's still a lot to work on and improve upon, but they're both working hard every day, and Tramell is gonna be ready when his number is called, and he's gonna continue to have opportunities as we move forward," Sumrall said. That wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of Aaron Philo, but it was the best Sumrall could offer under the circumstances. If change is inevitably due, the off week will beckon a decision. But not now. Photo by Chris Spears / Gator Bait Media

GatorBait editorial illustration. A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: It isn’t just the Florida Gators (4-2, 2-2 SEC) against the No. 7 Texas Longhorns (4-1, 1-1 SEC) Saturday in Austin (noon ET, 11 a.m. CT, ABC). It is the Gators against ghosts of the past. On the Texas sideline coaching up the defense will be coordinator Will Muschamp, the same guy who dialed up the defense at Auburn to hand the Gators their only loss on their way to a national championship in 2006. He was Florida’s head coach from 2011-14, coaching some fabulous defenses and leaving behind NFL-quality talent that helped Jim McElwain win successive SEC East titles. Success faded as that talent moved on to the NFL. And then there is Arch Manning, grandson of Archie, nephew of Peyton and Eli. Given the bloodlines, perhaps no high school quarterback has ever arrived in college with as much hype. He’s 16-4 as a starting quarterback, with 5,254 career passing yards, 45 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions, plus a 6-2 record against ranked teams. But no one in the country gets more criticism if the Longhorns lose a game. Muschamp’s Texas defense is formidable. In his return to Texas as defensive coordinator, he obviously hasn’t lost his touch. Muschamp was on Georgia’s staff for its back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. Texas has given up 601 yards in its last three games, just 41 more than Missouri had in its 45-17 beatdown of the Gators. Since halftime of the Longhorns’ win over then-No. 1 Ohio State, Texas has allowed two offensive touchdowns in 14 quarters, one on a short field after a shanked punt. The Longhorns left Knoxville with 10 sacks, 5.5 by Colin Simmons after a statistical correction. Simmons leads the nation with 9.5 sacks this season. Arch Manning is the chosen one at Texas. Ever since he arrived in Austin, he has been expected to lead the Longhorns to a national championship. He has played well, sometimes borderline brilliant, but he hasn’t delivered even an SEC title, much less a national one. Last year he threw two interceptions and was sacked six times in a loss to Florida in Gainesville. He’s coming off a loss to Oklahoma in which his two interceptions helped cost Texas a win when the Longhorns were unbeaten and ranked No. 1 nationally. If you go by perception, Arch might be the cure for Florida’s ailing defense. On the other hand, Florida’s defense might provide Arch an opportunity for the biggest statistical game of his career. Right now that’s 18-for-30 for 389 yards and four touchdown passes against Arkansas in 2025. Even with Florida’s two straight losses and Texas coming off a loss to Oklahoma, this is a very big game. For the Gators, it is more than a chance to snap the losing streak and regain some semblance of prominence. It is a chance to deal with some ghosts of the past, especially Muschamp. Muschamp remembers all too well getting fired as Florida’s head coach. For Arch, it’s a chance to avenge a loss that helped keep the Longhorns out of the College Football Playoff in 2025. BUSTER FAULKNER ON OFFENSIVE ISSUES Aaron Philo at QB: "I think, honestly, other than probably three plays -- I know that sounds crazy because you can't turn your ball over and that changes everything – but he really played within himself other than a couple plays. He was throwing the ball on time. He was taking what the defense gives him. I thought he looked more comfortable probably this week, and was seeing it a lot better than really he was the week before. He has done a good job of protecting the ball up until really the one throw. Because I think the other two, you know, were early in the season and they really weren't on him. He'd obviously like to have that one back. You know, the fumble was crucial because you're going to go in there and make that – I think that would have been an 11-point game with 13 minutes and 20 seconds to go. So, but he plays extremely hard, smart. You know, he's done a lot of really good things. He's still, what, seven games as a starter in this league, and he's got a lot of football left to play." Problems on the O-line: “Yeah, it still falls back to, you know, where you're being in the long-yarded situations and having to play catch-up, right? That's where defenses are able to pin their ears back, and you didn't get after the quarterback. You flip on tape, you know, as soon as you flip on the Oklahoma game, it's the same thing, Texas getting after, you know, their quarterback. So we've got to be able, again, go back to staying on schedule, being more detailed, being able to hey when we're 2nd-and-8 we got to be in a 3rd-and-4 and not 3rd-and-9, alright? And then the same thing when you're playing catch up in the second half, it takes all the play-action game out of the equation because they're able to pin their ears back, and I thought they were really talented at defensive end. And so that's just that's what we got to stay out of.” More on the O-line: “That goes back to the design of the run game has got to be a part of it. Being able to throw the ball down the field or throw the ball on the edges, early down situations. So, there's a lot of things. It doesn't just fall on them. You got tight ends that are involved in the run game as well. They're a crucial part of what we do in this offense. So, quarterback making the right read in the run game, running backs pressing it, hitting direct holes. So, there's a lot of things we gotta do to be able to kind of get back to where we were. But it's like I told the guys, hey, look, man, I don't even remember the final numbers, but I think it was around 140 rushing yards. Well, really, that's kind of like in 2.5 quarters because of what we were trying to do the rest of the time. Tramell had a late couple scrambles, so you tack that on. And then you've got 26 minus yards in sacks. So the numbers there could be a little deceiving. If you're playing four full quarters like the way that we want to play the game, that probably looks more like 180, 190, and you're in the game, right? And that's the complementary football I'm talking about that you gotta be able to play in this league. And right now that's missing, and we gotta figure that out." Regaining explosiveness: “So we just got to be a better execution, bottom line. You know, that's where it starts. We got to do a good job of putting them in a position to succeed. That's another area that we're going to do a lot of focus on. We gotta do what we're good at, and we've got to be able to play at the pace, the, you know, we were the aggressor early on, we got to get back that. That's what we want to do.” BRAD WHITE ON THE DEFENSIVE ISSUES Is the defense in for a midseason overhaul? “So many people just bail because it's easy or they feel pressure. I mean, we're going to stay the course now. Obviously, you've got to adapt, and you've got to do things that they can do and function. And I mean, I think you've already seen that in some of the stylistically, some stuff that we're doing. But no, we're not going to completely overhaul, you know, what we believe in." On what it will take to get better: “You have to strain, and we talked about three levels of strain. Everybody thinks about the physical strain, which we need to do, like, we need to learn how to physically strain through hard stuff. But we’ve got to mentally strain. Every detail matters. How’s the offensive line? What are they