GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators opened the 2026 season with a 66-21 win over Florida Atlantic.

Head coach Jon Sumrall earned his first win as Florida's head coach as the Gators scored its most points since 2021 and its most points in a season opener since 1994.

Here is everything Sumrall said as the Gators moved to 1-0 to begin the 2026 campaign.

Opening Statement

JON SUMRALL: Glad to be 1-0. Happy for our guys. Fun watching a lot of our production tonight. Thought guys came into the came with the right mindset, right approach. They were prepared. They didn't take the opportunity for granted. They were emotionally charged and ready to go.

A lot to clean up. By no means a perfect performance. Long list of things we have to get a lot better at if we have high goals here.

And grateful for the fans. Unbelievable turnout. Energy was electric. You know, got asked just a little bit ago about running out of the tunnel. It surpassed my expectations. I had pretty high expectations what it was going to be look. What an unbelievable crowd. Great support. They had a huge impact on the game and that was -- we need that each and every week which I have no doubt we will.

But grateful for the guys' effort. A lot to work on. A lot to grow from. I told them just now a journey of a thousand miles start with single step and that was step one. The goal this week was to be 1-0, and we got to go back it the drawing board and get a little bit better each day this week to keep improving.

So with that, we'll open it up.

Q. Jon, can you talk us through Aaron's debut, dropping 66 points?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, I'm proud of him. He's prepared. He's worked really, really hard. He's an unbelievable teammate. Great leader. The game means a lot to him. I think he showed his comfortability by the way he operated. He made good decisions for the most part with the football. He was accurate. He distributed it well.

You know, I thought he did a really nice job. Interception wasn't really on him, to be quite honest. That was a ball that should have been caught.

I thought he played really good, and I think we're really young a team. Like Jaden Baugh may not be young, but there is a lot of guys out there playing football that are just young.

And so I told the staff going into the game, we're going to be aggressive all night. We're not in any position to shut it down right now. We got to figure out who the next guy up is, roll guys in, and we weren't going to change how we played the game.

Very proud of Aaron, and his preparation showed up tonight by how he played.

Q. And then do you have an update on Eric Singleton?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, he had a little ankle. I don't know how severe. Tried to give it a go. We'll see. I'll have more information probably for you all Monday.

But, yeah, unfortunate. Happened really, really early.

Q. What can you say about Jadan Baugh? 14 carries. In that one was a miss cue. Then he runs for 25 and sets up a score like nothing happened.

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, he's a really good football player. I tell Buster all the time, 'You don't know what to do, just hand it to 13. It'll work usually.' He's phenomenal. He's a great kid. Every bit as good as I thought he would be.

I said before the game, 'I'm glad you're still here. Thanks for staying.' Very glad he's a Florida Gator. Loved his play style and loved his demeanor. I really had a great appreciation for late in the game when he wasn't in, seeing his enthusiasm for his teammates to have opportunities to have success when he saw Duke and Byron and some of the other guys in the room get some carries. Rubio got in there. I think seeing his excitement for his teammates says a lot about him, too.

Q. FAU couldn't keep pace. Was that a good team to open with in terms of maybe some of the challenges it presented to the defense? Early on they seemed to be getting gassed on their heels just a touch.

JON SUMRALL: Early on with them, we couldn't keep pace. Our defense was atrocious at times, quite honestly. So we had a hard time keeping pace with them. It was that way, in my opinion. Like, I watch that play, I'm a little bit frustrated about how we played defensively at times. I don't think we're as good as we think we are.

I think we got some guys who feel like, you know, we've arrived in some spots and that will be addressed. We have got a lot of room to grow on defense. If it doesn't happen real fast we're going to get embarrassed and exposed handily in some spots, because that wasn't a great performance by us.

Hats off to FAU. They do only really good things. I love their quarterback. I played against that kid last year. I love the way he plays. He's tough. He's competitive. He's a leader. He's just a really good football player.

So and Zach does a great job offensively. Their offensive staff, they're really good at what they do. And they stress you out. That No. 8, the slot receiver, hit us on a slot fade. He's a good player.

