Florida’s season has been one wild swing after another, and Saturday in Austin might have been the biggest jolt yet.
A battered Gators team, missing pieces all over the roster, went into Texas as a big underdog and came out with a 27-24 upset over No. 7 Texas.
Florida was without running back Noah Clark, and it also dealt with injuries to starting quarterback Aaron Philo and receivers Vernell Brown III and Bailey Stockton. Jon Sumrall’s team had dropped consecutive games to Missouri and a three-loss South Carolina team at home, so the trip to face Arch Manning and the Longhorns looked like another rough stop on a slippery road.
Instead, Florida delivered its second top-10 win of the season and its first year-to-date with two top-10 victories since 2018. It also marked the Gators’ second win over Texas in two seasons, another sharp turn in a campaign that has refused to settle into one clear identity.
Tramell Jones Jr. was at the center of it. Making his first start in place of Philo, the backup quarterback steadied himself after throwing two interceptions in each of the previous two losses and played one of the best games of his Florida career. Jones completed for 155 yards and two touchdowns while adding 41 yards on the ground, giving the Gators enough balance to hang around and then finish.
Texas had control for much of the first half. The Longhorns opened with two scoring drives to go up 10-0, then stretched the margin to 17-3 after Ryan Niblett brought back a punt for a touchdown. Florida answered with a nine-play, 59-yard touchdown drive to cut it to one score at halftime, and that kept the Gators close enough for the finish.
Manning had Texas within striking distance late. He led a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that made it a 27-24 game with a little more than two minutes remaining, and his biggest throw of the day came on a 4th-and-7 shot that kept the drive alive. But Florida’s defense slammed the door with a strip-sack fumble on Manning, ending Texas’ comeback push and sealing the upset.
Jones joined a short list in the process. He became the first backup quarterback to win a road game in his first start at Florida since Jesse Palmer did it in 1997, when the Gators upset No.
6 Auburn. Florida also held Manning to 173 yards and got to him for five sacks.
This has been the defining pattern of Florida’s season. The Gators stunned then-No.
4 Ole Miss 52-38 at home in Week 4 and shot into the top 10. The very next week, they were flattened by unranked Missouri 45-17 on the road, managing only 42 rushing yards.
A week after that, Florida ran into a South Carolina team that entered 0-3 in SEC play and lost 38-19 in front of a Homecoming crowd.
Afterward, Sumrall pointed to the fight his team showed in Austin.
"We played about as awful as we could in the first quarter," Sumrall told ABC. "And we kept fighting.
And we didn't do that the last couple weeks, to be quite honest with you. When things got tough, we flinched the last couple weeks.
Our team grew today without the win. Just grew because we fought."
Florida gets a bye before meeting No. 1 Georgia, a rival the Gators have not beaten since 2020.
Given the way this season has bounced around, nothing about what comes next feels predictable. But if Florida brings the same edge it showed against Texas, it has given itself a real chance.
In Other News...
Florida Fans May See That 2024 Decommitment Wave Very Differently
Floridas 2024 recruiting cycle has taken on a different look a year later, especially when it comes to the group of prospects who backed away from their pledges. Xavier Filsaime is one of the more notable examples, with the former Gators commit now at Texas and dealing with an injury-plagued season that has kept him from making the kind of impact many expected when he was being recruited.
He is hardly alone in that regard. A review of seven top recruits from Floridas 2024 class who decommitted shows a mixed return at their new schools, with limited playing time, multiple transfers in some cases and several players still searching for a steady role. For Florida fans, the early frustration of losing those names may look a little different now, because the path away from Gainesville has not exactly produced a clean win for everyone involved. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Texas Game Suddenly Rests On One Huge QB Decision
Aaron Philos shoulder issue has turned Floridas trip to Texas into a late-week waiting game, with the Gators listing their quarterback as a gametime decision. If Philo is unable to go, Tramell Jones would be in line for his first career start, a major shift in the spotlight for a team trying to sort out its offense on short notice.
The uncertainty does not stop at quarterback. Vernell Brown III and Bailey Stockton are also listed as gametime decisions, while backup running back Duke Clark will not play, leaving Florida to piece together its depth chart as kickoff approaches. For a Gators team heading into a difficult matchup, the final availability report could end up shaping far more than just one position. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Just Proved It Can Still Take Down SEC Heavyweights
Floridas 27-24 win at Texas did more than just hand the Longhorns another loss, it reminded the SEC that the Gators still have the kind of upset punch that can change the conversation in a hurry. With backup quarterback Tramell Jones throwing two touchdown passes, Florida knocked off a No. 1-ranked team on the road and added a signature result to a season that now looks a lot more dangerous than it did a week ago.
The bigger takeaway for Florida is what the win says about its place in the league race. The Gators had not beaten two top-10 teams in the same season since 2012, and doing it in this setting gives the program a real benchmark under the lights. Texas, meanwhile, saw Arch Manning finish 14 of 20 for 173 yards and a touchdown, but the more telling number was the one attached to the Longhorns recent slide - two straight losses after opening the streak at No. 1. [Read more 🡒]