Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. are neck and neck entering a pivotal week that culminates with a second scrimmage Saturday night.

“Neither one is just light years ahead of the other,” Sumrall said Monday. “They’re both doing really good things.”

Philo arrived in January with the advantage of two seasons with new offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner at Georgia Tech.

“In the spring, Philo was way ahead because of understanding the offense and Tramell was significantly behind,” Sumrall said.

But Jones has steadily digested the playbook, limiting turnovers during the Gators’ two key scrimmages.

Philo’s third-down interception to cornerback Cormani McClain, who made a heady and athletic play on the ball, was the only pick thrown. Philo also suffered two interceptions during the April 11 spring game.

He quickly responded Saturday with a touchdown pass to former Georgia Tech teammate and close friend Bailey Stockton.

“That was the most impressive thing to me of his scrimmage,” Sumrall said. “Bad play, and then followed it up with really good football afterwards. That’s the quarterback position. You’re going to throw a pick and the whole crowd’s going to boo, and what do you do next?

“That says a lot about you.”

Jones has a stronger arm and more top-end speed than Philo, who has been consistently more decisive delivering the football.

Both have flashed big-play ability.

On Saturday, receiver Eric Singleton made a diving 50-yard catch on a pass from Philo, his former teammate in 2024 at Georgia Tech before Singleton spent the 2025 season at Auburn. Philo also found Micah Mays on a deep post pattern at the goal line, but the Wake Forest transfer dropped the ball.

Mays and Jones connected on a 75-yard touchdown during the spring game, the day’s longest play.

“He’s usually Mr. Automatic catching everything,” Sumrall said of Mays. “He was disappointed in himself.”

Mays, Stockton and TJ Abrams are in the second rotation of receivers behind Singleton, Dallas Wilson and Vernell Brown III, who sat out Saturday with a bone bruise in his foot but returned to practice Monday.

Entering the third week of preseason camp, many spots in the team’s two-deep depth chart remain unsettled.

Lineups will begin to crystallize, and Sumrall and his staff will award snaps accordingly next week as the Gators ramp up for the Sept. 5 season opener against Florida Atlantic in the Swamp.

“You’ll kind of start to act like we have a game next week,” he said.

This week, Sumrall and offensive line coach Phil Trautwein will look to establish an eight-man rotation with a unit featuring just one player with more than 10 SEC starts, left guard Knijeah Harris, and potentially three new starters.

Sumrall called tackle, “the biggest question.”

Caden Jones started 10 games at right tackle in 2025 after Bryce Lovett struggled there during the season’s first two games. Each is battling for the starting job, with Lovett also seeing time at guard.

On the left side, Penn State transfer Eagan Boyer and Stanford transfer Emeka Ugori are the top candidates, while redshirt freshman TJ Dice Jr. “is getting better,” Sumrall said.

“Some guys are elevating. The challenge there has been consistency,” Sumrall said. “We have to be dialed in, we have to be detailed in assignment, fundamentals, and technique, and then we got to strain all the time, non-negotiable up there.”

The Gators’ opening drive ended when the team failed to convert on fourth-and-one with star tailback Jadan Baugh.

“I was absolutely freaking pissed,” Sumrall said. “If it’s fourth-and-1, that should be 100% conversion for us.”

The Gators ran 127 plays during Saturday’s scrimmage, with the first team handling 50 snaps, the second 43 and the third team 34.

Sumrall said he reviewed the film five times.

While he liked plenty he watched, Sumrall wants fewer mistakes and more consistency. Two blown coverages, for example, led to touchdowns, while the Gators settled three times for field goals in the red zone.

“It’s okay to get beat on a play, it’s not okay to just give them plays,” Sumrall said of the coverage miscues. “We can’t beat ourselves. So Florida beat Florida on defense a couple times on Saturday, which was really frustrating.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

After studying industrial engineering at Georgia Tech, he switched his degree to mathematics at UF.

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but I’ve always loved math,” the well-spoken, studious 20-year-old said.

But before he got to college, Moore didn’t need to comprehend abstract algebra or advanced calculus to understand that something didn’t add up entering his senior season at Dallas-area football power Southlake Carroll. After the Dragons’ entire offensive line from a 14-1 team graduated, coach Riley Dodge turned to his starting tight end for a solution.

“My high school coach was like, ‘Look, we’re in some trouble,’” Moore recalled this week.