trying to do formationally? Man, they motioned into a double condense, and we said they were gonna middle flood all week. You can’t in the moment forget about that. And third, and I think this is where we’re really struggling, you have to emotionally strain. Like, you have to fight your internal feelings. Maybe you’re a dauber-down guy, maybe you’re a guy that goes to 8,000 RPMs as soon as things go, and you want to just start fighting; you lose complete control. That doesn’t get you anything either, because now all of a sudden, you’re missing the play call or you’re jumping offsides. You have to strain and sacrifice your personal emotions in those moments for the betterment of the team. That’s where we’ve got to strain at all three levels. That’s the only way we’re gonna dig out of this thing.” Missed tackles: “We do tackling circuits every day that we are in pads.” Third downs, lack of turnovers: “We have to be drivers of momentum. That’s third down stops. That’s turnovers. We haven’t had a turnover in the last two weeks. Those are two crucial areas that even if you’re making mistakes – while we’re going through this process of learning everything and the detail of our defense – if you can force turnovers or you can play well on third down, you’re going to give yourself a shot to be a good defense. And those are two areas right now, especially over the last two games, that we had not played well.” More on third down defense: “I think those are things that we continue to discuss and explore. Ultimately, what’s going to be our identity? It’s going to have to say, okay, we’re going to anchor into these things. And maybe to a detriment, you know, I’ve tried to do too much to try to figure out what they feel really comfortable at, where do they want to be, what can they execute at a high level. And it might be that we just need to—we’ll figure out what’s us, and we’ll go from there.” ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT The Southeastern Conference’s fight with LSU isn’t over. In a federal court filing Tuesday, the conference called possible expulsion a “very real threat,” according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. The latest dispute goes beyond Lane Kiffin’s attempt to add players who spent the summer on NFL rosters to his football team. It now includes Will Wade’s recruitment of RJ Luis Jr., the 2025 Big East Player of the Year. After leaving St. John’s, Luis signed NBA contracts and a contract with Boston’s G League affiliate. ESPN reported in August that he had not appeared in a regular-season professional game. According to Dellenger’s reporting on the filing, the SEC said LSU continues to “flout” the rules and has refused to state definitively that Luis will not be included on its basketball roster. The SEC also cited Wade’s own comments about how he intended to build his roster: “We’re going to be unapologetic about it. This is who we are. This is what we’re doing. This is the path we charted. We’re going to go down it, and that’s fine.” There is an important distinction here: As of Tuesday, Luis had not been added to LSU’s roster. Wade said LSU would follow the SEC’s protocols, according to reporting by TigerDroppings. The conference’s expulsion threat remains part of an ongoing legal dispute. Stay tuned on this one. It could get dicey.

Florida's sideline during the South Carolina game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Oct. 10, 2026. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. Trying to find two more wins is going to take patience and ibuprofen By Buddy Martin It wasn't the Grim Reaper. He generally has the courtesy to finish the job. South Carolina merely left Florida lying there with six games remaining and a fan base wondering whether the season came with a refund policy. This was a good old-fashioned ass-whipping, delivered on a particularly bad Saturday for the Gators to discover they were the ones furnishing the ass. A punch in the mouth? Too charitable. A punch in the mouth suggests you might still be standing afterward, perhaps considering a response. This was a right cross, an uppercut, a gut punch and a kick in the family jewels. Apparently, South Carolina had purchased the deluxe package. For the boxing crowd, think jab–cross–left hook. The classic 1–2–3: two straight shots followed by a hook that makes you reconsider your recreational interests. Checkers, perhaps? Something with a chair. Or the right cross–left hook–right cross, which dispenses with introductions and gets directly to the damage. Then the uppercut–left hook: one coming up, the other coming around, neither interested in your preseason expectations. For the professional wrestling crowd, it was the Undertaker's Tombstone piledriver, minus the comforting knowledge that somebody had worked out the pre-arranged ending. Feeling the pain yet? Somewhere between a root canal and an impacted wisdom tooth extraction, except the dentist usually lets you get numb first. The Gators do, however, live to fight another day. Whether that constitutes good news depends on how much of Saturday you watched. Nobody came for their souls. Just their Saturday, their remaining optimism and whatever was left in the blood pressure prescription. Let's also keep the military history department out of this. Waterloo, Gettysburg, Antietam and Custer's Last Stand involved actual lives and actual catastrophe. Florida lost a football game. Nobody lost an empire, although for a few hours the Gators appeared to have misplaced theirs. Fans aren't much for perspective while their team is being flattened. "We played poorly" doesn't cover the emotional damages. Neither does "We have things to clean up," that dependable coaching phrase which can describe anything from a missed assignment to a condemned building. What bothered me most wasn't simply that Florida lost. It was the manhandling. There's losing a fight, and there's having the other fellow move your furniture while you're still sitting in it. Once the smoke cleared, I asked Loren Meadows, Franz Beard, Kevin Brockway and Paul Wilson what might still be salvaged from the ashes. Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida State remain. Could Florida get to six wins? Could it still find a bowl game? This is what passes for ambition after a 4-0 start: asking whether December might bring an invitation somewhere. The panel was considerably more optimistic than I was. Six wins remained achievable, they thought. Seven might still be possible. The forecasts leaned toward three more victories, with Vanderbilt and Florida State the likeliest candidates. Some even put Texas in the discussion. Texas. I admired the optimism. I just wasn't ready to co-sign the loan. I see two more wins and a 6-6 finish. That would be better than letting the whole thing collapse, but let's not confuse getting out of the ditch with winning the Indianapolis 500. Think Birmingham Bowl, but hope for TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Actually, just hope for six wins right now because Florida could well lose four more in a row, which would be six straight losses, so keep your pain reliever handy — whisky or ibuprofen? —through October and much of November. After 4-0, six-and-six would be a salvage operation, not a parade. A bowl invitation wouldn't make Saturday disappear. It would simply give us another game in which to discuss how much work remains. The most honest assessment, though, didn't come from our panel. It came from Jon Sumrall's 13-year-old son, Sam. According to Zach Abolverdi's report of Monday's Gator Talk, Sumrall said Sam texted him after the South Carolina loss: "Dad, I don't know if this is forgivable." No talk of execution. No promise to study the film. No assurance that everything the Gators wanted was still in front of them. Just the verdict. Thirteen years old, and already refusing to buy the postgame brochure. Like father, like son.

