{"id":406739,"date":"2026-09-22T01:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/406739\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T01:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:00:24","slug":"jon-sumrall-questions-florida-being-favored-vs-ole-miss-lot-of-good-drugs-out-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/406739\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Sumrall questions Florida being favored vs. Ole Miss: ‘Lot of good drugs out there’"},"content":{"rendered":"

First-year Florida<\/a> coach Jon Sumrall knows his team better than anyone, an unbeaten group who cracked the\u00a0AP Top 25<\/a>\u00a0this week. However, he’s not ready to label the No. 21 Gators one of the SEC’s feel-good stories just yet, especially after oddsmakers installed Florida as a 3.5-point betting favorite<\/a> in Saturday’s showdown against fourth-ranked Ole Miss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Who’s got us favored against these guys? Do they? There’s a lot of good drugs out there,” Sumrall said Monday. “I did talk to our team about rankings in Week 4 mean nothing. Nobody posts anything up in the building about this year’s team and where we’re ranked in Week 4. Nobody cares.”<\/p>\n

Florida piled up 495 yards of total offense and 44 points in last Saturday night’s win at Auburn<\/a>, while the Rebels opened up a 17-point lead on LSU<\/a> before winning in the fourth quarter thanks to Trinidad Chambliss<\/a>‘ go-ahead touchdown run.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

SEC set for record-breaking Week 4 featuring most AP Top 25 matchups in one day<\/p>\n

\n Brad Crawford <\/p>\n

\"SEC<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

“The same pats you’re getting if you go out and lay an egg, it’ll be the same hands hitting you in the back with a knife in it. I tell our guys ignore all of that,” Sumrall said. “The goal is how do we get to 1-0 each week. If we don’t do self-improvement, we have no shot this week. Whoever’s doing the (spread), didn’t watch tape. They’ve got the best quarterback in college football<\/a>, I think.”<\/p>\n

For Sumrall, this week’s matchup in Gainesville offers an opportunity to break a downtrend against Ole Miss. Sumrall is 1-7 in his career against the Rebels as a player at Kentucky<\/a> and various coaching stops, including two blowout losses last season to Ole Miss as the head coach at Tulane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sumrall vs. Ole Miss as a player, coach<\/p>\n

2000, Kentucky (linebacker)<\/p>\n

L, 35-17<\/p>\n

2005, Kentucky (graduate assistant)<\/p>\n

L, 13-7<\/p>\n

2006, Kentucky (GA)<\/p>\n

W, 31-14<\/p>\n

2012, Tulane (co-defensive coordinator)<\/p>\n

L, 39-0<\/p>\n

2021, Kentucky (co-DC)<\/p>\n

L, 42-41<\/p>\n

2022, Troy<\/a> (head coach)<\/p>\n

L, 28-10<\/p>\n

2025, Tulane (head coach)<\/p>\n

L, 45-10<\/p>\n

2025, Tulane (head coach)<\/p>\n

L, 41-10<\/p>\n

Sumrall acknowledged the intimidating setting expected inside The Swamp, one of the nation’s most raucous environments<\/a> on game day.<\/p>\n

“We may get added points in Vegas for the home-field advantage, like more than normal,” Sumrall said. “It’s a special place. I haven’t coached an SEC game as a head coach in that stadium yet, but like, (when) we played FAU<\/a> and Campbell<\/a>, you go out and get ready for the Gator Walk for the FAU game, and you’re like, ‘holy cow, this is electric.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I fully expect our fanbase to be ready to go and create as much havoc as they possibly can to make this place a tough place to play when we play big games like this one.”<\/p>\n

The Gators are 54-26 at home since 2015 and have won three of their last five home games against top-25 teams.<\/p>\n

Florida generating explosive plays<\/p>\n

The Gators’ new-look offense under coordinator Buster Faulkner is scoring points in bunches thanks to running back Jadan Baugh<\/a>, who leads the SEC in rushing after three games, and Georgia Tech<\/a> transfer quarterback Aaron Philo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baugh is averaging just under nine yards per carry with eight touchdowns, coming off his third consecutive 100-yard outing. Philo has contributed 721 yards passing and six scores, highlighted by a completion rate of 73.4%. He’s only been sacked twice behind an offensive front that has kept the Gators on schedule.<\/p>\n

Florida’s rushing attack against the Ole Miss front seven is the matchup to watch in this one, considering the Rebels’ struggles early on defense. Despite wins over Louisville<\/a> and LSU, Ole Miss is surrendering an SEC-worst 159 yards per game on the ground and has already given up a dozen plays of 10 or more yards against the run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First-year Florida coach Jon Sumrall knows his team better than anyone, an unbeaten group who cracked the\u00a0AP Top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51538,143,28,2530,30,29,9625,10481,31227],"class_list":["post-406739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aaron-philo","tag-college-football","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jadan-baugh","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-trinidad-chambliss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406739","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=406739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}