Moore soon found a home at his new position and, eventually, a future in the sport.

After catching six passes in two seasons, Moore never envisioned following in the footsteps of local legend Jason Witten, a record-setting tight end with the Cowboys. These days, quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. said his new center is projecting, “Jake Slaughter vibes.”

Moore deflected the lofty comparison with the Gators’ All-America center and second-round selection by the San Diego Chargers.

“He was a great leader, a really, really good football player,” Moore said. “I really don’t try to look at it as filling his shoes. I kind of just worry about what I can do to be the best version of myself.”

To succeed at center, Moore blended the brains of a math major with the athleticism of a former tight end,  along with the toughness needed to thrive at the highest levels of Texas high school football. As a senior, he helped Southlake Carroll reach the 6A D-II semifinals.

After playing 184 total snaps as a true freshman at left guard, center and even some tight end, Moore found a permanent home at center last season and helped pave the way for an offense averaging an ACC-leading 6.98 per play, including a league-high 5.54 yards per rush.

Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner made a point to bring Moore from Atlanta to Gainesville to help spearhead his potent attack and fulfill his potential.

“Harrison Moore is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever had a chance to coach,” Faulkner said. “He’s now getting comfortable in his own skin. He’s starting to become a leader, a lot more vocal, and that’s very important for what we ask the center to do in this offense.”

Moore, who arrived at Georgia Tech at 265 pounds, has blossomed in Rusty Whitt’s strength program.

During SEC Media Days in July, head coach Jon Sumrall singled out Moore and Penn State transfer guard TJ Shanahan as tone-setters in the weight room.

“Both kind of elevated maybe the rhythm that room marches to,” Sumrall said.

Moore knows he, Shanahan and their fellow O-linemen must continue to make strides if the Gators are to rebound from a four-win season.

Sumrall has repeatedly challenged the unit publicly to get ready for the rigors of the SEC.

“Obviously, you don’t want him to have to say that, but it’s just fuel to the fire,” Moore said. “That’s been a good challenge for us this summer — just fuel to the fire. Everybody was like, ‘So what? Now what? Let’s just put our heads down and grind and good things are going to happen.'”

Moore has risen to the occasion before.

His first college start was during the 2024 regular-season finale against two-time defending national champion Georgia. During an eight-overtime thriller, the Bulldogs prevailed 44-42.

Despite the loss, Moore emerged with newfound confidence.

“Playing against that type of competition as a true freshman, my second year playing offensive line, obviously was a lot of pressure,” he recalled. “But just going out there and knowing that if I put my mind to it, I can do whatever I want. That was really cool to see for myself.”

Moore built on the performance to start nine games in 2025, while not allowing a sack in 682 snaps.

On track to earn the starting job over 2024 USC transfer Jason Zandamela, Moore has capitalized on his knowledge of Faulkner’s complex scheme and embraced the familiarity of having former Georgia Tech teammates Aaron Philo, Bailey Stockton and Luke Harpring at UF.

Philo, a redshirt sophomore quarterback, sees something special in the player lining up in front of him.

“He’s got a dog mentality, there’s no other way to put it,” Philo said. “He’s a trench warrior. He’s going to give it everything he’s got every single play.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

Growing up in Daytona Beach, McCray evolved into the nation’s top defensive line prospect by practicing hard, reacting decisively and ultimately dominating the competition.

Then, just four snaps into the 2025 season, everything changed.

McCray’s year ended during Week 2 of a stunning loss to USF last September. The defeat accelerated coach Billy Napier’s demise and further delayed the development of McCray, who had yet to fulfill his vast potential.

Out with a broken right foot, McCray second-guessed himself and his place in the SEC ecosystem. 

Given his rare combination of size and athletic ability, football had come easily to the 6-foot-6 McCray before he arrived in Gainesville. But a 12-tackle 2024 was followed by a lost sophomore season.

“My freshman year you realize, like, ‘Oh, this is a different league of football.’ It really means more,” McCray said Tuesday after the Gators’ first day in full pads at preseason camp. “My injury kind of put a different level of that to myself. Like, maybe if I would have been working a little bit harder, maybe that wouldn’t have happened — things of that nature.

“You have a lot of different questions when you’re hurt, you got a lot of downtime to reflect and think about things.”

Missing a season for the first time in his career made one thing clear: “I had to grow up and mature and realize how bad I really wanted it.”

Once healthy, McCray attacked the offseason and became one of the standouts of Rusty Whitt’s new strength program.

