GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The 21st-ranked Florida Gators moved to 4-0 to start the 2026 season with a dominant 52-28 win over No. 4 Ole Miss .
Jadan Baugh (144 yards, three touchdowns) and Duke Clark (126 yards, one touchdown) paved the way as the Gators rushed for 302 yards and six rushing touchdowns as a team. Defensively, Florida forced two turnovers on Rebels' quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and held the Rebels out of the end zone in the first half.
After the game, first-year head coach Jon Sumrall spoke with the media to discuss the win. Here is everything he had to say, via a transcript from ASAP Sports.
JON SUMRALL: Really proud of our guys. Still have a lot to clean up. But the responses tonight, I thought we started fast. I thought we got off the field on third down early in the game defensively when maybe some momentum wasn't going our way in the third quarter.
I thought our guys, the kick returns, a couple of those were huge in maybe resetting the tone of the game. The forced fumble was a big deal.
That quarterback's an unbelievable player. And so for our guys to maybe I think keep him off balance at times, that's the least uncomfortable I've ever seen him look, and he's kicked my butt as a head coach twice last year.
And so watching him today, I thought our guys affected him. That No. 1 is a really good player for them.
But two 100-yard rushers, big deal. I mean Jadan and Duke, I thought Duke played out of his mind. He's got all the ability in the world. He can be as good as he chooses to be.
So injury-wise, Bailey, on the shot, on the targeting call, he took a pretty significant shot to his back. Doesn't look like anything that should keep him out long term, he came back in and obviously had the punt return. But he just wasn't quite himself, and so didn't play a whole lot there in the second half.
And then VBIII, a little knee tweak, nothing's substantial, nothing's torn, but just wasn't quite confident in cutting it loose there after he tweaked it there late in the second quarter. Feel pretty good about him being available, but it's too early to know moving forward.
And then obviously Singleton, being a true game-time decision, had a huge impact in the game. The one late, they probably thought we were gonna run a post, because we had run that a couple times with him and then he hit the out route, the corner route there, to make the big catch.
I'm really proud of him because he really didn't practice a lot this week. His work was more about just trying to see, can he run full speed and maybe could he cut a little bit? So he's a tough dude, and a guy I'm really proud of.
Just grateful for the win, excited about the direction we're headed. We have not arrived. We have so much room to grow and get better. And we still have to do that or we're not going to be pleased with outcomes that we have coming up.
JON SUMRALL: I think they're still pretty smart. We just played better today. I wouldn't bet against their No. 6 ever. That quarterback, I don't bet, but if I did, I would never bet against him. That's all I was saying the other day.
I believe in our team. I believe in the direction we're headed. We still are not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination.
All I was saying, they had proven more to date than we had. They had beaten Louisville. They had beaten LSU. They were 16-2 in the last year coming into this game. That's all I was saying.
I don't know, our record the last year and a half, I think, was 7-8 or something now, so coming into the game. 16-2, 7-8, and they had that quarterback -- I don't care what they did last week, what we did last week, would just bet on that guy.
Q.You had made the point going into this game and really week over week about how if you guys don't make the necessary improvements you won't be able to stand in in games like this, against teams of this caliber. Where have you seen the most growth? Whether it was just this week or the bigger picture things you were looking for to go in and do this?
JON SUMRALL: Well, I think we played -- even though I still wasn't pleased maybe with the number of penalties -- we had 8, they had 8, too -- I felt we played cleaner. I thought we looked crisper and sharper. I thought we lined up with more urgency on both sides of the football.
And, so, to me, it's not just what you do, it's how you do it. We're not just playing football, we're trying to look like an outfit that practices and prepares and does things with attention to detail. And that's the thing to me.
It's not just what we do, it's how we do it. I want to see us play efficient, clean, operate at a high level.
And I think in the secondary, like I said, that No. 1's a really good player. In the secondary, he's going to get his. He had seven catches for 134. He's a dude. But I do feel like we challenged better at the top of the routes. He made a couple of really good contested plays. A couple they caught us in a bad call and that just happens sometimes.
But I think we're playing with a little bit more awareness situationally. And I think we're showing our football IQ is growing. So we're just improving a little bit, step by step.
