It’s no secret that we here at Hail Florida Hail expressed concerns about Aaron Philo’s ability to hit the deep ball throughout the offseason. Whether it was his limited tape from Georgia Tech, his performance in the spring game, or just clips that emerged from fall camp, the arm strength for Philo was a major question mark coming into the 2026 season.
Four games in, he isn’t perfect, but this perceived weakness has been better than advertised even when it hasn’t been perfect.
Aaron Philo’s ability to go deep has been better than advertised for Florida fans
In one breath, 7 of Philo’s 16 completions from Saturday against Ole Miss were behind the line of scrimmage. For the year, 38% of his total completions have been behind the line of scrimmage.
But Philo has shown in the next breath that he can air it out when needed. He did miss a deep shot in the 1st quarter against Ole Miss that should have been better, but he also hit Eric Singleton Jr. later in the game, which essentially sealed things. This year, Philo is 10-for-17 on passes of at least 20 yards downfield. That’s tied for the 13th most completions in the country of throws of at least 20 yards downfield.
If you are keeping score at home, DJ Lagway is 7-for-20 this year on throws of at least 20 yards downfield.
We had expressed our own doubts when Philo first popped up on the radar for Florida because of two or three eyebrow-raising throws he had made while at Georgia Tech. While he had his moments, the throw that raised our own concerns was a duck he threw against Gardner-Webb last season. He also had a couple of other throws that could have been TDs if aired out correctly, and it's not like he exactly aired things out in the spring game.
Jon Sumrall admitted on Monday that he had to put faith in Buster Faulkner to erase any doubts he himself may have had when Florida opted to bring Philo in from the transfer portal:
“Yeah, when you don't have a whole lot of evidence or proof, maybe from a large body of work, It was one of those things where I had to take Buster's word to some degree on that. But at the same time, if you're going to hire a guy to be your coordinator, you need to be able to take their word on some things and trust them. And so I trusted Buster with that. And I knew who Aaron was, but I didn't know Aaron.”
That faith, to this point, has paid off.
Because beyond whatever debate we had about arm strength, what’s been even more impressive about Philo is that he never looks rattled. To that point, he has a completion percentage of 63.2% when under pressure. That’s 7th best in the country. His completion percentage is 75.6% when blitzed, which is the 5th best in the country.
Sumrall appreciates that about him too:
“Ever since Aaron's arrival, he's proved nothing but consistent, tough, dependable, reliable, great teammate. The intangible things that are outside of playing the quarterback position that are just as important to playing the quarterback position. You can have the biggest arm and run and do all those things well, but if you don't have the intangibles at quarterback, it's really hard to be a great player.”
To this point, Philo has passed every test given to him.
As we have been stating, Saturday will be his next test to help Florida avoid a trap against Missouri.
But if he maintains this steady play, most Gator fans feel confident in his ability to avoid that trap.
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