He averaged 12 targets a game last year for him, and I'm sure he probably had about that tonight. I don't know how many he caught, but felt like every time they threw to him, something good happened for them.

So it's a good test. Really good test for a week-one game. They're a talented team and wish them nothing but the best.

Q. How would you describe this whole day for you? You come into Gator Walk, you're with your kids, you kind of finish off a little Gator Chop with the students at the end. What was that like and waiting for the 7:45 p.m. kick to start?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, it was a long day, but it was a great day. It was fun. A lot of fun. You know, I tried to take in as much as I could. At the end of the day, it's about winning a game, and you're focused on what we got to do to position ourselves to be successful on the field.

All the great things around our program that make this place what it is. The Gator Walk was unbelievable. We left the hotel, honestly, and there is, like, a crowd of people in the hotel parking lot. I'm like, 'Alright, this is kind of cool.' These people are waiting to see our guys walk to the bus at the hotel.

Just really unbelievable support we have here. Could not be more grateful for this. We're doing what we can to make them proud. Very grateful for what the Florida Gator Nation is all about.

Q. Coach, you and Buster both said you want this offense to be fun. 624 yards, 66 points. How much fun was tonight?

JON SUMRALL: It was fun. It was good. A lot of good in there. Plenty of things to get better at, but I want our guys to have fun playing. I tell our team all the tie when you're going up as a kid you never said I want to go work football today. You always said I want to go play football.

That doesn't mean it doesn't take hard work, but the work should be fun. Competing is fun. Making plays is fun. You know, I will tell you the thing I'm most proud of tonight offensively is our perimeter blocking. Our receivers blocked their ass off. The run game we created tonight at times on the perimeter, our receivers were competing to make blocks.

That says a lot about who they are. The character of a football player sometimes isn't revealed by when they're getting their opportunities production. It's what you're doing to serve your team. Those guys, I thought really blocked with edge and competitiveness.

But that makes it fun. Competing is fun. And so I think it was a fun brand to watch tonight. We need to keep it up.

Q. Also you said running out of the tunnel exceeded your expectations. What was that like? What was the feeling like?

JON SUMRALL: It was exhilarating. I was like, all right, this is real. You know, the energy, the stadium was -- man, it was on fire. You could feel it.

It was probably even better than I thought it was going to be. And just really, really cool.

Q. Jon, what did you think of the plays by DJ Coleman tonight, the pick and causing the second one?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, DJ is one of those guys that is just really consistent. He's a high-level communicator. Has a high football IQ. He's smart, tough, dependable. So not surprised. He showed it in the spring game.

When he had the pick on the glance route and like everybody is like, oh, the quarterback threw a pick. I was like, well, that was a friggin' unbelievable play that 33 made. He's a really good player.

And I'm glad he's on our football team. He's been a great pickup for us. He practices really hard every day. He invests a lot into his craft. Just a steady, steady player.

Not surprised because that's how he practices.

Q. What did VBIII's score do to just set the tone, and how great was that for him to get his first TD?

JON SUMRALL: He had a big night. That's his first touchdown. I was kidding with him all offseason. 'You still haven't scored here. Everyone thinks you're a big-time player. We got to see you score touchdowns.'

But to see him make the plays he made tonight, he had a couple big plays. The explosive one, the first one, was a great play by him. He's, you know, another guy, unbelievable worker. So not surprised.

But he competes his tail off and prepares the right way, and happy for his success because he is one of the best leaders for a young player I've ever been around. I mean, he's a second-year player, true sophomore, and he's a phenomenal leader and a great teammate.

Q. Lastly, Baugh, you and Buster said you want him to have more explosive plays this year. Was that 61-yarder what you're talking about?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, I like that. That was good. Great to see him stick his foot in the ground at the end of that run and get more and not just think the journey was over. I think he's taken that on. We've challenged him with that.

Sometimes, those long explosive runs, I got to tell the guys, the receivers and the guys in the perimeter, you know, an 8, 10, 12-yard run becomes a 40 or 50-yard run because they block better.

They get on the safeties, and you're kind of nagging the DBs with getting in their way to interfere to create longer runs. I thought it was great to see him pop that long one. Just proud of his performance.

