With fall camp set to get underway for Florida, we are about to enter the time of year when practice clips will start to circulate, and the depth chart will start to gain a bit more clarity. But there are still lingering questions about the Gators that no amount of goodwill from fall camp is going to answer.
With that in mind, these are the three biggest questions we have regarding Florida that can’t be answered until the Gators take the field for real in September.
Lingering questions for Florida as fall camp opens
Can the offensive line get fixed given the talent profile of the group?
The single biggest concern for Florida heading into the 2026 season is the offensive line. For those who paid attention during spring camp, this isn’t new information or a new revelation. Even with the hiring of Phil Trautwein to lead the offensive line, it’s a unit that Jon Sumrall talked about at length during the spring, and it’s a unit that struggled mightily during the spring game itself.
The problem is even if one wants to buy into the idea of “Well, maybe Florida’s defensive line is just that good,” the actual talent profile of Florida’s offensive line is in line with a unit one would expect to struggle. Across the board, whether it’s a returner or one of the transfers Florida grabbed, the bits and pieces all of the potential starters have shown on the field in real games haven’t been great.
It goes without saying that if Florida’s offensive line is even average, it will be a reminder why Trautwein is considered one of the best.
What will Brad White revert to on defense?
One of the other elements that hasn’t gotten as much discussion is what Florida’s approach on defense is going to be. Sumrall has hinted throughout his offseason podcast tour that Florida’s defense plans to be aggressive and he doesn’t plan to sit back.
And we hope that’s the case because one of the fears we had when Brad White was announced as Florida’s defensive coordinator was White’s tendency at Kentucky to sit in static zones that worked well against weaker QBs but got shredded the instant Kentucky would face someone who knew what they were doing.
Even DJ Lagway tore apart Kentucky in 2024, so we hope there are adjustments to what Kentucky ran.
Will Jon Sumrall sit on a lead?
This is one of those things that fall camp can’t answer no matter what Sumrall says out loud. Probably one of the biggest objections we had to Sumrall when it was clear that he was going to be the head coach of the Gators was his tendency not to push the envelope in the second half of games. Sumrall’s primary preference was to run the ball and grind things out.
Similar to White’s defenses at Kentucky, this works when facing an offense that doesn’t have a QB or the playmakers who can shred you for a four-play touchdown drive. And for the most part, those playmakers don’t exist in the American Conference.
But given the quality of playmakers in the SEC, we have this nagging concern that Sumrall is going to get burned thinking he can just ground and pound his way to a win with a second-half lead.
Only a real-life game can answer and address this concern.
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