Florida football held its first intrasquad scrimmage on August 15 at The Swamp.
With the season opener against Florida Atlantic (Sept. 5, 7:45 p.m., SEC Network), less than three weeks away, Sumrall said there’s still plenty left to clean up. The Florida Gators ran 127 total plays in the scrimmage − 50 with the first tem, 43 with the second team and 34 with the third team.
“I liked the flow of what we did,” Sumrall said. “Some good, some bad, lot to clean up. Procedurally, you know, was displeased with we have two false starts at wide receiver. That’s unacceptable. Only had one interception at quarterback, but as a whole, had three or four others that the ball was in jeopardy of being intercepted. If our defensive guys had caught the ball a little bit better, we might have had a couple more. We got to do a better job there.”
Georgia Tech transfer Aaron Philo took the majority of the snaps with the first team at quarterback, followed by redshirt freshman Tramell Jones Jr. Philo connected on a long downfield throw to Eric Singleton Jr., who laid out full extension to make a diving catch.
Phlio had another bomb to Micah Mays Jr. that Mays dropped. He also threw the lone interception on scrimmage, one in which cornerback Cormani McClain made a nice read on the throw. Like in the spring game, Philo bounced back from the pick to throw a TD pass to his former Georgia Tech teammate, Bailey Stockton, later in the scrimmage.
“The most impressive thing to me of his scrimmage,” Sumrall said. “Bad play and then followed it up with really good football afterwards, and that’s the quarterback position. You’re going to throw a pick and the whole crowd’s going to boo, and what do you do next? That says a lot about you.”
Jones also had some strong moments throughout the scrimmage, including a long TD pass to tight end Amir Jackson.
“Tramell’s grown a ton,” Sumrall said. “The biggest growth he’s got to continue to make is operating from the line of scrimmage, with shifts, motions, those kinds of things. We can’t have a motion called and not bring a guy in motion. But he’s making plays. He’s very comfortable in the pocket, he’s got great energy, he’s got good touch on the football. When things are right, they’re right.”
Sumrall said he’s not ready to name a starting quarterback, but provided an assessment of the quarterback race between Philo and Jones that suggest that Philo is still ahead.
“In the spring, I think Philo was way ahead because of understanding the offense and Tramell was significantly behind,” Sumrall said. “I think they’ve both taken some steps up. Tramell has probably had more upward mobility, room to grow because he’s learning the offense. I think they are both playing really good football. I’m not going to sit here and say one guy is way ahead because they are both doing good work but I do feel like we’re in the position where nobody is going to take the snap game one, snap one, because the other guy has done a poor job.”
Florida football injury update
Sumrall said that wide receiver Vernell Brown III and kicker Patrick Durkin were held out of the first scrimmage for precautionary reasons due to bone bruises. Brown suffered a bone bruise in his foot and returned to full practice on Monday, Aug. 17.
“Got stepped on Thursday’s practice. Thursday, we looked at and said, ‘Hey, let’s hold him Friday,’ and then just as we got full information on Friday, if we were playing a game, probably would have pushed it and played,” Sumrall said. “But didn’t want to take him out of the boot to go play on a scrimmage day.”
Backup kicker Liam Padron, a Texas A&M transfer from St. Augustine, made 3 of 4 field goals in the scrimmage, including a 50-yarder.
“To know that we’ve got another guy that’s capable, that maybe hadn’t kicked in a bunch of games or anything, but he’s got the ability, that’s encouraging,” Sumrall said.
Corerback Dijon Johson (knee) also was held out of the scrimmage for precautionary reasons but is full go for this week in practice. Johnson is battling with McClain and sophomore Ben Hanks III for the starting jobs at cornerback.
As for other injury updates, Sumrall said defensive end Kam James did some team drills today, while running back Duke Clark took some individual reps. Wide receiver Jaylen Lloyd and defensive back Javion Toombs took some individual reps on special teams. Sumrall said he’s also hopeful to have freshman defensive tackle Kendall Guervil (knee) return at some point in fall camp.
Sumrall said cornerback Jordy Lowery was the lone player to suffer an injury during the scrimmage as he went down with a soft tissue injury.
“Really frustrating because honestly, his arrow was up off of training camp in the spring,” Sumrall said.
Florida football defense forced two turnovers
In addition to McClain’s interception, Florida forced another turnover on defense when linebacker Ty Jackson forced a fumble by punching the ball out of a ballcarrier’s hands in the red zone.
Overall, Sumrall was pleased with the tackling in the scrimmage, considering it was the first practice of fall camp in which UF tackle.
“For a first scrimmage, not bad,” Sumrall said. “Some space tackling I didn’t love in the perimeter. One of the touchdowns we gave up in the passing game. The effort on tackling was poor with a couple of DBs at times.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football coach Jon Sumrall talks first scrimmage, QBs, updates injuries
Reporting by Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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By Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun | USA TODAY Network