Not even the passion of the HBC could help. (Chris Spears photo) By Buddy Martin Two weeks ago, Florida was unbeaten, ranked No. 8 and looking like a football team that had discovered something. An identity. A formula. Maybe even a future. Now the Gators have disappeared from both the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll, and the rankings might be the least troubling thing that has vanished. The running game is missing. The offensive imagination seems to have gone with it. The defense has become accommodating. And those offensive and defensive lines we were praising as the foundation of this team? Apparently, the foundation needs inspecting. Missouri, 45-17. South Carolina, 38-19. Right before God, country and Steve Spurrier. At his Monday presser, Jon Sumrall looked composed after a fiery morning practice, somewhat revitalized and gritty while still looking for answers. Whatever composure that Sumrall appeared to have lost – some of you were going by his body language – he had gotten back by his press conference on Monday and he made it very clear: nobody has been trying to tame him or change his sometimes salty language. He was scoffing at the notion and doubled down on his vow to never change his personality. "Are you shitting me? Have I been reigned in? By who?" Sumrall said when asked if someone had asked him to tone it down. (So much for changing his language!) He said he came here because the administration was okay with him being who he is and that was important to him. As for the boos which we all heard, Sumrall said fans have the right to express their frustration and that he appreciates their passion. Yes, he said the psyche of the team is important and the fact that he is spending most of his time at the moment with the bruised and battered defense suggested, perhaps, that’s one of the issues —but my words are not his — and he took a moment to re-declare that he is the coach of the WHOLE team. Believe me, the warning light has gone on. It was not just a little stumble on the road to greatness. It was two straight Saturdays of getting beaten by a combined 47 points. And one of them was homecoming. Welcome back, alumni. Try not to look directly at the scoreboard. Somber sideline mood from Scott Stricklin. (Chris Spears photo) Somebody explain this to me. Not with a speech about adversity. Not with a reminder that the SEC is tough. And please, not with that old coaching chestnut about watching the film. What, exactly, are we watching? Here’s what I cannot get past: How does a team go from looking so connected to looking so confused in two weeks? Florida opened 4-0, averaging 53.5 points and 532.8 yards a game. The Gators flattened Ole Miss. Buster Faulkner’s offense looked imaginative, purposeful and difficult to defend. Now it looks difficult to explain. Where are the answers that seemed to accompany every defensive adjustment? Where is the rhythm? Where is the sense that one play is setting up the next, rather than merely getting us to the next punt? Was that early brilliance the beginning of something sustainable — or something opponents figured out faster than Florida could counter? That is a question for Faulkner. And it deserves more than “we’ve got to execute better.” Execute what? Against which adjustment? And why has it stopped working? One Hypothetical? I’m not diagnosing a clubhouse malady just because everybody’s piling on. Maybe Stricklin caught heat from higher-ups over Sumrall’s post-Auburn “F-’Em” and the coach considered it petty — I dunno, that sounds unlikely after seeing Sumrall rankle. If so, yellow flags on both. But could something that minor trigger this tsunami? The Gators look like they’ve caught a virus. One Twitter/X commenter argued that Florida hired a coach to win games, not a bishop to police locker-room language. Fair point. But the commenter also cautioned against blaming Stricklin, and I agree. Frankly, I don’t know what’s gone wrong. Neither rumor nor frustration gives us license to pretend we know the answer. Baugh Has Nowhere to Go Then there is Jadan Baugh. For two weeks, defenses have bottled him up. If I didn’t know the difference, I would think he wasn’t physically fit. Against South Carolina, neither Baugh nor Duke Clark provided the running-game escape hatch Florida needed. But before we turn this into a referendum on the running backs, somebody needs to explain what is happening in front of them. What Happened to the Backbone? The most mystifying might be the two lines. Not long ago, we were talking about Florida’s offensive and defensive fronts as strengths. Now both look like places opponents can attack. How does that reversal happen so quickly? Were we too generous in our early assessments? Were the matchups favorable? Is somebody hurt? Are assignments breaking down? Have opponents found a weakness that was there all along? Are the holes disappearing because the blocking is failing? Another hint: Sumrall outright says the O-line was outmanned. And from where I sit, fatigued. Are defenses crowding the line because they no longer respect what Florida can do elsewhere? Have opponents identified tendencies the Gators have not corrected? Or is it some combination of all three? A running back cannot run through a hole that exists only on the grease board. And when the ground game disappears, Aaron Philo gets handed the bill. His play has been erratic. That needs saying. But so does this: Asking a quarterback to rescue an offense while defenders keep arriving in his lap is not much of a development plan. How much of this is Philo? How much is protection? How much is the offense putting him in situations he is not handling well? Those are different problems. They require different answers. The same goes for coach Brad White’s defense. LaNorris Sellers delivered five touchdowns for South Carolina while Florida supplied too many missed tackles and broken coverages. The Gamecocks scored 38 points — their highest total ever in Gainesville. That is not merely an offense having a bad afternoon and leaving the defense in difficult spots. The defense has its own questions to answer. Where is the resistance? Where is the discipline? Where is the unit that makes an opponent earn the next yard? And where are the adjustments? And Why the Sudden Caution? Sumrall has questions to answer, too. Why does the approach suddenly feel so conservative? Is that caution a response to the quarterback’s inconsistency? A loss of confidence in the blocking? An attempt to protect a defense that cannot get off the field? And if so, is the caution helping—or simply making an already struggling team easier to defend? There is a difference between managing risk and managing yourself out of a ballgame. What happened to the confidence we thought we saw? The Question Beneath the Questions What I want to know is whether these are separate football problems — or symptoms of something larger. That does not mean there is a secret locker-room crisis. We have no basis to declare one. But when the running game, passing game, protection, defensive front, tackling and coaching confidence all seem to deteriorate together, asking about the team’s overall health is fair. Is this a crisis of confidence? A communication problem? A failure to adjust? Did early success camouflage weaknesses that better-prepared opponents have now exposed? Or have two bad Saturdays started feeding on each other? That is what Sumrall has to identify. Not just what went wrong on a particular play, but why so much is going wrong at once. That’s what Sumrall said he was working on. Florida does not need somebody to explain that losing is disappointing. It needs a diagnosis. Because the most troubling thing about this collapse is not that the Gators have fallen out of the rankings. It is that, in two weeks, they have become a team we no longer recognize. Photos by Chris Spears / Gator Bait Media. Tonight on The Buddy Martin Show Buddy is scheduled live tonight at 9 p.m. ET for Meldon Law Mondays. Watch The Buddy Martin Shown on GatorBait.

