One of the worst-kept secrets right now in college football is that the Florida Gators are going to look at adding Georgia Tech QB Aaron Philo out of the transfer portal when it opens in January. Philo was the backup for the Yellow Jackets this season and was being groomed by now Florida OC Buster Faulkner to be the starter in Atlanta in 2026.
Philo to Florida is obviously not official, and in the world of modern college football, anything could change in an instant. But if Philo is brought to Gainesville after nudging DJ Lagway out the door, it will be an early pivot point that could define the Jon Sumrall Era down the road.
Aaron Philo hits the transfer portal
If someone had said to Florida fans a week ago, “The Gators are looking at Georgia Tech QB Aaron Philo,” most fans would have responded with “Who?”
Unless you are knee-deep in ACC recruiting, the depth chart at Georgia Tech, or a fan of Georgia high school football, it’s understandable if Gator fans had never heard of Philo. Even though he was the Class A Division 1 Offensive Player of the Year in Georgia in 2022, he was still a lower-tier three-star prospect coming out of high school whose other Power Four offers included Cincinnati, UCF, and Indiana.
Even if Philo comes to Gainesville, there is no guarantee he wins the starting job for 2026. Tramell Jones, if he stays, would probably put up a good fight, and the belief is that Florida wants to bring in two QBs out of the portal.
But let’s pretend for argument's sake that Philo is the guy for 2026; fair or unfair, he is going to be compared to DJ Lagway and be emblematic of an early checkpoint for Sumrall.
Go DJ, That’s My DJ
As we have noted, Lagway wasn’t good in 2025. He had the second-most interceptions of any QB in all of college football, his footwork was awful, and his arm strength was gone. Reading between the lines, it seems like Sumrall wasn’t willing to pre-anoint Lagway as the starter for 2026 and didn’t want to dedicate significant resources to keep him.
But the gamble Sumrall is taking by doing that is that Lagway, at his best, has flashed a far higher ceiling than the limited film that exists on Philo.
Philo appeared in four games in 2024 and played a role in knocking off Miami and NC State last season. In the game against the Wolfpack in particular, Philo was 19 of 33 passing for 265 yards and he ran the ball seven times for 57 yards. On throws 15 yards or less, he seemed to place the ball well and did a good job of managing Buster Faulkner's offense.
This year, his only action was against FCS-level Gardner-Webb. His stat line was solid against Gardner-Webb, going 21 of 28 for 373 yards and a touchdown, but a deeper dive into the film is what raises some question marks.
Philo is accurate enough and, for better or for worse, has some similarities to Graham Mertz. The “worse” part is that his arm strength is highly suspect. The 78-yard pass he has against Gardner-Webb was off a screen, and of his 21 completions, only seven were beyond ten yards. He had a extremley underthrown ball that led to an interception, and even when he did go deep, he wasn’t hitting receivers in stride.
Compare that to Lagway’s performance against Samford in 2024, and there is a reason Florida fans were clamoring for Lagway over Mertz.
Mystery Box
There is a pathway Philo might be the ideal fit for the offense that Buster Faulkner wants to run, and there is value in having someone who immediately understands the playbook. And we’re not going to write off Philo just yet, since Kyle Trask was once a lowly rated three-star QB.
Just know that until we see it in action, there will be question marks.
If Philo comes in and Florida goes 10-2 or better, Sumrall will look like a genius.
If Philo comes in, and Florida goes 6-6 while Lagway shines elsewhere, Sumrall won’t like the offseason narrative a year from now.