![Florida quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. (9) throws during spring practice at Sanders Practice Fields in Gainesville, FL on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_2697,h_1517/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ReutersImages/mmsport/213/01ky7yaps5qypma47te3.jpg "Florida quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. (9) throws during spring practice at Sanders Practice Fields in Gainesville, FL on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]")
One of the grand mysteries for Florida heading into the 2026 season is who will be the starting QB. Tramell Jones, the backup QB from last year, opted to stay at Florida and battle it out with Georgia Tech transfer Aaron Philo. Both had their strengths and weaknesses in the spring game, and Jon Sumrall has tried to play it down the middle in terms of who may have an edge over the other.
But during SEC Media Days, Sumrall made an observation that aligns with what we said after the spring game. Now it’s just a matter of what his individual willingness to take a chance may or may not be.
Florida’s QB situation still a major storyline heading into fall camp
When he talked about his QB competition on Wednesday, the headline quote Sumrall made was “None of them need to be Tim Tebow.” The more telling quote he made was buried further down when talking about the strengths and weaknesses of both Philo and Jones:
"Philo's comfort level or confidence within what we're doing schematically is more advanced early on, and probably still is for that matter. Tramell did some really good things, through, in the spring at times. His highs were like, 'Whoa.' The problem, at times was the lows. You're like, 'Hey, we can't do that. That'll lose the game.'"
Coming out of Florida’s spring game, that’s in line with the observation we made. Back in April we stated:
“But if the advantage Philo had coming into this spring was understanding the offense, that advantage felt largely neutralized on Saturday. And combined with the upside advantage that Jones has when it comes to everything else, we wouldn’t be shocked if Jones wins this job four months from now.”
Sumrall has to decide between comfort versus upside
There is a world where Philo makes sense as a game manager QB largely because the offensive line won’t hold up long enough for Jones to take advantage of his arm strength. But if the offensive line makes any improvements compared to what we saw in the spring game, the ceiling for Jones is significantly higher than Philo.
It’s also somewhat notable that Sumrall talks about Jones's mistakes and his lows being far lower than Philo's, even though Philo threw two interceptions and was sacked twice, compared to Jones having zero interceptions and zero sacks back in April.
From our outside perspective, unless Jones is just making some boneheaded throws in practice that he was able to mask for one day in April, then Jones needs to be the starter. Obviously, Buster Faulkner and Sumrall see these two in practice every day; we hope if Philo wins the job, it’s because of performance and not because he was the chosen one ahead of time.
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