Florida basketball at the SEC tournament on March 13, 2026. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. Tommy Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon could all be in NBA training camps right now. Haugh was a surefire lottery pick while both Chinyelu and Condon were almost certain to go somewhere between the last five picks of the first round and first 10 picks of the second. Instead, they decided to return for a shot at a second national championship in three years, which is why a panel of Southeastern Conference and national media have selected the Gators to win their second straight SEC championship. Haugh, All-SEC and All-American last year, was selected preseason SEC Player of the Year. Chinyelu, who won the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year and SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year last year, joined Haugh on the first team preseason All-SEC. Condon, who made second team All-SEC a year ago, was named to the preseason second team. Chinyelu and Condon were starters on Florida’s 2025 national championship team, while Haugh was a vital reserve off the bench. Chinyelu finished second in the country in rebounding last year while Condon was one of the nation’s most efficient post players from February onward. Haugh led the Gators in scoring at 17.1 points per game. They will be joined in the starting lineup by Boogie Fland, back as the starter at the point for a second straight year, and Denzel Aberdeen, a key reserve at Florida in 2025 who spent last year in exile at Kentucky, where he was the Wildcats’ second leading scorer. Also returning are SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavzar and athletic wing Isaiah Brown. From top to bottom of the 15- man roster, Florida is the most experienced and productive team in the country. The Gators have exhibition games on the schedule – Baylor in Jacksonville, Sunday, October 18; Stetson at the O-Dome October 27 – before the season begins in earnest against Miami in Tampa November 2. Predicted Order Of Finish In The Sec 1. FLORIDA; 2. Texas; 3. Arkansas; 4. Tennessee; 5. Alabama; 6. Vanderbilt; 7. Kentucky; 8. Missouri; 9. Texas A&M; 10. Auburn; 11. Georgia; 12. Oklahoma; 13. Ole Miss; 14. LSU; 15. Mississippi State; 16. South Carolina First Team Preseason All-Sec Rueben Chinyelu, Florida; Tommy Haugh, Florida; Juke Harris, Tennessee; Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State; Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt Second Team Preseason All-Sec Alex Condon, Florida; Amari Allen, Alabama; Milan Momcilovic, Kentucky; Jordan Smith Jr., Arkansas; Matas Vokietaitis, Texas Third Team Preseason All Sec PJ Haggerty, Texas A&M; Malachi Moreno, Kentucky; Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn; David Punch, Texas; Billy Richmond III, Arkansas Chatter from the scrimmage with UNF It was North Florida from the Atlantic Sun Conference, in Gainesville last Wednesday for a closed door scrimmage with the Florida Gators, who will start the season as the No. 1 team in the nation in just about every poll out there. The Gators won, 99-75. No surprise there. With the starters in the game, the Gators led 55-25 at the half. It would have been dial-a-score had Todd Golden played his starters in the final 20 minutes but overall, Golden was satisfied seeing all 14 players who were dressed out in action against someone other than themselves. “I would say a tale of two halves a little bit,” Golden said last Friday. “I thought our first half was pretty good, not perfect. I thought we played pretty well, though, and did a good job. One thing I’ll share is we valued the basketball really well, which I think is going to be an important part of this team. We had only three turnovers in the first half, so that was a big plus. “The second half didn't go as well … We got a lot of tape, both positives and negatives, but it's a good reminder of just Division I level players are good no matter where you're at. And, when you have an opportunity to compete, you need to be ready. And I thought our second half wasn't where it needed to be. So some positives from the first half for sure, some negatives in the second. I think big picture-wise, you know, good to be able to break down tape against somebody other than yourself a little bit.” The starting five of Tommy Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu, Denzel Aberdeen and Boogie Fland combined for 40 points, 22 rebounds and 10 assists in the first half. The starters were a combined 3-11 from the 3-point line. Urban Klavzar, Isaiah Brown, AJ Brown and Viktor Mikic got minutes in the first half as well as the second. AJ Brown, who took a redshirt last year while rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder, scored 10 points and hit 3-6 from the 3-point line. Mikic, who has played sparingly his first two seasons at UF, had eight points and 10 rebounds. Domen Petrovic, the Slovenian import, scored 10 and hit 2-3 from the 3-point line. Here are some Golden comments about those three: AJ Brown: “AJ has been coming on. I thought he played really well the other night.” Viktor Mikic: “Victor Mikic played in the first half on Wednesday night. And so I'd say he's got a good chance to carve out a little role.” Domen Petrovic: “I consider Domen Petrovich more of like a perimeter player right now for us, more on the wing. But he could be a guy, because he shoots it so well, and he's 6-8, 6-9, and can really let it fly from the perimeter.” Injury note: Sophomore CJ Ingram, who is expected to have a prominent role coming off the bench, was held out of the scrimmage. He has been dealing with some lower back issues. “He just has some back pain and it hasn't really gone away,” Golden said. “And he's done a great job rehabbing and being on top of all that stuff. He's a stud that way. I don't think anybody wants to be out there more than C.J. Ingram.” Florida scrimmage with North Florida: player stats Tommy Haugh: 15 points, 3 rebounds, 1 blocked shot; 2-5 on 3-pointers, 5-5 from the foul line Alex Condon: 8 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 blocked shot; 2-6 from the field. 