There are bound to be defenders of Jon Sumrall out there who will point out that coaches like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart struggled in their first season at Alabama and Georgia, respectively. It took Dabo Swinney three years to get things rolling at Clemson; more recently, it took Mario Cristobal three years to get things rolling at Miami.
So there is a pathway one can accept that nights like Saturday night in The Swamp are just growing pains, and Sumrall still has a pathway to get a machine rolling in Gainesville. But after getting stomped by Oklahoma to fall to 5-4 on the season, our level of confidence that’s going to happen is far less than it was six weeks ago.
Florida falls to Oklahoma
Here are a couple of stats that highlight why things are problematic right now:
1. Florida has now lost three games this year by at least ten points as the pregame favorite. They are the only team in America in 2026 that can claim that distinction. It is also a distinction that no one in the regular season could claim in 2025 (Clemson and Southern Miss had three such losses, but their third such loss came in a bowl game).
2. Florida has 1,480 total yards on offense over the past five games. That is the lowest output over a five-game stretch in the past ten seasons, beating the 1,555 total yards Florida had last year from the Georgia game through the finale against FSU.
The even bigger concern is that once again, almost no one on Florida looked like they had any spark, including Sumrall himself. Outside of Duke Clark, the bulk of Florida’s roster looked like they were asleep. For as much of a rah-rah guy as Sumrall presents himself as, he seemed to be a deer in the headlights in the second half while the game was still in the balance.
Many will criticize Sumrall’s choice to go for it on 4th down rather than kick a field goal, but that doesn’t fix the root problems from Saturday night.
We said prior to the season that anything short of 8-4 would fall short of the acceptable floor in 2026. Let’s not act like this is an untalented roster. Again, Vegas thought Florida was good enough to pick them as the favorite in three of their four losses.
The Gators are now 5-4 with a trip to Kentucky on the horizon next week.
Add us as a preferred source on Google