![Florida Head Coach Jon Sumrall center, reacts during the second half of an NCAA football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 7, 2026. Gators lost 23-7. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_3000,h_1687/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ReutersImages/mmsport/213/01m6xkcyfvqfzt3pwawa.jpg "Florida Head Coach Jon Sumrall center, reacts during the second half of an NCAA football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 7, 2026. Gators lost 23-7. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]")
Nine games into the season, and if we are being fair to Jon Sumrall, some very real flaws in the offense's construction have turned a unit once compared to the 2019 LSU squad into one of the more anemic offensive units in college football. He has played two QBs, and neither of them appears to be the answer, his offensive line would struggle to block a team from the MAC, and apparently Vernell Brown III is the only good wide receiver on the roster.
But then one is reminded of who handpicked the bulk of these players who are struggling, and it is going to create an even more critical lens this offseason when Florida hits the transfer portal.
Florida’s roster looks like a shell of what we thought it would be
As a reminder, Florida has now totaled 1,480 yards on offense over the past five games. That is the worst five-game stretch for Florida over the past ten years.
One common defense, as things have gone south, is that Sumrall is still working through the stench left behind by The Man in the Black Polo, and there is a hint of truth to that. But the players who are causing some of the biggest problems on offense are the ones that Sumrall and Buster Faulkner handpicked to come to Gainesville.
We’ll start with the QB situation. Tramell Jones is a leftover from The Man in the Black Polo, and Jones did not have a great night. But Florida had to turn to him because Aaron Philo never really separated himself and then opened the door and started becoming a turnover machine.
At wide receiver, it is fair to wonder what this offense could be if VB3 was healthy. But Florida still grabbed Bailey Stockton, Eric Singleton Jr., and Micah Mays Jr. out of the portal. Stockton has been a gamer and had a couple of solid punt returns, but he was held to one catch on two targets on Saturday. Singleton got hurt five plays into the season, but since he has worked his way back, he has been next to invisible. On Saturday, he had one target. Mays was a spring game hero who has been relegated to the bench.
At tight end, it’s another unit that did some good things early in the season yet has gone invisible during this stretch. The two top snap getters within this unit on Saturday were Luke Harpring and
Lacota Dippre, both players picked up from the portal.
And then there is the offensive line. Maybe what feels most concerning is that this unit doesn’t feel like it is getting better week to week. Two of the starters, TJ Shanahan Jr. and Harrison Moore, were portal additions. And while at tackle, you had leftovers Caden Jones and Bryce Lovett getting the start, that’s because they somehow beat out portal addition Eagan Boyer. Had he not been hurt, fellow portal addition Emeka Ugorji would have started ahead of Jones, but I most likely don’t think things would have been better.
Whether Door 1 or Door 2, Jon Sumrall has fallen short
We highlight all of that to point out why 2026 is going to fall short of expectations, because one can’t have their cake and eat it to.
We still maintain this roster had enough talent on paper that 8-4 was the acceptable floor for 2026. Various talent composite metrics would back that up. And if you don’t believe us, Saturday was the third time in 2026 that Vegas had Florida as the favorite and they went on to lose by at least 10 points. They are the only team in the country that has that distiction.
But this is where Door 2 comes into play, because if one doesn’t want to buy into talent composites and Vegas projections and believes Florida’s roster was way too flawed to actually compete in 2026, then who picked this roster?
Of the 13 players on offense for Florida who had at least 20 snaps on Saturday, eight of them were either players Sumrall grabbed out of the portal or were leftovers who beat out someone Sumrall grabbed out of the portal.
The caveat is that Sumrall was multitasking last year, getting Tulane ready for the playoffs. He won’t have that excuse for the 2027 season.
All we know is that in the world of college football, if you are the guy to lead a team to the top of the mountain, that will reveal itself sooner rather than later.
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