Florida's Jon Sumrall speaks ahead of Week 10 rivalry game vs Georgia

Jon Sumrall's opening statement

Missed you guys last week. It’s good to see you.

You know, we can reflect as much as y’all want to reflect, question-wise. I’m kind of moved past what happened a week and a half ago. It’s been gone for us for a while, but I know y’all may want to visit on it, so we’ll talk about that as much as y’all want to.

Some good from that game; some not-good execution at times, but a good response in that game, when maybe we weren’t really fully clicking on all cylinders early in the game. But I thought our guys’ response was the right kind of response, counter to what maybe we’d seen the previous week.

So I was proud of that more than anything from that game. 
We have a new challenge this week in Georgia — they’re really good. They’re a team that you turn the tape on, you don’t see weakness. Usually, as a coach, you’re trying to figure out what our team’s strengths and weaknesses (are) — I see a lot of strengths; I don’t see weakness.

I think it’s Year 11 for Kirby there. You can tell they have layered development. Like they’ve recruited great players. They’ve done that year in, year out for the entire time he’s been there, and then I think they’re developed and they’re calloused and they’re strong and they’re physical, and you can tell that has been layered. Like, it’s been built over time. And so a really impressive outfit that we’re playing that I have a lot of respect for, and it’s a big-time game, as we all know.

So we have to play our best to have a shot in this one. So with that we’ll open it up.

On the deep dive during the bye week and what he wanted to emphasize

That’s a good question. There’s a lot of it. There’s so many things that we don’t have enough time to hit all of it.
 I think offensively, the thing I would say is when we stayed on schedule and not put ourselves in 3rd-and-longs, we play good football. When we haven’t, it’s been really hard for us.

So we have to stay out of negative plays and stay on track, if you will. And then defensively, it’s been interesting. Like, I think you could watch us in spurts. Like, there’s a good football team in here somewhere that hasn’t been consistent enough, and it’s been detail and execution at times.

And it’s sometimes other teams make plays, but we’ve really kind of looked at a lot of things outside, and then special teams has been really good — outside of the punt return that we gave up — and a little bit of that was on the coverage, a little bit was on the punt. Wasn’t as much hang as we’re used to — it was into the wind, wasn’t quite the hang we usually get from Alec — but special teams, for the most part, I think, has played really clean.

And then as you kind of take the deep dive that we take in the bye week: Monday we reflect only on ourselves. Like, and this year’s team, where are we? What’s going right, what’s not going right, who deserves more opportunities? Who maybe deserves less? What do we need to lean into more? What do we need to stay away from doing schematically? Basically, what’s working and what’s not?


And then Tuesday and Wednesday, we spend a lot of time on — I do personally spend a lot of time on — what does ‘27 look like, to be quite honest with you. Because the transfer portal and player movement, all that stuff, will come at you fast if you don’t have your eyes up a little.

Now, I don’t do it for very long. I take a couple hours with their front office on each side of the ball and you just kind of project, "Okay, what are the needs we have to build as we want to build this thing long-term? And what does ‘27’s football team look like?" And then you turn the page to the next game a little bit, but early in the week it’s about ourselves; middle of the week’s a little bit of ourselves and the future.

And then it’s kind of get your feet back underneath you on this game. And then late in the week it was recruiting for me. It was Thursday, Friday, planes, trains, automobiles. With no trains involved.

On the QB situation and if Philo practiced during the bye week

So they both practiced; both practiced today. Both of them are available, I think, this week. 
You know, I think everybody knows Aaron’s status was kind of — as we listed him on the injury report on Wednesday last week — questionable. He could have been — he was available more in an emergency capacity. I didn’t feel comfortable putting him in, putting him in to go play. But both guys are available; I believe in both guys.

I’m not gonna name a starter today; like, I know that’s probably been a big point of conversation. We need both of those guys ready to play. That’s what I’ll say. And I do believe in both of them being ready to play, which really, you know, I think reflecting back — I will say this on Tramell’s behalf — reflecting back on the Texas game, the thing I was most proud of for Tramell was how he found himself within the game.

Maybe individually, not the best start early in the game, missing a couple things, whether it be throw game or even within the offense calling it the right way. And then as the game got going, after the 4th-and-12, the 17-yard completion to Dallas, it’s like I said after the game, a jump-shooter, sometimes you finally see the first shot get made and you build confidence.
 I thought he did that.

