On Saturday, Florida will get a reunion with former safety Jordan Castell when the Gators take on Kentucky. Castell was a mainstay starting safety for Florida for three years before he hit the transfer portal when Jon Sumrall was hired.
The irony with Castell is that after a couple of disappointing years with Florida, Castell is thriving once again with Ketucky. And given some of Florida’s own questions in the secondary, one wonders if Castell would have been a key cog had he stayed.
Jon Sumrall wishes he could have kept Jordan Castell
At his press conference on Monday, Sumrall was asked about Castell, as well as Aaron Gates, and how they transferred to Kentucky when he got the job. Sumrall claims he did make an attempt to both guys for the 2026 season:
“Tried to keep him, tried to keep (Aaron) Gates, both the guys that are on their roster. I thought we were keeping Gates, to be quite honest with you. I thought it was, like, almost done, and then it wasn't…I was coaching the playoffs. Castell and I never really had enough quality time by the time I think he made his decision. I think he was kind of maybe already in a place that he was going probably.
He's played really good football for them this year. I know he had a great freshman year here. Not that he didn't have good football after that, but he's looked like he's at his peak this season to me, and he's obviously been creating turnovers and playing really high-level football.
But I never had enough opportunity in front of either one of those guys to sit down with my office and help them with the decision. I think Jordan's decision was pretty much made when I got here.”
From the Sumrall side, it’s notable that he admits that because he was focused on Tulane, he thinks that might have contributed to not being able to retain Castell. It’s not the first time Sumrall has admitted that pulling double duty last offseason did create some consequences with the portal.
He also alluded to Castell’s freshman year, when he was a freshman All-American. That 2023 season is why his 2024 and 2025 seasons were so confounding. Because anytime we commented on Castell’s play, the main criticism we had was that his main style of play was to never let anyone behind him, no matter what. The problem with that is that teams figured out they could target him underneath, and he was never a threat to make a play on the ball.
If one goes back to the infamous 4th-and-17 conversion from Missouri, Castell starts that play 20 yards off the line of scrimmage and backpedals another 15. The ensuing conversion happened underneath him.
This year, however, at Kentucky, he has been a far more willing playmaker. Whether that is Castell himself or coaching, we don’t know, but what we do know is that he has four interceptions in 2026, whereas he has three interceptions total while at Florida. He also has five pass deflections in 2026, after none in 2025. With 68 total tackles in 2026, he has already surpassed his season high in any of his three years at Florida.
If Castell has a big game against Florida, it will just be salt in the wound after the Gators just couldn’t get effective safety play out of him in 2024 and 2025.
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