Florida football head coach Jon Sumrall is still undefeated to start his tenure in Gainesville.
The Gators’ new coach has the offense firing on all cylinders, having scored 40+ points in every game thus far — notably doing so in wins over Auburn and Ole Miss. Because of this 4-0 start, the Gators were ranked No. 8 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll ahead of another top 25 tilt at No. 25 Mizzou on Saturday.
On Friday, the Dodd Trophy — awarded to the top coach in college football — made Sumrall the inaugural recipient of the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Month award for his excellent start to the 2026 season.
If Sumrall can go undefeated in October, he’ll probably win this award again. At least, he’d better. The Gators are set to face off against 3 ranked opponents across the next 4 weeks: Mizzou (in Columbia), No. 1 Texas (in Austin) and No. 2 Georgia.
As alluded to above, Florida’s offense makes the Gators dangerous as we near the halfway point of the 2026 season. A big part of the reason why is Jadan Baugh, a legitimate Heisman candidate at running back who has totaled 600 yards and 11 touchdowns through the first 4 games of the season. A lot of running backs don’t see those numbers across an entire regular season slate.
How much improvement will we see from Florida after an electric start? First up, let’s see if the Gators can get past Eli Drinkwitz and the Tigers this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Ethan Stone is a Saturday Down South News Editor and an advocate for the return of the Seattle Supersonics.