Since January, Whitt said, McCray has added 21 pounds of lean muscle, while going from 268 to 277 pounds. He has increased his top-end speed from 18.5 mph to 20.31 mph.

“That is incredible for a guy his size,” said Whitt, who began training college football players and Olympic athletes in the 1990s.

Even more impressive, McCray executed a 365–pound power clean, showcasing his work ethic and the elite athleticism that made him such a coveted recruit.

“It’s not just the catch, you’re having to move the bar as a long guy from shin to up top,” Sumrall said. “To create that bar speed, he’s created some explosion and twitch in his body that he didn’t have.”

Those numbers, though, will mean little if McCray can’t turn them into production.

The added strength will help him set the edge in Brad White’s new defensive scheme. The added speed needs to show up when he chases quarterbacks and pursues ball carriers.

But McCray has gained more than just mass and acceleration.

“He’s got confidence, too,” head coach Jon Sumrall said. “He walks around with a little different edge about him right now. He plays like he’s believing what he can become.”

“The lights have come on for sure, and excited to see him continue.” 

Teammates have taken notice.

A weight-room marvel himself, sophomore edge rusher Jayden Woods said McCray possesses “some crazy power.”

McCray’s efforts earned him the No. 33 spot on Bruce Feldman’s annual Freaks List, with Woods sitting No. 5 after he power-cleaned 405 pounds.

But Woods, a third-team selection on the preseason All-SEC team, looks to build on a solid season as a true freshman. McCray, meanwhile, is still trying to prove himself.

The pressure is nothing new.

Now 20, McCray has anchored a championship defense before.

In 2023, he helped Daytona Beach Mainland to its first state title since 2003 while recording 82 tackles, including 30 for loss — 13 of them sacks — along with three forced fumbles and two blocked kicks.

Every top program recruited him, but McCray’s heart was set on Florida.

“This is my dream school,” he said Tuesday.

Choosing the Gators was more than a football decision.

“I talked about it with my family, sat down, and really thought, ‘Where do I want to be?’” he recalled. “‘If things don’t go as perfect the way I wanted to go, would I be happy there?’”

After his injury, McCray’s days were long and filled with frustration. Eventually, he had a much-needed epiphany.

“No one wants that to ever happen,” he said. “But I think it might have been needed for my development. To even be mature, to get to this point and understand how much football really means to me.”

The perspective is something McCray can pass along to Florida’s first-year defenders KJ Ford and JeReylan McCoy.

McCray knows what awaits them.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “If you think it’s going to be anything similar to high school, it’s not. So just go ahead, erase that from your brain and try to recalibrate and adjust to this level of football.”

McCray has already done that once. Now he gets to see what comes next.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

Potentially the preseason No. 1 and among the national title favorites entering next season, the Gators will play Georgia Tech Dec. 12 in Orlando at the Kia Center during the Hall of Fame Series doubleheader, which  also features Florida Atlantic facing VCU. On Dec. 18, Florida will meet Grand Canyon in Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

Florida will open the season Nov. 2 against Miami at Tampa’s Benchmark International Arena — site of the season-ending 73-72 NCAA Tournament loss to Iowa.

Coming off an 11-20 season, Georgia Tech will be in its first season under Scott Cross, who won back-to-back Sun Belt Conference titles at Troy and is 350-260 during 19 seasons as a college coach. Grand Canyon finished 20-12 in 2025-26 during its first season in the Mountain West Conference and sixth under former Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew.

The Orlando and Jacksonville dates complete the 2026-27 schedule for the Gators.

Coming off a 27-8 finish and SEC regular-season championship, the Gators return 81.8% of their scoring from last season’s SEC championship team. Four starters are back, including seniors Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh, who form one of the nation’s top frontcourts. Starting point guard Boogie Fland also is among six of the eight primary rotation players returning, with 11 players expected back overall.

The Gators also welcomed back veteran guard Denzel Aberdeen, though the former Dr. Phillips High product is awaiting an NCAA waiver for a fifth season of eligibility after spending the 2025-26 season at Kentucky.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

The Gators staged 15 spring practices, culminating with the April 11 spring game. Recent months featured OTAs, player-led workouts and offseason conditioning. Florida staged its fifth preseason practice Monday in helmets and shoulder pads for more than 90 minutes under the blistering Gainesville sun.

“We need to make sure we’re at least building our bodies up to some of the heat,” Sumrall said afterward.