Both guys have played winning football at times. Both guys, in their opportunities, have not played good enough at times, but I believe in both of them. Both of them at this point have played enough that we, I’ve always said the whole time I think we can win with either guy.

They both — Philo, I think, is gonna be available from the injury. Tramell, in full disclosure, I am not gonna tell you everything, but
 you go play your first game, he’s got a couple of bumps and bruises, too, now. And he had, you know, pulled the guy fresh out of that garage and he goes and plays, and he got a couple fender benders.

So there’s some bumps and bruises he’s dealing with that are new. I noticed it last week. I’m like, "Are you alright?" 
And he’s like, "Yeah, I got this going on and don’t feel great here." Welcome to SEC football. But both guys are — I think gonna be up.
 I’m not comfortable saying that for sure yet, honestly, because you have to go through the week.

Are both QBs are taking first-team reps?

Yes, they’re both taking some reps with the ones and the twos. They’ll both, they always do. You know what I mean?
Like, Tramell has gotten reps, plenty of reps as we’ve gone the last several weeks before the Texas week. I didn’t come out the Monday of the Texas week and tell you guys fully Philo’s situation, because, you know, it didn’t help our team win the game.

I respect you all if you’d asked me, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t lie to anybody; I just didn’t tell you everything I knew.

Did Sumrall hint that Tramell would start?

I did, a little. I mean, but I’ve been telling you about Tramell really since the summer. You know, he spring I was, Tramell was, I think, a long way away from getting ready, just operating.
 He improved that in the summer. He improved it again in the training camp, and then I did, you know, I gave you a little foreshadow last week if you’ve been picking up some cues, but yeah.

And then VB looks really good, practiced last week, practiced today. Today’s an hour-ish long run-through for us, but he looks normal to me. I didn’t ask him today. I’ll put it like this: every day, the last couple weeks, when he’s been running, I’m like, "Hey, how you feeling today?"

Because there’s been some times I’ve wondered, "That it didn’t quite look right." Today he looked good and I didn’t go up to him at all today and ask, "Hey how you feeling?" I just let him practice and he looked like he was feeling pretty good.

Will Sumrall play both quarterbacks in a game?

Yeah, that’s a good question. I would never say never to "Would you play both?" because we might put both in the same snap. We had some of that happen already this year, right, that you’ve seen that. So we can play both. We probably won’t, like, within, once we start the game, it’s that guy’s game usually, depending how he plays.

You have to keep playing good, right?
And so, so that’s kind of how that goes. And then what was the other part of that you asked?

Is there any gamesmanship in not naming a starter?

Yeah, you know, not really. The offense doesn’t change really with one or the other. I mean, Tramell, Philo both have similar skill sets. One may do one thing a little better; one may do the other thing a little bit better. It’s not like they’re drastically different players where you’re playing with a true run-threat quarterback that can’t throw it, and then you have another guy that’s a pocket passer that can’t run. They’re both skill sets that have more similarities and differences.

So, while that doesn’t put stress on the other side from maybe having to game plan totally different, because the offense is kind of the offense, I do think for us it’s nice because we don’t drastically have to change who we are. We may lean into one guy doing certain things a little differently than the other, but it doesn’t like all of a sudden completely give us a different type of team.

Is Sumrall preparing as a road game despite the tickets being split?

We have to travel further, so yeah, it’s more road-ish. It’s in Atlanta. This is my first experience around this game. I know it’s traditionally in Jacksonville. I think you have to know that Atlanta is not necessarily our backyard, right? But the 50-50 thing is a unique deal that I think is exciting for our guys because you’re in kind of a different environment than a normal SEC game, which is fun.”

What will go into weighing the quarterback decision?

Well, it starts with health and availability. So if a guy’s not available, then my decision gets made really easy. You don’t throw out the full body of work with what they’ve done going back to January, but you also take into account most recent activities. You wait. How are they doing right now?

If one guy goes out all week and practices really good and the other guy doesn’t, then that’ll tell me something. But it’s who can function, who can operate, who can make the throws, who can get us in and out of things. All those things. Both of them are in a good spot with all that. I would say how they go through the week matters.

