Florida’s September run has forced a fresh look at the early College Football Playoff race, and Paul Finebaum is all in on the Gators.
The 4-0 start, capped by a 52-28 rout of ranked Ole Miss at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, has Florida sitting as one of the sport’s biggest surprises heading into October. While several preseason favorites have coasted through soft early schedules, Florida has put together a resume that Finebaum believes belongs in the playoff conversation.
“They are a legitimate College Football Playoff team, that should not be lost in the translation,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s "First Take" on Tuesday. “The coach, Jon Sumrall, is somebody to keep your eye on. He took Tulane to the playoffs, he did a phenomenal job in a short period of time at Troy and I think he will bring a championship at some point in the near future back to Gainesville.”
The Gators have not looked like the Florida teams that stumbled through the post-Tim Tebow years. This group has shown the kind of offensive firepower that once defined the program, and the numbers back it up. Through two SEC games, Florida is averaging just under 500 yards per contest, and running back Jadan Baugh has piled up 600 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, putting him second in the country behind Duke’s Nate Sheppard.
Florida has also handled its first two SEC tests well enough to keep moving forward. The 44-39 win at Auburn looked tighter than it really was because of garbage-time scoring by the Tigers, and Ole Miss has enough offensive juice with Trinidad Chambliss at quarterback to make any game uncomfortable.
The road ahead is where things get serious. Florida still has trips to Georgia and Texas, two teams that were among the most popular playoff picks before the season.
Georgia rolled through September, though its toughest challenge came against an Oklahoma team that is struggling badly on offense. Texas has the defensive look of a playoff contender, but the offense has not fully come together a month into the season.
The Gators also have SEC road games remaining at Missouri this weekend and at Kentucky on Nov. 14. Missouri won its three non-conference games before losing at Mississippi State to close September, while Kentucky enters at 3-1 after an eye-opening road win at Texas A&M in its first season under Will Stein.
In Other News...
Jon Sumrall Just Made Floridas Secondary Concern Even Bigger
Floridas defense left the Missouri game with more questions than answers, and the secondary is right at the center of it. The Gators gave up five touchdowns on drives that began with a punt or kickoff, a jarring jump for a unit that was supposed to have enough talent in the back end to hold up better than that. Instead, explosive plays kept putting the defense in bad spots, and the overall result made the problems look bigger than a single busted coverage or one rough quarter.
Jon Sumrall did not try to dress it up afterward, saying there are multiple issues in the secondary and no simple fix waiting to clean them up. His message was blunt enough to make the concern feel even more real: Florida needs players to win their one-on-one battles. For a defense built with highly rated talent, that is a tough place to be, and it leaves the Gators staring at a problem that goes beyond scheme and into execution. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Ranking Hit Looks Bad But One Result May Save Them
Floridas latest result did enough damage to raise questions about where the Gators land in the next AP Top 25, especially with several ranked teams around the country also stumbling. The poll is expected to shift only modestly after a weekend in which just three teams in the rankings lost, but Floridas own situation stands out because a rough outing can look worse when the rest of the field largely holds serve.
There is still a chance the Gators avoid a deeper slide, though, because the committee of voters has a few other results to weigh, including Pittsburgh staying unbeaten and teams such as UCLA, Kentucky and Boise State adding their own wrinkles to the picture. Mississippi State and Alabama are part of the same crowded conversation too, which is what makes Floridas place in the next poll so uncertain until the new rankings are revealed. [Read more 🡒]
Jon Sumrall Just Challenged Florida's Maturity After Its First Loss
Floridas first loss of the 2026 season landed hard, and Jon Sumrall did not soften the blow afterward. The No. 8 Gators were thumped by No. 25 Missouri, 45-17, in a game that exposed problems on both sides of the ball, with the head coach pointing directly to defensive breakdowns and an offense that never got its ground game going.
Sumralls criticism went beyond scheme and execution, getting at the bigger-picture issue of maturity after a defeat that had been building for the wrong reasons. With South Carolina, Texas and Georgia next on the schedule, Florida does not have much time to let the sting linger, and the response in the coming weeks will say plenty about how this team handles its first real setback. [Read more 🡒]