Florida’s quarterback battle may be unsettled, but Buster Faulkner’s track record gives the Gators plenty to like heading into 2026.
As the Gators open their first fall camp under head coach Jon Sumrall, Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. are still locked in a tight competition for the starting job. That uncertainty is real. But the offense around them, and the coordinator shaping it, offers a reason to believe the position can still produce.
Faulkner has spent 12 of the last 15 years as an offensive coordinator, with stops at Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State, Southern Miss and Georgia Tech. Across those jobs, he has shown a willingness to change with the personnel, moving between different schemes while keeping the results strong.
His most recent run at Georgia Tech was a good example. Over three seasons, the Yellow Jackets finished first in the conference in rushing, second in total offense and fifth in scoring offense.
The quarterback numbers under Faulkner are just as encouraging. In his 12 most recent seasons as an OC, he has coached four 3,400-yard passers, had multiple seasons with 30-plus passing touchdowns and produced an average completion percentage of 64.6 among starters.
The production has come in different forms. In 2025, ACC player of the year Haynes King threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 14 touchdowns while adding 953 rushing yards and 15 scores.
Brent Stockstill’s 2015 season at Middle Tennessee stands out too, with more than 4,000 passing yards and 308 yards per game. His 30 touchdowns were second only to Justice Hansen’s 34 in 2017 at Arkansas State.
Hansen also helped drive one of Faulkner’s most explosive passing stretches. Over three seasons under the coordinator, the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Year accounted for 83 total touchdowns and more than 10,000 yards.
Still, the system has not been spotless. During Faulkner’s Middle Tennessee years from 2011-2015, the passing game lagged at times while the Blue Raiders leaned on the run until Stockstill’s breakout 2015 season. Georgia Tech also shifted toward a more run-heavy approach with King, even though the quarterback still posted a 68 completion percentage over those three years.
Turnovers have been part of the package, too. Faulkner’s starting quarterbacks have averaged double-digit interceptions, with six of his last 12 passers throwing more than 10 and several reaching 15 or more.
That said, the overall quarterback production under Faulkner compares favorably with what Florida has had recently. Over the last four seasons under Billy Napier, only Graham Mertz in 2023 topped the average statistical output Faulkner has gotten from his starters. Injuries and an interim finish may have affected some of Florida’s numbers, but the broader picture under Napier at Florida and Louisiana has not been especially strong.
For Florida, that makes the 2026 quarterback race feel less like a problem and more like a test of who can best operate within a structure that has helped passers succeed. The Gators appear confident one of Jones Jr. or Philo can handle it.
Philo may have the edge. He has looked more comfortable in the offense during spring camp and the spring game, and he already has experience in Faulkner’s system. That makes him the safer bet in a scheme that has tended to lift both the ceiling and the floor for its quarterbacks.
Philo completed 57.8 percent of his passes and threw for 938 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions on 102 attempts across two seasons at Georgia Tech, appearing in five games with a pass attempt. Projected over the kind of volume Faulkner’s starters usually see, that pace would come out to 3,402 yards, seven touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Those interception numbers may not scare Faulkner off. He made that clear after Philo threw two picks in the spring game.
“Every quarterback, I tell him, ‘Hey, you're gonna throw picks, but we're gonna keep throwing it,’” Faulkner said. “...
One thing about him is he'll shrug them off, I can assure you… He came back and made some elite throws, which he always does. I was impressed with the way he handled that.”
So the battle remains open, but the setup is encouraging. Whether it’s Philo or Jones Jr., Florida’s offense is being built in a way that should give its next quarterback a real chance to succeed.
In Other News...
Florida Just Got An SEC Reality Check Fans Wont Like
Floridas preseason picture in the SEC is not exactly flattering, even before a snap is played. USA Todays preseason All-SEC poll slotted the Gators ninth in the 16-team league, a reminder that the outside view of this roster is still more cautious than hopeful as the program heads into a new era under Jon Sumrall.
The bigger sting is that Florida did not land a single player on the preseason All-SEC team, putting it in the same category as Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. Sumrall, hired after the 2025 season, is set to address that backdrop at SEC media days in Tampa, where several Gators will join him as the program tries to start changing the conversation before the real games begin. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Just Took Another Painful Recruiting Hit In The Secondary
The secondary recruiting board took another hit with four-star safety Adryan Cole, one of the top defensive backs in the 2027 cycle, coming off the board to Georgia. The Douglasville, Ga., prospect has been a coveted name in the Rivals 300, and his rise only added to the sense that elite safeties are moving quickly as the class starts to take shape.
For Florida, the timing stings because this is the kind of player the Gators have to keep landing if they want to close the gap in the defensive backfield race. Georgias early 2027 haul now sits at nine blue-chip commitments, and Cole gives the Bulldogs a key piece in the back end while leaving Florida still searching for answers in a part of the roster where every miss gets magnified. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Enters SEC Media Days With One Question Fans Can't Ignore
Jon Sumrall is set for his first SEC Media Days appearance as Floridas head coach, and he will not be making the trip alone. The Gators are sending three players to Tampa in Jadan Baugh, Myles Graham and Vernell Brown III, giving the program a chance to put a few familiar faces in front of the league while Sumrall begins to define what this next chapter is supposed to look like.
The bigger question hanging over Florida is whether a quieter spotlight might actually help. After the Billy Napier era, expectations around the Gators have shifted, and that can cut both ways for a first-year staff trying to reset the tone. Sumralls background and the production those three players brought last season give Florida some talking points, but the real intrigue is how the program plans to handle the pressure that comes with being viewed differently than it was a year ago. [Read more 🡒]