Oh, I’ll say this: I know externally everybody wants to make the conversation. I don’t pay real close attention to the external. Internally, those two guys have been unbelievable with each other. If the whole world would handle their situation the way they do, then we wouldn’t even be talking about it because they’re absolute pros with how they’re handling it.

What people miss is when Philo’s in, Tramell pulls for him. And when Tramell’s in, Philo pulls him. I don’t know if you noticed. One thing I noticed after the game: the first person to go over to Tramell after the kneel to win the game against Texas, first person to go dap him up was Philo. They’re for each other. But what goes into it’s just how they go through the week, and we evaluate every day.

On the level of physicality UF has to play with this week

I think that’s kind of what I open with about Georgia a little bit with maybe taking it head on is they have built up years and years and years of what I consider … I have a lot of respect for their weight room work, their physicality, how they prepare, how they practice, how they play. It shows up. It bleeds through the tape when you turn on the tape.

They play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, and they’ve done that for a pretty long time now. And so our guys have to understand that we’re fully in an attempt to try to do some things they’ve done here. That’s what we’re working towards in a lot of ways. I think our guys have to understand that’s the nature of this game, and there’s a lot of things that they do that they built into their program over time that I have a tremendous amount of respect for.

What point during the week do you need to decide on QB1?

(Tuesday's) our heaviest practice of the week. Wednesday’s the second heaviest. I don’t know that as we get to Thursday, Friday, it’s not going to be 50-50 reps. It wasn’t probably (Monday). I don’t have my script in front of me right now to go off of who was in each rack. But, yeah, as you go through the week, by Wednesday-ish, I’ll probably know.

I’m probably not going to make some big formal announcement. But by Friday morning, I made the final call last week with Tramell. I knew well ahead of time I was probably doing that, but I didn’t feel any need to make an official decision for anybody’s sake until Friday morning.

And me and him sat down. I talked to both guys, to all our guys every day. And the Friday before the Texas game, I told Tramell, I said, "Look, it’s your game. You don’t have to win it on your own. The way you win this game is by protecting the football, lean on the people around you and just go play clean. You don’t have to be a superhero."

We’ll make a decision in the middle-ish of the week, a final decision. There’s not going to be a big QB1 announcement for this game or any game.”

On returning from the open date

Sometimes if you’re playing good, you almost don’t want the open day — not that we were playing good. But the speed of the game, when you get back into these games after a bye week, sometimes can be a challenge because you’re not maybe as sharp earlier or as crisp early at times.

Even some games I’ve been a part of when we won. I reflect back to my first year as head coach at Troy — we ended up winning the game versus Louisiana-Lafayette 23-17. We were down 17-0 in that game. So sometimes you worry about the start, like being sluggish and being sharp and being crisp; those are usually challenges. And then a little bit more with some layoff time.

Both sides have opportunities to probably do some things that are creative or new or different or unique that they haven’t presented. So maybe you have to look back in their past and lean into some stuff that they might have done that could present that has not presented to date in this season.

So you have to go do a little bit more historical fact-finding on some stuff that they might have done. But each team’s different. I think that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is that every team is different, and their readiness for certain scenarios is different.

One thing I’ve learned about our bunch right now is we got a group that can win. We have to keep them focused on what it takes to win. What it takes to win doesn’t change, and we have to be at our best regardless of who we’re playing.

Is it more of a mental thing or a physical thing at this point?

I think both when you’re going into any game. I think the mental precedes the physical, though, because the mind tells the body what to do. So you have to be mentally sharp, and then the physical, like I said earlier, the concern you have coming out of a bye week is a layoff of the speed.

So tomorrow, when we do our good-on-good work, we’ll actually probably do a little bit more good-on-good tomorrow. We already do a decent amount on Tuesdays because making sure we’re back to game-rep speed. Not that we didn’t get some last week, but we didn’t do anything on Saturday, which a lot of people did. We didn’t.

So we will make sure our good-on-good work is sharp and crisp for tomorrow, so that the speed of the game is something we’re not maybe caught off guard by.”

