GAINESVILLE - Florida rolled past Campbell 52-3 on Saturday night in the Swamp, but the win came with enough rough edges to leave Jon Sumrall frustrated.
The Gators now head into SEC play with a trip to Auburn on Saturday, carrying the kind of mixed bag that can be easy to overlook in a blowout: big plays, a loud crowd and plenty of execution issues that still need fixing.
Vernell Brown III was the headliner. The sophomore turned the game into his own highlight show, putting together a three-touchdown performance that drew comparisons to Kadarius Toney.
Brown said Toney was his favorite player when he was here, and the former Gator’s game has stayed with him.
“He was my favorite player when he was here,” Brown III recalled Saturday night. “He’s one of the players whose highlights I still watch to this day.”
Brown delivered the kind of night that makes those comparisons easy to understand. He scored on punt returns of 64 and 70 yards on back-to-back possessions, becoming the first Gator since Toney to score on a punt return and matching a feat last done by Jacquez Green in 1996. Brown then added a 14-yard touchdown on a shovel pass from Aaron Philo for his first hat trick since Toney’s three-touchdown night against Missouri on Halloween night six years ago.
“Great player, great company to be in,” said Brown, who finished with a career-high 216 all-purpose yards, 179 of them on returns.
Brown did not score in 2025 during his freshman season, but he now has four touchdowns in two games and looks headed for a much bigger role. His burst helped turn a 10-3 game into a rout and helped wake up a reported crowd of 88,863.
“You heard it in The Swamp,” junior edge rusher LJ McCray said. “The team feeds off of that. It’s important.”
Florida’s defense, though, still has questions to answer up front. The Gators came into the year expecting their defensive line to drive a better unit, but the production has been uneven.
Sophomore edge rusher Jayden Woods has only a half-sack in two games. Senior Kam James, back from offseason shoulder surgery, has two tackles for loss and a sack, but not much else.
Sophomore Jeremiah McCloud has been the bright spot with 12 tackles, two pass break-ups and two hurries, while Brendan Bett has been steady. Jacksonville State transfer Emmaneul Oyebadejo played well against FAU, but he sat out against Campbell because of an injury.
That front needs to settle in quickly with conference play arriving.
The other concern Saturday was discipline. Florida had seven penalties for 75 yards in the second half after being flagged just once for 10 yards in the first half. A week earlier, the Gators had only three penalties for 32 yards in a 66-21 win over FAU.
“We were way too sloppy,” Sumrall said. “If we play like we did in the second half, we’re about to have a real rude awakening.”
Right guard TJ Shanahan was penalized on consecutive possessions on the opening drive of the second half. The Penn Statre transfer had a holding call wipe out a 42-yard run by Jadan Baugh, then followed it with an unnecessary roughness penalty, after which coaches pulled him from the game.
On the next series, backup guard Rod Kearney was flagged for unnecessary roughness, though Sumrall said the call was questionable.
“The guy is playing through the echo of the whistle,” he said. “He didn’t know when the play was over.”
Sumrall didn’t hide his unease with the bigger picture, either. He pointed out that lopsided wins can still create a false sense of security if the details are not sharp enough.
“I’m a little uneasy with where we are,” Sumrall said. “I think you can win games in the fashion we’ve won them in.
It feel guys for everybody. But if we are not really urgent and detailed in our preparation, the outcome next Saturday will not be what we desire.”
The Campbell game also continued a scheduling trend Florida fans are familiar with. The Camels received $525,000 for the matchup, while Florida paid FAU $1.2 million the week before. Some fans left at halftime with the Gators ahead 45-3, and after Tom Petty’s “Won’t back down” played at the end of every third quarter, the Swamp was nearly empty.
With nine SEC games and Florida State on the annual schedule, Florida has little interest in piling on more heavy nonconference tests. Still, games like this can feel like a tough sell, especially for fans making long trips for one of the Gators’ six home chances in 2026.
One upside was the amount of roster turnover on display. Eighty Gators saw action, which meant chances for some players to get meaningful snaps, even if not all of them helped their cases.
“Some guys proved maybe in the second half, you get an opportunity to prove people right or wrong, some guys proved us right why they’re not playing right now,” Sumrall said.
UF is 2-0, and Auburn is 2-0. The Gators visit the Tigers at 7 p.m. Saturday.
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