After two consecutive losses in Southeastern Conference play, Florida football has plenty of kinks to work out before it takes on the No. 7 Texas Longhorns.
But ahead of one of the Gators’ toughest matchups of the season, head coach Jon Sumrall is just as focused on the team’s mentality as he is on the product on the field. Sumrall said that against South Carolina, among other mental issues, he especially wasn’t happy with the team’s response at halftime after being down by just one possession.
“I walk in the locker room, I look around and look at the guys, and man, you'd have thought somebody's dog died,” Sumrall said. “I'm like, boys, we're down seven points, and we get the ball … We got a pulse, we got a chance, life's pretty good here, let's go.”
Sumrall said this is something he and his staff are focused on helping their players overcome. He said in this league and beyond, teams live in one-possession games, and they have to understand how to fight through being on the unfavorable side of it.
The team was in a similar position against Missouri in Week 5, heading into the locker room down 20-10. And in both games, Florida has struggled to respond, allowing 20-plus second-half points in both and getting in the end zone only once.
“We have not responded well, and there is something to that,” Sumrall said. “There is a belief, a confidence, an intestinal fortitude of ‘I'm going to fight till the finish, don't even care about what the scoreboard says, and then we'll look at the end of the game and see what the scoreboard says,’ and so that is a concern of mine. It is something I saw and felt the last two games that we've got to get corrected.”
Sumrall noted this problem has not been a part of his past, and it hasn’t been a theme with the teams he’s coached prior.
While Sumrall’s had to hone in on certain mental tweaks for the team, he’s stayed firm with his insistence on leaving the week prior in the past. Ahead of Texas, he wants to ensure the team keeps moving forward and doesn’t harp on the losses.
“There's going to be no woe is me, downtrodden deal,” Sumrall said. “We got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, move on.”
Something Sumrall believes has improved, though, was the team’s overall toughness. He said the group has done well battling through injury despite noticing some fatigue down the stretch in the last two contests.
The head coach also debunked rumors about wide receiver Vernell Brown III’s injury return time. With questions circulating about the pass catcher’s wanting to return to the field, Sumrall seemed shocked by the assumptions.
“He's trying like hell to play, I can promise you that,” Sumrall said. “One thing I've been proud of with this football team that we have grown in that I don't think was here when we got here was, you've seen very few guys miss games. If they're missing a game, it's because there's something that's real.”
Missing Brown’s presence Saturday, the Gators hope to head to Austin at full strength.
Florida faces Texas on the road at noon ET on Saturday.
Contact Ava DiCecca at adicecca@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @avadicecca24.
Ava DiCecca is a senior sports and media journalism student and a Fall 2026 sports editor and football beat reporter. Now in her fifth semester with The Alligator, she previously served as the Summer 2026 assistant sports editor, Spring 2026 sports editor, Gators volleyball beat reporter and an enterprise writer. In her free time, she watches Boston sports (Brad Marchand we still love you).
