Florida football feeding off energy of its coach as beast is awakening

Jon Sumrall won't admit yet the beast has woken up … yet.

But after Florida football finished September unbeaten with a 52-28 win over No. 6 Ole Miss at The Swamp, it's clear to say that it's trending toward national relevance.

The No. 22 Florida Gators (4-0, 2-0 SEC) upended the Rebels 52-28 in a game that Ole Miss coach Pete Golding referred to as an "old fashioned butt whooping."

Florida reeled off 35 straight points in the second half. UF offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner again made mincemeat of an SEC defense as the Gators rushed for 302 yards and passed for 196 yards to post their highest-ranked win since knocking off No. 5 Georgia in 2020.

"It's being kind of stirred up a little bit," Sumrall said. "So we're gonna get there. But yeah, it's coming. Like, I promise you, I didn't come here for us to be average. We're gonna work tirelessly — coaches, players, everybody — to put a product on the field that we can be proud of."

On defense, Florida has been good enough, prone to give up an occasional big play only to respond with a takeaway. Ole Miss Heisman candidate Trinidad Chambliss had to work for all of his 298 yards passing and wasn't able to string together enough big plays to respond to UF's second-half offenive onslaught.

"That quarterback's an unbelievable player," Sumrall said. "And so, for our guys to maybe I think keep him off balance at times, that's the least comfortable I've ever seen him look, and he's kicked my butt as a head coach twice last year."

How Florida football is feeding off Jon Sumrall

Sumrall showed throughout the game he wasn't afraid to take chances, going for it on 4th-and-2 in the red zone with the Gators up 10-0 late in the first quarter. Even though UF wasn't successful, it set an aggressive tone that the offense carried into the second half.

Teams often take on the personality of their coaches and Florida showed it by playing with a high-motor effort for four quarters. After allowing a 17-point lead to whittle to five points the week before against Auburn, Florida finished stronger against a better team.

"They're crazy and so they've probably got some of it," Sumrall said. "But no, I think they're taking on the personality of everybody in our building. It's not just me. It's everybody. I mean it's the entire coaching staff."

Sumrall showed some of that emotion on Duke Clark's TD run, racing down the sideline and losing his headset. He admitted he was upset about a call the play before, but quickly transformed from frustration to jubilation as Clark made a cut and found open grass.

"Worth losing a headset over," Sumrall said. "But really a great run by him, blocked up well. Thought he ran behind his pads and really asserted his will there."

Count Florida edge rusher Jayden Woods as a fan for the juice Sumrall brings on game day and each day in practice.

"It's huge," Woods said. "I see it probably in almost every facet of our team, to be honest. I would say most importantly our urgency, like as a team. Urgency in a bend but don't break mentality."

On offense, that energy showed in Florida quarterback Aaron Philo, who was fired up toward his teammates, then the crowd, as the third quarter closed with UF driving toward the red zone for another score. The message, Philo said, was to finish.

"Playing like an offense we had on the other side of the field, we had to keep scoring," Philo said. "There's no, like, keeping the foot off the gas Like we've got to keep the foot on the gas, and we've got to keep scoring."

Challenges lie ahead in the coming months. October includes a trip to Missouri, a game at No. 1 Texas and a showdown with rival Georgia in Atlanta on Halloween. But Sumrall has brought belief back to a beleaguered fanbase and made Florida football fun again.

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football feeding off energy of its coach as beast is awakening