Tuesday, though, will bring an increase in the level of physicality and more game-like situations as the Sept. 5 season opener against Florida Atlantic approaches.

“I want to see guys compete,” Sumrall said. “You only get so many opportunities … and really there’s a score — where you’re trying to win the game. At the end of the day, we got to find out who will compete.

“Like when we go into the stadium, and it’s real, who will lay it on the line?”

The Gators will also practice in full gear Thursday, return to helmets and shoulders pads Friday and hold their first of two scrimmages in the Swamp on Saturday.

“We’ll tackle the ground a lot,” Sumrall said.

Since his arrival, Sumrall has strived to consistently challenge his players mentally and physically.

The grueling “Gauntlet,” a six-station, high-intensity strength and conditioning circuit, took players nearly two months to complete as a team, while setting the standard during winter workouts. Following the spring game, Sumrall called out the team’s offensive line, saying, “Those guys have to have a freaking great summer or we got no chance.”

Some linemen lost more than 20 or even 30 pounds while building strength and lean muscle.

Sumrall was pleased with his team’s progress entering preseason practices but continued to push his players.

“I am into making things hard,” he said. “This is a challenging game, and tough teams win. I do want our guys to be challenged to the point that they’re mentally tough, and they can overcome adversity because there’s going to be adversity, and so we create adverse situations every day in practice.

“Sometimes it’s got to be really, really freaking hard.”

Sumrall aims to create a competitive environment whenever possible, but will get a better gauge of his players once they are in full pads.

“The first four or five days of training camp, you’re competing all the time, but it’s hard to always keep score of a winner or a loser when we’re not tackling,” he said. “When we go to live stuff a little bit more, there’s even more clear winners and losers.”

Several Gators will be unable to participate fully Tuesday, including veteran defensive end Kam James, a senior who starred at Orlando Olympia and redshirt freshman running back Duke Clark, who is on track for a key role behind 1,000-yard rusher Jadan Baugh after receiving considerable praise entering camp.

Cornerback CJ Bronaugh of Windermere Prep is sidelined, along with fellow true freshmen Kaiden Hall, a 4-star prospect at safety, and Marquez Daniel, an intriguing 6-foot-5, 219-pound receiver.

“I don’t foresee them being out for any game action, barring something that doesn’t go right,” Sumrall said. “So, nothing substantial. Just normal wear and tear for training camp.”

Sumrall knows what he hopes to see from those on the field.

“I just want to see us play clean, competitive football on both sides,” he said. ” As a head coach, you don’t ever want one side to dominate. You’d like to see some back and forth.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

More than three decades ago, when Steve Spurrier came home to the University of Florida and started turning SEC defensive coordinators into nervous wrecks, one of my claims to fame is a phrase I coined for his revolutionary offense: The “Fun and Gun.”

It was fun because Spurrier made football entertaining. It was gun because the Head Ball Coach believed the football belonged in the air. And, man, did it fly.

Now, after nearly two decades in which Florida’s offense has too often been more slog than swagger, new Gators offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner wants to make Florida football a frolicking good time again.

Those are his words; not mine.

Said Faulkner earlier this week: “I just feel like when Florida was rolling back (in the day), it was a lot of fun, and we want to bring that fun back offensively to the University of Florida.”

Amen, Buster, and welcome to Gainesville. It’s refreshing to have a head coach like Jon Sumrall and an offensive coordinator like Faulkner who already seem to understand something: Gator Nation doesn’t just expect Florida to win. Gator Nation expects Florida to win a certain way.

Score points. Throw the football. Create explosive plays. Make opposing defensive coordinators sweat through their golf shirts.

And, yes, make it fun.

That expectation was created by Spurrier, whose offenses changed not only Florida football but SEC football. It was reinforced by Urban Meyer, whose Tim Tebow-led offenses weren’t the Fun and Gun but were every bit as exhilarating – a bruising, creative, quarterback-powered attack that helped win two national championships.

Faulkner has talked to both Spurrier and Meyer. Spurrier even sent him notepads filled with plays. Former Meyer offensive coordinator Steve Addazio recently visited Gainesville, too. Faulkner isn’t trying to recreate either offense play-for-play. He wants to borrow from both. In other words, he understands Florida football fans are craving the high-powered offenses they had under Spurrier and Meyer.