On how Georgia has built its roster through high school recruiting

I love the question. So I thought about this a ton. I actually studied their roster some during the bye week because I do think they’ve been really consistent. And when you look through our personnel reports that we do on each team as we get ready to go into a game week, it tells us previous school — whether you know high school, college/slash high school. These guys have a lot of guys’ previous schools from a college standpoint; it was Georgia.

So I think as you get to the model, like Year One of our program, a lot of our guys on their previous school it says somewhere other than Florida. We retained a good number of players; roughly half our roster were here last year. But the other half was not.

So half of our roster says the high school they just came from, or a different school. And so I think as you build, and like I said earlier, they’re in Year 11 – we’re in Year One. As you build in year four, five, six, seven, whatever, you start to move forward; in a perfect world in the portal year and year out, you’re adding six to 10 difference-makers.

In some years, it might be five or might be 12, so I’m not locking myself into like, hey, we’re only adding six to 10 every year. Some years it might be five. Some years it might have to be 12 or 13. It better never again be high 20s, 30s, or we got a real problem.

So as you build your roster, you want to add portal pieces that are like frontline starters when you have immediate glaring needs and holes. This past year, we had to go out and get guys out of the portal just to be able to field a football team that could practice. Never again will that be the case here, I hope. But just because anytime there’s head coach turnover that’s naturally what you go through.

And not to make an excuse, but it’s like there’s a pretty hard reset where you’re like, okay, this thing’s kind of blowing up around you. I reflect back to December when I really got here. I know it took the job in November, but December, January, there were guys I thought were staying; then all of a sudden they’re not staying. There are guys — probably maybe losing Jayden Woods, then now they’re staying.

So it’s like you didn’t know where you were going to step and what was going to blow up on you or what for a month there. In the future, I think we’ll have a better feel as we enter December, kind of like okay, this guy’s likely back, this guy’s maybe going to declare for the draft, this guy’s going to go to the portal and what do we need to field a better team.

So I look at them and I think that’s one thing they’ve done a really nice job of: recruit high-level high school players, develop those players. Where you may have a roster deficiency, go get a great player like Isiah Canion – he’s been out a couple games. But he’s a great player. They didn’t go out and just get like — Georgia the way they’ve done it and the way they’ve got it built now, they don’t go out and just go to the portal to get a third-string guy.

On Kirby Smart raving about Chris Cole and Raylen Wilson 

If I had Chris Cole on my roster, I’d be raving about retaining me, too. He’s a really good player. You turn the tape and he jumps out. We got good inside linebackers here, so I like our guys. But when I reflect back on the linebackers we played, I thought Auburn’s were really good, I thought South Carolina’s were really good. You turn on this tape, and you’re like, "Oh my gosh, this guy’s really good."

They’ve done a nice job of of developing guys and them staying. But those guys, like I said, when I looked at their personnel report, previous school, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia. When we can become that is when you, that’s how you create consistency.

On the SEC cannibalizing each other with a 9-game schedule 

I wasn’t in those rooms then when it happened. But as much as I’ve known all these guys that were in those rooms, I’m on several different text message threads — some of them more entertaining than others with other head coaches in her league. The guys that were in those rooms, I think felt like the way I understand it when they were told nine games, they thought expanded playoff.

Now we’re getting an expanded playoff, but not at the same time as the nine-game schedule. A year later is what it’s looking like. And yeah, I respect every level of football. I’ve come up through different leagues. This league is different. Like it’s different. It’s like NFL lite.

So, anybody can be anybody. The old term, the movie “Any Given Sunday.” Well, any given Saturday in the SEC, you have to be ready. So I think there’s been a lot of conversation around that with the coaches. I wasn’t in those meetings. I’m grateful to be an SEC head coach.

I’m not going to whine and complain about nine games or however many games. But I do think this league it’s brutal. I’m not making excuses, but we have a Power Four game; we play Florida State every year, and then nine. Man, the schedules for everybody is like that. So it’s a different beast.” 

On fans understanding that it’s OK to have 3 losses with a 24-team playoff

I haven’t really thought about it. I’m just trying to figure out how to win. But yeah, I get what you’re saying. I’ve heard that side of the conversation for sure. What is 12-0 from a couple of years ago? What is that now? Or what is 11-1 now? What it is, it’s a war of attrition.

