{"id":108212,"date":"2026-01-06T22:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/108212\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T22:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:44:18","slug":"jadan-baugh-signs-to-return-to-florida-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/108212\/","title":{"rendered":"Jadan Baugh signs to return to Florida in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> running back Jadan Baugh<\/a> signed a deal to return to the Gators in 2026, On3 has learned. Baugh was undecided between the transfer portal and returning to Florida next season.<\/p>\n

But, he\u2019ll be in the fold under new coach Jon Sumrall<\/a> in 2026. As a sophomore, Baugh broke out with 220 carries for 1,170 yards, eight touchdowns and 5.3 yards per carry. He added 33 catches for 210 yards and two touchdown receptions.<\/p>\n

That was after a productive freshman season where he had 673 yards, seven touchdowns and a touchdown reception to boot. Expect him to be on the early Heisman lists once college football previews begin for the \u201926 campaign.<\/p>\n

On3\u2019s Pete Nakos reported<\/a> back in December that the school and staff were working tirelessly to keep Baugh out of the portal. Weeks later, they\u2019ve succeeded.<\/p>\n

The running back became the 10th\u00a0Gator all-time to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season. Baugh hit those numbers following a 266-yard performance against Florida State. <\/p>\n

Jadan Baugh returning to Florida under Jon Sumrall<\/p>\n

That performance ranks second-most in a single game in program history. Baugh came in at third in the SEC for his 1,170 yards and No. 14 in all of FBS this season.<\/p>\n

As Sumrall fleshes out his staff and roster, he promises to make it the best for the program. As he put it, he doesn\u2019t hire friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t hire my friends. Honestly, when I took my first head coaching job, I lost some friends maybe, or at least for a little while,\u201d\u00a0Sumrall said<\/a>. \u201cThey were like, \u2018I thought we were buddies.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018We are. That doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re the right fit here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I don\u2019t hire a staff off of who are my buddies. I hire a staff based upon what is the absolute best group of people we can put together to serve and develop our players and win championships at that place. Every place is different. When I walk into a new place, the first thing I do is I assess what\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be some folks that stay. Then I may bring a few that have been around me. And, there\u2019s gonna be some people that haven\u2019t been here and haven\u2019t been with me that need to be added to help us get the best group of people together to win championships and serve our players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida running back Jadan Baugh signed a deal to return to the Gators in 2026, On3 has learned.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,55371],"class_list":["post-108212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jadan-baugh-24-columbia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}