4-4 from the foul line Rueben Chinyelu: 10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists; 4-5 from the field, 2-3 from the foul line Boogie Fland: 2 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists Denzel Aberdeen: 5 points, 3 assists, 1 steal; 1-4 on 3-pointers Urban Klavzar: 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal; 4-10 from the field, 2-7 from the 3-point line Isaiah Brown: 6 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot AJ Brown: 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals; 3-6 on 3-pointers Viktor Mikic: 8 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist; 4-8 from the field Alex Lloyd: 2 points, 2 assists; 0-5 on 3-pointers Arturas Butajevas: 6 points, 5 rebounds, 1-4 on 3-pointers Alex Kovatchev: 3 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists Jones Lay: 3 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal Domen Petrovic: 10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal; 4-5 from the field, 2-3 on 3 pointers Team stats Rebounds: Florida 53 (22 offensive); North Florida 28 Points from turnovers: Florida 17, North Florida 5 Points in the paint: Florida 36, North Florida 28 Second chance points: Florida 19, North Florida 0 Fast break points: Florida 10, North Florida 9 Bench points: Florida 59, North Florida 36 Shooting: Florida 33-77 (42.8 percent); North Florida 23-52 (44.2 percent) 3-point shooting: Florida 12-43 (27.9 percent); North Florida 7-21 (33 percent) Turnovers: Florida 7; North Florida 12 Espn Preseason Top 25 1. FLORIDA; 2. Duke; 3. Illinois; 4. Arizona; 5. UConn; 6. Michigan State; 7. Texas; 8. Tennessee; 9. Texas Tech; 10. St. John’s; 11. Miami; 12. Arkansas; 13. Virginia; 14. Gonzaga; 15. Louisville; 16. Missouri; 17. Southern Cal; 18. Houston; 19. Kansas; 20. BYU; 21. Alabama; 22. Michigan; 23. Vanderbilt; 24. UCLA; 25. Kentucky Blue Ribbon Yearbook Top 25 1. FLORIDA; 2. Duke; 3. Illinois; 4. Michigan State; 5. Arizona; 6. Tennessee; 7. Texas; 8. Houston; 9. Arkansas; 10. UConn; 11. Vanderbilt; 12. Michigan; 13. Miami; 14. Missouri; 15. Virginia; 16. Kansas; 17. Iowa State; 18. Louisville; 19. Kentucky; 20. St. John’s; 21. Alabama; 22. Southern Cal; 23. Gonzaga; 24. Ohio State; 25. North Carolina Blue Ribbon Yearbook preseason All-America First Team Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State; Tommy Haugh, Florida; Braylon Mullins, UConn; Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt; Rob Wright III, BYU Second Team David Mirkovic, Illinois; Elliot Cadeau, Michigan; Motiejus Krivas, Arizona; Flory Bidunga, Louisville; Tyran Stokes, Kansas Third Team Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska; Trey McKinney, Michigan; Shelton Henderson, Miami; Juke Harris, Tennessee; Thijs De Ridder, Virginia Fourth Team Joseph Tugler, Houston; Matas Vokietaitis, Texas; Tounde Yessoufou, St. John’s; Nijel James, Marquette; Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State Joe Lunardi bracketology South 1. FLORIDA; 2. Houston; 3. Virginia; 4. Arkansas Projected first-round matchups: 1. FLORIDA vs. 16 East Tennessee-Merrimack winner; 4 Arkansas vs. No. 13 UC-Santa Barbara Midwest 1. Illinois; 2. Louisville; 3. Texas; 4. Kansas Projected first-round matchups: 3. Texas vs. McNeese; 7. Nebraska vs. 10 Oklahoma-Baylor winner; 8. Missouri vs. 9. North Carolina East 1. Duke; 2. UConn; 3. Michigan; 4. Tennessee Projected first-round matchups: 4. Tennessee vs. 13. Liberty; 6. Kentucky vs. No. 11 West Virginia-Creighton winner; 7. UCLA vs. 10 Texas A&M; 8. Ohio State vs. 9. Auburn West 1. Arizona; 2. Michigan State; 3. Gonzaga; 4. Alabama Projected first-round matchups: 4. Alabama vs. 13. High Point; 7. Vanderbilt vs. 10. Providence; 8. Georgia vs. 9. Wisconsin Kenpom.Com Preseason Top 30 1. Duke; 2. FLORIDA; 3. Houston; 4. Illinois; 5. Arizona; 6. Iowa State; 7. Michigan State; 8. Kansas; 9. Alabama; 10. Texas; 11. UConn; 12. Texas Tech; 13. Vanderbilt; 14. Gonzaga; 15. Virginia; 16. Nebraska; 17. Louisville; 18. Tennessee; 19. Texas A&M; 20. Arkansas; 21. Ohio State; 22. Miami; 23. St. John’s; 24. Purdue; 25. Auburn; 26. Kentucky; 27. UCLA; 28. Michigan; 29. Oklahoma; 30. Creighton Other teams of interest (SEC teams bold face): 38. Ole Miss; 46. Georgia; 48. Missouri; 57. UCF; 62. LSU; 69. Mississippi State; 73. Florida State; 93. South Carolina; 94. South Florida; 116. Florida Atlantic; 192. Florida International; 209. Bethune Cookman; 230. Jacksonville; 272. Stetson; 273. Florida Gulf Coast; 320. North Florida; 324. Florida A&M; 354. West Florida Evanmiya.Com Preseason Top 30 1. FLORIDA; 2. Duke; 3. Illinois; 4. Arizona; 5. UConn; 6. Gonzaga; 7. Houston; 8. Iowa State; 9. Michigan State; 10. Kansas; 11. St. John’s; 12. Alabama; 13. Miami; 14. Texas Tech; 15. Louisville; 16. Michigan; 17. Texas; 18. Tennessee; 19. Kentucky; 20. Virginia; 21. Arkansas; 22. UCLA; 23. Purdue; 24. BYU; 25. Auburn; 26. Nebraska; 27. LSU; 28. Georgia; 29. Baylor; 30. Villanova Other teams of interest (SEC teams bold face): 32. Oklahoma; 33. Vanderbilt; 35. Texas A&M; 47. Ole Miss; 65. Florida State; 75. UCF; 76. Mississippi State; 85. South Carolina; 98. South Florida; 117. Florida Atlantic; 163. Florida International; 241. Florida Gulf Coast; 252. Bethune Cookman; 264. Jacksonville; 293. Stetson; 319. North Florida; 344. Florida A&M; 353. West Florida

GatorBait editorial illustration. Combine a September that far exceeded everyone's expectations with the last two weekends and you have a plot straight out of a Roadrunner cartoon. You know how it goes. Wile E. Coyote orders a rocket from Acme, mounts it and lights a fuse in order to catch up with the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner stops at the edge of a canyon, Wile goes flying by and a thousand feet above the canyon floor, the rocket fizzles out. Wile and the rocket fall to the bottom of the canyon with a loud crash. Isn't that what Florida's 4-0 September and October's 0-2 at the hands of Missouri and South Carolina feels like? The rocket has fizzled out and unless Jon Sumrall and his staff can reignite it, there will be a crash on a canyon floor. This is when we find out what the Gators are made of. Adversity has struck not once, but twice and on successive weekends to boot. Sumrall saw it coming, which is why he warned after the Ole Miss win, "You have to humble yourself or you will be humbled." The Gators have been humbled now and how they respond will dictate the last six weeks of the regular season. Already with four wins, the Gators have matched last year's win total. Two more wins gets UF bowl eligible, three secures just the second winning record since 2020. That is a difficult but not impossible task. Tweaks to the offense will have to be made to give the Gators a fighting chance when they face defenses all ranked among the nation's top 14 – 11. Georgia; 13. Texas and 14. Oklahoma. Texas (12 noon, ABC) is on the Saturday agenda in Austin and while the Longhorns may struggle at times with offensive consistency, there isn't anything wrong with a defense that has allowed only two offensive touchdowns in the last 14 quarters. Opponents average only 2.81 yards per carry and 5.9 yards per pass attempt. Georgia (October 31) allows only 2.5 yards per rush attempt and 5.7 yards per pass attempt. Oklahoma (November 7) gives up 3.34 yards per carry but the Sooners are the No. 1 pass defense in the nation. The folks who set the betting lines in Las Vegas have established Texas as a 10-point favorite, which may seem rather low considering how Florida has tanked on both sides of the football the last two games. However, Texas hasn't been a standard