Florida Football Friday Final: No. 8 Gators must avoid trap, complacency at No. 25 Missouri

Image Credit: Victoria Riccobono, UAA

With success comes expectations, and those have ratcheted up significantly after a 4-0 start for the Florida Gators in Year 1 under head coach Jon Sumrall. Fresh off a top-five victory in the friendly confines of The Swamp, newly minted No. 8 Florida hits the road for the second time in three weeks to face the No. 25 Missouri Tigers at Farout Field.

Despite the Gators generally being the more talented team when these sides square off, the Tigers have regularly had their number. The series is 6-6 since Mizzou joined the SEC, and Florida is 2-4 all-time in Columbia, Missouri, with losses in three of the last four such meetings.

The Tigers lost last week at Mississippi State but only did so by a touchdown. Mizzou started 3-0 with a 17-point win at Kansas between home victories over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Troy.

Of course, the Gators under Sumrall already appear to be a far more competent and even disciplined program than they were in the recent past — despite some on-field penalty issues the last few weeks. More than anything, the coach has been focused on ensuring UF does not get a big head coming off its trajectory-changing victory last Saturday.

“I told our team, ‘I don’t want to hear anybody talk about that game the rest of the year,’” he shared Monday. “… If anybody brings it up in our building about what happened last week, I’m going to be livid because we have no control over that anymore. It’s gone. If it hadn’t gone our way, we’d have no control over it. It’d be gone. Move on.’”

Sumrall tried to flip the script after 36 hours of celebration by focusing on all the “bad stuff” Florida put on tape against Ole Miss — and there was plenty of it, especially in the secondary. He stressed that the weekly rankings fans care so much about “mean absolutely nothing” until after the last game is played.

“I’m very happy that we won last week. I’m happy that we’ve won each week so far; it beats the alternative. But I’m not like celebrating anything. Nobody in our building should be celebrating anything yet. If we are, then we’re totally off base of how you find success over the long term,” he explained. “… Tough teams win. Selfless teams win. Teams that have an edge about them and a hunger about them, they win.

“Complacent, soft, entitled, lazy, selfish teams, they lose.”

Still relatively healthy

The Gators have appeared to be perpetual victims of the injury bug over the last few seasons, but they still have a relatively clean sheet even now, three games into their SEC schedule. Sumrall credited UF’s strength & conditioning staff with doing a “phenomenal job” helping the team put in work to remain strong and resilient, though he also clarified that there is no preparing for bad luck.

Wide receivers sophomore Vernell Brown III (lower leg) and senior Bailey Stockton (back) are both listed as questionable for Saturday, though the coach made it clear Brown only has a low-grade strain (pain tolerance and confidence will determine whether he plays), and Stockton is structurally fine, though he’s recovering from “basically a car crash on the field [between] two guys.”

Senior WR Eric Singleton Jr., who played sparingly last week, is a full go for the first time since Week 1.

Staff coming together

Sumrall remains incredibly impressed with the offensive staff, not only how it is preparing the players to succeed on the field but how some assistants, who did not know one another before donning the orange & blue, have gotten along in meeting rooms and developed a unit that is presently leading the team.

This is perhaps best exemplified by the relationship between offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and offensive line coach Phil Trautwein, a former Florida star. Sumrall had limited experience with Faulkner before hiring him, and neither had worked with Trautwein, despite being familiar with his success at Penn State.

Still, both have come together to develop the nation’s most efficient offense and one of its best per-down rushing attacks.

“When you put a staff together, you try to figure out, how do you put the absolute best group together that will work well together, too, because that matters. … It’s been really cohesive. The depth of our offensive staff, nobody does anything on their own,” Sumrall explained. “… I think Buster would tell you, the offensive staff, they all provide great ideas to help him maybe put together a really good big picture game plan. The depth of our offensive staff allows Phil to be his best and Buster to be his best and everybody to be their best.”

Special teams

After an entire coaching tenure where special teams were treated almost as an albatross on the program — a unit that neither deserved investment or attention — one that could barely figure out how to get the proper number of players on the field for kickoffs, punts and field goals, Sumrall has proven himself a throwback. Some of the most successful Gators teams — including the two-time national champions under Urban Meyer — made special teams a priority.

Florida is once again doing the same under coordinator Jonathan Galante, who followed Sumrall from Tulane after working his entire career in special teams at Virginia Tech (2017-18), Alabama (2019-22) and Marshal (2022-24). The Gators have been perfect on kicks, successful on punts, strong in coverage and outstanding on returns. And none of it is happenstance.

“You look at how we personnel special teams. We’re strategic with how we play good players on it, and then we also find roles for maybe younger players that need growth but are ready to grow in those roles,” Sumrall explained. “… The one thing I love about how our staff operates is … when we go to special teams periods, everybody is coaching the special team period. There’s not anybody standing around just watching.

“That bleeds through to your team … I probably coach more at special teams part of practice than I do anything. … I think your players can tell what’s important by how many people are involved, and when the whole staff’s involved, they feel that. … Our guys believe in it. They’ve bought into it, and they’re giving great effort.”

Position-by-position evaluations

Quarterback: Sumrall is more than pleased he trusted Faulkner’s evaluation of junior Aaron Philo, who has thrown for 917 yards on 72.4% completions with 10 total touchdowns and two interceptions (both caused by his receivers) in four starts. Philo has been the model of consistency across those games, completing 15-16 passes on 21-23 attempts in each. While increased vertical production would be nice, the Gators’ immensely strong running game has made it unnecessary to date, and various injuries to pass catchers have left the unit short of full strength.

“Ever since Aaron’s arrival, he’s proved nothing but consistent, tough, dependable, reliable, a great teammate — the intangible things that are outside of playing the quarterback position that are just as important to playing the quarterback position,” Sumrall said. “You can have the biggest arm and run and do all those things well, but if you don’t have the intangibles at quarterback, it’s really hard to be a great player. That’s where he’s so impressive. He’s got a good enough arm. He runs good enough to create and extend some plays, but it’s all the other things. It’s how he carries himself and how he invests and how he competes and how much he celebrates his teammates’ success and all those sorts of things that really excite you about Philo.”

Offensive line: “They’ve made tremendous growth. They took a lot of ownership of when they’ve been called out. They’re a group that is accountable. … [The transfers] were able to, once they established who they were and what they were about through spring practice and the gauntlet, in the summer, you started to see them start to then like call people out and help other people elevate. … That’s been a huge component to that O-line growth. That group’s taken a big jump. They have to continue to do so. We’re going to be challenged as we play all these league games.”

Secondary: Struggles on the back end of Florida’s defense were the only reason the Ole Miss game was even close for a few quarters, and inconsistent coverage has hampered the program in earlier contests against FAU and Auburn, too. The Gators have allowed 21+ points to all three FBS opponents they faced this season and 12 of their last 13 games dating back to last season. Sumrall noted that each player on the unit has experienced his highs and lows, as have the defensive backs in totality. He spent additional time discussing the progress of senior cornerback Cormani McClain.

“Cormani’s highs are as good as anybody out there. It’s just about being consistent and detailed. And I talked to him [Monday] morning. I said, ‘Hey man, we believe in you. You just got to continue to be focused on every little thing you can to maximize the type of player you are.’ He’s got great physical traits,” Sumrall said.