One, what's the latest you can tell us on this quarterback situation? And what are the differences you see in the Florida offense if it's Aaron Filo versus if Tramell Jones gets to start instead?

Well, Aaron Filo had, like I said, more command of the offense when he got here.

The terminology changed a good bit, but a lot of what Buster Faulkner liked to do at Georgia Tech remains.

I know that different type of quarterback than Haynes King, using him less as a runner, but a lot of the same pre-snap motion and attempts to kind of confuse the defense from just the backfield motion and some of the sets that they're going to see and the route tree you know is more complex certainly for florida but aaron filo and trammell jones are more similar than i think you would think on face value trammell is a little bit more of a quicker runner and can take off but florida's not going to alter its offense too much to have more designed runs with trammell as opposed to having aaron filo a lot of it's going to be similar because they have taken so many of the same first team reps they've been running the same offense the previous 10 months in practice that you really aren't changing too much because that would really impact negatively both quarterbacks in my opinion so trammell was able to have success in the win over texas doing a lot of the same things that aaron filo did i i think that maybe a little bit more of a risk taker at times and has, you know, less experience.

So just him seeing the field and the mental aspect of it, he just has less information and less experience to go off of.

I think that's probably the biggest difference between the two quarterbacks.

But Florida had a ton of success in September with Aaron Philo, and they've won games against top 10 SEC opponents with both quarterbacks.

Is anybody in the SEC going to beat the Gators this year?

So what right now is concerning you about what they have defensively?

It's still the secondary, in my opinion, I do think that.

The tall task that Florida had coming into this year where they were thrusting Javari Flowers and Ben Hanks III into primary positions there at corner for Florida.

Two guys who played a little bit last year as true freshmen, but certainly lacked the experience compared to a lot of their other counterparts in the SEC.

Come on.

Come on.

McLean is someone who was a former five star guy was thrust into a role at Colorado, despite not going to the offseason training program and has dealt with some maturity and some other aspects holding him back during his time in Gainesville, but finally has put everything together.

Graham, when you look ahead, I realize we've got a week and a half before this actually takes place, but coming off the loss to Auburn, how do you begin to look at the matchup against Georgia and Atlanta?

So what right now is concerning you about what they have defensively?

It's still the secondary, in my opinion, I do think that.

The tall task that Florida had coming into this year where they were thrusting Javari Flowers and Ben Hanks III into primary positions there at corner for Florida.

Two guys who played a little bit last year as true freshmen, but certainly lacked the experience compared to a lot of their other counterparts in the SEC.

Come on.

Come on.

McLean is someone who was a former five star guy was thrust into a role at Colorado, despite not going to the offseason training program and has dealt with some maturity and some other aspects holding him back during his time in Gainesville, but finally has put everything together.

But coming off the loss to Auburn, how do you begin to look at the matchup against Georgia and Atlanta?

I mean, is that just 2026 college football in a nutshell?

I think it is.

The amount of parity just in the game right now is tremendous.

It makes for a really good product, and you can't sit here and say, oh, that team going in on the road against a ranked team has no chance.

I mean, absolutely in this league, every team has any chance in an SEC game.

You've seen that play out throughout the league to start this season so far.

I also don't want to take anything away from Florida, but Let's be quite honest.

I mean, what does that say to Summerall, his motivation tactics? And obviously it worked because the players responded.

Size up the Gators special teams for us.

Yeah, Florida brought over a pair of specialists from Tulane with John Summerall and special teams coordinator Jonathan Galante in Patrick Durkin and Alec Clark.

Alec Clark had started his career at Marshall with Galante and then came over to Tulane and now is in Gainesville.

He's one of those Australian punters that you've really seen have a prolific rise in the last decade really plus, since Dixon was really inspiring everyone over there in Perth and beyond that have now come over.

to the states and have benefited from that return of the what the kind of the rugby style dropkick punt.

He's one of those punters has a really impressive leg hit a 70 yarder last season and he had a 70 yarder this year and pinned Ole Miss inside the two yard line so he can do damage in special teams.