bearer for consistent offensive play with only 44 combined points in two SEC games (win over Tennessee, loss to Oklahoma). A sputtering Texas offense might be just what the Gators need to right the ship on their defensive side of the football. So it's not without hope that the Gators begin preparations today for their big adventure in Austin. And, lest we forget, a year ago Texas came to The Swamp ranked No. 9 nationally. Florida had lost three straight games and was a heavy underdog, but the offense found 457 yards and 29 points while a beleaguered defense sacked Arch Manning six times for -37 yards in losses and picked off two of his passes. Nobody expects the Gators to regain their lost mojo in Austin. If anything, the entire national media expects the Gators to be like Wile E. Coyote riding that rocket to the bottom of the canyon. Florida winning in Austin seems as probable as Wile actually catching the Roadrunner but we saw what happened last year. It couldn't happen again, could it? GATORS LAND COMMITMENT FROM 5-STAR EASTON ROYAL Two straight curb stompings at the hands of Missouri and South Carolina may have tempered the enthusiasm for Florida's first ever College Football Playoff chances, but it didn't have any effect whatsoever on recruiting as Jon Sumrall flipped 5-star wide receiver Easton Royal (5-11, 200, New Orleans, Louisiana, Brother Martin) from Texas. Rivals.com ranks Royal as the No. 1 high school wide receiver and No. 3 player in the country. Royal was in attendance Saturday when the Gators lost to South Carolina, 38-19, but instead of negatives he saw opportunity to make an impact as a freshman. The Gators played the South Carolina game without Vernell Brown III and Eric Singleton Jr., who has been injured for most of the season, limped off the field a couple of times. "Eric Singleton will be gone [next year] and they need me to come in and immediately replace him, stretching the defense, running jet sweeps and screens," Royal told Blake Alderman of Rivals.com. "They've said I can be the missing piece to their offense." Royal combines speed with elusiveness, which has drawn comparisons to Gator great Percy Harvin. And, like Harvin, who won five gold medals in the Virginia state track and field championships his senior year, Easton is a track star with blazing speed. He won both the 100 and 200 meter events at the Louisiana 5A state championships back in the spring. He won the 100 with a 10.17 time and the 200 with a wind-aided 20.82. As a junior at Brother Martin, Royal scored 29 touchdowns and accumulated 2,095 all-purpose yards. Through the first six games of the current high school season, Royal had caught 35 passes for six touchdowns according to NOLA.com. Associated Press top 25 (SEC teams bold face): 1. Georgia 6-0; 2. Notre Dame 6-0; 3. Miami 5-0; 4. Ohio State 5-1; 5. Indiana 6-0; 6. Alabama 5-1; 7. Texas 4-1; 8. BYU 5-0; 9. Ole Miss 4-1; 10. Texas Tech 5-0; 11. Utah 5-0; 12. UCLA 5-0; 13. Missouri 5-1; 14. Tennessee 5-1; 15. Kentucky 5-1; 16. Mississippi State 4-1; 17. Iowa 5-1; 18. Oklahoma State 4-1; 19. Southern Cal 6-1; 20. Houston 5-1; 21. Wake Forest 5-1; 22. LSU 4-2; 23. Boise State 5-1; 24. SMU 4-1; 25. Northwestern 4-1 AFCA Coaches top 25: 1. Georgia 6-0; 2. Notre Dame 6-0; 3. Miami 5-0; 4. Indiana 6-0; 5. Ohio State 5-1; 6. Texas 4-1; 7. Alabama 5-1; 8. BYU 5-0; 9. Texas Tech 5-0; 10. Ole Miss 4-1; 11. Utah 5-0; 12. UCLA 5-0; 13. Missouri 5-1; 14. Tennessee 5-1; 15. Southern Cal 6-1; 16. Iowa 5-1; 17. Kentucky 5-1; 18. Houston 5-1; 19. Mississippi State 4-1; 20. Oklahoma State 4-1; 21. LSU 4-2; 22. SMU 4-1; 23. Wake Forest 5-1; 24. Boise State 5-1; 25. Oregon 3-2 ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC No. 6 Alabama (5-1, 3-1 SEC): SEC officials have some 'splainin' to do after failing to throw a flag on an obvious pass interference in the end zone with 3:38 remaining in the game against Georgia. Wide receiver Rico Scott got behind the Georgia defense but was flattened by KJ Bolden who never looked back as the ball arrived. Saturday: at No. 14 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1 SEC) Arkansas (2-4, 0-3 SEC): Whoever loses Saturday's matchup with Vanderbilt in Nashville stands a very good chance of doing a reverse run of the SEC table. The Hogs will be underdogs in all six remaining SEC games. Saturday: at Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-3 SEC) Auburn (3-2, 1-2 SEC): For the Tigers to have any chance at all against Georgia Saturday they will have to complete passes downfield. Currently, QB Byrum Brown is averaging a very pedestrian 6.6 yards per pass attempt. That number is a surefire invitation for Georgia to bring the house on every pass situation Saturday. Saturday: at No. 1 Georgia (6-0, 4-0 SEC) No. 1 Georgia (6-0, 4-0 SEC): Gunner Stockton's Heisman hopes took a serious leap forward with his performance against Alabama in a driving rainstorm. Stockton completed 18-22 passes for 213 yards and a TD and also ran for a touchdown as the Bulldogs scored a 20-17 win in Tuscaloosa … With Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens sidelined with injuries, Dwight Phillips Jr. ran for 120 yards on 17 carries against Bama. Saturday: Auburn (3-2, 1-2 SEC) No. 15 Kentucky (5-1, 3-1 SEC): What are the odds of this happening? Kentucky has won consecutive overtime games by the exact same score by going for a two-point conversion rather than kick an extra point to send the game into a second overtime. The latest victim was LSU, which fell 35-34 on Kenny Minchey's two-point conversion run … Running back CJ Baxter ran for 123 yards and two TDs against LSU, one of them on a 77-yard sprint. Saturday: at Oklahoma (3-2, 1-1 SEC) No. 22 LSU (4-2, 1-2 SEC): On the final play of the first half, Kentucky quarterback Kenny Minchey appeared to be stopped short of the LSU goal but second effort got him into the end zone, a controversial call. Sunday, Lane Kiffin said the line judge told him that "there was too much at stake" to call the play dead … LSU struggled to run the football against Kentucky, averaging just 2.6 yards on 36 carries. Saturday: No. 16 Mississippi State (4-1, 2-1 SEC) No. 16 Mississippi State (4-1, 2-1 SEC): Kamario Taylor ranks eighth nationally and first in the SEC in passing, averaging 9.4 yards per pass attempt and 290 yards per game. Keeping Taylor upright Saturday is a priority against a pass rush that ranks second in the nation. Saturday: at No. 22 LSU (4-2, 1-2 SEC) No. 13 Missouri (5-1, 2-1 SEC): Who needs Ahmad Hardy when you have Jamal Roberts? Roberts ran for more than 200 yards (222 to be exact) for the second straight week in Mizzou's win over Texas A&M … The Tigers held the Aggies to 27 rushing yards, 216 total yards and two field goals. Saturday: at No. 9 Ole Miss (4-1, 2-1 SEC) Oklahoma (3-2, 1-1 SEC): The Sooners scored a TD on a blocked punt and an interception return in their win