It is the dawn of a new era in Gainesville. While Jon Sumrall and his staff have been hard at work over the last several weeks during spring practice, it will all come to fruition during the Florida Gators' annual spring game. It will be the first under Sumrall's watch since he took over. The former Tulane and Troy head coach had tremendous success in the Group of Six. Now he is leading an SEC team.
After Tuesday's practice, Sumrall revealed what the spring game will look like, with a few twists to it...
"We will keep score. The offense will get six points for a touchdown. They'll get three points for a field goal and one point for an extra point. Extremely unique football scoring. Now for the defense, there is some radical scoring. Now I did omit one part... The offense can go for two from the three-yard line. I think they can maybe go for three from the five, and four from the 10. So if they're down late, because the defense has some unique scoring there, too."
Having the defense being able to earn points beyond only touchdowns adds an interesting wrinkle.
"So the defense gets, I believe it's three points for a three-and-out. They obviously get one point for any punt that's forced that's not a three-and-out. They get six points for a turnover. So there's a defensive scoring method. It'll be released later this week. It's the way I've done it the last four years."
This all suggests that Sumrall wants his team to win with defense as a part of Florida's new identity.
"So the defense has a way to earn points. The offense earns them the conventional way, other than the four-point play that's kind of unique I put in there a couple of years ago just so if the offense is down by four, and we can go for four. But the defense gets rewarded for stops, turnovers. A fourth-down stop we treat as a turnover. So statistically, the box score I look at, a fourth-down stop is a takeaway. It's a takeaway that matters. The defense will have scoring."
Here is everything that Sumrall had to say about how the Orange and Blue Game's scoring will work.
Florida HC Jon Sumrall spoke about what to expect from the Orange and Blue game and how the point system will work. #Gators pic.twitter.com/CC6BYVDGlm
— Andrew Abadie (@AndrewAbadie) April 7, 2026
There is obviously a lot to unpack here, so let's try to understand the method behind the madness.
Jon Sumrall explains how scoring will work during Orange and Blue game
By having it truly be offense vs. defense, it does a few things that bode well for Florida building up a better football culture. Sumrall touched on the importance of nobody really being a starter just yet. Everyone has something to compete for. This is why going offense vs. defense as opposed to the first and second-teams being split up is undoubtedly the right call here. He wants his players fired up.
By implementing rules where the defense gets six points for a turnover, three for forcing a three-and-out, one for a forced punt, and so on, this helps instill a level of competitiveness on that side of the ball. It might be the one that Sumrall favors, but he too implementing three-point and four-point tries after touchdowns can help keep the offense in it, assuming the scoring does not get too out of hand.
In the end, these implementations during the spring game seemed to work out wonderfully for Sumrall at his two previous stops. Troy was a ranked team by the time he left for Tulane. The Green Wave won the Group of Five a season ago and made the College Football Playoff. While the SEC is and always will be a different beast, having Florida enter it year one under him with some bite is ideal.
Right now, the most important thing Sumrall's team needs to embrace is being a disciplined program.