“I hope they are,” Faulkner says of the fan base. “That’s what I want. That’s what these kids want. That’s what Coach Sumrall wants. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to be here. I mean, when you think of Florida football, I go all the way back to Coach Spurrier and all the things he did when he was here. I’ve always said this. He was on the cutting edge of it.

“And then, Urban Meyer, watching his offenses. They were fun, too. They were physical, violent. I think we want to kind of be a combination of both of them.”

Now that should get Gator fans excited. But before anybody starts dusting off the visors and ordering championship rings, we should acknowledge something else.

We’ve heard this before.

Will Muschamp talked about restoring Florida football. Jim McElwain was supposed to fix the offense. Billy Napier arrived with his own offensive system and his own play sheet. None recreated Florida’s offensive identity.

Muschamp actually won 11 games in his second season, yet many Gator fans were miserable. Imagine that: 11 victories and people still complaining. Why? Because Florida was winning games that looked like root canals.

That might sound spoiled to outsiders, but outsiders don’t understand the monster Spurrier created. Once you’ve watched Florida quarterbacks throw touchdown passes like Mardi Gras beads, it’s difficult to get excited about winning 17-9.

With the exception of a couple of productive seasons under Dan Mullen, Florida fans have spent most of the post-Meyer era waiting for the offense they believe is their birthright.

Last season was another low point. Florida ranked 13th in the SEC and 104th nationally in total offense at 341.3 yards per game. Against FBS opponents, the Gators averaged a miserable 18.6 points.

That isn’t Fun and Gun. That’s Punt and Groan.

Which brings us to perhaps the most encouraging thing about Faulkner: Florida finally has a real, proven offensive coordinator whose primary job is to coordinate the offense.

What a concept.

Napier spent much of his Florida tenure being asked why he wouldn’t turn over play-calling duties to an offensive coordinator. He stubbornly held onto them even as the pressure of running a modern SEC program became increasingly overwhelming.

After being fired by Florida and becoming the coach at James Madison, Napier finally admitted what everybody else could see.

“I think that I probably was a little stubborn,” Napier told On3.com

And guess what? At James Madison, Napier has hired an offensive coordinator to call the plays.

Oh well, better late than never, I suppose.

Florida isn’t making that mistake with Faulkner. The Gators are paying him $2.1 million per season, making him the highest-paid assistant coach in school history and one of the highest-paid assistants in college football.

And with that paycheck comes pressure. Lots of it.

But Faulkner’s résumé suggests he’s prepared for it. He has more than two decades in college coaching and 14 seasons as an offensive coordinator. He helped Georgia win national championships and then built one of the nation’s most productive offenses at Georgia Tech. His Yellow Jackets averaged 460 yards per game last season, ranking second in the ACC and 11th nationally.

More importantly, Faulkner isn’t married to one system.

He grew up in the Air Raid offense at Valdosta State, playing quarterback under renowned coach Chris Hatcher in a system descended from Hal Mumme and the late, great Mike Leach. But unlike some coaches who spend their careers trying to jam players into a system, Faulkner has spent his career adapting his system to his players.

That’s coaching. Look at your roster. Figure out what your players do best. Then build an offense around them.

And Florida has players who can make things happen, including preseason All-SEC running back Jadan Baugh, who rushed for 1,170 yards last season. Now it’s Faulkner’s job to put the ball in the hands of Florida’s playmakers – as he says – “a bunch of different guys in a bunch of different ways.”

There is one other warning worth mentioning. Florida’s new head coach, Jon Sumrall, comes from the defensive side of the football. So did Will Muschamp.

Sumrall cannot fall into the same trap Muschamp did and believe winning ugly will ever completely satisfy this fan base. Let Faulkner cook. Let him innovate. Let him take a little Spurrier, mix in some Meyer, sprinkle in some Air Raid roots, run the ball and create something uniquely his own.

Nobody expects Buster Faulkner to become Steve Spurrier. Nobody should. There was only one Head Ball Coach.

But Florida football desperately needs to rediscover something Spurrier understood better than anybody: Football is entertainment.

Winning matters most, obviously. But at Florida, how you win has always mattered, too.

Buster Faulkner says he wants to bring the fun back. After nearly two decades of waiting, Gator Nation has a simple response:

It’s about damn time!

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen.

Florida’s redshirt freshman quarterback is nearly 2 mph faster after a rigorous offseason. Since January, he’s immersed himself in new offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner’s system, boosting Jones’ football IQ by a few points. Each day away from the football facility, he spends hours reviewing his notes and fine-tuning his defensive reads.

