Whatever hopes and momentum Florida had for its 2025 season were instantly dashed when Alex Golesh and his USF squad waltzed into The Swamp and beat Florida 18-16. The game was essentially the final nail in the coffin for The Man in the Black Polo and served as a springboard for Golesh to get the job at Auburn.
One of the subplots for Golesh taking the job at Auburn is that he brought a ton of USF players with him. Jon Sumrall was asked whether or not that is playing a factor in Florida’s preperation this week, and at least for now, he doesn’t think it will.
Jon Sumrall not using USF loss as prep for Auburn game
Sumrall said that while he may look at last year’s loss against USF for schematic tendencies, he isn’t approaching this week as a chance to get revenge for last year:
“I don't know that that game has anything to do with this game. Now, we've addressed with our guys, like, hey, this player and this player and this player and that player, they were on that team.
So we know who the players are. And the scheme is transferable and offense. Different defensive structure, and not as many defensive players from (USF) that went (to Auburn).
But it's not a revenge game. It’s Florida's players playing against Auburn's players. There's no talk this week of any other teams than those two teams. I want our guys to just go play good football and play clean and attack what's right in front of them.”
What’s funny is that for as much attention as Aubrun’s offense is going to get coming into this game, including QB Byrum Brown, the Gators essentially shut down USF last year on the offensive side. Florida ended up losing because its own offense was just as anemic.
In that game last year, Brown was 22 of 35 for 234 yards. His yards per attempt was 6.7 yards, the third-lowest of the season. And that’s with the 66-yard TD that Keshaun Singleton, who also transferred to Auburn, had off a straight-up coverage bust.
Of course, the current version of the Gators has their own coverage concerns and their test run against FAU, who runs a similar up tempo offense, didn’t go as smooth as fans would have liked.
But if Florida fans are looking for comfort, this Saturday won’t be the first time Florida players have experienced an up-tempo offense. Now it’s just a matter of whether they can execute to slow Auburn down.
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