over then No. 1 Texas. Their third TD was set up by a shanked punt that gave the Sooners the football at the Texas 47. The game-winning field goal was set up by Courtland Guillory's interception of an Arch Manning pass. Saturday: No. 15 Kentucky (5-1, 3-1 SEC) No. 9 Ole Miss (4-1, 2-1 SEC): The Ole Miss defense came to life at Vanderbilt with three sacks, two forced fumbles and two interceptions … Trinidad Chambliss threw for three touchdowns and ran for another against Vandy. He has 11 TDPs and five rushing TDs this season. Saturday: No. 13 Missouri (5-1, 2-1 SEC) South Carolina (3-3, 1-3 SEC): Dylan Stewart's return to the lineup after a one-game suspension proved productive. He had a sack, forced two fumbles and was in on five tackles. No. 14 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1 SEC): Will the Vols stick with George MacIntyre at QB after he threw two interceptions and lost a fumble in their 24-17 white knuckles win over Arkansas? Or will they go back to true freshman Faizon Brandon, who was benched in the first half of the loss to Georgia a week earlier? Saturday: No. 6 Alabama (5-1, 3-1 SEC) No. 7 Texas (4-1, 1-1 SEC): It is difficult to fault the Texas defense for the loss 27-24 to Oklahoma. The Longhorns allowed only 238 yards and one offensive touchdown. Saturday: FLORIDA (4-2, 2-2 SEC) Texas A&M (3-3, 1-3 SEC): Marcel Reed's 2026 meltdown continued at Missouri when he went 19-39 passing for 189 yards (4.8 per attempt) with zero touchdowns and two interceptions. He was sacked three times for -26 yards. Saturday: The Citadel (2-4) Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-3 SEC): The Commodores lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions in their 52-17 beatdown loss to Ole Miss. The run game produced only 103 yards while the pass attack averaged just 6.5 yards per attempt. Saturday: Arkansas (2-4, 0-3 SEC)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Bailey Stockton caught 8 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown Saturday. He wanted no part of talking about it. "I don't really care about that. I could have zero catches. I just want to win, to be honest with you," Stockton said after South Carolina's 38-19 win over No. 16 Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the Gators' second straight loss. Stockton, Jon Sumrall and linebacker Aaron Chiles all pointed in the same direction afterward: at the players and at the practice week. "It's a player thing" "You know, me personally, I think it's a player thing right now. I don't think it has anything to do with the coaches," Stockton said. "Coaches put us in a great position all the time, and we're just not all 11 doing what we need to do." Stockton said the fix starts on Tuesday. "I think it starts with practice habits. Tuesday practices and Wednesday practices are big for us. Even the walk-throughs. I just think we need to be more intentional with it." On the red zone, where Florida lost a fumble at the South Carolina 13 and settled for a field goal at the 3: "When you get in the red zone, you've got to capitalize and you've got to get 6 on the board. It starts with taking care of the ball and we've just got to get better." Stockton also said he was knocked out on his earlier injury and is still banged up. "I'm banged up, but the team needs to win. We've got to win." Sumrall: "It starts with me" Sumrall opened his news conference this way: "Disappointing football today by us. No excuse for it. Not many words that are going to make any of it right. We have to go back to work and improve. I'm frustrated with every part of what we did today. It starts with me." He pointed to the turnover margin. "Today we're minus 3 in the turnover margin. It's going to be hard to win in this league doing that." And to third down, where South Carolina converted 10 of 16 by ESPN's count: "The third and longs are the troublesome ones." Sumrall said he has wondered whether the Gators are wearing down in second halves. "I do think we've looked a little bit worn down in the second half. I would completely agree. I think we've looked maybe a little sluggish, a little slow, and not maybe as strong as we need to be to finish the right way." He said the staff cut practice length a little this week. On kicking the field goal on fourth-and-goal in the second quarter: "Just wanted to get points. We had two plays inside the 5 and felt like we ran into a wall a little bit on both of them." Injury notes Vernell Brown III: Sumrall said the receiver was a "game time decision-ish" who practiced Friday but "just didn't feel like he was capable of doing with confidence" Saturday morning. "I think he's closer, hopefully." Duke Clark: "Duke, looks like he's got an ankle. We'll know more early in the week. Not sure how severe yet, but it was substantial enough that he couldn't return today." Myles Graham: Sumrall said the linebacker had "a little bit of a cramping type issue" coming out of the halftime lightning delay, got fluids and was available before the defense took the field. Chiles: "Losing confidence just isn't an option" Chiles said Dallas Wilson spoke up in the locker room. "Basically, he said it's on the players. He said we can't blame the coaches." "We've lost two games, man. I don't believe it's the end of the world," Chiles said. "A bowl game is not what we're looking for. We want to be in the playoffs. In order to do that, we've got to brush this off, understand our mistakes, fix them." Next up is Texas. Florida (4-2, 2-2 SEC) plays at Texas on Saturday, Oct. 17, at noon ET. "It's a big test," Stockton said. "I think we're ready." Quotes from the University of Florida's postgame transcripts (ASAP Sports). Stats from ESPN. Game story: South Carolina beats No. 16 Florida 38-19

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — LaNorris Sellers threw four touchdown passes and ran for another, and South Carolina beat No. 16 Florida 38-19 on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, spoiling Homecoming and the 500th game in The Swamp. Florida (4-2, 2-2 SEC) lost for the second straight week. South Carolina (3-3, 1-3 SEC) won its first conference game of the season. The Gators led 10-7 in the second quarter and were within 17-13 after Patrick Durkin's 48-yard field goal on the opening drive of the second half. South Carolina answered with 21 straight points. Jadan Baugh's 2-yard touchdown run with 1:01 left closed the scoring; the two-point try failed. How it turned Sellers hit Donovan Murph for a 26-yard touchdown to make it 24-13. After a Florida punt, Sellers scored on a 1-yard run with 1:08 left in the third quarter, one play after a replay review ruled him down at the 1. Florida drove to the South Carolina 13 early in the fourth quarter, but Dylan Stewart forced an Aaron Philo fumble that Shawn Murphy recovered. The Gators later turned the ball over on downs at their own 27, and three