Q.You talked about awakening the beast. And while you're not a finished product, do you feel like it's at least stirring a little bit at this point?
JON SUMRALL: It's not sleep. But it ain't fully awake yet. It's being kind of stirred up a little bit. So we're gonna get there. But yeah, it's coming. Like, I promise you, I didn't come here for us to be average. We're gonna work tirelessly -- coaches, players, everybody -- to put a product on the field that we can be proud of.
I will say this. We had some recruits here this weekend. I mean, a recruiting list that we get a lot of those guys to say yes, we're going to wake the beast up real fast.
We're going to wake it up with the guys we've got. I love the guys we've got. But we still have to reinforce our roster, the depth of our roster to look like maybe the top, top, top teams in the country. We still aren't, maybe just depth, where we can roll out the next guy and it's like there's very little drop-off.
Q.On that point, depth at running back, though, you've got to feel pretty good about after tonight and even with London on the kickoffs.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, London's looked good. And, you know, Pryor went in there at the end and didn't look bad at the end of the game. Byron Louis, even though he didn't get any opportunities in tonight's game, he's practiced at a high level and improved.
That whole room's improved. I think that room and the tight end room have all improved and so we feel good about -- it's nice to have Jadan Baugh, who we all know of, and then you can put Duke in and it's, like, you don't even feel a drop off. I mean Duke had 10 yards per carry tonight, 10.5 which is unbelievable. So both those guys, I like the depth of that room. Even the guys that didn't get snaps tonight I like the growth of the room.
Q.Offensively Ole Miss was gonna put up points no matter what, but to get 4-of-11 on third down stops, the turnover on downs to open the game and then the takeaways, just how critical were those plays made by the defense?
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, they were, we got off the field and all the third downs in the first half, which was huge. And then they got some in the third quarter there and create some momentum.
But yeah, you get off the field on third down you get to fourth down stop early in the game and then takeaway, those were all huge momentum shifts.
And defensively I thought we rose up and we battled better than we've battled all year to be honest with you. The score I still don't love giving up 28 points but holding that outfit to 28's not hateful.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, I think we won the special teams battle. You could tell that we put a lot of emphasis on it. I think we practiced with probably as much did detail as anybody in America on special teams. I take it very seriously. It's part of who we are. It's what we're gonna be about.
We put great players on special teams too. We don't just, like, whoever. You gotta earn the right to play through playing special teams on offense and defense here.
Huge momentum shifts in the game. Really was hoping -- Clark there, the punt, we were using the time, gonna use the timeouts there if we could stop them and try the kick after fair catch -- that we're going to try to implement that rule if we could you know where you can put that kickoff team out there and kick for a field goal uncontested. That's been in pro football forever. We were about to see if we could keep them pinned fair catch and try to run the kickoff team out there and kick a field goal. That was sort of the thought of mind.
But all those guys played good. So many guys elevated tonight. You know, the first kickoff return that we did bring out wasn't a great one. But the next two were huge plays. And then Bailey's return after already taking that shot and not feeling great, to go out and make the play he did was very impressive.
JON SUMRALL: They're crazy and so they've probably got some of it. But, no, I think they're taking on the personality of everybody in our building. It's not just me. It's everybody. I mean it's the entire coaching staff. It's got very little to do with me. I'm just the guy that tells everybody what direction to go and tries to make sure we keep the standards really high.
But it's Rusty Whitt. It's the coordinators. It's the position coaches. And then it's the players. I've told them a million times, good teams can be coach-led; great teams have to be player-led. I feel like our player leadership is growing. But, yeah, I'm just proud that they're playing with confidence, edge, swagger and a little bit of demeanor about them where we're not gonna back down to anybody.
JON SUMRALL: It should have been a touchdown. Like we got a guy wide open and I'm kicking myself a little bit at halftime. And Buster's like, Coach, that is the right thing to do. You did the right thing.
And I just, to me, teams like that, I go back to their Louisville game. The first half they played Louisville and it was kind of a low-scoring slugfest, and all of a sudden it was like they didn't get stopped the rest of the game. It's just touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.
And so knowing who No. 6 was and really the talent around him, I felt it was going to take 42 points to win tonight, potentially. When you get to fourth-and-1s and fourth-and-2s, we're pretty aggressive in nature anyways, but felt like we had a good look. We liked the call. We just didn't quite capitalize on it. But have to be a little bit better next time.
