Florida’s shot at a 5-0 start comes with an odd little twist this Saturday: standing on the other sideline is a quarterback who once committed to the Gators before everything changed.
Austin Simmons is now Missouri’s starting quarterback, and his path back to Florida has taken a few sharp turns. He originally pledged to Florida in April of 2023 as a class of 2025 prospect, when the expectation was that the Gators would have DJ Lagway in 2024 and Simmons behind him in 2025.
Back then, Simmons was viewed as a polished passer. The evaluation from March of 2023 described him this way:
“He can make all throws you want to see in a highlight package. His deep shots hit his receivers in stride as do his slant route throws. He also can hit the out route, something a certain former Florida football QB struggled with.
Simmons doesn’t have much wasted motion when he throws and when scanning the field he will flip his hips quickly when opting to throw to the other side of the field. The handful of times he does get pressure he stays poised and will climb the pocket as needed.”
Then came the chaos. In June, there were rumblings that Simmons would reclassify from the class of 2025 to 2023. After some initial confusion, he did exactly that - and also flipped to Ole Miss.
At the time, his father said: “But the schedule is too tough, and they want DJ Lagway.”
Simmons spent 2023 through 2025 in Oxford. He opened last season as Ole Miss’s starting quarterback, but an ankle injury in week two opened the door for Trinidad Chambliss to take over.
Lane Kiffin left for LSU in the offseason, but Simmons did not follow him. Instead, he landed at Missouri.
He has gotten off to a solid start for the Tigers in 2026, completing 65% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions.
The strange part for Florida is how different this all might have looked if Simmons had stayed in the class of 2023. The Gators’ quarterback situation that season changed when Graham Mertz got hurt, and instead of Max Brown stepping in, Simmons could have been the one on the field.
And if he had been around in 2023, there’s also the question of whether he would have been positioned as the backup in 2024, which might have put him in line to take over as the starter by the end of that year.
That’s a path that never got a chance to play out. What’s left now is the matchup itself: Florida has to figure out how to slow down a quarterback who, in another version of events, might have been wearing orange and blue.
In Other News...
Jon Sumrall Already Has Georgia Fans Arguing Over Florida Practice Talk
Jon Sumralls Florida practices are already drawing attention well before the Gators and Georgia line up for their next meeting, and this time the buzz has more to do with terminology than tactics. Sumrall has been using Bloody Tuesday to describe the kind of intense, physical work he wants on the practice field, a label meant to signal how demanding those sessions are.
Some Georgia fans and media quickly tried to frame the phrase as a Kirby Smart hand-me-down, but the history stretches far beyond that rivalry. The wording has been around for years, including at Florida under Urban Meyer and even earlier with Penn State coach Hugo Bezdek in the 1920s, which only adds another layer to a matchup already loaded with enough history and side chatter to keep both fan bases engaged as the game gets closer. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas New Offensive Identity Puts Pressure On Buster Faulkner
Floridas offense has started to look like something sturdier and more convincing than the unit that spent earlier stretches searching for an identity, and the recent 52-28 win over Ole Miss only reinforced that shift. Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner pointed to the rushing game as the clearest sign of progress, with Jadan Baugh continuing to set the tone and Duke Clark emerging as another dependable option in the backfield.
Baugh leads the SEC in rushing yards and touchdowns, but the bigger takeaway for Florida is how the ground game has changed the way defenses have to play the Gators. Faulkner said the offense is showing it can adapt and impose its will, and that kind of flexibility will matter again as Florida turns its attention to Missouri, where the challenge is not just carrying over the same production but proving this new identity can hold up week after week. [Read more 🡒]
Aaron Philo Is Quietly Erasing Florida Fans Biggest Offseason Concern
Before the season, Aaron Philos arm strength was one of the biggest questions hanging over Floridas offense after his earlier work at Georgia Tech. A few weeks into 2026, though, the Gators appear to have a different conversation going on. Philo has been better than expected pushing the ball downfield, connecting on 10 of 17 throws of at least 20 yards, and that has gone a long way toward easing a concern that could have shaped the whole offense.
Jon Sumrall has also made it clear he trusts more than just the arm talent. He has pointed to Philos consistency and intangibles, and the numbers back up some of that faith, with the quarterback ranking among the nations best in completion percentage under pressure and against the blitz. For Florida, the encouraging part is not just that Philo can hit the occasional deep shot, but that he is handling the kinds of situations that usually separate a steady starter from a tentative one. [Read more 🡒]