Florida’s offense looked like a machine through the first month of the season. Then it started sputtering in the kind of way that can turn a promising year into a scramble.
After a 4-0 start, the Gators were averaging 53.5 points and 532.75 yards per game, with Buster Faulkner’s arrival as offensive coordinator fueling big expectations and a deep group of playmakers giving the unit a real edge. Running back Jadan Baugh was rolling through the first four games, piling up 600 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, while quarterback Aaron Philo was drawing praise for his toughness and steadiness with Dallas Wilson and Vernell Brown III working the passing game.
Since that 52-28 win over Ole Miss, though, the shine has worn off fast. Florida has averaged just 18 points and 356 yards in its last two games, and the offense has gone from explosive to stuck in the mud. Baugh has managed only 72 rushing yards and one touchdown in the two losses, and the passing game has largely vanished.
Missouri and South Carolina used the same formula to drag Florida down: win at the line of scrimmage and take Baugh out of the picture. Missouri held him to 13 yards on 12 carries. South Carolina followed that by keeping him to 59 yards and a garbage-time touchdown; without a 26-yard run in the second half, he would have finished with 33 yards.
That pressure up front has spilled into the rest of the offense. Florida’s vertical passing game has suffered because defenses are clogging the trenches and forcing Philo into tougher downs and tighter windows. In the two losses, he has averaged 212 yards and one touchdown, and he added two turnovers against South Carolina.
He has not been the only issue, but he also has not been able to lift the offense through the mess around him.
The injury situation has complicated the play-calling. With Brown III and Singleton Jr. limited or unavailable, Faulkner leaned heavily on screen passes and quick throws, and South Carolina had little trouble seeing that coming. The Gamecocks also got star edge rusher Dylan Stewart back from suspension, and he immediately made life miserable for Florida’s front.
Stewart repeatedly got the better of right tackle Emeka Ugorji, who finished with a 33.4 grade from Pro Football Focus after allowing four pressures and two sacks. Philo was sacked three times, and South Carolina finished with six tackles for loss.
The split in Philo’s performance told the story. Without pressure, he was 19 of 24 for 212 yards and a touchdown. Under pressure, he went 2-for-4 for 15 yards, threw an interception and took three sacks.
"I'm not saying he played perfect. He didn't.
But it's really easy to critique the quarterback position when we don't block the edge rusher very good," head coach Jon Sumrall said. "You're getting ready to get smacked, and you have to speed up your process, and you don't get the opportunity to take a good picture of the coverage.
But yeah, there's plenty of things he's got to work on, cleanup, correct."
Brown III’s absence has also changed what Florida can threaten downfield. In the two games he has missed, the offense has slid backward, and while Faulkner said his injury has not tied their hands vertically, the Gators have not exactly been pushing the ball.
On Saturday, eight of Philo’s 21 completions came behind the line of scrimmage, and 15 were shorter than 10 yards. If you take away the 59-yard touchdown to Bailey Stockton on his first completion, Philo would have had just 168 passing yards.
That has opened up the obvious question: is Florida lacking trust in Philo, who has shown he can make deep throws? Is the issue the offensive line?
Or is it both? Faulkner and Sumrall have continued to back the Georgia Tech transfer, and Faulkner said the problems go beyond the quarterback.
"He's a mentally tough kid," Faulkner said. "Like I said, he wouldn't be here if he wasn't really tough. So he's handling that fine.
"It's not just the quarterback, right? And I get it.
It's the most important position in all the sports. But we got a lot of things that we got to clean up; that he's got to clean up, I got to clean up.
We got to clean up some other things that I thought, again, to the naked eye, you wouldn't be able to tell that cost us either points or continuing the drive. So all around him we got to clean things up.
That's kind of where we're at."
Faulkner also pointed to the loss of Brown III, but said that does not fully explain the drop-off.
"The thing that when you have VB is his explosiveness is unbelievable, you know, and so his ball-in-hand game is really good, and yeah, do we miss him? Yeah, we miss him.
We love him, can't wait to get him back whenever that is, he’s worked hard to get back. That's not the reason."
The schedule does Florida no favors now. The Gators head to No.
6 Texas on Saturday, then face No. 1 Georgia on Oct.
31, Oklahoma on Nov. 7 after its win over Texas, and then a trip to No. 15 Kentucky on Nov.
"We are all working towards one goal, but we got to just keeping working at it," Wilson said. "We have got to keep knick-knacking at it.
There’s a lot of things we’re not perfect. There’s a lot of things we have to work on.
We’re not at our best.
"Coach Sumrall says we’re not the best team. We are not at a point where we should think we’re this good or that good. We need to keep working and keeping hitting that board.”
In Other News...
Florida Just Got A Needed Recruiting Boost After That Ugly Loss
Floridas ugly Week 6 loss to South Carolina left plenty of frustration in Gainesville, but the Gators quickly landed a jolt on the recruiting trail. Five-star wide receiver Easton Royal flipped his commitment from Texas to Florida, giving Billy Napier and his staff a much-needed win as they try to steady the momentum around a 4-2 team that is still trying to sort itself out in SEC play.
Royal arrives with real weight behind the pledge, too. The Class of 2027 standout is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 1 wide receiver in the country, and he is expected to end his recruitment after the flip. For Florida, it is the kind of addition that can help soften the sting of a damaging loss while reinforcing that the Gators can still win top-end battles even when the results on the field are uneven. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Has A Mindset Problem Jon Sumrall Still Has To Fix
Florida coach Jon Sumrall spent part of his latest press conference talking about something far less tangible than formations or play calls: the mood of his team. Even with the Gators only seven points behind at halftime, he said the players looked emotionally low, a sign that the group is still wrestling with how to carry itself when the game gets tight and the margin stays manageable.
For Sumrall, the issue goes deeper than one bad stretch. He said Florida is still working through a larger process of getting the roster aligned with his coaching mindset, and the halftime response remains part of that evaluation. Until the Gators show more confidence and a stronger reaction after the break, this feels like the kind of problem that can linger well beyond a single Saturday. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Faces A Brutal Chance To Stop Its Slide At Texas
Florida heads into Saturday with a chance to steady itself against one of the toughest opponents on the schedule, but the timing is hardly ideal. The Gators are trying to snap a two-game losing streak after falling to South Carolina, and the trip to No. 6 Texas offers little margin for error as they try to keep the season from drifting further off course.
Jon Sumrall said Vernell Brown III has been back at practice more recently, though the receiver is still questionable because of a knee strain. Texas is also coming off a loss, having dropped the Red River meeting with Oklahoma, so both teams arrive looking for a response, but Florida will need to find one quickly if it wants to leave Austin with anything to show for the week. [Read more 🡒]