Last week, Jon Sumrall was named 2025 FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year at Georgia Tech, and Buster Faulkner was his offensive coordinator at the University of Florida. Just four days later, Gators’ quarterback, DJ Lagway, announced he is entering the transfer portal after meetings between him and Sumrall reportedly didn’t go well. The question now is whether Faulkner and Sumrall could be going in a different direction with the quarterback conversation, which led Lagway to want to transfer out.
Faulkner was at Georgia Tech from 2023-2025 and he was an instrumental part of bringing in redshirt freshman, Aaron Philo to Georgia Tech. Philo was the predecessor of Jaguars’ franchise quartback, Trevor Lawrence at Prince Avenue Christian School. As such, he and Faulkner share a special relationship and it could be possible he is trying to recruit his former player to follow him to Gainesville.
Aaron Philo on Florida's radar
Philo appeared in five games in 2024-25 for the Yellow Jackets (no starts). He was 38-for-74 with a 51.4 pass completion percentage. He threw for 565 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions in that season, while rushing for 76 yards and one rushing touchdown.
Last season (2025-26) Philo appeared in just three games (one start). He was 21-for-28 with a 75 percent completion percentage. He threw for 373 yards and a touchdown, with his longest throw at Georgia Tech at 78 yards. Philo only rushed four times last season, for 19 yards and no touchdowns. His longest rush was 12 yards.
While Philo, 6’2”, 220lbs hasn’t declared intensions of going into the transfer portal, he still has time before the portal opens in two weeks. The Georgia native has spent the entirety of his football career thus far in his home state, but he now has a lot of eyes and ears tracking his movement as the transfer portal prepares to open.
Will Philo be the one to replace Lagway? Or will Sumrall and Faulkner stick with Tramel Jones or Aiden Warner? Jones made quite a name for himself in relief of Lagway throughout last season. January will be a month that says a lot about who the Gators see standing in the pocket.