Jones’ pursuit is constant as he tries to catch and eventually pass redshirt sophomore Aaron Philo, who followed Faulkner to Gainesville after two seasons together at Georgia Tech.

“You’ve got to be able to adapt,” Jones said after practice Friday, speaking publicly for the first time since April’s spring game. “That’s what makes somebody a great player.”

The 19-year-old from Jacksonville is accustomed to giving chase. He’s shown a knack for closing the gap.

Jones played quarterback since youth football. In middle school, coaches moved him to receiver — a decision he recalled “ticked me off a little bit.”

By the time he returned to quarterback at Mandarin High School, he was a freshman fourth-stringer. But after injuries to two players ahead of him and another’s struggles, Jones got his opportunity. He threw a 70-yard touchdown on his first play and never looked back.

A severe ankle injury in Week 2 of his senior season ended Jones’ decorated career. It also cost him valuable time to develop the following spring at Florida, leaving him playing catch-up once again.

Jones appeared well-positioned to become the starter after Billy Napier was fired and quarterback DJ Lagway entered the transfer portal. Instead, Faulkner arrived and brought Philo with him, forcing Jones to learn a new offense and prove himself again.

True to form, Jones has made considerable strides while impressing his coaches.

“What’s been unique is how well he’s picked this up, because it’s not easy to pick up,” Faulkner said of his system. “It’s a lot, he’s done a great job of really getting caught up to speed.”

Jones knows he’s still learning.

“We’re getting closer there,” he said. “There’s always ways that I can improve and I think it will be second nature.”

When it comes to operating the offense, Philo has an obvious edge entering his third season with Faulkner.

But Jones possesses traits that have helped him stand out since arriving in Gainesville.

He generates a spin rate on the football approaching elite NFL levels. He’s also accurate, anticipates defenders and consistently puts receivers in position to gain yards after the catch.

“Accuracy and arm strength, being a point guard on the field, and just delivering the ball wherever I need to on the field and making the throw at any time — those are my best attributes,” he said.

A 75-yard-touchdown to Micah Mays Jr. during April’s spring game was the day’s signature play, showing not only Jones’ arm talent but also the processing ability Faulkner demands.

“I learned to just take what the defense gives you,” Jones said. “Spread the ball to your athletes. That’s pretty much been the word. That’s being a part of what a point guard is, not trying to do too much.

“There’s a time to be a game manager and a game changer. I learned that.”

Faulkner’s offense also capitalizes on a quarterback’s ability to make plays with his legs.

Playing in Mandarin’s pass-heavy offense, Jones threw for 7,197 yards and 75 touchdowns against just 21 interceptions in 35 high school games, while rushing for 356 yards on 56 carries.

Jones is now even more equipped to rely on his feet after increasing his top-end speed from 19.92 mph to 21.71 mph. Working in strength coach Rusty Whitt’s demanding program, the 6-foot, 196-pound Jones also squatted and deadlifted 500 pounds.

“It adds elements to your speed when you go on the field, and you can really feel how explosive,” Jones said.

Working alongside Jones each day, Philo has been impressed with the entire package.

“He’s a really smart player,” he said. “He understands the defense really well. Obviously he has a lot of zip on his ball. I think he’s got a really strong arm, but he’s a really smart player and really sharp.” 

The competition remains wide open, with neither Faulkner nor coach Jon Sumrall committing to a timeline for naming a starter.

After spending much of his football life chasing opportunities, Jones isn’t worried about where he stands today.

He’s focused on where he’ll finish.

“You just got to overcome the odds, and you keep pushing yourself,” he said.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

Now sporting No. 0 instead of the number Tim Tebow made famous during his Hall of Fame career, Woods has another number in mind — 13, the season school-record sack total that Alex Brown set in 1999.

“That’s the goal,” Woods said Tuesday during the team’s Media Day.

Woods knows Florida hasn’t featured a true game-wrecker off the edge in quite some time. He points to Jon Greenard, Carlos Dunlap, Jervon Kearse and Brown as the standard.

“Dominant players, definitely,” Woods said.

It’s a void Woods hopes to fill, while becoming a disruptive force and potential record-setter.

The Gators’ sophomore isn’t necessarily a numbers guy. Yet, they seem to follow him — Nos. 0, 15, 13 and, most painfully, four.

