Jon Sumrall can keep Florida’s QB choice quiet, but he still has to get it right

Jon Sumrall has a massive choice to make for Florida this Saturday when the Gators take on Oklahoma. Behind door number one is going back to Aaron Philo, who looked prefectly fine through the first four games of the season but is now 0-3 in his last three starts. Behind door number two is Tramell Jones, who has done some good things when filling in for Philo but hasn’t made himself the clear cut replacement.

With four games left in the 2026 season, Sumrall is faced with a choice that could define the season as a whole and be a sign if Sumrall has the pulse of the team to make the right macro-level choices moving forward.

Jon Sumrall needs to pick the correct QB1 for Saturday

Florida’s depth chart has Philo and Jones both listed with the “Or” designation. At his press conference on Monday, Sumrall was non-committal about who he would roll out this Saturday:

“There will be one guy that starts and one guy that doesn't out of the two guys you're probably worried about. I'm not going to make a big quarterback one announcement. I have a plan that is already kind of in motion and in place, but I don't know that it helps us with me naming a starter today. We need both of them to be ready to play to go win.”

The question we would ask, though, is what exactly has Philo done over his past three starts to justify hanging onto his job? It’s true that the offensive line has been a major culprit and that almost every QB on the planet would have struggled against Georgia. But we are going to stick with our thesis: over the past month, we've said that while Philo may not be the problem, he doesn’t feel like the solution.

And even with that statement, Philo was a problem against Georgia.

We can debate his second INT and whether that was on him or Eric Singleton Jr., but his first interception was inexcusable for a throw one could imagine. And it would be one thing if Philo was a playmaker, and you have to accept that those types of plays are going to happen if you also want highlight-reel plays that should otherwise be dead in the water.

But with Philo, that latter part isn’t part of his game, and the entire selling point for Philo was his consistency and lack of turnovers. 

So if we aren’t getting the high upside plays, and we are committing some inexcusable turnovers, then what is the selling point?

As we saw against Georgia, Jones wasn’t the magic solution either. His endzone interception wasn’t great, but at least it was in the context of a missed read compared to a viral gaffe. And we will still maintain Jones has the higher overall upside compared to Philo.

Whichever way Sumrall goes, it does feel like we have reached the point of the season where he needs to make a choice and roll with it. We’ll see what he actually rolls out on Saturday.

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