Patrick Durkin was unblemished until last week and he picked a really costly time to miss his first field goal attempt.

But talk about John Summerall, how he's being received, and, you know, just impressions.

Who's-- W-who-- Ahead of the injury report later today, uh, tell me what your understanding is as far as the health of some of these key players.

Yeah, we'll start with Burnell Brown.

He's gonna be listed as questionable once again.

He had his best practice today.

Yesterday's practice, he did a little bit more, but he's coming off of a grade one PCL strain that has just made it difficult for him to feel comfortable cutting.

And as a dynamic pass catcher that he is, when he's not gonna go out there and feel comfortable, you're really putting him in harm's way if he can't be fully effective.

So he's been out the past couple, two games for Florida.

[lips smack] So two things, and if you've got a word about Duke Clark and his health, I'll take it, but how has the Missouri approach been so successful and now it's a couple of weeks in the row, uh, in a row, "Let's just jam up every, uh, hole for Jayden Ball, and we'll turn Philo into a drop-back passer"? Uh, how has that been so effective against the Florida offensive line?

[laughs]

Yeah.

Um, you know, they're, they're, they're a passionate group of fans.

Um, and Florida fans, I'll be quite honest, have earned the right to be a little angsty and, and frustrated with where things are.

They obviously wanna return to the contender status and just have not really been able to get there during the college football playoff era.

And they did, I think, get their expectations up a little bit too high the way Florida started this season, and the last two weeks have been a rude awakening, um, well, or even maybe just a reminder that, hey, John Summerall knows this team better than anyone out there and better than me, better than, you know, anyone out there really, 'cause he's around them every single day.

And even after the wins over Ole Miss and Auburn, people were sitting here a- and, and praising the team, and John Summerall was coming out and saying, "We have so much work to do here." Um, listen, Tramel Jones has had some success at the end of the last two games, but it has been when the outcome has been all but decided, so I don't know how much you can really take away from those.

Yeah

And Graham got to see firsthand how they have trouble articulating chaos in court.

I think they also did a kind of a willfully ignorant job of ignoring the reality of how expectations have just changed in college athletics over the last decade.

I mean, they're talking about, hey, when you signed up, and you joined a school, you knew what the expectations were.

And then they're trying to, in a disingenuous way, act as if those expectations have been exactly the same for the last decade.

Athletes who signed with a program in 2019 didn't expect to get an extra year because no one expected the disruption of COVID-19.

They got an extra year.

You could have make the case that when athletes got to college in what, 2015, they didn't expect the transfer portal to be as prolific as it was.

They don't have an answer to that, Graham.

And Graham got to see firsthand how they have trouble articulating chaos in court.

I think they also did a... kind of a willfully ignorant job of ignoring the reality of how expectations have just changed in college athletics over the last decade.

I mean, they're talking about, hey, when you signed up and you joined a school, you knew what the expectations were.

And then they're trying to, in a disingenuous way, act as if those expectations have been exactly the same for the last decade.

Athletes who signed with a program in 2019 didn't expect to get an extra year because no one expected the disruption of COVID-19.

They got an extra year.

You could have make the case that when athletes got to college in what, 2015, they didn't expect the transfer portal to be as prolific as it was.

They don't have an answer to that, Graham.

I mean, it's hard to imagine this place being any better off today than it is.

Everyone always thinks that if you fire a coach, do it sooner rather than later, that you're going to end up on the right side of things.

But I think for John Summerall and Todd Golden, would Florida have hired either of those coaches if they parted ways with Mike White and Billy Napier a little bit sooner? It's a fair question here.

And so there is a payoff towards waiting a little bit here.

And Florida fans certainly feel like they got the right guy.

I know a lot of people thought that losing out of the Lane Kiffin sweepstakes was a little bit disappointing, but we've talked about it.

The way things have unraveled in Baton Rouge the past 10 months, there are a lot of people who their excitement for John Summerall has been increased based on how this spectacle in Baton Rouge has unfolded.

It's going to require Florida's coverage marrying its pass rush and really playing a perfect game start to finish.