When Jon Sumrall’s squad opened practice Wednesday, Woods set his sights on improving the Gators’ paltry win total during his first season in Gainesville.

“It definitely is embarrassing,” he said. “Especially with the logo that we play for, that’s not the standard here. It’s a big chip on our shoulder going into the season.”

To help fuel Florida’s turnaround, Woods spent the offseason setting new standards.

The freakishly strong Woods power cleaned 405 pounds, a 40-pound increase from the spring and an eye-popping lift strength coach Rusty Whitt said only one player in the nation surpassed — NC State 6-foot-3, 270 defensive lineman Colby Cronk, a native of Palm Coast.

“He could do more,” Whitt said of Woods. “But we got to be smart.”

Woods, who turns 20 on Aug. 19, is just getting started.

The Kansas native consistently flashed as a freshman.

He body-slammed Texas tight end Jack Endries for a 1-yard gain to help set the tone in the Gators’ 29-21 upset. His first-quarter interception at Ole Miss set up a Gators touchdown during a hard-fought 34-24 loss to an eventual College Football Playoff semifinalist. He also recorded a sack each during Florida’s final two games.

Still, Woods’ managed just 3.5 sacks, tied with Kam James for the lead on a defense that struggled to consistently pressure opposing passers.

The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Woods has the potential to far exceed that output and become the kind of defender that offenses must game-plan around.

“He’s talented physically. He’s very, very mature. Works as hard as anybody I’ve ever been around in my life,” Sumrall gushed this week. “Great teammate, high output, low ego. He can be as good as he wants to be.

“I’m excited about watching him continue to grow and develop.”

Sumrall nearly didn’t get the chance.

When he boarded a plane for Kansas in January, Sumrall wasn’t sure what he would find at Woods’ Shawnee home. Woods had entered the transfer portal, drawing immediate interest from a long list of suitors.

What Sumrall quickly discovered was a grounded teenager from a close-knit family, including a grandfather who quickly bonded with Florida’s new coach. Since Woods returned, he and Sumrall’s relationship has continued to grow.

“When he went in the portal in December, January, I thought I knew what he was,” Sumrall said. “Having him back the last seven months and being around him day in, day out, I can’t imagine life without him. He is a freaking blast to coach … just unbelievable.”’

Woods arrived at Florida as one of the nation’s top 100 prospects in the 2025 class and the top defensive player in Kansas after recording 212 tackles, including 20.5 sacks, during three seasons at Mill Valley High School.

Before he played a college snap, Woods debuted at No. 40 on Bruce Feldman’s annual “Freaks List.” A 6A Kansas state champion in shot-put and discus, he broad jumped 10 feet, 5 inches, squatted 555 pounds and power cleaned 365 as an 18-year-old during the spring of 2025.

When Woods attempted his latest jaw-dropping effort at Gator Football Performance Center, Whitt admitted he was a bit apprehensive.

“He’s like, ‘Can I put four (45-pound) plates on (each side)?’ Whitt recalled. “I’m like, your career warning lights flashing … I was like, ‘Go for it.’ Because I trusted him. He smashed it.

“I had a couple of players buzzing in my ear, ‘Hey, let him go up 15.’ I’m like, no, you’re done.”

Back on the field, where Woods hopes to make a huge impact this fall, he has his sights set on numbers that matter most.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

Now, the redshirt freshman receiver is confident nagging injuries are behind him and even better days are ahead, giving the Gators a game changer on the perimeter.

“It was like a roller coaster, a lot of ups and downs,” Wilson said Tuesday, on the eve of preseason camp. “But I’m on that steady pace now, so I’m doing good now. We’re just climbing up the charts.”

Wilson has shown he can reach rare heights. Now, he’s focused on staying there. 

Wilson’s 2025 season started late and ended early because of foot injuries, limiting him to just four appearances and leaving Florida’s struggling offense without its ultimate mismatch for opposing defenses.

“The biggest thing is giving him a full year of health and availability to maximize the player he can become,” coach Jon Sumrall said.

The 6-foot-3, 212-pound Wilson has the ability to stand out amid a talented receiving corps featuring promising sophomore Vernell Brown III, highly productive senior Eric Singleton Jr., who transferred from Auburn, and surprising Wake Forest transfer Micah Mays Jr.

