Florida beat Campbell 52-3 on Saturday, and it could’ve been a lot worse. The Gators outgained the Fighting Camels by more than 300 yards, and those Camels got 30% of their total yards and 100% of their points on the opening drive as UF’s defense woke up. There were big plays on all of offense, defense, and special teams.
As soon as the clock hit all zeroes at the end, Jon Sumrall did the customary postgame handshake with the opposing head coach. From before the moment the cameras focused him, the look on his face was that of a guy trying to find the guy who kicked his dog. I’ve seen many Gator coaches look less pissed off after losses, much less dominant wins.
Even though Sumrall comes from the defensive side of the ball, he fits in with the Gators’ fan base so incredibly well. He’s a natural.
After all, who could watch their team dismiss two cupcakes by a combined 118-24 and be mad about it? Gator fans, that’s who. Not because we are an ungrateful, spoiled lot like many around the country would have you believe. No, it’s because we know what true excellence looks like, and it’s only been visible in fits and starts through two weeks.
What is the goal, after all? To get exercise and fresh air? No, this ain’t intramurals, brother. The goal is to win championships, and you either are progressing towards that goal or you’re not. If you’re out to win titles, you don’t have a choice in how hard you pursue them. It takes what it takes.
What sorts of things did Sumrall say after the game?
“A lot I was not pleased with, to be quite honest with you. Some guys proved maybe in the second half, you get an opportunity to prove people right or wrong, some guys proved us right why they’re not playing right now.”
“If we play like we did in the second half, we’re about to have a real rude awakening. We have got a lot of improvement to do.”
“I’m not real pleased with just maybe where we are from a maturity standpoint, executing at a really high level all the time. What we’re about to walk into in conference play, we will get absolutely embarrassed if we don’t improve a ton.”
“We have to get better. Like, I’m a little uneasy with where we are. … if we are not really urgent and detailed in our preparation, the outcome next Saturday will not be what we desire.
Again, this was after a 48-point win that was truly never in doubt, where he got to empty the bench. If you’re curious, this really does sound different than the last couple of coaches.
Dan Mullen won his first game over FCS Charleston Southern 53-6. Pretty similar score to Saturday’s, also against an FCS opponent. The harshest thing you can find in Mullen’s postgame comments that made the PDF the UAA put out about the game was, “We have a lot of work to do as a team.” Woah there coach, don’t get too hard on the boys.
There is another quote that resonates, this one after he was asked about O-line play. It’s a little longer than the snippets above, but hang with me here:
“As the game went on, the run game got really sloppy. You know snaps over the head, quarterback making some wrong decision, fumbling the ball. I thought that was a little bit messy. But in the first half, they were solid. I don’t know if it was as bad as guys were coming off and talking about it. They were understanding the mistakes they were making, which was really important for them.”
The details are different — the snaps over the head were in Week 1 and not 2, Aaron Philo hasn’t fumbled, etc. — but someone looking to stay positive no matter what could have said something very much like that after the Campbell win: “We got sloppy later, but we were good early. It wasn’t as bad as it seemed, the guys understood their mistakes.” Sumrall very much did not go that route. He said some things along those lines; he wasn’t relentlessly trashing the team or anything. However, he was not there to sugarcoat anything.
Billy Napier only got to start the 2025 season with a cupcake, the 55-0 win over FCS Long Island. He had to start with either Utah or Miami (FL) in his other three seasons. What did he have to say after the prelude to an eventual 4-8 campaign?
Pretty much all happy talk. Granted, LIU was worse than Campbell, and Campbell is not an FCS playoff contender or anything. The Sharks finished with fewer than 100 total yards. There was a lot of good in that one.
It wasn’t perfect either, and about all Napier had to say that wasn’t fully positive about the Gators was complimenting the Long Island defense for trying things that weren’t on its past game film. That should’ve been a big concern, but Napier waved it off: “Yeah, unique stuff that really challenges your rules and protection, even in the run game from an identification standpoint, but that’s the beauty of the iPads, right? You go over to the bench and you get a couple possessions underneath your belt, you get it fixed … I thought the staff did a nice job once we got it ID’d.”
Yeah, real nice to have an eventual 6-6 FCS team flummox your offense for drives, plural. You have to go to DJ Lagway’s comments to find a single boilerplate “I know I need to play better than that”.
Sumrall isn’t here to give happy talk. He’s not here to hand-wave struggles. It’s refreshing to hear it, because it tells the fans that the coaches see through the gaudy point totals. We’ve seen Napier win an opener 55-0 and get fired later that year. Mullen won his first game by nearly the same score as Saturday’s game. He didn’t make it four years. Ron Zook won his first game 51-3. He didn’t make it three. Jim McElwain put up 61 points in his first game, and his final team beat UAB 36-7 after he was fired.
We Gator fans are connoisseurs of big blowout wins. We know which ones have lovely floral scents and which ones smell like vinegar.
There was a lot more good than bad in Florida’s first two wins. I’m not here to trash the team any more than Sumrall is. However, I know I saw a lot of stuff that would be problems in games against SEC competition. Sumrall saw those things too, and he wants you to know he did. You don’t have to guess whether he’s pumping sunshine in public and attacking issues privately, or if he doesn’t actually see the issues at all. He sees them. You see them. He knows you see them. We’re all aligned here.
One final thing. Someone asked if Sumrall thought it was actually a good thing to get the punt team in before going on the road to Auburn. The Gators didn’t punt at all in the first six quarters of the season, and it was starting to seem like they weren’t going to at all in these first two weeks. His answer:
“I don’t care if we ever punt. … it is nice to at least rep it. But I’d just like to never punt. That would make it even better.”
I told you, he fits right in.