plays after that Sellers found Lex Cyrus for a 21-yard touchdown and a 38-13 lead. Justin Okoronkwo then intercepted backup Tramell Jones Jr. The first-half swing came on Vicari Swain's interception of Philo late in the second quarter. Swain returned it 18 yards to the Florida 26, and Sellers threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mazeo Bennett Jr. five plays later for a 17-10 halftime lead. Florida's bright spots Bailey Stockton caught 8 passes for 127 yards, including a 59-yard touchdown from Philo on Florida's second possession. Linebacker Myles Graham had seven tackles and two sacks. By the numbers Total yards: South Carolina 393, Florida 387. Sellers: 23 of 35 for 279 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, plus a rushing touchdown. Philo: 21 of 28 for 227 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Third down: South Carolina 10 of 16, Florida 6 of 13. Turnovers: Florida 3, South Carolina 0. Stats from ESPN. Up next Florida plays at Texas on Saturday, Oct. 17, at noon ET at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Watch: Chris Spears' field-level video of Stockton's 59-yard touchdown Every play: our live updates from The Swamp

“We haven’t gotten better and improved in certain areas to maybe offset our weaknesses.” — Jon Sumrall Florida and South Carolina players pile up at the end of a play during Homecoming in The Swamp. Photo by Chris Spears, GatorBait Media. By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com Looking at it one way, the Florida Gators are right on schedule. I had them winning four of their first six games. They have. They just lost two of the wrong ones. And by “lost,” I mean whacked, crushed, stomped — pick whatever word you use when getting your ass kicked that has become too familiar to require a dictionary. South Carolina 38, Florida 19. And it wasn’t that close. Happy Homecoming. Happy 500th game in the Swamp. Somebody save the commemorative ticket. Somebody else hide the film. Jon Sumrall’s team didn’t merely get punched in the mouth. It took the combination: uppercut, left hook, right cross and one final blow below the belt, right in the jewels, just in case anybody still had the strength to stand up and sing. The weather delay briefly became Florida’s best defensive strategy. Unfortunately, they resumed the game. There was a time when a visitor walking into the Swamp had something to fear. Saturday, the people who should have been afraid were the ones holding season tickets. One desperate fan sent me this: “Buddy, I don’t see another win!” I wanted to argue. Then I looked at Texas and Georgia coming up and decided to save my energy. A Celebration Nobody Wanted Who were these guys wearing Florida uniforms? An early Halloween gathering? Come dressed as a contender? The head coach and his offensive coordinator got booed for calling a running play in the waning seconds of the first half. Quarterback Aaron Philo got booed, too, and eventually got benched. Defensive coordinator Brad White probably would have welcomed a bench. Somewhere quiet. Under an assumed name. We used to have “third and Grantham.” Now we’ve got “third and White.” Different name. Same sinking feeling. Florida has been outscored 83-36 by Missouri and South Carolina over the past two weeks. That isn’t a little turbulence on the road to greatness. That’s the engine making a noise you don’t want to hear. South Carolina arrived carrying an eight-game SEC losing streak. Its quarterback hadn’t been playing particularly well. Florida provided the cure. By the time the Gators were finished helping him, you half expected somebody to start confusing LaNorris Sellers with Patrick Mahomes. Can White survive this? Fair question. But it would be awfully convenient to pin the whole afternoon on one coordinator when so many departments contributed to the humiliation. The offense sputtered. The defense surrendered explosive plays. Florida finished minus-three in turnovers. A team effort, unfortunately. In the fourth quarter, I found myself posting: “This is getting too painful to watch! Where are the Tampa Bay Rays when you need them?” That’s where we are. Looking elsewhere for a less aggravating way to lose an afternoon. The Expectations Were Better Than the Football This was supposed to be the “Rebound Bowl.” Only one team bounced. Florida was as flat as yesterday’s Waffle House pancake, and considerably harder to stomach. A running game we had been admiring has spent two weeks disappearing. Buster Faulkner, recently the subject of head-coaching chatter, suddenly has more pressing employment concerns: finding a play that works. And Sumrall, whose confidence and winning ways made such a good first impression, is discovering how quickly charm loses its purchasing power in this league. I’m tired of buying the promise and sitting through the delivery. Tired of every encouraging Saturday becoming permission to inflate expectations. Tired of finding out the hard way that progress and a pleasant afternoon aren’t necessarily the same thing. GatorBait follower Perry Mason put it this way: “What a pathetic showing, no adjustments made at all anytime. Bring on Basketball season — this is to ugly to watch. We aren’t even competitive!” Basketball? Baseball? Curling? Tiddlywinks? Anything but another afternoon of this. Another post delivered an especially sour observation: “South Carolina cleared out our stadium before ‘won’t back down’ … a 6-6 season incoming… maybe.” That “maybe” is doing some heavy lifting. My longtime friend John’s thinking was more in line with mine: “I like our coach. He’s getting a big boy education, but I still think he will be fine.” Still Here. Not Happy. I’m not a Jon Sumrall hater. I, too, still believe he can win here. I’m willing to hang on with him. But patience ought not require pretending. This was lousy football. Last week was lousy football. And Gator Nation has endured enough lousy football to recognize it without a coach explaining the film. Sumrall didn’t try to sell Saturday as anything else. “Disappointing football today by us. No excuse for it,” he said. “Not many words that are going to make any of it right.” Correct. “It starts with me. I’ve got to do a better job of getting this team ready to play to its best.” Also correct. He said Florida remained a work in progress even after beating Ole Miss. Winning, he explained, can mask the things a team isn’t doing well. Then came the sentence worth keeping: “We haven’t gotten better and improved in certain areas to maybe offset our weaknesses.” There it is. Not a bad bounce. Not simply a bad Saturday. A team that hasn’t improved enough to protect itself from what everybody can now see. I appreciate the honesty. I’d appreciate some improvement considerably more. So I’m hanging on with Sumrall. But don’t ask me to applaud the ride. No. 500 deserved better. So did everybody who showed up.