Give us your thoughts on what you think about the Ole Miss-Florida game here.

Yeah, I think that the emotional letdown angle that whole trap game angle like I don't want to buy in too much to that.

This is a really talented team.

You watch them against LSU.

Just what they were able to do.

Establish an early lead and then turn that jam was closing out that game despite not having the full stable of weapons around him.

His rise in the last year going from kind of seen as this raw.

the RSVPs like for our tailgate, what is the level of excitement with members on your board, the level of buy-in right now, and then what do you think the atmosphere and the environment is going to be like next

So when you look at the patience factor from a play calling standpoint, how important is that to you?

I think it's a good deal important here because I think you want to extend drives, put together some eight, nine, 10 play drives and try and keep the Ole Miss offense off the field and try and wear down the defense.

And at the same time, establishing the run and picking up five, six yards at a time and keep just churning and moving the ball forward is going to be key here for Florida in this game.

Because again, You know, you really have to, in this league, not get into shootouts with teams of Ole Miss' caliber because for a Florida offense that is less of a well-oiled machine than the Rebels, you're going to want to attempt... to capitalize on each possession, take Ole Miss's chances out of the game of trying to overcome the leads that you're going to attempt to create here.

And if you can get a little sizable advantage here and get into the fourth quarter and wear down the opposition and hand it to guys like Jaden Ball and Duke Clark, you're going to feel better about your chances of doing that.

And then at the same You've seen in the first couple of weeks of the season so far, Florida has no problem running it on third and eight, even third and 20.

You saw the one there against Auburn from Duke Clark.

After the game, what are we saying about this team?

Your biggest takeaway from last Saturday was what?

that I was more pessimistic than I should have been about Florida's offense.

Like, like I picked that Florida to score 37 points against FAU.

And, you know, listen, I defended myself.

I've been scarred before, like, like believing that Florida was going to come out with an inexperienced quarterback and have success on its first six drives and, and minimize mistakes and, and, you know, have strong specialist play.

Even like, like I didn't have, you know, on my checklist, Patrick Durkin hitting a 53 yard field goal.

I didn't have Aaron Philo starting seven for seven for like 153 yards.

Other than that, I thought, as you said, what you wanted to see out of Philo, you saw and even then

Man, Verno Brown, oh boy, that guy looks like he's going to be a star as well.

yeah he's just incredibly quick he's smart he takes contact well it was refreshing for him to get into the end zone there after you know he had more than 400 receiving yards led the Gators last year but he didn't find the end zone you saw his speed on punt return as well Florida make sure to go to him right away first offensive drive for the Gators connect on that 49 yard touchdown slips a couple of tackles got great blocking unfortunately one of those blocks Came from Eric Singleton Jr., which it was a good block, but he gets rolled up on, has a little bit of an ankle issue here.

He's highly questionable against Campbell on Saturday at 5.30 p.m.

It results in his teammate getting a touchdown.

But you look at the depth that Florida has at the wideout position.

It's not just Fernell Brown.

Obviously, Dallas Wilson, Bailey Stockton got in the end zone as well.

What's your take on that, and how many question marks are there in that secondary moving forward?

What's your understanding of how Sumrall feels about the O-line right now?

He definitely was nervous about it early on.

That was the biggest point of contention for him, even more so than the quarterback battle throughout spring camp.

He called them weak, physically and mentally soft, and needed to make big strides.

Now, he was confident that could get done under Phil Troutman, someone at Florida who understands championship expectations, having won two championships around 20 years ago here in Gainesville.

They really started to come together in fall camp with some surprising candidates.

Bryce Lovett, who started last season at right tackle, lost his starting job to Cayden Jones, really made a strong emergence in fall camp.

And, uh, you know, I think local kid and mobility and all that other stuff, and everybody responds, "Yeah, and he's got a whip, too."

went

viral that kind of just portrayed who he is.

And that was pretty intelligent for him to do because, you know, coaches are accustomed to sometimes going around the state and meeting with various booster groups and kind of like expressing who they are.