Q. Jon, I know the film is going to tell you a whole a lot more, but is there anything that you look at right now that you would say was a pleasant surprise that exceeded your expectations?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, like I said, I thought our perimeter blocking was good. I thought certain guys on defense, at times, you felt their contact courage. I thought maybe, across the board, wasn't where it needed to be, but felt some physicality.

I think, procedurally, I'm probably most pleased on offense. A lot of times, game one, there is, like, delay of game, illegal formation, false start, a lot of issues. It felt fairly clean with how we operated offensively. I thought our special teams played really good. Durk hit the 50-plus. I think 53, and I thought kicked the ball off well, other than the kickoff cover that we miss-hit and we didn't go make the tackle.

I thought it was -- I was not pleased with that. There was a lot of areas I think was some good.

Q. Coach, first off, congratulations on the win and breaking the record I believe for debut as a coach. Most points with 66. I want to talk about that last drive because you could have just taken a knee and said everything is fine. How much did those guys out there on that -- o-line and the backs, how much did they want to get the last touchdown?

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, you know, at that point for me, I'm never one that's going to try to just run the score up per se. But I'm also not going to be one that's just going to shut it down. Because, you know, Micah Jones scored the last touchdown. That was Micah, correct?

He is on the scout team all week right now. He's a young player that needs to get better for the development of himself and for our football team to continue to grow.

So Byron Louis right now is kind of the fourth, fifth back, whatever, so want to see him go play. Tramell. I wanted to get Will Griffin in. If we had had another drive, Will Griffin finish was going to go in probably.

I wanted to see Tramell operate and go compete. Those guys practice really hard, so at that point I'm not like, hey, we have to score again. If we score again, that's the nature of the deal.

And, too, they were bringing a lot of pressure so it was like, all right, we got to get the ball on the perimeter and do some things. They were loading the box to stop the run late on us.

I do want those guys -- they work incredibly hard all week. I want then when their opportunities present, we're going to let them go play because we still have to develop those young players so they're more ready.

Q. Coach, the history, the tradition, the mystique, it's all here. It's UF; Florida football. You come in and you get it done in your first game. Just talk a little bit about continuing that legacy and it's one step at a time but what it was like to get the W first one out?

JON SUMRALL: 1-0 was the goal this week. We'll celebrate this a little bit tonight and then wake up tomorrow, watch the tape, make corrections, and then we'll turn the page tomorrow night at about 5:00, 4:00. Staff meet at 4:00 tomorrow and soon as that staff meeting is over we'll watch special teams as a staff and then it's 1-0 and onto Campbell and it's trying to win one game next week. Just focus on this game all week.

And so it's a good start. 1-0 was the goal this week. We got there. As of tomorrow at about 5:00 in my mind we'll be 0-0 again. Just another game. Focus on a game, one at a time. I know that's coachspeak, but that's how we operate.

Q. Coach, could you discuss the shuffling of the offensive line? Rod Kearney came in and really does only good things with the young backs as well.

JON SUMRALL: Yeah, going back to we still need to figure out who we can rely on and who will be dependable, and the depth of our team maybe on the O-line there is still only room to figure that out.

The backs want to see them go. Rod, Caden got in there. Caden started game before and he came in and we need him to elevate his play. All the guys to continue to elevate.

The offensive line, you know, it's one of those deals that you have to get players ready to play because it's a long year. You never know when their opportunity is going to come and you can't just think like doesn't matter if he's getting better. We got to get everybody in this program better. Everybody. Jadan Baugh, he's got get better. Everybody on our team has to continue to get better.

The young lineman, Rod and Dice. Saw Dice play some tackle tonight, too. Those guys got to continue to elevate so they can be dependable and reliable when their number is called.

Q. No Evan Pryor tonight, but Duke Clark stepped up. Any update there?

JON SUMRALL: Evan was available and then had a little bit of a hip that wasn't feeling great and so just said he doesn't feel like he could do it.

He was cleared to go but just didn't feel like he could push through it. Duke, I thought did a really good job. Montgomery is a really good player back there, too. Byron Louis did some good things tonight as well.

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