{"id":427005,"date":"2026-10-13T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/427005\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T22:26:10","slug":"gators-buster-faulkner-qb-aaron-philo-isnt-to-blame-for-ufs-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/427005\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators’ Buster Faulkner: QB Aaron Philo isn’t to blame for UF’s woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida quarterback Aaron Philo<\/a> has been far from perfect, but he hasn\u2019t been the problem during consecutive double-digit losses.<\/p>\n

By offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner\u2019s count<\/a>, Philo had three bad plays \u2014 including two critical turnovers \u2014 during the Gators\u2019 38-19 homecoming collapse<\/a> against South Carolina last Saturday in the Swamp.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, Philo was on target after struggling in a 28-point loss at Missouri<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that sounds crazy because you can\u2019t turn your ball over and that changes everything,\u201d Faulkner said Tuesday. \u201cBut he really played within himself other than a couple plays.\u2029He was throwing the ball on time. He was taking what the defense gives him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked more comfortable, and was seeing it a lot better than really he was the week before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gators (4-2, 2-2 SEC) now enter this Saturday\u2019s visit to No. 7 Texas (4-1, 1-1 SEC) looking to reignite an offense that fired on all cylinders during Florida\u2019s first four games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good group in there. We\u2019ve gotten out of whack,\u201d Faulkner said. \u201cWe gotta find a way to get that back, and that starts with me, our staff, getting our guys going.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have full confidence that we\u2019re going to be able to get this thing rolling back in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s inability to keep pace with Missouri and South Carolina after running away from the previous four opponents has made Philo an easy target for criticism.<\/p>\n

The Gators\u2019 quarterback accounted for nine touchdowns, committed two turnovers and completed 73.4% of his passes as Florida averaged 53.5 points in September.<\/p>\n

\"FloridaFlorida quarterback Aaron Philo (12) is sacked by Missouri defensive tackle Sterling Webb (90) during the Gators’ 45-17 loss Oct. 3 in Columbia, Missouri. (AP Photo\/Jeff Roberson)<\/p>\n

During the two losses, he threw for two touchdowns, ran for a third and completed 67.7% of his throws for an attack averaging 18 points.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s sudden struggles, however, extend well beyond Philo.<\/p>\n

Missouri provided a blueprint<\/a> for future opponents after the Tigers overran the Gators\u2019 suspect offensive line,\u00a0bottled up star tailback Jadan Baugh<\/a> and limited down-field passes with explosive sophomore Vernell Brown III sidelined<\/a> with a knee injury and senior speedster Eric Singleton still slowed by a high-ankle sprain.<\/p>\n

Faulkner said Singleton practiced fully Tuesday for the first time since he suffered the injury during Florida\u2019s Sept. 5 season-opening win against Florida Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHadn\u2019t practiced \u2026 really just played in the games,\u201d Faulkner said. \u201cGetting some continuity there is going to hopefully ignite us, because he is an explosive guy. Really all offenses, or good offenses, you got to be explosive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida had nine 20-yard pass completions in wins over Auburn and Ole Miss, but seven against Missouri and South Carolina, with two of those during the final drive in mop-up time at Mizzou.<\/p>\n

More telling is the Gators generated just six runs of at least 10 yards during back-to-back losses after ripping off 13 of them during two SEC wins.<\/p>\n

Defenses have aggressively focused on stopping the run while putting Baugh Heisman\u2019s candidacy on hold. The SEC\u2019s leading rusher with 600 yards and 11 touchdowns through four games, Baugh has 72 yards on 27 carries and one touchdown in two losses.<\/p>\n

With Baugh unable to find room to room and backup Duke Clark injured against South Carolina, Philo has been forced to shoulder more of the load. He averaged 32 pass attempts the past two weeks compared with 22.5 against Auburn and Ole Miss.<\/p>\n

A pair of losses featuring just four touchdowns in 24 possessions have prompted calls to turn to backup Tramell Jones Jr., who led Florida to late touchdowns against Missouri and South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Faulkner\u2019s relationship with Philo, which dates to his sophomore year of high school in Georgia and continued through the quarterback\u2019s past two seasons at Georgia Tech, also has come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

For now, Faulkner\u2019s plan is to return to what worked so well just a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got to have better execution \u2014 that\u2019s where it starts,\u201d Faulkner said. \u201cWe got to do a good job of putting them in a position to succeed.\u00a0 We gotta do what we\u2019re good at.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the aggressor early on; we got to get back that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

What: UF (4-2, 2-2 SEC) at Texas (4-1, 1-1)<\/p>\n

When: 12 p.m., Saturday<\/p>\n

Where: Darrell K Royal\u2013Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin<\/p>\n

TV: ABC<\/p>\n

Favorite: Texas by 8.5 points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida quarterback Aaron Philo has been far from perfect, but he hasn\u2019t been the problem during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,28,2530,30,29,2496,114,76046,110],"class_list":["post-427005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427005","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=427005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}