So donors are kind of like going to warm up to them.

And the last couple of years due to where Billy Napier, just was in his time at Florida, the Gators had got rid of doing that and spending money to have him go on the road.

And so Summerall didn't go on the road, but he made all the rounds and went to the podcasts and met with TV stations and just showed his personality to continue this can't-lose window of a coach's tenure, which is so brief before they've ever coached a game where they can make everyone fall in love with them.

And I think that was critical for him to do because...

Ole

But how much of a concern is that O-line, particularly the tackle spot, heading into the 2026 season?

It was a lot more concerning three months ago.

Florida feels like they made a lot of necessary strides in the weight room.

They've had guys step up.

They have options at tackle, but...

Compared to the interior of the offensive line, that is the more concerning unit right now.

You look at the interior.

What is the thought on the defense heading into the season?

Where do you see this quarterback battle going?

Well, you know, everyone always likes to say if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one.

I do think that this is a situation where competition is healthy.

We'll start with Trammell Jones Jr.

He arrived at Florida and was coming off of an ankle injury.

He had to work his way back and be in full health, was able to be effective in the limited performances he had last year.

He came into the Kentucky game on the road when DJ Lagway struggled with turnovers.

To be that far behind in the strength and conditioning room would scare the bejibbers out of me.

Isn't that correct?

Yeah, that's technically correct.

I mean, I do think that It's kind of like any other job interview.

When you go somewhere and you do a job interview, you can find out what other guys are making.

You have a good idea of the NIL opportunities available to you if you enroll at a program.

So you're familiar with the landscape.

Um, you're not going to receive that money until everything's official.

Does he have, has he given you guys the media boys like access to come watch any of that kind of stuff?

Baseball fans are upset for the University of Florida, and they probably have a right to be.

Yeah, you give up, what, 26 combined runs to Troy? And not to take anything away from Troy before I get all into it, give the Trojans credit.

I mean, they constructed their roster well, added players from the SEC, and came into Gainesville with a lot of support and a ton of confidence and just took it to Florida and beat Miami as well.

So the Gators are not just the only team licking their wounds, but this was a team that came into the regional as not just one of the hottest teams ever, in the sec but one of the hottest teams in the entire country the way that they performed in hoover at the sec baseball tournament getting to the semi-final round had the collapse to georgia after going up 6-0 at the end had a chance to play in the championship game but still had a ton of momentum hosting a regional and having a chance to also host a super regional if they took care of business it was yeah i don't want to call it a failure but it was definitely a disappointment Florida's pitching was well-documented.

The issues that they had this year, especially out of the bullpen, they had a fantastic one-two punch in Aiden King and Liam Peterson.

Caden McDonald helped turn their season around as well.

They got good contributions from Russell Sandifer and a few other guys down the stretch, but...

I got to tell you, man, in the last 20 years, certainly, since the second year of the Noah Horford Brewer team, I can't imagine a Gator basketball team having more expectations coming into a year than this Gator team will in 2026, 2027.

It's blue sky.

Yeah, you have to be a little bit creative if you wanna add talent to your team at this time of the year.

With no spring transfer portal window, you don't have players around the country who are hopping into the portal and looking to join another Power Four program.

But that did exist in college basketball right now, so players who, like Jaylen Jordan, are looking to make the transition from basketball to the gridiron, they have an opportunity to enter the portal and then be taken by a program like Florida.

And let's be honest, John Summerall, his transparency has been quite refreshing for the past five months, and he's been very clear that Florida needs to add more depth at multiple positions, tight end, at cornerback, in the secondary, maybe at offensive line as well, even though I don't know if there's someone that they're gonna be able to get in here that will be able to contribute in any way for the 2026 season.

You have to be a little bit selective there, so they've added some JUCO players like Javier Jones, and they added Jaylen Jordan.

Jor- Jordan's really fascinating.

Uh, since you've had a month to kind of percolate with this, uh, Aaron Philo, Tramel Jones Jr., have you had any sort of unfolding opinion about the quarterback battle?