Jon Sumrall isn’t ready to hand Florida a quarterback answer just yet.
With Oklahoma coming to town Saturday night, the Gators head coach said Monday he still has a plan in motion at the position, but he stopped short of naming a starter after the latest round of quarterback shuffling in the loss to Georgia.
"I'm not going to make a big quarterback one announcement,” Sumrall said Monday. “I have a plan that is already kind of in motion and in place, but I don't know that it helps us with me naming a starter today."
That uncertainty followed a game in which Aaron Philo got the start against Georgia even though Tramell Jones Jr. had led Florida to a win over the Texas Longhorns while Philo was out with a shoulder injury. Once Philo was back to full health, he reclaimed the job against the Bulldogs, but his night ended in the second quarter after two interceptions.
Jones finished the game under center, and Sumrall said the move was his call.
"We decided to put Tramell in on Saturday; that was my decision,” Sumrall said. “I just thought, hey, we need a spark here.
We need to make a change. We need to see if he can give us some juice."
Jones did provide some life, and he accounted for Florida’s only touchdown of the day. But the performance came with plenty of rough edges. He nearly threw an interception right after halftime before a roughing-the-passer penalty erased the play, then later forced an end-zone throw intended for Eric Singleton Jr. on a corner route that was picked off.
The mistakes didn’t stop there. Jones lost the ball twice on sacks.
In the second quarter, Georgia’s Quintavius Johnson got to him, and Chris Cole turned that fumble into a 66-yard return for another Bulldogs touchdown. Jones was sacked and coughed it up again late, though Jadan Baugh recovered that one.
Even with both quarterbacks struggling, Sumrall said he isn’t interested in laying the blame at their feet alone.
"Right now we're not making the quarterback's job any easier; we're making it harder,” Sumrall said. “So my frustration with our football team is, yeah, we need to play better on offense, and the quarterback may have something to do with that on plenty of plays. But it would be really nice if we make the quarterback's job easier."
He said the quarterbacks need to protect the football better, but the problems go beyond that. Florida’s protection has to improve, no matter who is taking snaps, if the Gators want to create more explosive plays through the air.
The run game didn’t give the offense much help either. Florida managed only 48 rushing yards in the 27-8 loss in Atlanta, and Baugh finished with 38 yards on 17 carries, his second-worst total of the season.
That bigger-picture mess is part of why Sumrall said it’s difficult to isolate the quarterback issues on their own.
"It's really hard to fully evaluate the quarterback position when we're not playing good enough around them,” Sumrall said. “I don't know if Tom Brady was our quarterback on Saturday if it would have helped us."
Florida’s season isn’t over, though the College Football Playoff path looks likely gone. Sumrall pointed instead to the goals still in front of the Gators as November begins.
"We still have a lot left to play for,” Sumrall said. “We're in a situation as we enter November and November football, we haven't had a winning SEC record here since 2020, I believe.
We have a chance to do that still. So that's a pretty substantial goal."
Florida will try to move closer to that mark when it hosts Oklahoma on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m.
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