Jon Sumrall has every reason to let Saturday linger. Florida has just beaten No. 4 Ole Miss 52-28; the Gators are 4-0, and the program has jumped to No. 8 in the AP Top 25. However, Urban Meyer warned him of a slip-up and the unforgiving nature of the Gators’ job.
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“When I first got to Florida, I was shocked,” Meyer said in conversation with Jon Sumrall on his September 28 Triple Option podcast. “I was at Bowling Green. I was at Utah, and even when I was an assistant at Notre Dame.
“I didn’t realize about the nut job fan base that you’re dealing with down there. And that can be a curse, and it can be obviously a luxury.”
Urban Meyer knows that better than most. After all, he won two national championships at Florida and handled the environment almost on a day-to-basis ever since he arrived in 2005. Sumrall, though, knows the value of being focused.
Sumrall is already looking toward Missouri. The Gators are heading to Columbia for a Saturday afternoon game against a Missouri team that lost its SEC opener to Mississippi State. And Sumrall knows the road trip carries its own history.
“We got a day to enjoy it, and that’s old news at this point,” Sumrall said to Meyer. “We got to turn our focus to Missouri.”
Even Sumrall pointed to Florida’s recent woeful record against Missouri. The new Gators head coach is hoping to reverse a frustrating trend, as Florida has won just one of its last five matchups against the Tigers
In truth, Florida did not hire him to oversee a slow rebuild. The school gave the former Tulane head coach a six-year contract worth $44.7 million, an average of roughly $7.45 million per year.
The expectations were made clear when Sumrall arrived. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Sumrall had spoken about winning with conviction during the hiring process.
Sumrall himself made his own position clear at his introductory press conference. “The standard here is championships,” he said at the time. Nine months hence, the early results have made the noise around him even louder.
Florida opened the season by scoring 66 points against Florida Atlantic, followed that with 52 against Campbell, survived Auburn 44-39, and then dismantled Ole Miss.
The Auburn game may have been the first real glimpse of how dangerous Florida’s offense could become. Florida scored on six consecutive drives of at least 65 yards from late in the first quarter through the third quarter.
The Gators have scored at least 44 points in every game, something the program had not done through the first four games since Steve Spurrier was coaching in 2001. In fact, the Ole Miss win was the real accelerator.
Florida ran for 302 yards, with Jadan Baugh producing 142 yards and three touchdowns and Duke Clark adding 126 yards and another score. And the team was thoroughly dominant in the game. That also includes being physical defensively.
With Ole Miss threatening to make the game uncomfortable, Jayden Woods delivered the defensive play Florida needed. He beat his blocker, sacked Trinidad Chambliss and forced a fumble.
Myles Graham recovered it, and Florida scored seven plays later. The defense had another important job that afternoon: dealing with Chambliss. Florida forced three turnovers and made him work for much of his production.
In all, the Gators finished with 498 total yards and scored touchdowns on their first five possessions of the second half. That kind of afternoon changes the temperature around a program. It also makes the next game more dangerous.
Missouri enters the matchup 3-1 after losing 31-24 at Mississippi State. The Tigers have previously beaten Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Kansas, and Troy. QB Austin Simmons has thrown for 947 yards and 11 touchdowns with one interception through four games.
Florida will be walking into a different environment than the one it just left. Meyer remembers what that can mean if Gators slip up in the challenge.
“We used to have to walk through the masses of people to practice,” Urban Meyer said. “And I’d get police that say, ‘Get away from my team.'”
Despite everything, Florida has not simply been blowing everybody away from the opening whistle. Against Auburn, it had to withstand a late push. Against Ole Miss, it answered every time the Rebels appeared ready to close the gap.
The environment at Florida can magnify that success quickly. The same environment can throw you to the ground instantly. Just ask Billy Napier about that.