Florida’s date with Ole Miss in Week 4 now has a kickoff time and a network.
The Southeastern Conference announced Monday that the Gators and Rebels will meet at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 26, with ESPN carrying the game.
It will be the third straight season Florida and Ole Miss have played each other, and the 28th time overall. The series has been locked at 13-13-1 since 1926.
The teams split the last two meetings. Ole Miss won in Oxford last November, 34-24, while Florida took the most recent game in Gainesville, 24-17 in 2024.
Before that matchup arrives, Florida still has a major SEC test in front of it this week. The Gators, 2-0, travel to Auburn on Saturday for a 7 p.m.
ET kickoff. Florida has opened the season with home wins over Florida Atlantic, 66-21, and Campbell, 52-3.
Auburn is also 2-0 and is being led by a first-year head coach, Alex Golesh, just like Florida is under first-year coach Jon Sumrall. The Tigers opened with a 17-16 escape against Baylor at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and followed it with a 43-8 win over Southern Miss at home.
"It’s a challenge. You know, it’s a hostile environment.
They’ve had a great home-field advantage there for a long time. It’ll be loud on Saturday night.
We have to handle that challenge," Sumrall said Monday.
"We’ll work crowd noise in practice all week. I don’t - no matter how much you try to pipe it in, I don’t know that it’s ever really as authentic of a simulator.
But yeah, it’s a great venue. It’s a historic place.
They’ve had a lot of good football teams and it’s a place that cares about football. And so it’ll be - it’s an SEC home-field advantage that, you know, it’s real."
Elsewhere in the SEC this weekend, No. 8 Ole Miss and No.
7 LSU will meet in one of the biggest games of the season when the Tigers visit Oxford. LSU coach Lane Kiffin is returning to face the Rebels after leaving before the program’s first College Football Playoff appearance in November.
Ole Miss, now under Pete Golding, has stayed in the top 10 after reaching the CFP semifinals without Kiffin. The Rebels have been powered early by quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy in wins over Louisville and Charlotte. LSU comes in after victories over Clemson and Louisiana Tech.
Florida’s full 2026 schedule: Florida Atlantic: Sept. 5, 7:30 p.m. ET (WIN, 66-21)
Campbell: Sept. 12, 5:30 p.m. ET (WIN, 52-3)
@ Auburn: Sept. 19, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Ole Miss: Sept. 26, 3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
@ Missouri: Oct. 3, FLEX, network TBA
South Carolina: Oct. 10, EARLY, network TBA
@ Texas: Oct. 17, EARLY, network TBA
BYE
Georgia: Oct. 31, 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC [at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga.]
Oklahoma: Nov. 7, FLEX, network TBA
@ Kentucky: Nov. 14, NIGHT, network TBA
Vanderbilt: Nov. 21, EARLY, network TBA
In Other News...
Floridas Blowout Exposed A Few Surprises Fans Need To See
Floridas 52-3 win over Campbell gave the Gators plenty of breathing room, but the Pro Football Focus review afterward did a nice job of showing where the performance really stood out. The grades offered a quick snapshot of who carried the day on offense and defense, along with how the team stacked up nationally through two weeks, which is the kind of context that can be useful early in the season when the sample size is still small.
The PFF breakdown also dug into the details behind the final score, including individual performances, missed tackles and pass breakups, which can reveal more than the scoreboard alone. For Florida, that kind of report matters because a lopsided win can still hide a few surprises, and the grades help point to the players and trends worth watching as the competition gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Quietly Found Depth Pieces Fans Should Be Watching Closely
Floridas 52-3 win over Campbell offered the kind of night where the spotlight naturally lands on the obvious stars, but there was also real value in the supporting cast. Dallas Wilson made the most visible case for a bigger role with six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown, while Bailey Stockton added four receptions and did some of the little things that tend to stand out to coaches, including important blocking on punt return touchdowns.
Elsewhere, a few more names surfaced as pieces worth tracking going forward. Roderick Kearney graded as the teams best pass-blocking lineman, JVari Flowers broke up three passes, and Jeramiah McCloud finished with four tackles, half a sack and a pass deflection. In a game Florida was expected to control, those kinds of contributions are the sort that can quietly shape the depth chart as the schedule gets more demanding. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas New Standard Faces A Much Bigger Test Ahead
Jon Sumralls first few weeks at Florida have already made one thing clear: the new standard in Gainesville is going to be demanding, even after a blowout win. Following a victory by more than 40 points, Sumrall and defensive coordinator Brad White both pointed to the defense as an area that still fell short of where they expect it to be, a sign that the margin on the scoreboard was not enough to satisfy the new staff.
For a program trying to build consistency under a new head coach, the bigger challenge is keeping that edge when the games start to look comfortable. Sumrall has stressed the need for the Gators to hold themselves to a high standard and stay locked in mentally, and the next stretch will show whether that message sticks once Florida is asked to carry the same focus into a tougher test. [Read more 🡒]