Saturday, September 5
Gainesville, Fla.
7:45 p.m.
Florida Gators
vs
Florida Atlantic
Jon Sumrall went 43-12 and won two conference titles in four seasons at Troy and Tulane before taking the UF post last December.
"Amped Up": It's Game Week, Gators
Monday, August 31, 2026 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – His first game as coach at the University of Florida. His first sprint out of the south end tunnel. Under the lights at the "Swamp." New team. New era.
The only way Jon Sumrall possibly could get more jacked for Saturday night's season opener was if someone chained him to a wall inside the Heavener Football Training Center to keep him away.
"I'll be amped up, but that day's not about me," Sumrall said. "Never will be."
Nope. Sumrall claims Sunday through Friday for himself and his staff. They get their money's worth on that front.
But Saturdays, like the upcoming 2026 lid-lifter against Florida Atlantic, are for the players.
"The game day, at that point, you've coached them and if they don't rise to the occasion they fall to the level of their training. Well, we want them to be so trained that Saturday night they can go cut loose and play the game the right way," Sumrall said during his Monday news conference that officially kicked off his first UF game week. "I don't care if we're playing in a parking lot, I'm excited. It's an opportunity. … You work so daggum hard, I'll be really excited for the opportunity to watch our team go play and all the work that's been put in. Go cut it loose!"
The expected sellout crowd at Spurrier/Florida Field will be ready to do so. Gator Nation has suffered through four losing seasons – Sumrall's predecessor, Billy Napier, became the first UF coach with a sub-.500 record in nearly 80 years – over the previous five and has not enjoyed a double-digit winning campaign since 2019.
UF went 4-8 in 2025 while Sumrall was guiding Tulane to the College Football Playoff, a place the Gators have never been since the NCAA adopted postseason format in 2015. Back in '15, Sumrall, once a standout linebacker at Kentucky, was in his first season as associate head coach at Troy, a place that seven years later gave Sumrall his first head-coaching opportunity. He went 23-4 in two seasons, won a Sun Belt Conference title and went to two bowl games there.
What he accomplished at Troy got Sumrall the Tulane post, where he went 20-8, won an American Athletic Conference title and coached the Green Wave in the CFP a month after taking the Florida job.
So, 43-12 with a couple conference championships and that CFP venture already on the resume in just four seasons.
But now comes Sumrall's greatest challenge: Awakening an orange-and-blue sleeping giant while trying to satisfying a success-famished fan base.
The expectations, fair or not, are substantial, especially given the malaise of the Napier era.
"I don't get nervous. If I see a rattlesnake, I might get nervous," he said. "I'm fired up to let our guys go cut loose and play. I still get amped up, but I'm not like biting my fingernails or anything."
That'll be left to the folks in the bleachers and luxury boxes who are wondering what they have in a team that returns its biggest stars – tailback Jadan Baugh, wideouts Dallas Wilson and Vernell Brown III, plus playmakers Myles Graham and Jayden Woods on defense – but also will roll out the program's 20th starting quarterbacks since Tim Tebow left following the 2009 season.
Aaron Philo, the third-year transfer from Georgia Tech, won a competitive QB battle against second-year freshman and returnee Tramell Jones III. Philo's familiarity with the offensive system run by new coordinator Buster Faulkner, also by way of Tech, ultimately gave him the edge, but Jones figures to get a look against the Owls, also out of the AAC and an opponent Sumrall beat 35-24 last season while with the Green Wave.
A positive for the Gators is that they are as healthy for the season opener as they have been in years.
That FAU squad, with first-year head coach Zach Kittley, ran a breakneck, no-huddle offense that hung 472 yards on Tulane in that meeting, but undermined itself with four turnovers. The quarterback of that game, 6-foot-5, 245-pound grad Caden Veltkamp, is back after passing for 3,641 yards, 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He'll face a rebuilt UF defense under coordinator Brad White, by way of Kentucky, who is looking to reverse a trend that's ranked the Gators in the bottom half of Southeastern Conference defenses, with an inability to force turnovers.
The Gators staged two Saturday preseason scrimmages, including one at night, and used last week to mock the run-up schedule to the first game. The depth chart was established along the way, but is subject to change, based on performance.
This staff has set a standard and everyone in the building understands it.
"We're really, really direct. I don't hide things with our players. I'm brutally honest," Sumrall said. "I'm going to tell you the truth. If you like the truth, you're going to love being around me. If you hate the truth, you're going to hate being around me. Everybody on our depth chart, wherever they are, they know why."
Now they get to show – preferably, show out – for Gators everywhere.
"We're going to make mistakes Saturday night, I can promise you. I've never been a part of a Game 1 where there weren't plenty of them," said Sumrall, who showed his team examples of some Week 0 blunders by various teams around the country. "There was one game [where] there were 12 guys on the field on field-goal block three times in the same game. I'm not going to act like we're perfect, but I'm going to dang-sure try to make sure we get 11 guys on the field."
That would be a welcome start.
