GAINESVILLE - The yard sign by Sanders Outdoor Practice Field says what a lot of Florida fans are thinking heading into Saturday’s SEC matchup with Ole Miss: “Run The Damn Baugh.”
That message has taken on a life of its own around Gator Nation, and it fits the moment. No.
21 Florida is set to host No. 4 Ole Miss and Trinidad Chambliss in the Swamp, and the Gators’ path to staying hot runs straight through Jadan Baugh and the ground game.
Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner isn’t arguing with the sentiment.
“I still believe you’ve got to be able to run the football to win in really all the levels of the game,” Faulkner said Tuesday. “That’s part of who we are and hopefully our identity is starting to be established.”
Through three games, the Gators have looked like a team with an offense built to stress defenses in every direction. They’re averaging 54 points, and after last weekend’s 44-39 win at Auburn, the pieces are starting to fit together fast under first-year coach Jon Sumrall.
Baugh has been the headline act. Aaron Philo has been sharp at quarterback.
Sophomore receivers Vernell Brown III and Dallas Wilson have given Florida speed and burst on the outside. The result is an attack that has plenty of answers, and plenty of ways to keep its best players fresh.
Florida is tied for the national lead with an average of 7.7 plays of 20 yards or longer, and it ranks third nationally with 544.3 yards per game, just a tenth of a yard behind Mississippi State.
Baugh sits second nationally in rushing with 458 yards, trailing Duke’s Nate Sheppard’s 528, but he has done it on only 54 carries, compared with Sheppard’s 82. Brown has averaged 17.6 yards on 14 catches, while Wilson is at 18.8 yards on 12 receptions, both good enough to place among the SEC’s top 10 in yards per catch.
Philo has been just as efficient. In Florida’s three wins, he has thrown 21, 21 and 22 passes, completing 73.4% of them while averaging 11.3 yards per attempt. Among SEC quarterbacks, only Georgia’s Gunnar Stockton ranks ahead of him in both categories.
Faulkner said the Georgia high-school passing yardage leader has embraced the job of distributing the ball.
“He wants to throw it every down, that’s what he’s used to,” Faulkner said. “We’ve got a lot of good players. We’ve got to distribute the football, and he’s done a great job doing that.”
The continuity around Philo has mattered, too. He followed Faulkner to Gainesville after their two seasons together at Georgia Tech, and Florida added more familiar faces along the way: center Harrison Moore, tight end Luke Harpring and receiver Bailey Stockton. Auburn transfer Eric Singleton also spent 2023-24 at Georgia Tech.
When spring practice began March 3, Faulkner was putting the whole offense in place and figuring out what would stick. The installation covered everything - formations, shifts, motions, the run game and the pass game - before the staff started shaping it to the roster.
“Formations, shifts, motions, all the run game, all the pass game, that was installed,” he recalled. “We just kept doing it, doing it, doing it. Then you kind of see, okay, you’re a little bit better at this, a little bit better at that - and you start tailoring it to those things.
“Then each week we add a little nuance to it. You’re always evolving and it takes time to find the identity.”
By the time Florida opened Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic, the Gators had already banked more than 10,000 offensive snaps, all charted by analyst Ryland Goede, a former Georgia Tech tight end who worked with Faulkner last season. The payoff was immediate: a 66-point outburst, Florida’s highest-scoring opener since 1994.
But the offense kept expanding from there.
At Auburn, Florida posted 495 yards and won at Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time since 1999. One of the more memorable moments came on a trick play, when seventh-year receiver Kahleil Jackson, who was a high school quarterback, connected with tight end Amir Jackson for a 48-yard gain that set up a field goal.
“I’m not known for calling many trick plays, but that one was sound,” Faulkner said Tuesday. “It’s hard for me to want to call them, because sometimes I feel like they’re wasted plays.”
Faulkner said he’s “conservative by nature,” but Florida’s early success has shown why Sumrall wanted him in the first place. The coach said he valued Faulkner’s track record, but even more his flexibility.
“You have to go into it with an open mind,” Sumrall said. “You can’t ever go into it with a thought process of knowing what you have until you have it. You got to figure it out.
“He does a great job.”
That’s where Florida stands now: 3-0, balanced, and still not done evolving. Faulkner said he isn’t satisfied, but with Ole Miss and Chambliss coming in, the formula is obvious.
Run the damn Baugh.
In Other News...
Auburn Has A Growing Problem Fans Cant Ignore Anymore
Auburns season opener against Florida still drew a sizable national audience, but the television numbers pointed to a bigger concern simmering around the program. Nielsen ratings showed the SEC matchup attracted 2.1 million viewers, a figure that lagged behind Ohio States game and sat well below the LSU-Ole Miss showcase that pulled 10.9 million, while other SEC games like Kentucky-Texas A&M and Georgia-Arkansas together reached 9.6 million.
For a program with Auburns profile, those numbers are hard to ignore because they reflect more than a one-night audience. They speak to how much attention the Tigers are generating right now, and the frustration is that viewership usually follows relevance, momentum and winning. If Auburn wants to bring more eyes back to its games, the on-field product has to give fans a stronger reason to stay tuned. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Fans Are Arguing About The Wrong Person Right Now
Auburns first conference game of the 2026 season brought another familiar round of frustration, but the bigger conversation around the program still goes beyond one result. Alex Goleshs early run has already produced a few encouraging signs, even if the loss reminded everyone how much ground still has to be covered. Around the edges of that debate is the larger reality of an athletic department that has spent years searching for stability, with the football program never quite shaking the weight of its recent history.
John Cohens four-year tenure has become part of that larger discussion, especially as the football side has continued to trend in the wrong direction. The point is not that every issue starts and ends with the athletic director, but Auburn fans looking for the right place to focus their anger may be missing the broader picture of what has gone wrong and why the pressure keeps building. With coaching changes, uneven results and a restless fan base all in play, the hardest part now is figuring out which direction the reset is supposed to go. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Florida Loss Left One Brutal Reality Hard To Ignore
The loss to Florida left Auburn in an uncomfortable spot in the CBS 138 rankings, where the Tigers now sit No. 39 and still carry a better spot than next opponent Vanderbilt at No. 52. In the short term, that creates a game Auburn should handle on paper, but it also does little to soften the bigger problem hanging over the rest of the season.
What comes next is a brutal stretch, with Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Alabama all still waiting on the schedule. If Auburn is going to get to bowl eligibility, it likely cannot afford to come up empty in all of those matchups, which is why the Florida setback feels bigger than just one loss. [Read more 🡒]