Florida is back in the AP Top 25, and the Gators didn’t ease their way in. They blasted through a tough road environment at No.
7 Texas, turned a 10.5-point underdog label into fuel, and came home with a 27-24 win that pushed them to No. 20.
It was the kind of victory that changes the mood around a team fast. Florida erased deficits of 10-0 and 17-3, leaned on first-time starting quarterback Tramell Jones Jr., and got a defense that looked rejuvenated at the perfect time. The Gators hit Arch Manning five times, never let Texas settle in, and limited the Longhorns to 272 yards.
The win snapped Florida back into the rankings a week after it had fallen out following a homecoming loss to South Carolina.
Florida is now 5-2 overall and 3-2 in the SEC, and the path to this spot has been anything but smooth. The Gators reached No. 8 after a 52-28 rout of Ole Miss on Sept. 26 in the Swamp, their highest ranking since the 2020 season. Then came a 45-17 loss at Missouri that sent them tumbling to No. 16, followed by a 38-19 defeat to South Carolina, a result that ended the Gamecocks’ eight-game SEC losing streak.
Saturday’s response was different. It gave Florida its first road win against a top-10 team since 2012 at Florida State, and it also gave Jones a little slice of program history. He became the first Gators quarterback to earn his first win on the road since Jesse Palmer in 1997 at Auburn.
Now comes the reset. Florida enters a bye week after playing seven straight games, then turns to an Oct. 31 showdown in Atlanta with No.
5 Georgia. The Bulldogs are 6-1 and 4-1 after falling 27-24 at Auburn on Saturday, a loss that dropped them from No.
In this week’s AP Top 25, Florida checks in one spot behind No. 19 Texas and two places ahead of No. 22 Missouri.
“I love the bye week because you get to take a deep dive into where are we playing well, where are we not?,” Sumrall said. “Who deserves more opportunities?
Who may deserve less? We evaluate everything that’s going right and wrong, and I expect everybody take ownership of it so we can move forward through the rest of the year.”
In Other News...
Tennessee Just Gave Vols Fans New Ammo Against Alabama
Week 7 delivered one of those Saturdays that reshapes the conversation around the SEC, and Tennessee had plenty to do with it. The Vols backed up a strong performance from running back DeSean Bishop with a defense that made life miserable for Alabama, giving their fans a fresh reason to revisit the rivalry and point to the Crimson Tides flaws after a game that felt more like a statement than a one-off upset.
It was also part of a broader shake-up across college football, with top-ranked Georgia and Notre Dame both going down in a chaotic slate. BYU knocked off Notre Dame without its star running back, Texas slipped again in a loss to Florida under Steve Sarkisian, and Oklahoma State continued to struggle, but Tennessees win stood out for the way it was built: physical, opportunistic and hard to dismiss no matter how the rest of the season plays out. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Just Shook Up The Rankings In A Way Fans Had To See
Week 7 turned the AP Top 25 upside down in a way college football rarely sees, with five of the top eight teams losing on the same day for the first time in the polls 90-year history. Auburns win over No. 1 Georgia was the headline grabber for Bulldogs fans to absorb, but it was part of a bigger wave of chaos that also included BYU taking down No. 2 Notre Dame.
The shakeup sent Miami to No. 1 for the first time since 2002, with BYU climbing to No. 2 and Ohio State landing at No. 3. For Georgia, the bigger picture is less about one bad Saturday than the way quickly a season can change when the teams around you start tumbling too, and the rankings now reflect just how much instability is baked into the race ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Is Suddenly At The Center Of An SEC Debate
The SEC conversation has gotten louder this week, and Georgia is right in the middle of it after another rough stretch for the leagues biggest names. Recent losses by top teams such as Georgia and Texas have fueled the familiar debate over whether the conference is as deep and dominant as it has been billed, while fans and observers continue to argue over how much weight to give one conferences bruising schedule.
Dan Wolken pushed back on the idea that the SEC has somehow become ordinary, arguing the league is still punishingly difficult from week to week. From Georgias perspective, that only adds to the scrutiny, because every stumble by a contender seems to become evidence in someone elses argument about the conference, and the latest round of reactions has left plenty of room for the debate to keep going. [Read more 🡒]