A record-setting spring game in 2025 featuring 10 receptions for 195 yards and two touchdowns energized Florida fans, but Wilson then sat out preseason camp with a left foot injury. When he returned, Wilson torched Texas for six catches for 111 yards and two touchdowns — all UF records for a true freshman receiver in his first start — during the Gators’ biggest win of Billy Napier’s final season, a 29-21 victory Oct. 5 in the Swamp.

After catching a touchdown during a loss at Texas A&M and two passes for 36 yards during a dramatic home win against Mississippi State, Wilson suffered a season-ending injury to his right foot in the first half of the Gators’ 24-20 loss to Georgia.

Wilson spent the offseason searching for a way to stay on the field.

The 20-year-old traveled to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, last winter to find the best footwear options for his feet.

“They had me do various drills,” Wilson recalled. “They had tectonic plates on the floor and really just seeing how much power I was putting on the floor with my left and my right foot, and when I was getting out of breaks and all, then it all came together.”

While he recovered, Wilson was was a constant in the training and film rooms, as well as the offices of receivers coaches coach Marcus Davis and Chad Lucas, to pick their brains on the position’s fine points. 

“That’s really when I got on the other side of football,” Wilson said. “I feel like it helped me a lot.”

The JUGS machine was a constant companion at his home, where Wilson caught thousands of footballs.

Wilson sat out spring practices, but by the April 11 spring game he was back to nearly full speed, running 21.5 mph on the treadmill.

Wilson will hit the field Wednesday able to fully participate and fulfill his promise.

“He’s physically imposing,” Sumrall said. “Can win the 50-50 ball in the air. Has good long speed. Possesses good ball skills. He’s smart. He’s really competitive.”

The Tampa native originally committed to Oregon before switching his commitment to Florida to stay closer to home.

Now healthy, Wilson understands the importance of making every opportunity count.

“I feel like you’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity you get,” Wilson said. “You never know when it’s going to be your last day playing this game. Every time I wake up, I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

The race might even remain unsettled until right before Florida takes the field for its season opener.

Jon Sumrall’s timeline represents a coach in no rush to make one of the critical decisions he faces when his team opens preseason camp Wednesday.

“It may be five minutes before the game before anybody finds out,” Sumrall said July 22 at SEC Media Days.

Philo and Jones ended spring practices with neither holding a clear edge.

 “Right now, in my mind, I’m not trying to make it coach-speak, I view us as having two starters today,” Sumrall said.

The 6-foot-1, 208 Philo benefitted from his familiarity with offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner’s scheme after following him from Georgia Tech, where the two spent the previous two seasons together. But a strong spring game by the 6-foot, 199-pound Jones kept the redshirt freshman from Jacksonville firmly in the race entering the offseason.

After spring practices, Sumrall met individually with both quarterbacks.

“I sat down and told them, ‘Hey, this is if we started a game next week. This is who would start. This is who would not. It’s not final. It’s not fatal. And we don’t play a game next week,’” he recalled.

Between now and Florida’s Sept. 5 opener against Florida Atlantic in the Swamp, both signal callers will be evaluated on their ability to operate the offense efficiently, limit mistakes and involve the team’s deep group of playmakers.

“There’s a lot of things to go in the decision: Consistency is the biggest,” Sumrall said. “Make good decisions. You can’t forget to bring guys in motion. You got to operate. It’s not a one-hit wonder. 

“It’s who stacks days.”

The old saying goes that if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. Sumrall, though, believes the competition between Philo and Jones gives the Gators their best chance to succeed in 2026.

Whoever emerges as the starter will still have to earn the right to keep the top job.

“Just because you start Game 1 doesn’t mean you start Game 12,” Sumrall said.

Sumrall pointed to his first season at Troy in 2022, where injuries and inconsistency forced him to play both Gunnar Watson and Jarrett Doege.

“I don’t love the quarterback shuffle deal,” Sumrall said. “But I don’t have a blueprint for how it’s gonna go. We’re gonna do what we have to do, try to help position Florida football to win games.”

That competitive mindset has carried over to Philo and Jones.

“They work very, very hard together,” tailback Jadan Baugh said. “But they also understand that it’s a job that they’re fighting for, and they’re ready to compete for it. But it’s more a positive competitiveness, and they’re just ready to do it.”

Sophomore receiver Vernell Brown III said the Gators will be in good hands regardless of who wins the job.

“I don’t even pay attention to who’s back there half the time,” he said. “I just know I’m gonna get a good ball, so I’m confident that we’ll be all right.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com