Jon Sumrall has skilled the total gamut of success in his first six video games main the Florida soccer program.
The Gators scored a mixed 214 factors over their first 4 video games, all wins, capping off that stretch with a 52-28 throttling of then-No. 4 Ole Miss which seemed to be an announcement of types that Florida was again after the higher a part of twenty years wandering within the wilderness of faculty soccer mediocrity.
Florida working again Jadan Baugh was a Heisman contender behind his 600 yards and 11 speeding touchdowns, offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner was getting overvalued for the upcoming teaching carousel and Sumrall was being touted as the perfect rent from final 12 months’s loaded carousel, which additionally included the likes of Lane Kiffin and James Franklin, amongst others.
However as rapidly because the hype constructed, it collapsed in even shorter time.
The 2 video games since that Ole Miss win, consecutive losses to Missouri and South Carolina by a mixed 47 factors, had been a splash of chilly water to get up the Florida fanbase from its distinctive dream.
The speak is not if the Gators are School Soccer Playoff contenders. It’s that they need to hopefully be capable to make a bowl recreation this season.
Baugh has simply 72 yards and one rating within the final two video games. The offense has managed 36 complete factors, whereas the protection become the sieve which opposing defenses had been in opposition to the Gators’ offense early this season.
At this charge, it will be a shock if Florida doesn’t observe its season-opening four-game successful streak with a four-game dropping streak, with matchups in opposition to No. 7 Texas and No. 1 Georgia looming within the subsequent three weeks with a bye in between.
This fall-off isn’t essentially a condemnation of Sumrall’s future in Gainesville. If something, some regression was most likely to be anticipated after he wildly overachieved to start out his tenure at a college which had only one successful season within the final 5 earlier than his arrival.
And even when the on-field issues have trended down of late, the long run nonetheless appears to be like brilliant. Simply days in the past, five-star receiver Easton Royal (the No. 2 receiver within the 2027 class, per 247Sports) flipped his dedication from Texas to Florida, including to the Gators’ now eighth-ranked 2027 recruiting class which additionally has a pledge from five-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller.
Within the interim, although, Sumrall could must win the supporters again to his aspect. The believers seemingly aren’t gone without end. However they’ve understandably halted the hype after getting forward of their skis simply 4 video games in.
After the Ole Miss upset drew comparisons to City Meyer and a top-10 rating for the crew, Florida is now unranked and sure will stay so for the remainder of the season.
A win in one of many subsequent two video games would go a good distance in direction of validation for Sumrall, particularly if it got here in opposition to Georgia, which has received the final 5 video games and eight of the final 9 in that rivalry.