UF fans will be expecting that – if you know, you know – and a lot more.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.
The only way Jon Sumrall possibly could get more jacked for Saturday night's season opener was if someone chained him to a wall inside the Heavener Football Training Center to keep him away.
"I'll be amped up, but that day's not about me," Sumrall said. "Never will be."
Nope. Sumrall claims Sunday through Friday for himself and his staff. They get their money's worth on that front.
But Saturdays, like the upcoming 2026 lid-lifter against Florida Atlantic, are for the players.
"The game day, at that point, you've coached them and if they don't rise to the occasion they fall to the level of their training. Well, we want them to be so trained that Saturday night they can go cut loose and play the game the right way," Sumrall said during his Monday news conference that officially kicked off his first UF game week. "I don't care if we're playing in a parking lot, I'm excited. It's an opportunity. … You work so daggum hard, I'll be really excited for the opportunity to watch our team go play and all the work that's been put in. Go cut it loose!"
The expected sellout crowd at Spurrier/Florida Field will be ready to do so. Gator Nation has suffered through four losing seasons – Sumrall's predecessor, Billy Napier, became the first UF coach with a sub-.500 record in nearly 80 years – over the previous five and has not enjoyed a double-digit winning campaign since 2019.
We play football this week.
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) August 31, 2026
UF went 4-8 in 2025 while Sumrall was guiding Tulane to the College Football Playoff, a place the Gators have never been since the NCAA adopted postseason format in 2015. Back in '15, Sumrall, once a standout linebacker at Kentucky, was in his first season as associate head coach at Troy, a place that seven years later gave Sumrall his first head-coaching opportunity. He went 23-4 in two seasons, won a Sun Belt Conference title and went to two bowl games there.
What he accomplished at Troy got Sumrall the Tulane post, where he went 20-8, won an American Athletic Conference title and coached the Green Wave in the CFP a month after taking the Florida job.
So, 43-12 with a couple conference championships and that CFP venture already on the resume in just four seasons.
But now comes Sumrall's greatest challenge: Awakening an orange-and-blue sleeping giant while trying to satisfying a success-famished fan base.
The expectations, fair or not, are substantial, especially given the malaise of the Napier era.
"I don't get nervous. If I see a rattlesnake, I might get nervous," he said. "I'm fired up to let our guys go cut loose and play. I still get amped up, but I'm not like biting my fingernails or anything."
That'll be left to the folks in the bleachers and luxury boxes who are wondering what they have in a team that returns its biggest stars – tailback Jadan Baugh, wideouts Dallas Wilson and Vernell Brown III, plus playmakers Myles Graham and Jayden Woods on defense – but also will roll out the program's 20th starting quarterbacks since Tim Tebow left following the 2009 season.
Aaron Philo, the third-year transfer from Georgia Tech, won a competitive QB battle against second-year freshman and returnee Tramell Jones III. Philo's familiarity with the offensive system run by new coordinator Buster Faulkner, also by way of Tech, ultimately gave him the edge, but Jones figures to get a look against the Owls, also out of the AAC and an opponent Sumrall beat 35-24 last season while with the Green Wave.
A positive for the Gators is that they are as healthy for the season opener as they have been in years.
That FAU squad, with first-year head coach Zach Kittley, ran a breakneck, no-huddle offense that hung 472 yards on Tulane in that meeting, but undermined itself with four turnovers. The quarterback of that game, 6-foot-5, 245-pound grad Caden Veltkamp, is back after passing for 3,641 yards, 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He'll face a rebuilt UF defense under coordinator Brad White, by way of Kentucky, who is looking to reverse a trend that's ranked the Gators in the bottom half of Southeastern Conference defenses, with an inability to force turnovers.
GAME WEEK 🗣️
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) August 31, 2026
🎥 Gator Cam presented by @FLBlue pic.twitter.com/RIW9PQlcS2
The Gators staged two Saturday preseason scrimmages, including one at night, and used last week to mock the run-up schedule to the first game. The depth chart was established along the way, but is subject to change, based on performance.
This staff has set a standard and everyone in the building understands it.
"We're really, really direct. I don't hide things with our players. I'm brutally honest," Sumrall said. "I'm going to tell you the truth. If you like the truth, you're going to love being around me. If you hate the truth, you're going to hate being around me. Everybody on our depth chart, wherever they are, they know why."
Now they get to show – preferably, show out – for Gators everywhere.
"We're going to make mistakes Saturday night, I can promise you. I've never been a part of a Game 1 where there weren't plenty of them," said Sumrall, who showed his team examples of some Week 0 blunders by various teams around the country. "There was one game [where] there were 12 guys on the field on field-goal block three times in the same game. I'm not going to act like we're perfect, but I'm going to dang-sure try to make sure we get 11 guys on the field."
That would be a welcome start.
UF fans will be expecting that – if you know, you know – and a lot more.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.
Players Mentioned
RB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
ILB
/ Football
QB
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WR
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JACK
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