Gators’ CFB dreams are growing as Jon Sumrall’s vision takes shape | Things learned in Ole Miss romp
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GAINESVILLE — Florida’s 52-28 win against No. 4 Ole Miss Saturday in the Swamp continued the Gators’ rapid ascension under first-year coach Jon Sumrall and ended a 12-game losing streak against Top-5 opponents dating to 2020.
Here a five things learned:
The Gators enter the College Football Playoff race
Sumrall vowed from Day One to turn Florida into a winner. The Gators are ahead of schedule and suddenly find themselves in the thick of the playoff conversation.
ESPN ranks Florida No. 8 in their latest CFB projections following Saturday’s resounding win, a spot ahead of Ole Miss. The Gators sit one spot behind reigning national champion Indiana, which executed a swift turnaround under Curt Cignetti.
It’s only September, and Sumrall is quick to temper expectations.
“Excited about the direction we’re headed,” he said. “We have not arrived.”
Florida’s coach remains focused on his team’s flaws, including 92 penalty yards against Ole Miss, amid his pursuit of perfection. Sumrall also knows the long-term implications of performances like Saturday’s in the Swamp.
“We had some recruits here this weekend — a recruiting list that we get a lot of those guys to say yes, we’re going to wake the beast up real fast,” he said. “We still have to reinforce our roster, (for) the depth of our roster to look like maybe the top, top, top teams in the country.”
Already, Buster Faulkner’s blitzkreig attack has been as explosive as any.
The Gators rank second nationally in scoring (53.4 ppg), fourth in 20+ yard plays, fifth in total offense (532.8 ypg) and seventh in time of possession. Florida becamse the first teaem in program history to score 200 points through four games, a stretch that has included just five punts.
An Oct. 17 date at No. 1 Texas and Oct. 31 meeting with No. 2 Georgia in Atlanta are daunting, but also opportunities. A pair of losses would not doom the Gators in the CFP race — a dizzying thought given the state of the program Sumrall inherited.
The Heisman pose suits Jadan Baugh
Baugh isn’t much for self-promotion, but his teammates have egged him on to state his Heisman case after he reaches the end zone.
Following his first of three touchdowns against Ole Miss, Baugh obliged, striking the familiar one-legged pose in a corner of the south end zone at the Swamp.
“I too much don’t even want to do it,” the 20-year-old said after the game. “It’s the guys in front, like my guys want me to do it. They tell me every time, like, did you do it? Did you do it?
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, I did it, just for y’all.'”
With a nation-leading 11 touchdowns and SEC-leading 600 rushing yards, Baugh is making a case to become the first running back to win the award since Alabama’s Derrick Henry in 2015.
DraftKings ranks him fifth, a spot behind Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss after Baugh’s Gators got the best of the presumed frontrunner for the award.
Baugh is happy to be in the conversation for his offensive line as much as himself.
“Having somebody on the team who could potentially win this award, that means the world to them,” he said.
To Baugh’s family, too. His younger brother Kendall Bryant struck his own Heisman pose last Wednesday during his game in Atlanta.
Unfriendly territory on the horizon
Coming off a pair of big wins, the Gators head to Missouri, where they’ve struggled since the Tigers joined the SEC in 2012.
Florida is 2-4 in Colombia and has won just once in four tries since 2015.
History has been irrelevant thus far to Sumrall.
Yet Eli Drinkwitz’s team could be a tough out during its SEC home opener, still smarting from a 31-24 loss at Mississippi State after leading 24-17 entering the fourth quarter.
The Tigers (3-1, 0-1) boasts one of the league’s top offensive lines, featuring All-SEC left tackle Cayden Green anchoring a unit ranked sixth in the preseason by Phil Steele.
But 2025 SEC leading rusher Ahmad Hardy continues to recover from a gunshot wound to his upper leg sustained in May; former Gator quarterback commit Austin Simmons has been hot and cold; and Missouri’s defense has 11 new starters.
The Gators, who are 5.5-point favorites, could check another item off their to-do list with a win.
Sumrall surrounded himself with an elite staff
A big knock on former coach Billy Napier was the people around him — and the people he didn’t put around him.
Napier’s insisted on calling plays to his detriment. He hired a pair of inexperienced defensive coordinators — 32-year-old Patrick Toney followed by 29-year-old Austin Armstrong — and a strength staff to get the most out of Florida’s roster.
Sumrall took a different approach, surrounding himself with assistants who have quickly made an impact.
Faulkner was one of the most coveted coordinators on the market. While Florida’s defense ranks 72nd nationally, coordinator Brad White fielded four Top 25 defenses from 2019-25 at Kentucky. Strength coach Rusty Whitt has transformed players’ bodies while instilling a competive fire and no-nonsense approach.
Meanwhile, offensive line Phil Trautwein’s unit has grown as much as any positon group following four unachieving seasons under Rob Sale, a close friend of Napier’s now with him at James Madison. Against Ole Miss, Florida rushed for 302 yards and didn’t allow a sack.
Running backs coach Chris Foster has stepped in for respected assistant Jabar Juluke, now at Texas, and pushed Baugh to another level while developing the depth behind him. Sophomore back-up Duke Clark’s 126 yards marked his first 100-yard game at Florida, while his career-long 45-yard touchdown run broke open the game.
A head coach is only as good as those around him. Sumrall understood this after Napier refused to do so.
Special teams matter to Sumrall
Sumrall spends more as much time on special teams as any coach in Florida since Urban Meyer, whose national championship teams turned the so-called third phase of the game into a decided advantage.
Against Ole Miss, the Gators exceled in the kicking and return games.
In a rare appearance in 2026, punter Alec Clark executed one of the best efforts in recent memory. Late in the first half, he booted a 70-yard punt that went out of bounds at the Ole Miss 2, leaving the playmaking Chambliss little chance to cut into Florida’s 17-6 lead by halftime.
Third-string tailback London Montgomery’s 74-yard kickoff return in the third quarter set up a touchdown, while a 41-yarder earlier ignired the scoring drive ending with Clark’s long run.
Placekicker Patrick Durkin’s 49-yard field goal pushed Florida’s early lead to 10-0 before Ole Miss had made a first down.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
Up next
What: UF (4-0, 2-0) at Missouri (3-1, 0-1)
When: 3:30 p.m., Saturday
Where:Faurot Field, Columbia, Missouri
TV: ABC
Favorite: Florida by 5.5 points
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