JON SUMRALL: I think Buster did a nice job sequencing the plays, keeping them a little bit off balance, keeping them off balance, and then just us sustaining momentum. I think when you can keep an offense like that off the field, it's very helpful for your defense, lets your defense rest a little bit. And it kind of takes the air out of them a little bit when you're able to sustain those long drives.
JON SUMRALL: I was still a little bit ticked off about the play right before it. I wanted something called that I can't talk about. All right? So I'll get fined, so I won't say anything. They called a great game there.
But I was livid about that. Then they got the replacement headset which had to be brought out because I broke the other one, which I've done a couple times before. And I click it, get the other one clicked on just in time to catch the play call.
And obviously Duke scoring, I was like, all right, great, it's worth losing a headset over. But really a great run by him, blocked up well. Thought he ran behind his pads and really asserted his will there.
JON SUMRALL: I think that we do have some explosive playmakers. I think we've got good players. I think there's a lot of positive that's going on. I see the warts. I see us practice every day. So the things that maybe don't look the way I want, if we have championship expectations and dreams and goals here, you can have no flaws.
While I do think we're doing a lot of great things and I think we're being explosive in scoring and doing some things really well in flashes or in spurts, I think the consistency has to be even greater. But I like the direction we're headed.
I'm not Eeyore, mad at life -- I just want us to be the best we can be all the time. I'm just driven to be really good all the time.
JON SUMRALL: I think the sky's the limit. As we started to have some attrition at receiver tonight, it felt like maybe we were going to have to change how we played, play the game of more 12 personnel with two tight ends, pick and choose our spots to take some shots down the field in throw game. So it forced us a little bit to maybe at halftime recalibrate. I spent as much time at halftime this week in the training room just checking on V.B. and Bailey and all the guys that we're trying to figure out what their availability looked like so I could relay that information to the offense as they were meeting down the hall.
But, look, we've been really efficient at scoring points per drive, points per possession this year, and if we do that, we'll have a chance every week. And we just have to continue to capitalize on our opportunities.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, well, first off, very grateful to our administration for letting us do that to the weight room. You've got a building that's only four years old. And literally the day I got announced the head coach, I'm walking in the building, I'm like, I don't like this. I didn't love the layout, the flow. I made it pretty public, I didn't love that we had turf in our weight room.
But our administration, when we asked for some changes, they said whatever it takes for us to be successful, let's do it. So after spring, we gutted it. I think rusty and his staff do a great job. I think our guys have embraced the weight room. It's created a mindset and an edge -- like somebody brought up the team taking on my personality. They take on Witt's too. They take on everybody's.
So there's nowhere in our program that we're not urgent, hardworking, tough blue-collar. So that bleeds through by how you play. There is very little that brings joy to my heart more than watching wide receivers block. And I love watching them catch touchdowns too. But what you do without the football in your hand as a skill player on offense says as much about your character as anything you do. It shows selflessness, team, buy-in, togetherness, a care for each other.
So watching those guys block out there fires me up. And then really the offensive line, that was probably, when I got here, my biggest, like, oh, no, I just didn't feel like we were moving the weight we needed to move. Those guys have moved some weight now. And they've improved in how we are from a strength and physicality standpoint, and I think you can see that in the way they're playing.
JON SUMRALL: Yeah, I'd say this, the fourth down stop, you're talking about on the minus side of the field when they went for it, I think that just ignited the stadium.
And unbelievable effort by our guys, Aaron Chiles and those guys that came in to make that stop. But then also you just felt like, in games like this, when you're at home, you need a couple plays to get the crowd fully amped. And they were amped from the jump. But like you just felt things kind of set off a little bit there after that play.
This game, those critical situations of fourth down stops or fourth down conversions, that's the difference between winning and losing in this league. The margins for how you win in SEC play, even though the scoreboard may not exactly look like that, every game's a little closer than you think always. There's a handful of plays that swing it. And we made a lot of those critical plays tonight. And hats off to our guys for making them.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/florida as Everything Jon Sumrall Said After Florida's 52-28 Win Over Ole Miss .
