Aaron Philo named Florida Gators starting QB over Tramell Jones Jr.: Here’s what you need to know

Football

0

Image Credit: Hannah White, UAA

While head coach Jon Sumrall has made numerous major decisions since taking over the Florida Gators this offseason, perhaps none has been more significant than the one announced Monday. Redshirt sophomore Aaron Philo has been named Florida’s starting quarterback — at least for Week 1 of the 2026 season — just months after joining the program as a transfer from Georgia Tech.

Philo spent the last two seasons as a backup for the Yellow Jackets under new Gators offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner.

Though his numbers were not overly impressive — 58% completions for 938 yards with two touchdowns, three interceptions, 95 yards rushing and a rushing score in six total appearances — only once in his career has he been singularly prepared to start a game. That came in a 59-12 win over Gardner-Webb last season in which Philo completed 21 of 28 passes for 373 yards with a TD and INT.

Philo, a former three-star prospect who broke Trevor Lawrence’s high school passing record in Georgia, won the job over redshirt freshman Tramell Jones Jr., who impressed during brief apperances in two games last season when he threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns while completing 21 of 35 passes.

“There will not be some crazy, big hoopla around in our building [about the decision],” Sumrall said Monday. “It’s just how we’re moving forward. … The good news is both of them have elevated their play. Love both of them, fired up about both of them, and grateful for both of their approaches as we’ve gone through this, but Philo will get the lion’s share of the reps with the ones as we kind of start to try to create cohesion within our football team to get ready for Game 1. The good news is I’ve seen Tramell Jones improve so much from April the 11th to right now. It’s been a real battle; it’s not been some empty competition. It has been real.”

The duo split snaps during spring and summer practice with Faulkner saying neither had separated himself. Last week, Sumrall noted how Philo was having more success with motions and shifts at the line of scrimmage, likely given his familarity with Faulkner’s office. He confirmed his reasoning on Monday, saying Philo operated at a higher level and was more efficient at the line of scrimmage.

“There’s no surprise to that in spring because he had been in the system, and Tramell had not. Tramell has improved a ton, but we’re able to operate the full offense at a little bit higher level right now with Aaron, the whole package. That’s probably the biggest separator,” Sumrall explained. “… They’re kind of similar players. Arm talent-wise, running ability, they’re similar-ish, like on the GPS numbers, they’re about the same speed.

“Probably the biggest differentiating factor has just been being able to maybe get us into the right call, out of the wrong call, check things, alert things, kill things off of defensive pictures, and then maybe see the middle of the field a little bit more in the throw game. Both guys have done a lot of great things, but that’s probably been the biggest difference. It’s just operational.”

Both impressed during the Orange & Blue Debut, though Philo (193 yards, two touchdowns) threw 11 more passes than Jones (210 yards, two touchdowns) in the spring game.

While the competition will remain ongoing to some degree, Sumrall needed to name a starter with two weeks remaining before the season begins to better divvy up first-team reps in practice. Philo will now receive the majority of those opportunities. Florida opens its campaign on Sept. 5 against FAU.

“The team is going to rally around both of them,” Sumrall said. “… I want both of them to want to be the guy. There’s a lot of stories, and we talk through all of them with both of them, of guys that weren’t the starter until certain points of their careers that are great players. I mean, you can look at — Tom Brady was a pretty good pro quarterback and didn’t start as a youngster, right? … We got good locker room chemistry and culture. We need to keep it there.”

Sumrall further clarified that Philo has not been anointed as the season-long starter simply because he won the Week 1 job, nor has Jones been “relegated or demoted and forgotten” for this campaign.

“This is not fatal. I believe in Tramell Jones. Like, I’m a believer, I’ll go to battle with that dude,” he said. “So, I’m fired up about both of them. I just feel like right now, it’s where we need to go with the decision, but the guys will rally around both.”

With DJ Lagway entering the transfer portal this offseason, Florida will once again enter a campaign with a new starting signal caller. Since Tim Tebow led the Gators across three straight seasons (2007-09), the Gators have only had one other quarterback start and finish consecutive campaigns (Kyle Trask, 2019-20).