I can’t remember any full Florida Gators season being this much of a roller coaster, and the 2026 campaign is barely half over. Two wins over teams that were ranked in the top ten at the time of game (Ole Miss got back in, we’ll see about Texas). Two blowout losses to teams that aren’t traditional powers, one of which may have fired its head coach had it lost. And hey, also a road win at a team that just won in Athens.
All that, and it’s still weeks, plural, until Halloween.
I hedged a lot in my column from last week about how special teams was a big advantage for the Gators. Funnily enough, it wasn’t really. On the plus side, Alec Clark had a terrific day punting, but Texas took one of his back for a score. Neither kicker missed an attempt. Call it a wash.
Florida wasn’t expected to win, and after the way the team performed against Missouri and South Carolina, a victory seemed farfetched. I still left room open every time I mentioned expectations for the game because I thought a win was more and more possible as the week went along.
The biggest single thing was Jon Sumrall talking about how bad the locker room felt during halftime last week. UF was only down by seven, but Sumrall said the vibe was like someone’s dog had died.
That told me that the team was as much or more struggling mentally as anything else. When it looked in the second halves of the past two contests like a lot of players weren’t giving it their all, that might well have been the case. Football is a brutal game to be playing if your heart’s not really in it.
However, that was still a ray of light because it’s possible to turn around a team’s mental state. I felt like we saw it in the win in Austin.
The first four drives were more of the same. UT drove 75 yards in seven plays to get a touchdown, and then another 60 yards in eight plays to get a field goal. Meanwhile, UF’s first pair of drives were three-and-outs. Sumrall and Buster Faulkner had talked about how the Gators weren’t a team that could play from behind, and right away they were behind by a couple of scores.
Things didn’t get better, either. The Gators went three-and-out a third time, with a likely successful QB sneak on 4th & 1 taken out by TJ Shanahan firing off the line too early (Jones got it as it was, but who knows if Shanahan hadn’t jumped too soon). It seemed like maybe UF stopped the bleeding with a stop and a field goal, but then the Gators had another three-and-out followed by the punt return TD. It was then 17-3.
The Florida team that played the last two weeks would’ve folded at that point. We basically saw them do it, fighting for only so long but then losing their fire when down on the scoreboard.
Instead, the offense at least was able to string some plays together to give the defense a break, and pure effort netted a stop on an ill-advised 4th & 1 run by the Longhorns. The Gators then took control with back-to-back touchdown drives on either side of halftime. At the conclusion of the first of those series, it really looked like the team had broken through from a mental standpoint. It turns out, they had.
Other factors that made me think UF had a shot included the fact that Texas’s rivals have long nicknamed DKR Memorial Stadium, “The Library”. It’s probably as much as anything because the bowl is pretty wide, which doesn’t hold sound in like The Swamp does. Even so, Longhorns fans have a reputation of being a wine and cheese crowd, and they weren’t intimidating against the Gators.
Another was the kick time of 11 am local time. The already fairly tame crowd wouldn’t have all day to get fueled up, and it can take teams time to get it in gear when starting so early. Heck, it took Florida time to get going in this one.
Finally, last week featured discourse about how Arch Manning was nearly exactly average in the nation in passing efficiency. He was slightly behind the OU quarterback he lost to, as well as behind UCF’s quarterback and the NC State QB who fumbled while trying to take an intentional safety. He was barely ahead of the tremendously named Lunch Winfield of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Manning is in his fourth year. He’s not the golden child who will lead the ‘Horns to a national title and ascend to the top of the NFL Draft. He’s a scrambler who is bad against pressure and would be better suited in a Rich Rodriguez offense than a Steve Sarkisian one.
I knew Texas had beaten Ohio State, but that was mainly due to Ryan Day making questionable game management choices in one magic fourth quarter. The Buckeyes were pretty clearly better in the first three periods but just fell apart late.
So in hindsight, this game was winnable. It also was on the table that the Gators could’ve lost. Tramell Jones had a shaky start, and it was no guarantee that he’d pull through and get better. Sumrall also mentioned in his postgame presser how there even was a point where he wanted the defensive backs to back off on a 3rd & 14 but Brad White talked him into just rolling with being more aggressive. That aggression suited LJ McCray well, given his breakout game, and Ty Jackson getting more snaps paid off too. But those easily could’ve gone the wrong way too.
All in all it’s been a wild ride with this team, and I don’t know at all where it’s going next. It’s fun, and scary, and convoluting, and insane. I can’t wait to see where it goes next.