GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Everyone is interested in the Florida quarterback battle, including Jon Sumrall.
In the Orange & Blue Game, the focus was clearly under center as another chapter was written Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 47,100 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
And fittingly, the format allowed the quarterbacks to compete with each other rather than against each other, in a pure offense-versus-defense showcase.
Intrigue persisted afterward when Sumrall hinted he might know who his starter would be if they had a game next week.
“I’ll sit down with all those guys on Monday and have a really transparent conversation about, ‘Hey, after 15 practices, this is where we are.’ I’ll talk to them about, ‘Hey, if we had to play a game next week, this is probably what it would look like,’ ” Sumrall said. “I won’t make an announcement because we don’t play next week.”
The battle has simmered down to two, based on Saturday – Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr.
It was Philo who first walked out with the Gators’ first-team offense. He was able to make quick reads, quick throws and drive his squad down the field into opposing territory before a turnover on downs forced a restart.
Then came Jones, who had a slow start, going three-and-out on his first drive.
Nearing the end of the first quarter, Philo was picked off on a run-pass option (RPO) played beautifully by safety DJ Coleman, who transferred from Baylor and was credited for his all-around play in spring camp.
Philo threw another interception in the second quarter, but offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said that his former backup at Georgia Tech has a short memory.
“One thing about him is he’ll shrug ’em off, I can assure you,” Faulkner said. “Every quarterback I tell, ‘Hey, you’re going to throw picks, but we’re going to keep throwing it. But he came back, made some elite throws, which is what he always does.”
Philo agreed with Faulkner and said that having that mindset is something beneficial.
“Everything’s not going to go the way that you want it to go,” he said. “So, you have to be resilient. You have to be able to bounce back when things go bad, and I think it’s a great trait of a quarterback.”
And bounce back, he did.
He threw two touchdowns following his second interception, both inside 40 seconds left in the first half. For the first score, Philo found a wide-open Vernell Brown III for a 31-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive, and the second, hit Micah Mays crossing the middle for a 23-yard touchdown just before half. Philo finished his day 21 of 28 passing (75%) for 193 yards to go along with the two touchdowns and two interceptions.
“I think it was really cool to see that many people come out to a spring game,” he said. “And I really enjoyed it, the first time being in The Swamp with a bunch of people like that.”
Despite the slow start from Jones, he put on a show for the Florida faithful.
“Missed a couple of things early,” Faulkner said. “But came back, bounced back, threw two big completions, had some big plays.”
Quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. looks to pass in Saturday’s Orange & Blue Game. (Photo: Alan Youngblood/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
As in spring practices, Jones looked more comfortable with each throw he attempted. It was smaller, minuscule gains for Jones until it wasn’t.
He showed off his arm talent, finding Eric Singleton Jr. in the end zone for a 38-yard touchdown before hitting a streaking Mays in stride for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive.
Philo may have been the first quarterback to trot onto the field, but Jones was first to step up to the podium after the Blue Team’s 45-42 win.
“Being able to compete against Philo and all the other quarterbacks in the room pushes all of us to be better at the end of the day,” Jones said. “Whoever at the end of the day gets to go out there, they’re going to compete at the highest level because we’ve been pushing each other.”
Jones was 13 of 17 (76%) passing for 210 yards and the two touchdowns, making a strong case for himself.
A quarterback battle is sometimes like an election, and in going with that analogy, Saturday was just a debate.
“Both came in, did a really good job,” Faulkner said. “It’s a body of work of everything that we’ve done the last 15 days. Today was just a small sample size of what I think both of them can be.”
Even though spring ball has wrapped up, there is still a long way to go before the Gators take the field on Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic and for Sumrall, there are still more questions than answers in the quarterback race.
“I completely understand the interest in it, I’m interested in it,” he said. “But I’m interested in like 1,000 other things. And so, I think too often, the storyline is always the quarterback, the quarterback, the quarterback. I’m like, ‘Well, I’m pretty damn worried about who the right tackle is and who the left tackle is.’ Those decisions are as important, to be quite honest with you, because they’re protecting the quarterback.”
