One unknown looms over Florida’s hopes for a 2026 rebound

As Florida hopes to avoid the roller coaster season that was their 2025 campaign, most are going to point to their 1-2 punch of Liam Peterson and Aidan King as one of the potentially best starting pitching duos in the country. As preseason scrimmages get underway, both are a lock for two of the three weekend starting spots for the Gators in 2026.

But there is still one more spot that is a bit of a mystery, and it could define the ceiling for Florida when the season gets underway in two weeks.

Florida needs to lock down their third weekend starter

On paper, most would have pegged UCF transfer Russell Sandefer as the third starter coming out of the summer. The Tampa native had six starts and 18 total appearances last year for the Knights with an ERA of 3.38 over 50.2 innings of work. Sandefer has all the qualities of your modern pitcher with a fastball that hovers around 95 MPH, with a slider and changeup to mix in.

But Florida also signed out of the transfer portal Cooper Walls out of Hawaii, who pitched 60.1 innings last year with an ERA of 3.73. The intriguing part about Walls is a tidbit that Swamp247 noted this week on how his fastball velocity has jumped from the low 90s up to 98 MPH.

Guys like Luke McNeillie, Jackson Barberi, and Billy Barlow are also still hanging around, but the momentum for the third starter seems to be with either Sandefer or Walls.

Knowing Kevin O’Sullivan, if Walls can throw strikes with consistency, then it feels like it would be his job to lose if the jump in velocity maintains. It’s also worth noting that this time last year, King was just a blip on the radar coming into the season before he was thrust into a starting role as injuries and inconsistencies took hold. 

But if Sandefer or Walls do emerge as a competent third starter who can go 5+ innings with consistency, Florida might wind up with a real argument as to having the best starting pitching rotation in all of college baseball.