So it’s health, availability, w retention of players – like we’ve talked about – building depth. Nobody likes to hear this, but that takes time. I think I did hear Kirby talk, I think a couple weeks ago, about how the ability to just one-year flip is out there, but in this league you’re in a fistfight every week.

And so you look at their program — they didn’t just do a one-year flip. They’ve done a build. They’ve done a build from the ground up. And I want a one-year flip, too. I want to win every day. I haven’t hidden from the fact that we have a short-term plan that some of it’s gone well, some of it hasn’t. And we have a long-term plan, which I feel really confident in, and I think we’re going to get there.

But what does that mean? I want to win every game. I think our fans here probably want to win every game. And I’m fully comfortable with that.

On him being a proponent of the 24-team CFP expansion

I think to the point of a nine-game conference schedule, I think that’s why most SEC head coaches that have been for it — not because if we were still at eight games, one P4 game, then I think okay, 12, even 16, whatever. But now you’re going to see really good football teams in this conference 9-3; like really good teams end up 9-3 some years.

Like teams that in the past may have been 11-1 because you’re adding a game. It’s not just the one game that you add; it’s how it affects your football team’s health and availability for the rest of the year. Because naturally, you go in those battles and you walk out.

I mean, every SEC game we’ve played, we’ve walked out on Sunday, and I’m like, "Well, the injury report got a little longer." And we’ve trained all year to try to keep our guys healthy, but every week there’s guys that after the game don’t realize how beat up they are, and then they wake up the next morning like, "Oh my gosh, I feel this or feel that." It’s like you get in a car wreck. It’s what it is on the field.

On approaching his first big rivalry game from an emotional standpoint

Well, you have to embrace it first and foremost. Florida-Georgia is different. Anybody that says otherwise is insane. But what helps you win the game is not different. So it’s the task of helping our guys embrace what the rivalry and the history of it is – because it is different. It’s different for both fan bases. It’s what makes college football great.

But at the same time, helping our guys be focused on putting a whole lot of fireworks on the game doesn’t win the game. What wins the game is blocking and tackling and protecting the football – and that’s what wins every game. But I do lean into our guys understanding and helping educate them.

Going back to our roster, half our roster has never been in this game. Most of their roster has because they’ve done a good job of layering. Our roster — there’s a lot of guys playing Saturday — I’m teaching them what this game needs to mean to us. And we haven’t had a recent history of the success we need to have in this rivalry to make it as competitive as it should be.

But I think anybody that says it’s just another game doesn’t have a real good pulse of what reality is in college football or to our fan base. What wins it is just like a lot of other games, but it’s not just another game. That’s not real.

On how much knowledge he’s gained in evaluating the QB position compared to five years ago:

That’s a good question. My first year as a head coach (at Troy), we played 14 games; we went 12-2. I think we started nine times or ten, the other four or five. So my first year, I got baptism by fire. I had two quarterbacks: Gunnar Watson, who was the incumbent starter, and Jarret Doege, who transferred to us.

At the time, Jarret was the FBS career-leading passer in yardage and touchdowns, and he was our backup. And then Gunnar started the first three or four games, had an injury, Doege started in the game he was out, won, kept starting him, then he played bad, then I played Gunnar again, won, then when he played bad, then we played Jarret again. He played good for a while, then played bad.

We tried to figure out who was gonna play good. Each week, I dealt with it first year as a head coach. Not as much publicity on that at Troy, right? There were like a couple of guys that were sending telegraphs about our games. But now you got more cameras or whatever, but I handle it the same way. Who gives us the best chance to win each week? It starts with health and availability. And then you make the decision about what’s best for the team.

I never make a decision — I love both our quarterbacks; I love both those guys. I keep in touch. What’s great is, Gunnar Watson and Jarret Doege, I have a good message with that; we still text back and forth. These two here, I love both of them and respect both of them, and grateful for both of them in how they’ve handled it. I think when you’re transparent with them, you are truthful with them, you show respect to both of the guys involved, that makes everybody handle it better.

Naturally, everybody wants to be the starter, but to me, the way you handle it is just like you do any other position. The evaluation process isn’t real hard. Hey, are you calling the plays? Do you communicate and call the plays the right way? Everybody needs you to do that to be able to play the game. Then the things you do within your own play.

