In his sixth appearance at Gator Talk, Florida head coach Jon Sumrall spoke about the need to embrace the demoralizing 45-17 loss at Missouri and grow moving forward.
“I’m not into the whole idea of ‘we’ll just bury it or just move past it,’” he said. “I’m like ‘no, you have to own it.’ You need to have that bad taste in your mouth and the sick feeling in your stomach for a little bit. Because if you don’t, then you don’t understand what you want to avoid moving forward.”
Sure, Florida missed receiver Vernell Brown III, who’s the Gators’ “highest-touch guy” behind running back Jadan Baugh, and the pregame injury to safety Bryce Thornton didn’t help either, but the absence of Brown and Thornton isn’t to blame for the loss.
As Sumrall preached through the first five weeks, it’s important to own your deficiencies and improve before you’re shown in real time where you lack. One area where the Gators lacked Sunday was their secondary, allowing 340 passing yards to Mizzou quarterback Austin Simmons.
Sumrall said Florida saw a “void” without Thornton’s veteran presence and high football IQ, and other players were asked to step up and “do more than what they’re used to doing because [Thornton] is sort of the guy that sets the table for the people around him.”
But when Missouri hit the Gators with a knockout punch Saturday, the head coach made sure to use the loss as fuel for the fire and a way to show his players the exact feeling and result they can’t afford to experience again this season.
“I told the guys in the locker room after the game, I said, ‘guys, if this doesn’t hurt you, like if this doesn’t bother you and make you a little bit frustrated and angry, we have a real problem, like bigger than losing the game,’” Sumrall said.
Now with a loss under their belt, the Gators are homing in on how to improve for a strong South Carolina squad — one that may be much better than its 2-3 (0-3 SEC) record shows.
Sumrall even said this year’s Gamecocks squad reminds him a bit of last season’s Florida team, which had extreme talent but saw some things not turn in its favor. With the dual-threat ability of quarterback LaNorris Sellers and a strong run defense, South Carolina isn’t a pushover, nor is it expected to provide the Gators with a Homecoming cakewalk on Saturday.
“They are extremely talented from an athletic standpoint,” Sumrall said. “They’re as good as anybody.”
He also said Florida will work with wet football plays on Tuesday to help prepare for a potentially poor-weather Saturday.
Florida will have the advantage of 90,000-plus fans packing Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for Homecoming, and Sumrall said the Gators’ morning practice schedule should help ensure they’ll be on full-go for this weekend’s 12:45 p.m. kickoff.
“They’re a little bit used to the morning routine,” he said. “When you’re an afternoon practice team, you’re worried about the noon kickoff and maybe not being awake, but because we’re a morning team, the nighttime games are the ones that I feel like we have to do a little extra to make sure they’re wide awake for.”
The next Gator Talk will take place Oct. 12 at 7 p.m.
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is a senior sports journalism student in his sixth semester at The Alligator. He is currently a sports editor and football beat reporter for the Gators and the Jaguars. He previously served as a men's tennis and sports enterprise reporter, and he is pursuing a public relations minor.