On a young team going into the Georgia game and what the challenges are outside of the X’s and O’s

First, you want to make sure they understand it is a rivalry game. They need to have awareness of that. And then you have to bring it back to, while there’s all this heightened publicity around the game, it’s still a football game and what wins football games.

So you have to lean on both. You can’t just be all hype about highlight videos and the history of the game, without, hey, here are the plays we’re gonna run, here’s how we’re gonna block them, here’s the progression of the quarterback, here’s where we’re trying to tackle him, here’s what we’re trying to do on defense to slow them down. That’s the stuff that really matters.

But I do think the guys need to understand that the game has — it counts for one game on your record, but it has a different feel.

On trying to put pressure on Georgia’s offense

I think what I respect most about their offense is — like I said earlier — I don’t see a whole lot of weakness. And then the character of a football team is embodied in the quarterback. This quarterback is a tough, competitive winner. It’s in his DNA. And so I think the football team they have reflects him.

So that’s maybe the thing that’s the challenge, because the way they play the game is the way he plays the game. So it starts with him. Offensive line is really, really solid. Multiple players at tight end that are a handful. The running back room is the deepest I feel like I’ve seen in a long time. And then receivers, I mentioned Canion’s been out, the freshman kid they got playing slot is really good. The receivers, they got a lot of guys that can make you pay.

They are just — like I said earlier — I don’t see a weakness. I see a lot of really good players. These guys are sound, they are talented, they do good things. I think Bobo does a great job with how he sets plays up and calls the game.

What Jadan Baugh’s performance vs. Texas said about him

He was beat up pretty good. What I would say is, different than the previous two games, we were able to stay on schedule with the run game at times. Wasn’t always pretty. You watch the first four games, everybody got used to the explosives and the wow plays. You watch the next two games and it’s like, alright, we are running into a brick wall a little bit.

We still ran into a brick wall at times at Texas. Their defense is dang good. But we ran into a brick wall and got three yards a lot, or four yards. Really nothing we did offensively, including Jadan, was flashy. We averaged 4.4, I think, per pass attempt. I got the stats somewhere.”

On Baugh only having three runs longer than five yards

That’s what I’m saying. Our longest run wasn’t very long, and our longest pass was a 17-yarder on fourth down and 12. We weren’t very explosive against Texas. There wasn’t a whole lot that really, to be quite honest with you, went right. But what did go right was we didn’t end up in third and 14; we ended up in third and six more.

By staying competitive, on schedule, we allowed everyone’s job to be easier. The O-line’s job on third and six is easier, the quarterback’s job, the running backs’ job, the receivers’ job. And then it allows you to also get into more four-down situations where it’s like fourth and one. We’re not going for it a whole lot on fourth and 12; we just did because the game prescribed at that time, 17-3, that field location, with the time on the clock.

Are we playing to win or are we just playing to lose by less? So we played to win. But what allowed us, and really Jadan was probably the poster child in that game, not as many wow plays but a lot of three-yard gain. Okay, it’s second and seven now. We can function in second and seven better than we can second and 12. So he played that style of game.

The only real run I critiqued him on, which ended up being a great run, was the 4th-and-one where he lost ground to go get more than one. I was like, hey, we need one, not 11, or whatever. I don’t need an explosive. Because we hit the explosive against Auburn on a 4th-and-one, I think he thinks 4th-and-one is supposed to be a touchdown.

But he embodied how we played that game, which was kind of just one play at a time. Doesn’t have to be a big play, doesn’t have to be a home run, but just keep competing and good things will happen. Our offense reflected that; our team reflected that.

On what that does for Baugh mentality-wise

Well, going back, I think it affects our entire team. Because now everybody is playing with that physical edge and the mindset he played with. And so, it creates a confidence in your team. I’ve talked a lot about who we’re playing this week. I think that’s how they’ve been built for several years.

They’ve won a lot of different ways. We’ve seen we can win by being explosive earlier in the year. It helped to see that we can win by being a little bit tough and bloodied at times. We had not done that yet. We needed to do that. The only way you get confidence in doing it that way is by doing it. I think that helped us; his play style helped us maybe from that mental approach to how we play the game.”

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida's Jon Sumrall speaks ahead of Week 10 rivalry game vs Georgia